Hi Sue

mmm, okay, what's happening is that the current date is being put in by a
formula
either
=NOW()
or
=TODAY()
and being a formula / function these will update when you open the workbook,
as you have found. Basically, IMHO there's three approaches you can take
to this situation:
1) delete the formula out of the date field and type the date when you raise
an invoice - using the short cut key combination of control & ; makes this
relatively fast
2) when you've created the formula, click in the cell and copy the date,
then, stay in the cell and choose edit / paste special - values
and this will change the formula into a value
3) write some code so that when you close the workbook it does #2 for you.

if you would like a code solution, be aware you will need to change your
security settings to medium (low is never recommened) and when you open the
template / workbooks in future you'll be prompted to enable macros, which
you'll need to do to for option 3 to work.

If you want to use option 3, if you let me know the name of the worksheet
and the cell reference of the date, i'll (or maybe someone else) will help
out with the code you need to use.

Cheers
JulieD

"Sue@Yes" wrote in message
...
Hi Julie

I 'inherited' the invoice template - but I believe it was created from a
standard MS office one - it's file path is office\library\invdb.xls. Does
that help at all?

Thanks for your help so far.

Sue@Yes

"JulieD" wrote:

Hi Sue

did you create the template? or is it one off the MS site - if so, if you
could let us know which one, we'll be able to give you specific
instructions
on how to stop this behaviour. If you created it, or don't know where it
came from, if you could let us know the cell reference of "today" and
whether a code / vba solution is acceptable to you.

Cheers
JulieD

"Sue@Yes" wrote in message
...
I am using an invoice template - based on excel. The date field
automatically
updates to 'today' when I open the template. When I re-open saved
invoices
it
does the same, which means I lose the 'correct' invoice date. How can I
stop
the automatic updating?

Thanks