In this article, we’ll go over the important components of WooCommerce invoices and their significance.
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 create the invoice for each order individually manually.
What Is An Invoice?
Invoices are documents you send to customers about to buy your goods and services to collect payments or to customers who have already paid.
The invoice is evidence of purchases for clients who have previously made purchases. Additionally, it acts as a legal record in case of errors or damage to goods that require a refund.
Also a customer can use the invoice as evidence if they make false claims.
What Should Be Included In An Invoice?
So what are the main components of an invoice?
- Company logo
- Company details
- Customer details
- Invoice number
- Order date
- Payment method
- Products purchased
- Price and quantity
- Tax details
- Barcode/QR code
- Refund policy
- 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.
Benefits Of having Invoices
Maintaining Professionalism
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.
Build Brand Value
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.
Maintaining Records
Undoubtedly, 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, simplify tax preparation, and serve as legal protection.
Important Components Of PDF Invoices
As we mentioned earlier, this section discusses the important components of an invoice.
Let’s begin.
- 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
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 automatically generates 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 confirmed 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, including a barcode or QR code is important.
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 reject these terms and conditions later 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
Customer notes are a great way to involve your customer and gain their trust.
Customers can specify the requests 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.
Also Read: Why invoices are important in eCommerce?
How To Generate PDF Invoices In WooCommerce
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 many plugins can help you send professional-looking invoices to your customers with just a few clicks.
For that professional-looking invoices, the best solution would be the WooCommerce PDF invoices, packing slips, delivery notes and shipping label plugin.
This free solution would enable you to create invoices and other order-related documents for your store. However, since this is a basic solution, the customizations available are limited.
You can use the premium WooCommerce PDF plugin to access premium features. The premium version has more functionality, whilst free versions can only offer the most basic functions.
This plugin automatically generates invoices and attaches them to the order status emails. Customers may also download and print the invoice from the order confirmation page or their “My Account” page.
This PDF invoices/packing slips also allow you to customize WooCommerce PDF invoices according to your business. You will be able to add QR code to your invoice, which is an advanced feature of the premium version of this plugin.
Wrap Up
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.
Comments (2)
Marko
January 24, 2023
WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips and Credit Notes
How can I draw up an invoice myself that is not ordered through Woocommers (I want to draw up an invoice myself without prior order)
Best
Marko
Mike
February 21, 2023
Hello Marko,
Thanks for reaching out. The plugin is designed to generate documents based on WooCommerce orders. Presently the plugin doesn’t offer any such options.