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Invoice workflow

This workflow is engineered specifically for preparing invoices. This workflow converts a main document to PDF/A-3 and attaches one or more files to the result. For example, you can attach an Excel table containing additional data to a PDF invoice.

The workflow supports these features:

  • Conversion to PDF/A-3 format
  • Additional document attachments
  • Office conversion (optional)
  • Digital signatures (optional)

Supported file formats for Invoice workflow

This workflow supports PDF and MS Word as input formats.

note

If you want support for formats such as ZUGFeRD, let us know through the Contact page.

Convert to PDF/A-3

This workflow has been optimized for the conversion of transactional documents. It supports conversion of Word and PDF documents to PDF/A-3.

Attach documents

To attach additional documents to a main document, all documents must be added to a single job.

The documents to attach and additional properties can be set using the DOC.ROLE, AF.RELATIONSHIP, AF.MODDATE, and AF.DESCRIPTION document options. These values are written into the result document and are visible to a user in the list of attached documents.

Example of the workflow

This example uses the shell client to attach supplement.xls to the main document invoice.docx.
Note that the -do ‹name› ‹value› option applies a document option to the subsequent input file.

C:\Temp> pdfclient -v -w Invoice invoice.docx ^
-do DOC.ROLE attached -do AF.RELATIONSHIP Supplement supplement.xls ^
out.pdf
Creating job (id job123_4q5mprmmrz0)
Adding file "invoice.docx" (id 0kk1ddv0uzg)
Adding file "supplement.xls" (id 2fg4ufg3qmz)
Output: "invoice.pdf"
- Info: Converted Word document 'invoice.docx' to PDF.
- Info: Converted 'invoice.pdf' to PDF/A-3u.
- Info: Attached file 'supplement.xls' to 'invoice.pdf'.

Job and document options for the Invoice workflow

The Invoice workflow lets you use job and document options to pass job- or document-specific values to be used when processing documents using the workflow.

Job options

Job options apply to all documents processed in the same job. Any subsequent jobs processed with the workflow profile use the profile's default settings.

TypeOptionDescription
MetadataMETA.AUTHORThe author of the document
MetadataMETA.TITLEThe title of the document
MetadataMETA.SUBJECTThe subject of the document
MetadataMETA.KEYWORDSKeywords that apply to the document
note

Apart from the standard metadata properties, you can also set extended metadata properties.

Document options

Document options apply only to a specific input. It allows you to determine specific properties based on an individual document, rather than as a global setting (either determined by the job or the profile). Any subsequent jobs processed with the workflow profile use the profile's default settings.

| Type | Option | Required | Description | |---|---|---| | Attach documents | DOC.ROLE | Required | Defines the document's role.
Supported values are:

  • main (default): The main document. In each job, there must be one main document.
  • attached: A document that is attached to the main document. There may be multiple attached documents in a job.
| | Attach documents |AF.RELATIONSHIP | Optional | Defines the relationship of the attached document to the main document.
Supported values are:
  • Unspecified (default): Used when the relationship is not known or cannot be described using one of the other values.
  • Source: Used if the attached document is the original source material for the main document.
  • Data: Used if the attached document represents information used to derive a visual presentation - such as for a table or a graph.
  • Alternative: Used if the attached document is an alternative representation of content, for example audio.
  • Supplement: Used if the attached document represents a supplemental representation of the original source or data that may be more easily consumable (e.g., A MathML version of an equation).
| | Attach documents |AF.MODDATE | Optional | Defines the date and time when the attached document was last modified.
Example: "2009-05-19T09:15:22.0000000+02:00" | | Attach documents |AF.DESCRIPTION | Optional | Descriptive text associated with the attached document. | | Document property | DOC.PASSWORD | Optional | Set the password for the document. |