WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes & Shipping Labels – Feature Walkthrough

This document explains how to set up and use the WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes, and Shipping Labels (free) plugin.

• Attach the shipping document (Invoice, Packing slips, Delivery notes, Shipping label, Dispatch label) in PDF format to the WooCommerce order email.
• Set up a custom document number with prefix/suffix/number series.
• Append additional order or product meta details into the invoice.
• Allows customizing the shipping documents using the inbuilt templates.
• Allows adding dedicated print buttons for all document types.
• Configure print button access for users.
• Adds a download invoice button on the My Account Orders listing page and Order details page.
• Option to display currency codes instead of currency symbols alongside prices.
• Generate Universal Business Language (UBL) invoices in XML format.
• Attach UBL invoices with WooCommerce order emails.

• Firstly, install and activate the plugin.
• From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the Invoice/Packing menu.
• Users will land on a setup wizard.

Complete a three-step setup process before moving on. Fill in the necessary details in the space provided. You can skip this initial setup process by clicking Skip invoice setup from the form’s first page.

Step 1: Add shop details

In this step, input essential shop details like name, address, city, country/state, postal code, a suitable store logo, etc.

Click on Next and enter step 2.

Step 2: Choose emails for invoice attachment

Here, select the order emails in which you wish to include the invoice attachment.

After selection, click on Next and enter step 3.

Step 3: Create your unique invoice numbering system

Customize your invoice number with a unique prefix, suffix, order or custom number, and a desired length.

Upon completing the steps, click on Finish Setup to conclude the setup wizard.

After completing the wizard, you will be redirected to the plugin’s Documents tab.

The Documents tab allows you to enable or disable each document individually using the respective toggle buttons. If you don’t need to generate all the documents in your store, you can use this feature to leave them in deactivated mode.

You can adjust the settings for a specific document by simply clicking on the document name.

In the General tab, you can add your company info and address details and configure a few general settings. The address details specified here will appear in all the document types as the From address.

Company details section

• Company Name – Key in your company name. To include the keyed in name to the Invoice, ensure to select Company name from Invoice > Customize > Company Logo / Name.
• Logo—Upload a custom company logo or image to appear in the documents. Alternatively, input the URL of the image. By default, the logo appears in the top left corner of the documents. To include the uploaded image as the logo on the invoice, ensure to select the Company logo from Invoice > Customize > Company Logo / Name. The recommended size is 150×50px.
• Company tax ID: Specify your company tax ID. For e.g. you may enter as VAT: GB123456789, GSTIN:0948745 or ABN:51 824 753 556
• Footer – Specify a custom footer that will appear in all document types.

Troubleshoot: If the uploaded image or company logo is not rendered properly in your documents, check out the possible solutions: Solve Image Missing Issues.

Address details (Sender details) section

• Department/Business/Sender name – Enter the name of the WooCommerce shop owner.
• Address line 1 – Enter the first line of the address, which is mostly the street name and number.
• Address line 2 – 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 the postcode from where you are shipping items.
• Contact number – Specify the contact number of the shop manager.

Alternatively, load the default WooCommerce store address details into the respective fields by clicking on the Load from WooCommerce option.

Click on the Update settings button, to save the data.

Advanced options section

• Display state name: Enable to display state name instead of state code in billing and from addresses.

• Display currency code: Enable this option to show currency codes instead of currency symbols alongside prices in all the document types.
• Preview before printing: Users can preview documents before initiating the printing process. By default this option is enabled.

• Enable RTL support: To support RTL languages (Arabic, Hebrew, etc.), use our mPDF add-on. The inbuilt Dompdf library may not render special characters or images correctly. It’s recommended to use our free mPDF add-on plugin for better PDF generation.
• Enable additional currency font support: Enable this option to avoid errors in displaying currency symbols in document types. Upon enabling, additional currency font libraries will be used to support currency symbols.

• Enable a common print button for: This option is used to enable a common print button for all the document types on the orders listing page. By default, this option is enabled within the plugin.

• Enable dedicated print buttons for : Users can use this option to add specific print buttons for each document type on the orders listing page. Choose the document types by checking the box next to each one. For more details, check out the following article: Adding Dedicated Print Buttons for Document Types.
• Print button access for: Use this option to limit access to the print button solely to logged-in users or extend access to all users, including guests.
• File path: Indicates the specific location or directory path on the server where files related to the plugin are stored.
• Total files: Indicates the total number of documents generated in PDF and HTML formats.
• Automatic cleanup: Enable to automatically delete or clean up all previously generated documents within a specific time interval.

Finally, you may click on the Update Settings button to save the entire settings.

This page lists some useful filters that can be used with the plugin to get maximum out of it. It also gives link to the plugin documentation and system requirements.

The image below shows the help section with links to the plugin documentation and the customer support.

The next image lists the system requirements for effective functioning of the plugin.

This tab lists the features and draws a difference between the free and the pro plugins.

Next, let’s walk through the invoice settings window.

Navigate to Invoice > General to access the invoice general settings. It appears as shown below:

• Enable Invoice – By enabling, you are permitting admin as well as customers to have access to print, download, and attach invoices in the mail, etc., from wherever applicable. On disabling it, you will remove all the provisions but the admin will still be able to customize the template, set invoice number patterns, etc.

General Section

• Invoice date – You can choose between the order date or invoice created date.
• Automate invoice creation – Creates invoices for chosen order statuses.
• Attach invoice PDF to selected WooCommerce emails – Select email classes to send invoice PDF as an attachment. This option is linked to the Automate invoice creation option. To attach invoice PDFs to order emails, the selected email classes must match the order statuses selected under the Automate invoice creation option. If no order status is selected under the Automate invoice creation option, you will need to manually generate the invoice for it to be attached to order emails. To learn more, check out this article: Attaching PDF Invoices with Order Emails.
• Show print invoice button for customers – Add a print invoice button for your customers on their ‘My Account – Order lists’ page, the ‘Order details’ page, and the order confirmation emails.

Invoice number section

• Invoice number format – You can create an invoice number format that includes a prefix, order number, or a custom number and a suffix. You can choose from prefixes, suffixes, or both for your invoice number.

• Prefix – Specify a custom prefix for your invoice numbers, or use a date format as the prefix for added customization.

• Order number/Custom number – Choose the default order number or a custom number of your choice as the invoice number. If you choose the custom number, specify the starting number for the invoices.

• Suffix – Click on the suffix field to choose a date format from the dropdown menu. You can also enter custom text to use as the suffix.

• Invoice number length – It indicates the total length of the invoice number, excluding the length of the prefix and suffix if added. 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 2881, it will be represented as 0002881 in the respective documents.
• Invoice starting number – This option is displayed when “Custom number” is selected for invoice numbers. Specify the number you want your invoices to start from to create a customized numbering sequence.

Invoice details section

• Order meta fields – Select to display additional order information on the invoice. Click on the Add/Edit Order Meta Field button to add a custom order meta in the invoice. In the free version, you’re limited to adding just one order meta field.

• Custom logo for invoice – Here you can upload a unique logo in the invoice other than the one loaded from the general settings. Defaulted to the logo from General settings, if left blank. For more details, check out the following article: Adding a Custom Logo to Invoices.

Others section

• Generate invoices for existing orders: Enable to create invoices for orders created before the installation of the plugin.
• Generate invoices for free orders: Enable to create invoices for free orders.
• Display free line items in the invoice: Enable to display free line items in the invoice.
• PDF name format: Select a name format for the PDF invoice that includes a prefix, and an invoice/order number.
• Custom PDF name prefix: You can add a custom prefix for the ‘PDF name format‘. Defaulted to ‘Invoice_’.
• Use latest settings for invoice: Enable to use the latest settings for all invoices including the ones generated previously.

Finally, hit the Update Settings button to save the settings. 

In the Customize tab, you can customize the overall appearance of the invoice. Choose the pre-defined template and start working on it.

On the right side of the page, you can view elements that you can add or remove from the invoice using a toggle button. Some of these elements are only available in the premium version of the plugin. 

The left side (visual editor) gives you a live preview of the invoice template as you make changes.

Sample customization demo

The following table illustrates certain customization examples:

How to	Demo
Change document title	Changing document title (Click to expand)
Add company logo	Displaying company logo (Click to expand) Troubleshoot: If the uploaded image or company logo is not rendered properly in your documents, please refer to this article for possible workarounds.
Change invoice number format	Changing the invoice number format (Click to expand)
Change invoice date format	Changing invoice date format (Click to expand)
Update product table	Updating product table (Click to expand)

Once you expand one of the elements, you can view additional customization options specific to that element. You can use these customizations if needed.  

For e.g., When you click the element ‘Company logo’, it expands to provide you with the following customization options.

• Display – Choose either the company logo or company name to display on the invoice.
• Logo width and height – Add logo width and height in pixels.
• Company name font size – Specify the desired font size for the company name.
• Extra details – Add any extra details to display below the company logo. 
• Extra details font size – Select font size for the extra details.

The above customization options are specific to the company logo. Each of the template elements contains extra options for customization. 

PDF Preview

To get a preview of the sample invoice PDF for a specific order,  you can enter the order number in the prescribed field and click the Preview sample PDF (Order: xxx) link.

Once you have completed all the customizations you can click the Save Template button to save (with a name) the newly configured invoice template. Or you can click cancel to edit the template. 

The adjacent hamburger menu contains two options. Change layout (reverts to the default settings for you to create a new template.), My templates (allows you to choose from any previously saved invoice templates).

Rename a template

Click on the template name to rename it.

Steps for saving and activating a template

If you are creating your first template, you can directly save and activate it by clicking on the Save and activate button.

To activate an existing template, click on the three-dot menu, select My templates, and activate the preferred template.

Generate Universal Business Language (UBL) invoices in XML format that comply with international standards.

General Section

Enable UBL Invoice – Enable UBL invoicing for your WooCommerce store. Once enabled, you can print, download, and attach UBL invoices to order emails.

Select UBL format – Select a suitable format for UBL invoices from the dropdown. The default format is PEPPOL.

Select email(s) to attach UBL invoice – Here, you can select the email classes to which you wish to send UBL invoices as attachments in XML format. This option is linked to the Automate invoice creation (Invoice/Packing > Invoice >General) setting. For the UBL invoice to be sent as an attachment, ensure that the selected email classes match the order statuses chosen in Automate invoice creation.

Tax classification section

Here, you can map your existing WooCommerce tax classes to the appropriate UBL tax categories and schemes.

For more details, check out the following article: Enable and Generate UBL Invoices.

After configuring the UBL invoice settings, store owners can print or download UBL invoice for an order in two ways:

1. From the order edit page.
2. From the orders listing page.
   • To print UBL invoices from the orders listing page, enable dedicated print buttons for UBL invoices from the General settings of the plugin.

To add QR codes to WooCommerce invoices, we recommend using our add-on plugin that reads the order number, invoice number, or other custom details.

Read more about the QR code add-on set up here.

• Shipping label size – Shipping label size is selected as ‘Full Page’ by default. Custom label size is only supported in the premium version.

Just like the customization of the invoice you can make changes to the shipping label by using the toggle buttons. 

For additional customization, click on any of the customization elements to expand further customization options.

For eg: Customization of From Address.

Title – Here you can add the From address title.

Title font size – Specify a font size for the title

Address font size – Specify a font size for the address.

Finally, click on the Save and activate button to save changes and activate the template. 

The following are the settings available for packing slip documents. 

Include product image – Here you can choose to add a product image in the product table of the packing list generated from your store. 

Add customer note – Add a customer note to the packing slip. 

Add footer – Add the previously configured (general settings) footer to the document. 

Configure the following delivery note settings.

Include product image – Include product image to the delivery note

Add customer note – Add customer note to delivery note.

Add footer – Add a footer to the delivery note.

Configure the dispatch label settings. 

Add customer note – Add customer note to dispatch label.

Add footer – Add a footer to the dispatch label.

You can print documents for an order in two ways:

1. From the order edit page.
   • Navigate to WooCommerce > Orders from the WordPress dashboard.
   • Click on the preferred order.
   • Within the Edit order page, head to the Invoice/Packing section and generate the required documents.

2. From the orders listing page.
   • First, enable dedicated print buttons for documents under Invoice/Packing > General Settings > General. For more details, check out the following article: Adding Dedicated Print Buttons.
   • Now, navigate to the orders listing page (WooCommerce > Orders).
   • Within the Screen Options dropdown, enable the Actions column.
   • In the Actions column, generate the required documents for the order.

You can print the documents for a given order by clicking on the Print icon in the Actions’ column from the orders page and select the corresponding print option. To print documents for multiple orders, select multiple orders from the WooCommerce orders page and print them via Bulk Actions.