How to Send an Invoice in WordPress & WooCommerce? A Step-by-Step Guide

In this article, I’ll show you how to generate and send an invoice in WordPress and WooCommerce. I will also show you how to use & send a custom email with an invoice in WooCommerce after an order. I will use a free WordPress plugin for WooCommerce invoicing in this guide. Let’s begin!

Generate and send an email with an invoice – overview
Send an email with a PDF invoice in WooCommerce – plugin
A custom email with a WooCommerce invoice after the purchase
How to create a manual invoice
Automatic emails with PDF invoices in WooCommerce

How to generate and send a VAT invoice in WooCommerce?

You just need to click the Send by e-mail button:

Invoice By Email

Have I just exhausted a topic? 🙂

As you see, sending an invoice itself is very easy. However, you need to issue an invoice first. I’ll show you how.

How to create and send an email with a VAT invoice in WooCommerce?

You need a plugin first

In general, you need to have an invoicing plugin for WooCommerce. There’s one on the market that people use and recommend.

Flexible Invoices for WooCommerce PRO € 59

Plugins used by 6,000+ shops Last Updated: 2024-08-07 Works with WooCommerce 8.8 - 9.2.x

Flexible Invoices for WooCommerce

6,000+ Active Installations Last Updated: 2024-08-07 Works with WooCommerce 8.8 - 9.2.x

Features of the plugin

Issue and save invoices as PDF
Add, edit and delete invoices (invoices are stored as custom post types)
Send a custom email with an invoice after the order in WooCommerce
Create, download, and send an invoice in WordPress too
Automatic invoicing in WooCommerce (PRO)
EU sales support (OSS, EU VAT number validation) in PRO
Custom email and adjustable invoice template
3 types of invoices (main, proforma, and correction) are sent to your customer automatically (PRO)
Manage currencies, tax rates, and payment methods
PDF template ready for VAT taxpayers and VAT-exempt entities
Generate and bulk download invoices by a date range
Custom numbering by using shortcodes and adding your own prefixes and suffixes
Set the initial number for invoices if you begin using the plugin throughout the year
Reports with a summary of all documents issued in a given time range

Do I still need to encourage you to this plugin? 🙂

So the PRO version supports also OSS (formerly MOSS), EU VAT validation, VAT conversion, more document types, and automatic invoicing.

Send Custom Email with a WooCommerce invoice after the purchase

The plugin gives you 3 email templates for each type of invoice (main, proforma, correction) to send to your customer after the WooCommerce order.

So you may send PDF invoices with custom information to your customers after the purchase automatically!

1. Email will be sent for invoices based on the order statuses you choose:

2. Of course, you can send an email with a WooCommerce invoice to your customer manually at any time:

Flexible Invoices Emails

How to customize the email template

First, go to the WooCommerce → Settings → Emails.
Then, choose an email template to manage (for example, the main invoice).

Woocommerce Send Custom Email With An Invoice After The Order

Next, copy the email template to your theme’s folder.

Woocommerce Customize The Email Template With An Invoice

Adjust the new template to your needs using HTML and PHP.

You may edit the template of the email invoice locally and upload the file afterwards to the server.

Also, you can do that in the Theme File Editor in the Appearance → Theme Editor → then WooCommerce → Emails. You will find the email invoice template you copied there earlier.

Now, let’s see how to create an invoice.

WooCommerce and creating a manual invoice

Once you install and activate the plugin, you can issue an invoice.

Flexible Invoices Woocommerce WordPress How To Add New Vat Invoice Pdf

Then, select a customer from the list or provide customer details:

Flexible Invoices Woocommerce WordPress Customer Details Pdf Invoice

Next, provide products and payments details:

Flexible Invoices Woocommerce WordPress Products Payments Invoice

And guess what, this plugin calculates amounts automatically:

You can download and send invoices from the WooCommerce Orders screen and the All Invoices screen too!

Invoice Actions On The Woocommerce Orders Screen

How to generate and send an invoice automatically?

There is a way to issue and send invoices automatically by your store. You simply need to upgrade Flexible Invoices to the PRO version. It works like magic! What’s more, the Flexible Invoices for WooCommerce plugin is following the EU law, so you can issue invoices for EU clients with ease as well. How wonderful!

Once you use the PRO version of the plugin, you’ll get a bunch of new features under the WooCommerce tab in Settings:

Flexible Invoices Woocommerce Main Settings

Look at the Automatic sending option. You need to configure it – set the status of an order.

Your customer receives then an e-mail with a link to the invoice:

Flexible Invoices Woocommerce Email Invoice

You may also download more documents from a chosen date range with ease. And then send them in bulk to your accountant:

Flexible Invoices Woocommerce WordPress Download Invoices

Summary

In this article, you’ve learned how to send a VAT invoice in WooCommerce. And to adjust and send the custom email with an invoice after the WooCommerce order.

See all functionalities of the Flexible Invoices plugin & test it in your free demo.