Bill Narration placeholders

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Bill placeholders let you write invoice narrations that update automatically with the right date, client, or practice name. You insert them once; OnboardMe fills in the values when the bill is created or sent.

Where to add placeholders

On a proposal

Go to Proposals in the main menu.
Open the proposal (create or edit).
On the Setup step, turn on billing so the Billings step appears.
Go to the Billings step.
Open an invoice under Individual Bills or Recurring Bills.
In the line Narration editor, click Placeholder and choose a token.

For recurring billing outside a proposal

Go to Bills & Payments in the main menu.
Open the Recurring Billing tab.
Create or edit a recurring schedule.
In the line Narration editor, click Placeholder and choose a token.

For a one-off (ad hoc) bill

Go to Bills & Payments.
Open the Bills tab.
Create or edit a bill.
In the line Narration editor, click Placeholder and choose a token.

You can mix placeholders with normal text, for example:

Professional services for [ClientName] — [Month] [Year] ([FinancialYear])

Available placeholders

Placeholder	What it becomes	Example (5 Aug 2026)
`[Day]`	Day of the month	`5`
`[Day Week]`	Weekday name	`Wednesday`
`[Month]`	Month name	`August`
`[Year]`	Calendar year	`2026`
`[DD/MM/YYYY]`	Full date	`05/08/2026`
`[Month Year]`	Month and year	`August 2026`
`[Week]`	Week number	`32`
`[Week Year]`	Week number and year	`32 2026`
`[FinancialYear]`	Financial year for your practice country	`2026/27` (Australia)
`[BusinessName]`	Your practice name	`Smith & Co`
`[ClientName]`	Client name on the bill	`Acme Pty Ltd`

When values are filled in

Situation	When placeholders are filled	Date used
Recurring Billing	Each time a bill is generated from the schedule	The period the bill is for (even if the invoice date is moved to today for a late catch-up)
Proposal accepted	When all signatories have accepted	The bill date (past “bill now / sync now” dates are updated to today first)
Ad hoc bill sent to Xero	When the bill is pushed to Xero	The bill date

Recurring schedules keep the placeholders in the template so each period resolves afresh. Once a bill is generated, it stores the filled-in text.

Financial year by country

[FinancialYear] follows your practice country:

Country	Financial year	Example format
Australia	July – June	`2026/27`
New Zealand	April – March	`2026/27`
United Kingdom	April – March	`2026/27`
South Africa	March – February	`2026/27`

Tips

Use placeholders for wording that changes each period (month, year, financial year, weekday).
Use [ClientName] and [BusinessName] when the same wording should work across clients or show your practice name consistently.
For catch-up recurring bills, the narration still refers to the original period (for example January), even if the invoice date is today.
Placeholders must match exactly, including square brackets — for example [Month], not [month] or Month.

Examples

Monthly fee
Accounting fee for [Month Year] → Accounting fee for August 2026

Financial year pack
Annual compliance — FY [FinancialYear] → Annual compliance — FY 2026/27

Named client and date
Invoice for [ClientName] dated [DD/MM/YYYY] ([Day Week]) → Invoice for Acme Pty Ltd dated 05/08/2026 (Wednesday)

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