How to create an Invoice in WooCommerce

An invoice is the first document that is sent to the customers after an order is received. The whole transaction begins with customers accepting the invoice. Thus while creating an invoice one should pay utmost attention to avoid any kind of mistakes in it. Manual creation of invoice might increase the chances of errors and it is a very time-consuming process as well. The only way to overcome these shortcomings of manual invoicing is using an extension to create invoices.

WebToffee’s WooCommerce PDF Invoices and Packing Slips Plugin for WooCommerce provides you with this functionality. Installing it on your website will help you create invoices efficiently.

Creating an Invoice in WooCommerce

The whole process has been divided into two steps.

Step 1

Installation of the Plugin

• Step 1: Go to My Account > “API Downloads” tab and download the plugin.
• Note: If you have the basic/free version already installed, please Deactivate and Delete the Basic Version before installing Premium Version to avoid any conflict. Your plugin settings will be retained on your website.
• Step 2: Install the downloaded plugin into your WordPress / WooCommerce Site.
• Step 3: You will get an Activation Key and Activation Email at My Account -> “API Keys”.
• Step 4: Go to your site admin and the Settings page of the plugin and activate it using email and key.

Step 2

Setting up and Configuration of the Invoice

General Settings

General Settings window acts as a common source of information for the documents throughout the plugin. It is further classified into the following tabs:

• Documents
• General
• Advanced
• Help

Documents

The user can explicitly enable/disable documents required for his site and configure individual settings pertaining to each document.

• Enable/Disable Documents– Each document type can be enabled/disabled as per user requirement. On disabling a document type, the corresponding item will be removed from the dashboard view and thereby the user will not be able to access it further until it is enabled.
• Settings: You will be redirected to the concerned document settings page by clicking on the Settings button.

General

As the name implies, it is in the general tab where the essential basic details like the company info and shipping from address details are configured. The information entered in the general tab is taken as the common source of data across all documents in the plugin.

• Company Info
  • Company Name – Input the name of your company in this field.
  • Custom Logo – You can upload a  custom logo or image of your company that can be used across all printable objects. Alternatively, the URL of the image can also be used. By default, the logo will be placed on the top left corner across all documents. However, further customization provisions are also given in respective document settings.
  • Return Policy, Conditions, etc. – You can set return policies, conditions and so on in the given text area section.
  • Custom Footer – You can set up a custom footer which will be used across all respective documents.
• Address (Sender details)
  • Department/Business/Sender  – Enter the name of WooCommerce shop owner.
  • Address Line1 – Enter the first line of the address, which is mostly the street name and number.
  • Address Line2 – Enter the second line of the address, which can be the apartment number.
  • City – Enter the city name of the sender.
  • Country/State – Enter the country name of the sender.
  • Postal Code – Enter postcode from where you are shipping items.
  • Contact Number – Specify the contact number of the sender in this field.
  • VAT – VAT details of the sender can be entered here. The details can be saved by clicking on the Update Settings button.

Advanced

The advanced settings can be used to configure additional information with respect to custom data, RTL support, packaging formats, etc

The Advanced tab consist of following fields:

• Add additional fields on the checkout page: Append additional information in documents by selecting the required item from the drop-down. You can select a field from the list of default fields or click the Add Custom Field button to create custom meta fields by providing a custom Field Name. The meta keys can be found in the product’s custom field section of the WooCommerce Order page.
  
• Preview Before Printing – You can enable this to have a preview option in all the shipping documents before they are printed.
• Enable RTL support: Enable or disable the RTL support in documents generated by the browser.
• Tracking number meta: Enter the tracking number meta field to add tracking number information. The tracking number meta can be obtained from the respective tracking data provider.
• Display state name: Displays the state name instead of state code in billing and shipping address.
• Packaging Type: The packaging type that you set here can be applied to all documents, except Invoice. You can select the packaging type from the three available options:

• Pack items individually: Allows you to pack each item in the cart separately. Total Shipping cost is calculated by adding the shipping cost of each item.
• Box packing: If packing items individually or weight based packing does not suit your business, then you can customize box sizes based on your requirement. Once you select this option, the following fields will be appended as shown below:
  
  To define a new box size, click the Add Box button. All cart items are packed into custom boxes defined in Box Size settings. The best fit box is chosen automatically from the defined boxes. This box dimension and weight settings are applicable only when Box Packing is selected. Based on your requirement, you can enable or disable a particular box using the checkbox under the Enabled column of the respective box rule.
• Single package per order: Allows you to pack all items of a single order as one single package.

Show Tax: Configure the product price/subtotal inclusive or exclusive of tax. You can easily get directed to the WooCommerce > Settings > Tax window by clicking on Setup Tax button.

The settings can be saved by clicking on the Update Settings button.

Help Guide

This section gives you links to resources related to the WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes & Shipping Labels plugin. It is sub-divided into two categories as Help Links and Filters.

Help Links

Help Links provides direct links to resources like documentation and support.

Filters

You can use filters to extend the functionality of the plugin in the required manner.

Invoice

An Invoice is a detailed statement generated by the seller containing information related to goods sold or shipped. The Invoice page is categorized into the following:

• General
• Customize
• Invoice Number
• Advanced

General

You can configure the general settings required for the invoice in the general tab.

• Enable invoice: Disabling will remove the invoice view/print provisions for orders.
• Generate Invoice for Order Statuses– This option lists all the order statuses for which invoices can be generated. You can select multiple statuses based on your requirements.
• Attach invoice PDF in the email: PDF version of the currently active invoice template will be attached to the order email.
• Enable Print Invoice option for customers – You will able to display a print invoice button for your customers.
• Enable variation data: To include variation data of the product in the invoice, enable this option.
• Upload signature: If you want the signature to be displayed in the invoice, upload it in this field.
• Custom logo for invoice: To have a custom logo different from that uploaded in the general settings page, upload it in this field. If left blank, then the default logo will be populated.

The settings can be saved by clicking on the Update Settings button.

Customize

With the customizer, you can personalize the overall appearance of your document. You are provided with inbuilt themes to choose from as well as you can create new themes or templates from the existing ones. Additionally, toggle controls are given at the right-hand side of the window, which when enabled or disabled will be reflected in the sample invoice template.

To create a new Invoice template,

1. Select a theme from the Create new template option.
2. From the inbuilt templates that pop up, choose a layout.

Make the necessary changes to the layout and save it.

After saving, activate the template to use it further for your invoice.

Invoice Number

You can set up a custom invoice number with prefix/suffix/number series or even mirror the order number as invoice number respectively.

• Invoice number format: Specify the format in which the invoice has to be generated. For example: [prefix][number][suffix]

Use the order number as invoice number: Choose Yes to use the order number as the invoice number. If you want to generate a custom invoice number then select No and input the necessary details into the populated fields. The fields are populated on the basis of the number format previously selected.

• Invoice Start Number: Enter the Invoice Start Number.
• Invoice Number Prefix: Enter the prefix which will be added before the invoice number. You can use any of the date formats or alphanumeric characters in this field as shown in the popup.

Invoice Number Suffix: Enter the suffix which will be added after the invoice number. You can use any of the date formats or alphanumeric characters as a suffix as shown in the image above.

Invoice Length: Indicates the total length of the invoice number. If the length of the generated invoice number is less than the provided, it will be padded with ‘0’. E.g if you specify 7 as invoice length and your invoice number is 8009, it will be represented as 0008009 in the respective documents.

Update and reset the invoice number format settings by clicking on the Update and Reset button.

Advanced

The advanced invoice settings can be used to configure additional information with respect to order/product meta.

• Order meta fields: Append additional order information in the invoice by selecting the required item from the drop-down. You can select a field from the list of default fields or click the Add Existing Order Meta Field button to create custom meta fields by providing a custom Field Name and the respective meta key for the field. The order meta keys can be found in the custom field section in the WooCommerce Order page of a product.

To add other order meta details other than the ones displayed in the drop-down, click on Add Existing Order Meta Field.

Product meta fields: Select/add additional product information in the invoice. Click the Add Product Meta to add a new product meta field by providing a custom Field Name and the respective meta key for the field. The product meta keys can be found in the custom field section of the product page.

Custom footer for invoice: Key in with a custom footer for the invoice in the text area. If left blank, then the default footer from General settings will be loaded.

The settings can be saved by clicking on the Update Settings button.