Important components of a WooCommerce PDF invoice & creating one in WooCommerce

Let’s say you are a customer. In all offline stores, you receive an invoice when you place an order. Similar to this, you will receive a customized invoice after placing an order at an online store.

All of the order information, including the company name, logo, address, customer’s name, address, order date, product details, etc., will be on the invoice.

Take a moment and imagine yourself as the owner of the shop. Whenever a customer places an order, you must send them an invoice, don’t you?

You may have one question in mind. How? It’s a good question because you can have several orders and it would be difficult to manually create the invoice for each order individually. Don’t worry right now.

In this article, we’ll go over the important components of an invoice as well as how to use Webtoffee’s “WooCommerce PDF invoices, packing slips, delivery notes, and shipping labels” plugin to automatically create and customize WooCommerce invoices for your customers.

Let’s begin now, shall we?

Invoices are documents you send to customers who are about to buy your goods and services in order to collect payments or to customers who have already paid.

The invoice acts as evidence of purchases for clients who have previously made the purchases. Additionally, it acts as a legal record in case of errors or damage to goods that require a refund.

Also, a customer can also use the invoice as evidence if they make false claims.

So what are the main components of an invoice?

1. Company logo
2. Company details
3. Customer details
4. Invoice number
5. Order date
6. Payment method
7. Products purchased
8. Price and quantity
9. Tax details
10. Barcode/QR code
11. Refund policy
12. Customer notes

In the later portion of the article, we’ll discuss these components of an invoice. Let’s first examine some of the advantages of invoices.

Even if your WooCommerce business is small, sending a customer an invoice shows them that you are a professional. A professionally created invoice with all the necessary components will help you differentiate yourself from the competition and win your customer’s trust.

Many companies, including your WooCommerce rivals, overlook the opportunity that an invoice presents. The customer’s purchase journey begins with receiving an invoice and continues as long as necessary.

Online purchasing today offers a wide variety of options. In order to make an impact on the customer’s mind, it is, therefore, crucial to create a unique brand identity. Through the use of visual components on the automated invoices, WooCommerce invoices successfully address this issue. It, therefore, strengthens your online business’ brand identification.

There is no doubt that this is the most significant benefit of an invoice. A legal record of your sales will help you keep track of what products were sold and to whom.

Additionally, invoices help with easy access to previous payment information, increase business potential, make tax preparation simple, and serve as legal protection.

As we mentioned earlier, this section discusses the important components of an invoice.

Let’s begin.

1. Company Logo

Logos are the foundation of a brand’s identity. Making a strong first impression is all about grabbing your customer’s attention.

WooCommerce invoices should include your logo because it makes them look more professional. As a result, your customers are more likely to trust you.

2. Company Details

Clearly, one of the most important components of an invoice is company identity. You should add your company or business details at the top of your invoice.

Include your legal business name, address, phone number, and email address. If your business operates in a specific country or jurisdiction, you may need to provide additional information, such as your tax identification number or VAT number.

3. Customer Details

In your invoice, you must include information about your client or customer, like their name, email address, phone number, mailing address, GSTIN, VAT, SSN number, etc.

The checkout page form entry can be used to get all your customer’s information when creating a WooCommerce invoice. In your invoice, it is a good practice to include both shipping and billing addresses.

4. Invoice Number

Keeping track and staying organized is easier with an invoice number. By assigning a unique identifier to your invoices, you can quickly search and find your purchase history.

Your PDF invoice plugin will automatically generate the invoice number when you create a WooCommerce invoice.

You can choose the format for your invoices, depending on whether you want a prefix or suffix, or a custom number format.

5. Order date

Every invoice must include this key component. Your invoices confirm when the transactions took place by showing the order date.

You will be able to keep track of when your products or services are sold or provided this way. In case of a shipping issue, the invoice transaction date will help clear any confusion.

6. Payment Method

The payment methods you accept must be specified on the invoice if you are making it to collect payments. Pay Pal, bank transfers, credit cards, etc. are a few examples.

It is crucial for you to handle refund claims and will help you maintain track of the payment methods your customers are using.

7. Purchased Products

In your invoice, you must list the things your customer bought. You can add several attributes, such as the SKU, product image, short description, etc. when producing a WooCommerce invoice.

Stock-keeping units, or SKUs, are distinctive identifiers that only WooCommerce business owners can understand. To identify their inventory, they employ SKUs.

As a result, it’s crucial to include the SKU or product ID in order to manage returns and refunds smoothly.

8. Price & Quantity

You must include the number, price per item, and subtotal cost of the products in addition to the product list.

In the case of multiple orders of the same product, it is inconvenient to list each one separately. Your invoice will also be cluttered with this information.

Therefore, on the same line, state the price for the product, the quantity, and then the total cost of the order.

9. Tax Details

Invoices must include any relevant value-added taxes or eCommerce sales taxes that apply to the location of your company, your customer, or both.

Calculate the total price, including the tax, and add it to the price summary of the subtotal.

10. Barcode/QRcode

To easily access and handle your product during shipping, it is important to include a barcode or QR code.

A barcode is a machine-readable label that houses the information that is available in the invoice. Additionally, a QR code is a sort of barcode where you will be able to retrieve the order number or invoice number by scanning the QR code on an invoice.

11. Refund Policy

To prevent any sort of misunderstanding with your customers, you should offer return procedures.

Include any essential terms and conditions, tax information, payment-related clauses, refund policies, etc. The customer cannot later reject these terms and conditions if you specify them in the invoice.

You can include refund policies in the bottom section of your WooCommerce invoices if you’re producing them.

12. Customer Notes

A great way to involve your customer and gain their trust is through customer notes.

Customers can specify the requests that they want the company to fulfill, such as adding notes to gift wrapping or instructions for delivery.

You can also do wonders for your brand’s reputation with a simple thank you note in the footer. The personal touch you add to your invoice will make your customers feel appreciated.

Having learned what WooCommerce invoices look like, you can begin creating them for your WooCommerce stores.

The question is, how?

Customers demand quick responses and effective services in the busy world of eCommerce. Therefore, manually preparing invoices for the orders on your WooCommerce site would be time-consuming and inefficient.

WooCommerce supports a standard invoicing feature, but there are many plugins that can help you send professional-looking invoices to your customers with just a few clicks.

For that professional-looking invoices, we will use Webtoffee’s WooCommerce PDF invoices, packing slips, delivery notes and shipping label plugin.

WooCommerce PDF invoice/packing slips is an ideal freemium plugin that makes creating pro-quality customized WooCommerce invoices for each customer, no matter what type of business you run.

A freemium plugin, by the way, has a paid version in addition to the free version. Paid versions have more functionality, whilst free versions can only offer the most basic functions.

When a customer completes an order, this plugin automatically generates invoices and attaches them to the order confirmation email. Customers may also download the invoice from the order confirmation page or their “My Account” page.

To add the plugin, go to your WordPress admin panel and select Plugins > Add New. Search for and then install and activate the WooCommerce PDF Invoices and Packing Slips plugin.

Once installed, go to Invoice/packing > Invoices, and configure the General settings for the pdf invoices.

The instructions in this article will help you configure the PDF invoice settings for Woocommerce in a detailed manner.

After configuring the General settings, navigate to the Customize tab. Here you can enable or disable the options in the invoices by toggling the button on the right-hand side of the page and live preview on the left side.

By customizing the WooCommerce PDF invoices in a live preview, you can see exactly how your invoice will look.

WooCommerce PDF invoices/packing slips also allow you to customize invoice layouts according to your business. Also, you will be able to add QR code to your invoice, which is an advanced feature of the premium version of this plugin.

And finally, to purchase, install and activate the pro version of the plugin – Refer to this article.

In your WooCommerce shop, your customers’ journey should be seamless and satisfying from beginning to end.

Custom-designed professional invoices can aid your customers in their journey at your store, earn their trust, and even convert them into loyal returning customers. In addition, it will protect your WooCommerce business against errors and fraud.

We hope that this article will help you to understand the important component of an invoice and that it will enable you to create your own professional WooCommerce PDF invoice.