Custom Bilty, Invoice & Challan Format — Your Own Design
Your bilty book has your own format. Your software should print the same thing. Here is how transporters set up their own bilty, invoice and challan design — once — and print it from the phone.
Every transport office has one thing in common: a printed bilty book in the drawer. The company name in red at the top, the jurisdiction line, "AT OWNER'S RISK", the charge grid on the right, and a memo book for the lorry owner. That format took years to settle. Your party knows it. Your accountant knows it. Your driver knows where to sign.
Then the software arrives and prints something else.
That one mismatch is why most transporters keep two systems running — the software for the record, the printed book for the party. Double work, double mistakes.
The real problem is not the software. It is the format.
Ask any broker why they went back to the bilty book after trying an app, and the answer is always some version of this:
- The party refuses the new format because their gate does not accept it
- The charge column they need — hamali, detention, door delivery — is missing
- The lorry memo is in Marathi or Gujarati in their book, and the app prints English
- The jurisdiction line, the GSTIN line, the "Consignor Copy / Consignee Copy" label — all gone
- Printing a fresh book from the press costs money every year, and reprinting for one change costs more
None of this is about accounting. It is about the piece of paper.
What we built instead
Inside TransportMaster, every account gets its own Print & PDF Design (Settings → Print & PDF Design). You design your document once, and from then on every print, every PDF and every WhatsApp share uses it.
You can design all four documents separately:
There are two ways to design, and you pick whichever suits you.
1. Block editor — for most people
The document is made of blocks: header, party details, goods table, charges, totals, signature. Switch a block on or off, move it up or down, rename a label, change the paper size or font size. The A4 preview on the right redraws as you click. Nothing to learn, nothing to install.
2. Advanced (HTML) — when the format has to be exact
For an office that wants the printed book copied line for line, there is Advanced mode. You paste your own layout and use simple placeholders — `{{trip.lr_number}}`, `{{consignor.name}}`, `{{money totals.freight}}` — and the software fills in the real values.
This is how we set up a Pune transporter's three documents last week: their red GCN bilty with the charge grid, their freight bill with one line per LR and a column for every charge, and their motor report memo in Marathi, exactly like the yellow book they have used for years. No change to the software. Just their format.
A charge the trip does not have prints blank — not `0.00` — because that is how a handwritten book looks.
The design follows the document everywhere
This is the part that saves the most time. Once a design is switched on, it is used by:
- the Print button on the trip page
- the PDF that goes to WhatsApp from your phone
- the public LR link your party opens on their phone
- the bilty, the memo, the invoice and the challan — each with its own design
So the party sees the same paper whether you printed it, mailed it, or sent it on WhatsApp.
What this changes in a working day
- No more printing bilty books from the press — print on plain paper, or send a PDF and print nothing
- A party that wants an extra column gets it the same day, not at the next reprint
- The office copy, consignor copy and consignee copy all come from one click
- New staff cannot "forget" the format — it is fixed in the software
- If you do nothing, nothing changes: with no design switched on, the built-in format prints exactly as before
How to set it up (10 minutes, once)
1. Open Settings → Print & PDF Design (only the account owner sees it)
2. Pick the document — Bilty / LR, Lorry memo, Invoice or Challan
3. Start from a ready design, switch off what you do not need, move the rest
4. Check the A4 preview on the right, then Test print on plain paper
5. Press Save & use this
Want your printed book copied exactly? Send us a photo of it. We build the HTML for you and you paste it into Advanced mode.
Questions transporters ask
Will my old bilties change?
No. A design applies from the moment you switch it on. Old trips keep printing the same way, and you can go back to the built-in design any time.
Can I keep the memo in Marathi, Gujarati or Hindi?
Yes. Whatever you type in the design is what prints. We already run a customer's memo in Marathi.
Does the party need the app?
No. They open a link on WhatsApp and see the bilty in your design, or they get a PDF.
Can two of my companies have different formats?
Yes — the design belongs to the account, so each account prints its own.
What about GST, e-way bill and RCM lines?
They are fields like any other. Put them where your book has them, or leave them out.
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Your format took years to settle. Software should print it, not replace it.