Einführung
Kraft is a Qt and KDE application to organize office documents like quotes and invoices in a small business. It eases the creation of documents and helps with repeating tasks.
Using Kraft, there is no need for fiddling with a text processor any more. Documents are created by a few clicks, edited, generated and archived automatically. Kraft generates high quality PDF output for printing, mailing and archiving.
- Funktionen
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Simple creation of offers, invoices and similar documents.
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Customer management, deeply integrated with the mature KDE KAddressbook.
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Maintenance of document relations, ie. Partial invoices vs. invoices.
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Vorlagen für Dokument-Kopf- und Fusstexte sowie Dokumentposten.
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Pre calculation of item prices.
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Materialverwaltung.
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Konfigurierbare Dokument-Erstellung im PDF Format zum Druck und Versenden per Email.
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Der Quelltext zu Kraft ist open source and wird unter der Lizenz GNU General Public License veröffentlicht.
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Note
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Kraft is driven by community of users, coders, artists and others by voluntary work. Also this manual needs contributions! Learn more on how to contribute! |
Erster Start und Grundkonfiguration
When Kraft is started for the first time, it automatically enters the initial setup process.
During the initial setup you are asked to select a database to use and give the name and address of your company.
You can fill in your company address (that appears on the printed documents) in two ways: in the setup procedure use the first tab Select from Addressbook for to select your on address in KAddressBook (if you have filled your own address in KaddressBook) or use the second tab Manual entry for to fill in the information of the address from your company manually. This step is necessary for the correct generation of your documents as the address is automatically used in the document generation step.
After the initial setup, select . That allows to prepare Kraft correctly so it can be used in a proper way.
In the Preferences dialog we have the tabs:
*Dokument Voreinstellungen *Steuern *Dokumenttypen *Stundensätze *Einheiten *die eigene Identität
Each of the tabs allows to enter useful values for the specific use case.
Dokumenttypen
Beim ersten Start finden sich folgende Dokumenttypen:
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Auftragsbestätigung
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Lieferschein
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Rechnung
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Angebot
Übersetze diese Typen in die eigene Sprache. Du kannst ebenso neue hinzufügen und Einträge entfernen, die Du nicht benutzen wirst.
Nummernkreise
Nummernkreise werden zur Definition der Dokumentnummern benötigt, die auf jedem Dokument gedruckt wird. Die Dokumentnummer ist eine wichtige und eindeutige Kennzahl des Dokuments und muss Regularien gehorchen.
Verschiedene Dokumenttypen können die selben Nummernkreise verwenden um Ids aus ihnen zu generieren. Nummernkreise werden durch ihren Namen identifiziert. Benutzer können neue Nummernkreise anlegen und sie durch Klicken auf Nummernkreise bearbeiten… bearbeiten
Kraft unterstützt Zähler, die automatisch für jedes neue Dokument eines bestimmten Dokumenttypes erhöht werden. Zusätzlich zu dem Zähler können weitere Informationen hinzugefügt werden um eine nützliche Dokumentnummer zu erzeugen, so wie konstanten Text oder Teile des Datums.
Folgende Variablen stehen zur Verfügung:
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das Jahr im Datum des Dokuments. |
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das Jahr im Datum des Dokuments (zwei Stellen). |
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die Wochennummer im Datum des Dokuments. |
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die Wochennummer im Datum des Dokuments mit führender Null . |
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der Tag im Datum des Dokuments. |
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der Tag im Datum des Dokuments mit führender Null. |
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der Monat als Nummer im Datum des Dokuments. |
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der Monat als Nummer im Datum des Dokuments mit führender Null. |
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die Kund*innen-ID aus kaddressbook |
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the unique counter (mandatory) |
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der Dokumententyp (Angebot, Rechnung usw.) |
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Die Kontakt-ID der Kundin / des Kunden. |
Steuern
In vielen Ländern gibt es zwei Arten von Mehrwertsteuer für veräusserte Produkte.
Ein hoher und ein niedriger Steuersatz.
Fill here the appropriate amounts in for the high level and the low level. If the tax-level is changing, then you add here the start date with the new tax-levels.
Wages
A list of wage costs is maintained in Kraft. The items are used in templates and during calculation.
All data can be edited, customized and new items can be added in the Kraft Configuration Dialog reachable through the Settings menu.
Remember that these units are later used in the documents, it is therefor important that you translate them to your own language and to fill in the correct prices.
Units of measurement
A list of units of measurement is maintained in Kraft. In Kraft Configuration Dialog reachable through the Settings menu can you edit and customize items already in the list, and also can you add new items to the list.
Remember that these units are later used in the documents, it is therefor important that you translate them to your own language.
Own identity
Check here if the information that you have given during the initial setup is correct for the use in the documents.
If you made the choice to use the information from KaddressBook then is the information from a later manual entry ignored.
After we have made some corrections to the configuration, we go back to the main window.Here we see three tabs:
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Documents
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Timeline
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Catalogs
Creating Documents
The first Invoice
Open the tab documents
Click on create document
The window document [creation wizard opens].
Select in document type invoice.
Fill in on the whiteboard content a short text about what the invoice is, like: cut grass and planted tree for mister Jonson
Click on next
Select on the new window the name and address from the client.
(if the name and address is not there, click then on new contact or on edit contact if you want to edit the contact)
Click on OK.
Now opens the window document [items].
this window has 2 tabs and the 3 buttons on the top:
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Add item…,
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Add discount item,
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Show templates.
In the left tab you can see all the items that we want to place on the invoice, on the right tab we see the text from the header, the total price and the footer.
If you click on the text of the header or the footer on the right side then the window changes in such a way that you can edit the header or the footer.
Adapt the header and the footer to your situation, on the footer you can place a text: We make your garden-dream come to reality..
Click on the button Show templates.
The right tab changes and show now the earlier made templates, we select in the group Work, the subgroup Plant tree and click then on the button with the to the left pointing arrow on the bottom side.
A new window [Create Item from Template] opens.
Because we have planted 2 trees, we go to the field [insert] and change this to 2 pcs.
Click on OK for saving the result or on cancel for discarding the result.
The window close and we go back to the main window.
We click again on Show templates and select this time cut grass, we click again on the button with the arrow, in the opened window we select that the grass-field was 24 square meter.
Click on OK for saving the result or on Cancel for discarding the result.
We add now manually an item by clicking on the button Add item… and the window [create new item] opens.
Because we have delivered a special tree, we fill here in the name of the special tree liguster, at the field insert we fill in the number of the special trees that we have delivered and the price of them.
Remind that in the catalog we can add a profit on the price of the material, in the invoice and in the offer we can not add a profit on the price of the material.
We have now an invoice with 3 items.
Click on OK for saving the invoice or on Cancel for discarding the invoice.
We click on OK and save the result.
Your first invoice is now ready for sending.
In the window documents we see our first invoice, notice that this document has a document number which we can see on the left side.
On top of the window with all the invoices we see the button [Print Document], on which we click.
From the invoice will now a PDF be made which we can print on paper or send by email to the client.
After this we are going to create a offer for some work in a garden.
Creating an Offer
The client has asked to plant a tree, we will offer 3 different trees which we can plant.
Beside this, we have seen that there is a lifeless three, which we will offer to remove as extra work. 
For the total price we do not want to show the price of the removal of the lifeless tree and we want for the total price only to show the price of one tree and not three.
Open again the tab documents.
Click on create document
The window Document Creation Wizard opens.
select in document type > Offer.
Fill in on the whiteboard content a short text about what the offer is, like: plant one tree and removal of lifeless tree
Click on next
Select on the new window the name and address from the client.
(if the name and address is not there, click then on new contact or on edit contact if you want to edit the contact)
Click on OK.
Now the window [edit document] opens.
This window has 2 tabs and the 3 buttons on the top:
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Add item…,
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Add discount item,
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Show templates.
Click on the button Show templates.
The right tab changes and show now the earlier made templates, we select in the group Work, the subgroup Plant tree and click then on the button with the to the left pointing arrow on the bottom side.
A new window [Create Item from Template] opens.
Because we want to plant 1 tree, we go to the field [insert] and keep this on 1 pcs.
Click on OK for saving the result or on Cancel for discarding the result.
The window close and we go back to the main window.
We click on the button Show templates and this time we select in catalog Material
The material-catalog opens, and we can select in the chapter trees the subchapter loaf trees in which we select the apple tree which we made earlier.
Click on we OK for saving the result or on cancel for discarding the result.
The window close and we go back to the main window.
We add now manually an item by clicking on the button Add item….
the window [create new item] opens.
We want that the client can make a choice from an apple, a pear tree and the liguster.
Therefor we are going to add also a pear tree manually.
We click on the button Add item… and the window [create new item] opens.
We fill here in the name of the tree Pear tree, at the field insert we fill in the number of the special trees that we have delivered and the price of them.
We want add this to the material catalog for future use, therefor we select also [select this item as template for future documents] and we select in trees.
Click on OK for saving the result or on Cancel for discarding the result.
We does this again but then for the liguster.
We have now 3 items with trees in the offer.
As last item we add an item with remove tree with 0,5 hour for 32 euro.
On the left side of an item we can see 2 buttons:
a button with a flag and a button with what looks like a page.
We select the upper button with the page after which opens a context-menu with the items:
[Item kind]->[Normal] [Item kind]>[Alternative] [Item kind]>[On demand] [Tax] [Move up] [Move down] [Lock item] [Unlock item] [Delete item]
We choose here [Item kind] and change for pear tree from [normal] to [alternative].
We do this also for [liguster] and for [remove tree] we change this from [normal] to [on demand].
Click on OK for saving the result or on Cancel for discarding the result.
We want to see the result and therefor we click on the button [show document].
We see now that the prize of the pear tree, the liguster and the removal of the tree is not used for the total prize. When we are happy with the result, we can click on the button close after which we click on the button Print Document for making a PDF what we can print out or send to the client.
After your first invoice is now your first offer now also ready for sending.
Catalogs
Kraft supports so called Catalogs in which templates for document items are kept. With the catalogs creating documents can be significantly accellerated in the day to day business. When creating new documents, the items templates from the catalogs can easily selected and moved over to the document.
Since templates are organized in chapters entire documents can be prepared in different chapters to be used as template documents.
Of course the items in the documents can be edited after they got picked from a catalog.
By default Kraft comes with two different catalogs:
Material
A catalog of material that are sold, with their purchase prices, the profit and the sell-price.
and Standard Templates
A catalog of standard recipes of work like planting trees.
Both catalogs can have chapters and sub-chapters for to organize your templates. First we are going to fill in the
Material Catalog
A catalog of material that are sold, with their purchase prices, the profit and the sell-price. First we are going to add new chapters and subchapters.
New chapters
Select with the mouse the column-name material, select now in the context-menu [Add a sub chapter]
and add an extra chapter like Trees
New sub chapters
We are going to ad sub chapters in the map Trees. Select with the mouse the name of the chapter where you like to add a subchapter, select now in the context-menu [Add a sub chapter] and ad an extra subchapters like Loaf trees and needle trees. After adding the extra chapters and subchapters for dividing the material, we are going to add the material themself.
New template
Select with the mouse the name of the sub-chapter or chapter where you like to add a material. Select the sub map Loaf trees and select now in the context-menu
Add the extra materials coconut tree, apple tree and pine-apple tree.
Fill in the price that we have paid.
Fill in the profit that we want to have on the material
And fill in how much is in a packet.
Now we are going to:
Standard Templates
This is a catalog of standard recipes of work like:
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planting trees
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cutting grass
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transport costs
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planting grass
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sowing grass-seed
We add here the standard work of planting a tree.
Select with the mouse the name of the chapter [Work] where you like to add the new template,
select now the context-menu [New template]
and the extra templates Plant tree and cut grass.
After we made the new template, a window opens with 4 tabs:
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Template
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Time calculation
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Fixkosten
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Material
First we go to the tab:
Template
We give here the name of the new standard template like Plant tree
be careful, this name is later used in the invoice
we select that this is per piece and that the margin is 8% and that the full VAT is applicable.
Time calculation
We fill here in a number of work with the time:
Dig hole |
32 min. |
worker |
Place tree |
12 min. |
worker |
Fill hole |
17 min. |
worker |
give water |
5 min. |
worker |
The cost for worker which we have earlier filled in is now used.
in the invoice we see later only Plant tree, we will not see the parts dig hole,place tree,fill hole,give water
Now we go to the tab
Fixed costs
and fill in:
Transportcost |
35 euro |
1 pcs. |
After this we go to the tab:
Material
Here we fill in:
1 |
support pole |
3,5 euro |
We go now back to the first tab template
On the first tab [template], we can now see the overall cost per one unit
Click on [OK] for saving the result or on [cancel] for discarding the result.
We make a second template cut grass
we fill in cut grass, as unit we choose sm (square meter), on the second tab we fill in that we need 3 min per square meter.
Click on [OK] for saving the result or on [Cancel] for discarding the result.
We are now ready for the first invoice.
Customization
Kraft can be customized in most of the graphical user interface and in particular in the output it generates.
Output Document Customization
To create PDF output documents, the document data that was edited in the Kraft app is filled into a template. The template defines how the output document looks like, ie. by font settings, placing of elements and such.
The file that is assembled from data and the template is converted to PDF using a special document creation script. All that is started automatically by Kraft if a document should be printed.
Each document type in Kraft can have it’s own template that is used to create a PDF. Which one can be set in the Settings dialog for document types.
WeasyPrint Documents
With WeasyPrint Kraft uses a very powerful HTML and CSS based generator that makes it very easy to create highly customized documents which fit the users expectations. The general idea is that Weasyprint loads html output that is processed to PDF. Usually it is considering a Cascading Stylesheet file which has a huge impact on how the PDF document looks in the end.
To use a WeasyPrint based template for a document simply create a template file and save it with the extension .gtmpl. With that file extension Kraft automatically uses WeasyPrint and also the Grantlee templating for rendering.
An example for a WeasyPrint document can be found in the Kraft package in the reports directory and is called invoice.gtmpl.
To use a WeasyPrint template with one of the Kraft document types just select the template file name (with the right extension *.gtml) in the Kraft Settings Dialog.
From version 0.95 on Kraft ships with an example document in the Grantlee- and WeasyPrint format. It can be found at /usr/share/kraft/reports/invoice.gtmpl or online on Github.
To effectively change the look of the document kraft.css (on Github) needs to be considered. It defines most of the look.
Template Variables
To generate the PDF, Kraft has to transfer data from the document you have been working on in Kraft to the input document that is processed to an PDF utilising WeasyPrint. For that, Kraft uses a text template. In that, Kraft replaces variables with the actual values.
The syntax is based on the Django syntax for templates described in the the docs.
Menus and Shortcuts
Main Application Menu
The File Menu
[File]>[Quit] [Ctrl]+[Q] Quits the application.
The Document Menu
[Document]>[Show Document] [Ctrl]+[R] Opens a window with the selected document for showing it.
[Document]>[Edit Document] [Ctrl+O] Opens a window with the selected document for editing it.
[Document]>[Open Archived document] [Ctrl]+[A] Opens an archived document.
[Document]>[Create Document] Opens a window with a wizard for creating a new client-document.
[Document]>[Copy Document] Makes a copy of the selected client-document to a new client-document which can belong to an other client or an other documenttype.
[Document]>[Follow Document] Opens the selected client-document for editing.
[Document]>[Print document] Makes a PDf from the selected client-document for to be mailed or printed.
[Document]>[Mail document] [Ctrl]+[M] Mails a document.
The Settings menu
[Settings]>[Edit Tag Templates] [Ctrl]+[E] Opens a window where you add, edit or translate the tags (like work, material, plants or discounts).
[Settings]>[Redo initial setup] [Ctrl+R] Redoes the initial setup. After this, a restart of Kraft is required.
[Settings]>[Showed toolbars] Here you can decide if the `main toolbar` and the toolbar `Document Actions` are shown.
[Settings]>[Configure Kraft] [Ctrl]+[Shft]+[,] Here you can configure Kraft.
Document Edit Window
The context Menu
[Context]>[Item kind] change the status from this item between * Normal * Alternative * On demand
[Context]>[Tax] Seems not working.
[Context]>[Move up] Moves this item a place up in document.
[Context]>[Move down] Moves this item a place down in document.
[Context]>[Lock item] It is not clear what is does.
[Context]>[Unlock item] It is not clear what is does.
[Context]>[Delete item] Removes this item from document.
Fortgeschrittene Themen
Dieses Kapitel beschreibt fortgeschrittene Themen um Kraft. Dabei wird etwas Linux-Kenntnis vorausgesetzt, und das Aufsetzen sollte von erfahreneren Linux Administratoren durchgeführt und gut testet werden.
Using Kraft Collaboratively
Kraft kann kollaborativ in einer verteilten Umgebung verwendet werden. Das heisst, dass mehrere Benutzer an ihren jeweiligen Arbeitsplatzrechnern mit ihrer eigenen Kraft Instanz arbeiten können und dabei die selben Daten verwenden.
Das ganze Thema ist Veränderung unterworfen, da Kraft in naher Zukunft ownCloud als private Cloud Lösung zur Datenspeicherung verwenden wird.
Datenbank und Dokumentpool teilen
Der einfachste Fall ist das zwei oder wenige mehr Kraft Instanzen die Datenbank gemeinsam benutzen und den Pool von PDF Dokumenten gemeinsam verwenden. Um es einfach zu halten werden hier zwei Instanzen beschrieben.
Ein typischer Anwendungsfall könnte sein: Zwei verschiedene Linux user möchten Kraft verwenden. Sie haben beide ihren eigenen Computer und arbeiten im selben Netzwerk. Dieses Beispiel beschreibt eine Situation mit einem Hauptbüro das Kraft im normalen Modus betreibt, und einem Notebook mit Kraft, das im NurLesen Modus um Dokumente anzusehen, Kataloge zu überprüfen und ähnliches.
Dafür müssen die folgenden Voraussetzungen erfüllt sein:
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Als Datenbank-Backend wird MySQL oder MariaDB verwendet. Sqlite wird nicht unterstützt.
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Die Datenbank ist mit dem MySQL Benutzer von beiden Rechnern aus erreichbar.
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Das Dokument-Speicher-Verzeichnis muss geteilt werden.
Achtung: Es gibt keinen Schutz dagegen, dass beide Benutzer das gleiche Dokument zur gleichen Zeit bearbeiten. Weil das gefährlich ist und zu unvorhersehbaren Resultaten führen kann, ist es empfohlen, Kraft in allen ausser der Haupt-Instanz im Nur-Lese Modus zu betreiben. Der Nur-Lese Modus wird mit Krafts Kommandozeilenschalter -r eingeschaltet.
Die Datenbank teilen
Der Datenbankserver sollte auf der Haupt-Maschine installiert sein, oder es sollte ein spezialisiertes Gerät wie ein NAS verwendet werden. Die Netzwerk Geschwindigkeit beeinflusst die Benutzbarkeit natürlich erheblich.
Howtos um MySQL aufzusetzen sind im Internet zu finden.
Den Dokument Pool teilen
Kraft schreibt generierte PDFs in ein lokales Verzeichnis. Welches Verzeichnis das ist kann im Kraft Konfigfile eingerichtet werden. Das Konfigfile muss auf allen Instanzen angepasst werden.
Es ist in jedem Benutzer Homeverzeichnis unter dem releativen Pfad .config/kraftrc. Es muss den folgenden Konfigurations-Wert enthalten:
[reporting]
PdfOutputDir=/data/space/kraftdoc/pdfEs gibt verschiedene Wege wie das Verzeichnis geteilt werden kann, zum Beispiel NFS und SMB Server. Es ist entscheidend, dass beide Benutzer von beiden Maschinen die Dateien auflisten und zugreifen können. Der Hauptbenutzer braucht Schreib- und Leserecht., Nur-Lese Bentuzer brauchen nur Lesezugriff auf die Dateien.
Ein empfohlenes Setup benutzt ein NFS Share über autofs, das auf der Hauptmaschine aufgesetzt werden muss. Um Dateizugriff zu verwalten, sollte eine Gruppe aufgesetzt werden.
Kraft im Nur-Lesen Modus
Um Kraft im Nur-Lese Modus zu starten, muss das Programm mit dem Kommandozeilenschalter -r gestartet werden.
XRechnung Support
Kraft supports the XRechnung standard. That is a digital format for electronic invoicing, and it passed as law in Germany and follows a EU directive. The XRechnung is a XML file format designed for that purpose.
To use the XRechnung Export productivly, a little manual work is still needed in Kraft. Kraft creates the XML file based on a template, very similar to the normal PDF documents. That means that it loads a template that contains static elements (ie. the company address) that do not change between different invoices. The dynamic elements (customer data, items etc.) are filled into the template during the generation step.
In order to generate correct XRechnung files for the specific company, the user has to adopt the template file manually to the companies needs. Note that this has only to be done once and should be easy for a person with a bit computer experience (Basic knowledge about XML appreciated!).
To adapt the file to the needs of the company, it is best to start with the example XRechnung file. It has to be downloaded and saved into a location that the user can edit. Open it in a normal text editor, such as Kate.
Read carefully through the file without being scared off by the XML format. All user strings (ie. company name, address and such) are user specific and should be replaced accordingly. Find details about the format here to better understand the meaning of the fields.
Make sure to not disturb the proper XML format and do not change places where the template format {{ template_name }} is used.
Once the file is adopted to the needs, open the Settings dialog of Kraft and insert the filename into the entry field for the XRechnung Template File on the Document Defaults page.
After that step, the Export XRechung menu item will open a dialog to pick a filename where to save the XRechnung invoice to.
This file can now be transfered to the receiver of the invoice.
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Note
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There are validators for invoices in XRechnung format out there in the internet. It is useful to verify the format of the Kraft exported XRechnung. |
Credits und Lizenz
Program and documentation copyright 2004–2022 Klaas Freitag
Dokumentation Copyright 2020 Ronald Stroethoff