Error: "The bill's document style is not valid" when previewing a bill

This support note applies to:

AO Practice Manager (NZ)
AO Practice Manager (AU)
AE Practice Manager (NZ)
AE Practice Manager (AU)

Article ID: 28839

The error message 'Invalid Document style - The bill's document style is not valid' may appear when previewing or printing an invoice. The error indicates the system cannot find the bill template file.

These instructions require technical expertise

Make sure you know what you're doing. If you're not sure, ask your IT professional or MYOB.

If you do have access to the location specified as the bill template location and find that you have a red cross on the drive letter, please refer to Enabling Linked Connections in Windows

If the same bill cannot be viewed on any machine,

Check the location of the Word Template via Document Styles and that it exists in that location on the network/pc. The template may have been moved or deleted.
Check the template is enabled.

If the same bill can be previewed on another machine, the error will be caused by:

The drive where the template resides is either not mapped or not available on that machine;
The drive is mapped incorrectly; or
The user does not have the appropriate security to access the template location or the Billing Startup Path location.

This can also happen if the Description field name has been changed in Document Styles for the style used in this bill. To resolve this, change it back to the original Description.

To check Document Styles

Follow the menu path: Maintenance > Maintenance Map > Document Styles. The Document Styles page appears.
For the Document Style used for the bill, note the location and name of the Word Template by checking the value in the Word Template column.
Right-click your Windows icon in the bottom left hand corner of your screen and select File Explorer. The File Explorer screen appears.

If the location is invalid, the prompt 'Windows cannot find <location>. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again'. This indicates the location is incorrect for the Word Template.
Browse to the location of your template noted in Step 2.
Check the file name noted in Step 2 appears in this location. If the file does not exist, or is spelled incorrectly, you will need to edit the name in the Word Template field or browse and select the correct template in Document Styles. Alternatively, you will need to search for your file and if unable to locate it on your network/pc, restore it from a backup.
In the Document Styles page, check the template is marked as Enabled and click OK.

To check the Billing Startup Path

Follow the menu path: Maintenance > Maintenance Map > Mailing Settings. The Mailing Settings page appears.
Note the location of the Billing Startup Path.
Right-click your Windows icon in the bottom left hand corner of your screen and select File Explorer. The File Explorer screen appears.
Browse to the location you noted in Step 2 above. Check whether the user can see the files in this location and open any of the documents. Where the user can't access this location, contact your IT support to review/update the security settings to this folder location.

As an alternative, select Maintenance > Maintenance Map > Document Creation Settings and note the location listed in the Word Billing Algorithm field.

Where the Algorithm shows [CC], this means the bill will be stored in a subfolder (based on the Client Code) in the Billing Startup Path noted above.
Where the Algorithm shows S:\Bills\[CC], this means this setting will override what is recorded in the Billing Startup Path and use the location listed in the Word Billing Algorithm, so the bill will be stored in a subfolder (based on the Client Code) in the Word Billing Algorithm location.

To disconnect and re-connect drive mappings

For the drive location identified in step 2 above, ensure the drive is mapped and is consistent with the same drive mapping on a machine that is not experiencing the error.
On the machine without the error, right-click your Windows icon in the bottom left hand corner of your screen and select File Explorer. The File Explorer screen appears.
Navigate to the drive identified at step 2 and note the description of the drive (for example 'apps on server').
On the machine where the error appears, right-click the Windows icon and select File Explorer. The File Explorer screen appears.
Navigate to the drive at step 2 and ensure these drives are mapped to the same location. If a drive is mapped incorrectly, from the Tools menu select Disconnect Network Drive. The Disconnect Network Drives screen appears.
Select the relevant drive and click OK. The drive no longer appears in Windows Explorer.
To map a drive, from the Tools menu, select Map Network Drive. The Map Network Drive screen appears.
Select the relevant Drive from the drop-down list and click Browse. The Browse for Folder screen appears.
Navigate to the relevant directory and click OK. The Map Network Drive screen appears.
Click Finish. The drive is mapped.

MYOB INTERNAL STAFF ONLY

This article is applicable to both AE and AO Practice Manager.

Note: To see which style was used on an invoice, highlight the bill from the Client > Bills tab & click Reverse and answer Yes to the prompt. Open the draft reversal bill & make a note of the Style & then delete the draft reversal bill.

Where the Style displayed a number, this indicates that the Description/Style has been renamed. Unless the site knows what the original name was i.e. they took a screenshot or noted it before changing, we have no way of knowing or finding what it was.

In this case, all they can do is to locate the Draft number for the bill and then preview it from the network.

To find the Draft number:

From the Client > Bills tab, highlight the bill under Full Billing History & then click the Report button at the bottom of this area. Check the top right corner of this report and take a note of the Draft number.

To Preview/Print the Draft bill:

Browse to the location of the bills via Windows Explorer & open the file and print it.