Invoices for your shop customers: how to issue them from WooCommerce orders

The customer buys and asks for an invoice. WooCommerce sends an order confirmation e-mail, but that e-mail is not an invoice. Issuing invoices is an obligation that depends on the country and on your own situation, and in some countries it calls for certified software or software linked to the tax authority. Here is the map of the possible routes and what to have ready, without ever saying which law applies to you: that is for your accountant.

The three routes

Route How it works When it fits
A PDF invoice plugin Generates a PDF for each order, with your letterhead, and attaches it to the e-mail and the customer's account. When the law lets you issue invoices that way and you want simplicity.
An external invoicing program The order is passed to an invoicing program (by a plugin or an automation) and the invoice is born there. When your accountant or the law requires certified software.
By hand, from your accountant You export the orders and issue the invoices outside the shop. When you sell little and the volume does not justify more.

What to prepare, whichever route

1 Ask your accountant what the law requires on your side: the format, numbering, deadline, what must appear and whether the software has to be certified. Write the answer down.
2 Collect the customer's tax number when you need it. WooCommerce has no such field out of the box; you add one with a plugin or a custom checkout field, and it should be clear whether it is optional or required.
3 Fill in your own details in the plugin or program: company name, address, tax number, logo.
4 Check the taxes. The invoice must say the same as the cart. See tax settings in WooCommerce.
5 Define the moment. Is the invoice born when the order becomes “completed” or when it is paid? Choose with your accountant and use the order status (order statuses).
6 Test with a real order and read the PDF as the customer would: the name, the address, the lines, the tax and the total.
A numbering with gaps or repeats is a serious problem in many countries. Do not delete orders that already had an invoice, and do not switch plugin mid-year without talking to your accountant. Refunds need a document of their own, which your accountant will tell you how to name.
Do not confuse these with our invoices. The invoices for the services you bought from us are in My MozOut: see your invoice: details, tax and receipts. Your shop's invoices are yours, issued by you.

Does the invoice PDF fail to appear, or come out blank? Tell us the shop address and the test order: often it is a memory limit or a missing font on the server.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Tax settings in WooCommerce

Order statuses explained

Your invoice: details, tax and receipts

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