Can I make an invoice and send it to customers?

[yoonlaser]

Hello,

Sometimes my customers need an invoice for their orders, especially if they are not individuals.
I know the order confirmation page, or email can work as an invoice, but they need the official form of invoices. 
Looks like Shopify doesn't provide invoice feature, so I wonder if there are any apps that I can use to generate an invoice and send it to customers in any stage of orders (Before payment capture, after capture, in any order status)

Thank you!

[Emily]

Hi, @yoonlaser.

Thank you for reaching out!

We do have an invoice feature on Shopify. To access this, you can go to your admin > Orders. Click create an order, here you can enter in the order details, customer details and then you can send the invoice. If the customer has already paid you can mark as paid, or you can take payment then, or send the invoice and the merchant will be able to pay through the invoice. Does this work for you? We also have a free invoice generator tool you could use. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions! I would love to learn more about your business. What type of products do you sell? 
 
Talk soon, 

[yoonlaser]

Isn't this only for the orders we've created?
I mostly need the invoice feature for the orders already made.
Then do we need to create an order every time we need to send invoice?
I'll look into the 'free invoice generator tool' link that you provided, but wanted to confirm about the part that I just mentioned.

Thank you!

[Emily]

Hi, @yoonlaser.

Thank you for your reply! 

Just need to gather a bit more information from you. Are the orders that are already made, paid for? I don't believe you can send an invoice to a customer if the order is paid and fulfilled. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions! 

Talk soon, 

[yoonlaser]

Yes.
Customers sometimes ask for the invoices as receipts.
They need the doc to be evidence of purchases, tax purposes, etc. 
To be saved as an official document of purchase, the order confirmation page, or email doesn't look that formal, I think.

[MZ2]

Shopify doesn't have such a feature, the closest it has is the underwhelming "Order Printer" app.

Check out this app which may serve your needs.  I am not affiliated but it sounds like a place to start

https://apps.shopify.com/invoice-wizard

Best

[Edwin_Oxilayer]

You can try our Oxilayer PDF Invoice generator app: https://apps.shopify.com/pdf-printer 

It should fit your needs. There is the option to include invoice or receipt PDF download link into Shopify "Invoice", "Order confirmation" or other email. Also PDF templates are fully customisable, so you will be able to insert any necessary information for your invoice.

Here is how it can be configured: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZmc4LsVTnI

[david1977m]

I think it's poor that a software like Shopify can't automatically produce VAT (TAX) invoice for the customer to download.  In the UK and Europe, it is a legal requirement for a business to provide a VAT invoice for any other business that has our VAT (TAX) number on it.  Without this facility you are reducing your potential customer base by 500 million people.  If anyone at Shopify wants information on this feel free to email me and I'll explain what we need to provide.

[CyberdyneJoule]

Free invoice generation is not practical and it has no linkage with one's store

[jontymc]

Can't understand how this isn't a feature! Just been looking back at 6 years of forums hoping to stumble upon the latest one to find that @Shopify has done something about it but nope!

@Emily , please formally file this as a wanted upgrade for us all 🙂  Cheers 

[jolene412_]

Yes agreed. It's actually unbelievable that we can't do this in shopify. Seems like it would be a basic necessity feature. @Emily please help fix this. It's ridiculous.

[Blair]

Thank you for joining the thread @jolene412_. 

As I can understand the impact, I'll be sure to pass this feedback along to our Developers. We're always looking for ways to improve the platform and appreciate you sharing this. To follow along, you can check out the Shopify Changelog as all additions and improvements will be posted there! 

Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

[Mint_Sauce]

Hi, very surprising that Shopify doesn't have a way to print an invoice. I was looking around for a while thinking I must just be missing something obvious. It's quite shocking honestly.

[Mint_Sauce]

The free invoice generator tool doesn't appear to let me change currency from USD, I've changed the countries to UK for both and still it remains in USD. I just want to print an invoice for a customer, why is it such a pain?

[Zenencens]

Hello,

I think invoice creation is a necessite, should be an automatic feature. I had to download an app. just for this basic feature. Many people want or need an invoice, it should be automatically generated with each order. I use Invoice Falcon, its free for me (up to 100 invoices per month) and does the job.

[rjb779942]

I had the same question. 

Some of our customers are businesses and require tax invoices for their records. For us in lil ol' New Zealand, that means including the words "tax invoice" and our GST/VAT number.

Shopify's invoice generator isn't great.  We want something that auto-generates. 

A work-around that works for us is to modify the order confirmation email by including the required info.  It does mean the info is included on all order confirmation emails but it does the trick.

[Zozzles]

Defies logic that an online selling platform does not have this feature! Its a complete PITA every time a customer requests a Tax invoice, they should not have to even ask! Why is it not an automatic feature?

[david1977m]

So here is the work around that I've done until they come to their senses and do a proper job.  I don't take responsibility if you do something wrong to your own website so double check before you press SAVE.

• I installed the Order Printer app and opened it.   
• Then click on 'Templates'.
• Click 'Invoice'. This will open a code document.
• Line '3' should have the words ' <h1>Invoice</h1> ' on it.  If so, add the word TAX before the word INVOICE.
• Now go to line 18 and you should see the following information.  {% if shop.phone %}{{ shop.phone }}{% endif %}
• Click after the last "}" symbol making sure nothing is highlighted and hit enter.
• This should give you a new blank line.
• On this new line type <p> GST/VAT No. Your number</p>
• If the information you have typed is correct press SAVE at the top

The <p> opens a new paragraph and </p> closes the paragraph you need both open and close.  What I've typed here isn't complex and is even taught to most kids in schools these days as it's classed as basic coding. So, if you aren't sure ask a kid for help (however crazy that sounds) they will understand this.

I hope this helps you or someone who knows coding.

David

[david1977m]

So here is the work around that I've done until they come to their senses and do a proper job.  I don't take responsibility if you do something wrong to your own website so double check before you press SAVE.

• I installed the Order Printer app and opened it.   
• Then click on 'Templates'.
• Click 'Invoice'. This will open a code document.
• Line '3' should have the words ' <h1>Invoice</h1> ' on it.  If so, add the word TAX before the word INVOICE.
• Now go to line 18 and you should see the following information.  {% if shop.phone %}{{ shop.phone }}{% endif %}
• Click after the last "}" symbol making sure nothing is highlighted and hit enter.
• This should give you a new blank line.
• On this new line type <p> GST/VAT No. Your number</p>
• If the information you have typed is correct press SAVE at the top

The <p> opens a new paragraph and </p> closes the paragraph you need both open and close.

I hope this helps you or someone who knows coding.

David

[Edwin_Oxilayer]

Our Oxilayer PDF Invoice generator app can generate such invoices. 😉 

[david1977m]

This is just sales speak for them wanting to charge at least $8.99 per month if you want a TAX number.  Rip off when we already pay Shopify, they should be the ones to sort it. Not some spammy guy selling something on a community board.

[Edwin_Oxilayer]

Hi David, 

All of this can be done using free plan, for small stores it's a good fit.

I also don't see the problem to have more options to choose. 

[david1977m]

No, it can't.  The VAT field widget isn't available on the free version according to Shopify and your own page description.

[acidcoder]

Can't this be solved with a flow automation now? They have a "Send order invoice" action.

[Kaviar10]

Can't paypal business account do invoices including your business / or buyer's VAT Number?

[Kaviar10]

I found that it can, however at every purchase you have to create an item on paypal and give the tax% which can vary with every purchase so it can be a solution however it needs patience and time 😄

[david1977m]

But that means every customer has to use PayPal and not the card service.

[Janet_Smith]

Try the Order Printer Pro App.   I use that but.... you have to manually send it to your client upon request.  Shopify does not send a paid invoice automatically,  It would be nice if they would work on it though.

[scom]

A sales platform that cant create invoices .... welcome to Shopify, the platform that does everything without having to pay for plugins