If an invoice comes out with blank pages, raw merge codes or empty fields, start here.
Fixing a blank or duplicate first page on invoices
If your generated invoice has an unexpected first page — blank, or a repeat of the page that follows — start by working out whether it's on the actual invoice or only in the preview. That decides whether there's anything to fix at all.
Check the issued invoice, not the preview
Open the invoice and note whether you're in Document Preview or looking at the issued invoice.
The extra page very often shows up only in Document Preview. If the issued invoice is clean, nothing needs fixing — send it as normal.
If the extra page is on the issued invoice too, keep going below.
Rebuild the invoice template
Go to Settings > Documents & Templates > Payments.
Create a new invoice template from scratch rather than editing the existing one. Stray page breaks, empty trailing rows and invisible spacing at the top of a document are the usual culprits, and they're easier to avoid in a clean file than to hunt down in an old one.
Keep the old template in place while you do this. Don't delete it — drafts and historical documents are still bound to it.
Generate a fresh invoice using the new template and check the first page.
Once you've confirmed the new template is working, you can stop using the old one.
If that doesn't work
Ask a colleague to open the same invoice and tell you whether they see the extra page too. If it only appears for you, it's likely to be your browser or PDF viewer rather than the document — try downloading the PDF and opening it in a different viewer.
If your colleagues see it as well and a fresh template doesn't help, message us from the messenger with the template name and we'll take a look together.
Good to know
Never delete an old template until the replacement is confirmed working on a real invoice. Documents already generated from it can be affected.
Blank space at the top of a Google Doc template — an empty paragraph above the header, or a manual page break — is the most common cause of a leading blank page, so check for those first if you'd rather not rebuild.
Fixing invoice merge codes that don't fill in
If merge codes on your invoice look unresolved — a Created Date that stays empty, an invoice number that never appears — check first whether you're looking at a draft. Certain codes only resolve once the invoice actually exists as a live document, and a draft is deliberately not that yet.
Issue the invoice
Open the booking and go to the invoice.
Check whether you're in Document Preview or looking at an issued invoice. Document Preview is the draft view, and unresolved codes there are normal.
To resolve them, issue the invoice through Gigwell, or use Bill to make it payable.
Once the invoice is issued or billed, the date and identifier codes fill in.
This is working as intended rather than a fault. Dates and identifiers aren't locked while an invoice is still a draft, because a draft can still change — they're assigned at the moment the invoice becomes real.
If that doesn't work
If the invoice has been issued or billed and codes are still empty, check that the variable is in the template at all: Settings > Documents & Templates > Payments, open the template, and search for the field. A blank spot with no variable behind it is a template gap rather than a merge problem.
If the variable is there, the invoice is issued, and the field is still blank, message us from the messenger with the template name and the field, and we'll take care of it.
Good to know
Not every code behaves this way. Fields that come from the booking — amounts, artist, venue — resolve in the draft. It's the date and identifier fields that wait for issuing.
If you want to sanity-check a merge code before sending anything to a client, issue a test invoice on an internal booking rather than trying to read it from a preview.
Changing an invoice template doesn't update invoices that already exist. Delete the old draft and generate a new one to see template changes.
Fixing invoice template fields that don't fill in
When a created invoice renders with blank fields, the cause is usually the template rather than your booking data. Invoice templates are Google Docs containing merge variables, and some of those variables are formatted as hidden white text — which makes them very easy to delete by accident while editing.
Check your template first
Go to Settings → Documents & Templates.
Open Payments (Invoices).
Check which template is selected for the invoice type you're issuing.
Think about whether anyone on your team has edited that template recently. Hand-editing is what usually removes the hidden variables, and once they're gone the invoice renders those fields empty.
Try creating an invoice using a different template from the dropdown. If it fills in correctly, you've confirmed the problem is the template you were using.
If that doesn't work
If a variable has been deleted from your template, restoring it isn't something you can do from the editor — the hidden formatting makes it very hard to put back correctly. Start a chat from the messenger, tell us which template it is and which fields are blank, and we'll repair it.
Two related cases worth mentioning when you get in touch:
If you're on an older bespoke template, it may not support the line you're after at all — for example showing a management fee and VAT as separate lines. We can put the current Invoice V2 template into your account, after which you select it from the template dropdown under Settings → Documents & Templates → Payments (Invoices).
If the value you want has never appeared on any of your invoices, there may be no merge variable for it. Variables map to report columns, so anything that isn't a report column can't be merged in. We'll tell you if that's what you're hitting and help you work out the best way to present it.
Good to know
Before editing an invoice template, take a copy. It's much easier to fall back on a good version than to reconstruct deleted variables.
Edit templates with Google Docs' formatting marks visible where you can, and avoid select-all-and-retype on any section that carries merge variables.
A blank field on a draft invoice is a different thing entirely — the invoice number and issue date are always blank until you create the invoice.
If you have any questions or need additional help, please reach out to support@gigwell.com or use the chat widget on your screen.