WooCommerce invoice customization, a few words about invoice modification

Invoice customization in Flexible Invoices is a set of checkboxes spread across four settings tabs: the logo and your company details in General, the SKU, signatures and tax fields in Invoice Template, default notes in Documents, and the WooCommerce-specific options such as the currency conversion table in the WooCommerce tab. Almost all of it works in the free version, with the currency table and the hiding of zero-value line items reserved for PRO. Below, where each setting sits and what it does, including one that is easy to switch on and should not be.

In this article, you will read how to:

• Customize PDF invoices in WooCommerce
• See what a custom WooCommerce invoice looks like
• Find which tab holds which setting
• Go through the customization questions one by one
• Test the plugin and WooCommerce invoice customization

How to customize PDF invoices in WooCommerce

WooCommerce sends an order email that many stores treat as an invoice:
 

This is what the customer receives:
 

It confirms the order, but it is not an invoice. There is no invoice number, no issue date and none of the seller’s tax details, so the buyer cannot file it as a purchase document. For a real invoice, and for any control over how it looks, you need a plugin.

WooCommerce custom invoice

After installing the plugin you’ll be able to create such PDF invoices in your store.

Which tab holds which setting

The settings are grouped by what they affect rather than by how often you need them, so the first search is usually in the wrong tab. This is the map:

After changing any of these, issue a test invoice and look at the PDF. A document that already exists picks up the new settings when it is updated, not retroactively on its own.

WooCommerce invoice customization: 11 questions

1. How to add the SKU number to my invoices?

The SKU identifies a specific product and makes it easier to find in the catalogue. It is visible on the product edit screen and in the Products list, and it can appear on the invoice as well, which helps customers match a document against their own stock records.

Go to Invoices > Settings > Invoice Template and enable Use SKU numbers on invoices. Products without an SKU leave the field blank on the document, so it is worth checking the catalogue before switching this on.

2. Can I add my company logo to invoices?

Yes. Go to Invoices > Settings > General, find the logo option and click Set image to open the WordPress Media Library. Select an existing file or upload a new one in PNG, JPG or SVG.

Issue a test invoice afterwards and look at how the logo sits on the page. A file sized for a website header is often too wide for a document.

3. Can I add a signature, and whose will it be?

Yes. Go to Invoices > Settings > Invoice Template and select Show signatures on invoices, or leave it off to issue documents without them.

The seller’s signature is taken from one of the users with administrative privileges, which you choose in the same place.

4. Can I remove the seller’s VAT number from the invoice?

The option exists, in Settings > Invoice Template under the Vendor Tax ID checkbox, and the tax columns can be hidden the same way with Tax cells on invoices. Both are meant for sellers who are not VAT taxpayers and therefore have no VAT number to print.

This is not a setting to reach for whenever the tax on an order comes out at zero. A reverse charge invoice also shows zero tax, and on that document both your VAT number and the buyer’s are required. Hiding yours there produces a document your customer’s accountant will send back. If you are VAT-registered, leave both options off and let the zero appear where it belongs.

5. Can I add notes to the invoice?

Yes, in two places, and the difference matters.

For every document. Go to Invoices > Settings > Documents and fill in the Notes field at the bottom of the tab. The text appears automatically on all new documents, which suits standing information such as warranty terms or delivery conditions.

For one document. Go to Invoices > All Invoices, open the invoice and edit its notes there, then save. Anything specific to a single order, a payment link included, belongs here rather than in the global field, where it would go out to every customer.

6. What if the order amount is zero? Will the invoice still be issued?

You can set the plugin not to issue documents automatically for orders worth nothing, which keeps test orders and fully discounted orders out of your numbering. Issuing one by hand remains possible when a zero-value order does need a document.

7. Can I put the order number on the invoice?

Yes, with the Order Number option. The invoice then carries both its own number and the WooCommerce order number, which is what makes a customer’s question about “order 1340” answerable without searching through documents.

If you would rather the two numbers matched outright, see sequential order numbers in WooCommerce.

8. Can I edit the sale date before issuing the document?

Yes. The plugin lets you set the issue date, sale date and payment date independently, which matters when the invoice is written on a different day from the sale.

Go to Invoices > All Invoices > Add New and use the Dates and Actions metabox in the invoice editor. The same metabox is available on an already issued document, reached through All Invoices.

Update the invoice before downloading it. The PDF is built from the saved document, so changes that have not been saved will not be in the file.

9. Can I modify the seller’s information?

Yes, and these details are taken from the plugin rather than from WooCommerce, so they appear on invoices regardless of what the shop settings say. Go to Invoices > Settings > General and fill in the company details:

• Company Name,
• Company Address,
• VAT Number,
• Bank Name,
• Bank Account Number.

The PRO version adds the two below.

10. Does the plugin allow me to add a currency exchange table?

Yes, in PRO. Go to Invoices > Settings > WooCommerce and enable Table with currency conversion at the bottom of the tab. The currency table then prints on the invoice.

Conversion uses the official European Central Bank rate. If you need other currencies or a different rate source, tell us.

11. Can zero-value items be left off the document?

Yes, in PRO, and this one comes up often enough that it has its own checkbox. Go to Invoices > Settings > WooCommerce and enable Free line items.

Products worth zero then stay off the invoice, and so does free shipping. Worth checking against your own practice first, since some sellers prefer a free item to be visible on the document precisely because it was free.

Summary

Most of what people want to change about a WooCommerce invoice is a checkbox, and the only real difficulty is that the checkboxes live in four different tabs. The logo and your company details are in General, the document’s own fields in Invoice Template, default notes in Documents, and the WooCommerce-specific behaviour in the WooCommerce tab. Nearly all of it is in the free version. The one setting to think about rather than tick is hiding the seller’s VAT number: it belongs to sellers who are not VAT taxpayers, not to any invoice that happens to show zero tax, because a reverse charge document needs that number on it. After every change, issue a test invoice and look at the PDF rather than the settings screen.

Test WooCommerce invoice customization

Try Flexible Invoices free, PRO and the plugin’s add-ons in your free demo.

PRO also applies these settings to three document types rather than one: besides the regular invoice, you can issue proforma and correction invoices.