Are you a WooCommerce store owner and have faced requests from your customers to provide invoices and packing slips in PDF format for download? Or did you feel that providing invoices in PDF format might build greater trust between you and your customers? If your answer is yes to these questions, then this article is directed to you.
The purchase and sale invoices sector has received a share of the site’s recent updates, as you can now create and attach invoices in PDF format for your customers to make it easy for them to download and keep them, whatever the status of the order with which you choose to send the invoice on your WooCommerce store, with a free and easy-to-use addition with many abundant features, and in this The article we will follow together these steps.
You will need to use a plugin to create and send invoices in PDF format, to shorten the manual work of creating the invoice on demand, because the orders will gradually increase and it will be expensive to create and send them manually, and it will also enhance the users’ experience of easy access to their purchase data.
Now let us learn about the steps to install the add-on and its most important settings.
Install PDF Invoices plugin
The PDF Invoices and Packing Slips plugin , developed by Ewout Fernhout, is available in 33 languages. Requires WooCommerce version 2.2 or higher, and WordPress version 3.5 or higher. Rated +1,239 times with five stars; We will rely on it to provide the required task automatically.
Through this distinctive addition, you can customize your invoice to suit your business, adding the information you want, and you can also add a special design to the invoice as you want with the phrases you prefer, to have complete control over the final form of the invoice, in addition to other distinctive paid features as well.
First, we will go to the site’s control panel, and we will type in the search box to add (Woocommerce PDF Invoices and Packing Slips), by clicking on ( Add-ons ) at the bottom right of the screen, then clicking on the ( Add New ) button at the top right of the screen, then searching for The name of the extension is in the search box at the top right of the screen, as in the following two images:
Let us now begin the process of installing the add-on. Click on ( Install Now ) that appears next to the add-on, and after the download is complete, click the (Activate) button.
After downloading and activating the add-on, a new option is added to the WooCommerce menu, which is ( PDF invoices ), and this is what is required.
next step; Enter the (PDF Invoices) option by clicking on the (WooCommerce) option on the right of the screen, then clicking on ( PDF Invoices ), which is the last option on the list. From here, the process of creating the invoice and setting its settings begins, and this is what we will talk about in detail next, and we will discuss the components of the invoice that must be filled out. In its basic form, we will learn about the different options and the differences between them.
General settings for adding PDF Invoices
When you click on the PDF Invoices option, the first thing you will see is the general settings window, which you can adjust as you want.
- First, the method of displaying the invoice to the customer is either by opening the invoice in PDF format in a new window/tab or downloading the invoice directly.
- Secondly , the invoice form options are either a simple form previously designed by WordPress that contains all the basic information that is supposed to be included in the invoice with the ability to add your store’s logo, or you can change it to a form of your own design by downloading another add-on such as the (Email Customizer for WooCommerce) add-on.
- Thirdly, you can choose the size of the invoice, either A4 or Letter. The difference may not be large between the two options, except that A4 is longer and Letter is wider.
- Fourthly, you have the option ( Test Mode ) for your site, and activating it entails using the settings that were set last for all the files created instead of using the settings that were set at the time the files were first created.
- If the currency symbol is not clearly visible, you can put a check mark next to the option (Support currency symbols) so that it appears on the invoice.
- The option (Enable other language fonts) allows you to reduce the size of the file used, but it limits the ability to edit PDF files later. It is recommended to use this option if you are using Asian fonts.
- Among the general settings, you can place your website logo by simply clicking on (Set Image) which comes next to the (Store Logo/Header) option, then choose the image of your website logo from the media library. You must take into account the default settings for the length and resolution of the image, and you can specify (Logo Height). ) with the following option:
- Followed by the option to fill in ( store name ), in which you print the name of your store exactly as it appears on the site.
- Then the option to fill in (store address), and you must be careful to write the address accurately.
- The last field includes (footer), which are the sentences that come at the end of the invoice, such as the terms, conditions, and policies of your store.
The rest of the invoice is optional fields that you can fill in or leave blank as you see fit for your store and your customers.
Then click ( Save Changes ) located at the bottom right of the page after verifying all the written information.
Document settings
In addition to the general settings, you will find a special tab for document settings, which are invoices and packing slips, which are shown in two parts:
Invoices
Through this window, you can activate the creation of invoices, by placing a check mark next to the ( activate ) option, and then choosing which of the e-mail messages you want to attach this invoice to, for example, if you want to include the invoice in the e-mail sent to the customer when orders are completed.
All you have to do is put a check mark next to ( Request completed ) and so on for the rest of the events in the window. You can also disable sending the invoice in specific cases. This option may seem contradictory to the previous option since the previous option allows attaching/not attaching through putting/not putting An indication of the validity of the option, but it is a confirmation of the deactivation cases.
Moving down the screen you will find more options, allowing you to:
Finally, the customer’s comments are included in the final image of the invoice, by placing/not placing a check mark in front of each option.
Followed by the serial numbering of the invoice according to the invoices that were created previously. Here it is worth noting that the serial number is written manually using the pen icon to the left of the top of the writing box, or specifying a default value where the count starts from the number 1 and increases with each creation of a new invoice.
If the number of a pre-existing invoice is repeated, this will lead to two invoices with the same number, and this will cause a lack of organization and coordination in the invoice numbers and thus errors in their analysis, etc., so it is recommended that the number be left for the automatic counter, unless you need to replace an invoice with a previous one.
As for number formatting, it gives the opportunity to format the way the invoice number is displayed, so that if you want a specific style for it, you can customize it via (prefix, suffix, internal margins).
For example, if you want to write the invoice number in a pattern such as *WoCom-0003-September*, the prefix will have the value: (-WoCom) and the suffix will have the value: ([invoice_month]-). This is a pre-programmed code to make it easier for users to automatically determine the month the invoice was issued, and the internal margins will have the value: 4 The number 4 indicates the number of possible digits for the invoice number, and from it you can determine the maximum number of invoices that may reach your store, which in this case is 9,999 invoices.
Followed by the option to renumber the sequential invoices every year, allowing you to know the number of invoices per year and derive analyzes about your store that will help you grow and develop it.
If you want to allow the customer to download the invoice from your account page, you have several options: either allow the invoice to be downloaded if the invoice is actually created or when sent by email, or only in specific request cases, or always make the service available in all cases, and finally never allow it to be downloaded. Your choice depends on the nature of your work.
You can also activate the invoice number column, and disable displaying and creating the invoice if the order is free. The last option allows you to save these settings for all upcoming orders to save your time and not have to reset them every time.
After confirming all the settings, you can save the information by clicking on the icon (Save Changes) at the bottom of the page.
Packing slips
In addition to the invoices tab, we have a special tab for refill vouchers, and its options are simple, through which you can activate the vouchers or not, then choose whether to show the billing address or not, and show the email and phone number, in addition to displaying the customer’s notes within the refill voucher in its final form.
Status: Debug mode settings
These are the settings for advanced modes, which display all errors on your site and help you fix them. It is recommended not to tamper with them, or activate them during maintenance or testing mode for the site.
Thus, we have successfully prepared the invoice, and it is ready to be attached to your e-mail messages automatically with the request options specified previously. However, as we know the flexibility of WooCommerce and the ease of dealing with it, it allows you, in addition to automating the process, you can attach invoices manually and whenever the need arises, through Modifying the order procedure settings, and this will be the second part of our article:
Add the invoice manually
We can do this by clicking on ( WooCommerce ), then clicking on ( Orders ), then on the left of the screen we will find the ordering procedures, which are as in the following image. With these available options, you can make the order you want, and the invoice will be sent in PDF format along with the procedure, and of course the invoice will be As you customized and defined it under PDF Invoicing Settings:
You can achieve the same result through part (sending the request via email):
At the bottom left of the screen you will find an option to create a PDF of both the invoice and packing slips for printing and downloading, for whatever control purposes you prefer.
To add other details to your invoice for the customer to see or for your own documentation purposes, you can do this via (PDF document data) so that you can write any note you want to appear on the invoice within the writing box as in the picture:
Thus, we have finished installing the PDF invoices add-on and learned how to make the most of it, which you can install now with ease and without any obstacles to improve the level of your store and facilitate your business for you and your customers, to increase transparency with your customers, improve your reputation and performance, and increase their trust in you. Do not wait too long and activate it now.
