Using Markdown in Your Invoice Templates

Your ConnectWise product descriptions, time entry notes, and invoice comments don’t have to be plain text. Better Invoice processes these fields as markdown, so formatting you add in ConnectWise — bold, lists, links, icons — renders as polished, styled text on the final invoice.

What it looks like

Here’s an invoice with markdown formatting applied to product descriptions and a comment.

All of the formatting above comes from markdown typed directly into ConnectWise fields. Here’s what you’d type:

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Where markdown works

Markdown rendering is enabled per field. Go to Page > Markdown to toggle each one.

Formatting reference

Text formatting

Lists

You can also use * or + for unordered lists. ConnectWise bullet characters like • and ● are automatically converted to proper list items.

Links

Images

Images can be useful for including charts, badges, or partner logos in comments. Make sure any images you reference are fast-loading — slow images will delay your invoice rendering. To disable image rendering, turn off the Display Images toggle under Page > Markdown.

Headings

Headings render as bold text at the same font size as the surrounding content. They’re useful for adding structure to longer invoice comments.

Icons

Type :ph-icon-name: to insert a Phosphor icon inline with your text.

See Using Icons in Your Invoice Templates for the full guide and icon library.

Line breaks

A single line break in your text becomes a <br> on the invoice. You don’t need to add blank lines between every line — just press Enter.

Enable and configure markdown

• Go to Page > Markdown.

• Turn on the toggles for the fields you want to format: Product Descriptions, Time Entry Notes, and Comments.

Additional options:

• Cleanup Markdown — normalizes ConnectWise bullet characters, collapses extra blank lines, and tidies up whitespace. On by default and recommended.
• Display Images — renders ![alt](url) as inline images. Turn off if you don’t want images on invoices.
• Icons — enables :ph-icon-name: syntax. Configure the icon style under Page > Markdown > Icons.

Use the markdown filter in your template

If you’re pulling data into your invoice with custom data sources, those values are plain text by default. Use the | markdown filter to apply the same markdown rendering — including icons — to any template variable.

{{ sources.key.var | markdown }}

For example, say you have a custom endpoint that returns a monthly summary with markdown formatting. In your template, you’d write:

{% if sources.monthly_report %}
  <div class="markdown-content">
    {{ sources.monthly_report.summary | markdown }}
  </div>
{% endif %}

If that endpoint returns:

- **42** workstations monitored
- **99.9%** uptime
- :ph-shield-check: **0** security incidents

The | markdown filter renders it as a styled list with bold text and an inline icon — the same result as if you’d typed it into a ConnectWise comment field.

The filter uses your current markdown settings (icon style, image display, etc.). See Add Data Sources to ConnectWise Invoices for how to set up custom endpoints.

Automatic cleanup

When Cleanup Markdown is on, Better Invoice automatically tidies up text before rendering:

• Bullet normalization — ConnectWise bullet characters (•, ●) are converted to standard markdown bullets
• Whitespace cleanup — three or more consecutive blank lines collapse to two
• Duplicate bullet merging — stray bullet characters on their own line are merged with the next line This means text that was originally formatted for ConnectWise’s plain text display still looks clean when rendered as markdown.