When generating orders, WordPress uses post IDs for posts, pages, media, products, subscriptions, or even post/page revisions. It means that you will almost certainly encounter not sequential WooCommerce order numbers. In this article, you may find a free method to solve the issue.
WooCommerce sets the same ID for order numbers that can lead to not sequential orders 😥.
Let’s see the solution 👍.
Table of contents
- Make WooCommerce order numbers sequential
- PDF Invoices with sequential order numbers
- About post ids in WordPress & WooCommerce
Make WooCommerce order numbers sequential
The method is fast. It takes much less time than writing about it 😀. Let’s see 3 steps to order WooCommerce orders sequentially. I will try to set it up in less than a minute ⌚.
Step 1: Install Flexible Invoices
First, I log in to the site’s WordPress backend.
I may go find and install the plugin in the Plugins menu.
Next, I click the “Add new” button and type in “flexible invoices” in the Search box to install the extension.
You may also download and upload the plugin manually.
Go to Flexible Invoices in WordPress.org →Step 2: Activate the plugin
Activation takes about 5 seconds 💨.
Step 3: Enable sequential order numbers
Finally, I go to the Invoices menu → Settings → WooCommerce → General and enable the option.
That’s it! I have not passed 1 minute – it’s even possible in less than 35 seconds 🙂
From now on, WooCommerce will set the order names with sequential numbers ✅.
PDF Invoices with sequential order numbers
The plugins can speed things up. But that’s not all.
As you can see, Flexible Invoices are taking care of invoicing. The free extension can generate PDF invoices for WooCommerce orders but also for WordPress alone.
The plugin inserts the order number on the invoices and there are additional options ⚙️.
You may see the short video about the plugin.
There is also a PRO version with automatic invoicing, 3 types of documents, OSS support, VAT EU validation, reverse charge annotation, currency exchange rates, and more ⭐.
You can check out all features on the product page.
Also, you may compare free with PRO in this article.
About post ids in WordPress & WooCommerce
WordPress builds the database structure with post ids. So, when you add posts, pages, media, products, subscriptions, or even post/page revisions WordPress makes a new record in the database in the wp_posts table. Why 🤔?
Because it allows WordPress to link the data between tables using post_id. For example, WooCommerce products contain a lot of information like price, tax status, shipping, stock, or thumbnail id inside the wp_postmeta table. The linking is necessary to show the product meta data. IDs are unique so that the information is properly structured 📁.
Summary
Do you have any questions about the solution for not sequential WooCommerce order numbers or PDF invoices 🙂? You can download the plugin below or see its features on WordPress.org.
