Customizing and printing WooCommerce order receipts both legally and efficiently is a real challenge, but finding the right solution isn’t easy. While there are many plugins available to print receipts and invoices in WooCommerce, not all of them are suitable for every store.
Most businesses require a solution that can remove the stress and human error from receipt printing, while offering customizations to match unique requirements. Some will want a tool that can simply process orders from WooCommerce alone, whereas others will need something to handle in-person sales, or B2B invoice printing in an office or warehouse.
Anyone needing to customize WooCommerce receipts has come to the right place! Read on to find your way through the process and find the ideal solution for your own online store.
Understanding WooCommerce receipt options
First up – let’s break down receipts themselves.
There are two primary types: standard receipts and invoice receipts. Standard receipts serve as proof of payment, while invoice receipts are more formal documents that detail financial transactions. These are often used in B2B scenarios.
Legally, receipts are required for tax compliance and record-keeping. In some regions, like Germany, businesses are required to issue receipts for every transaction, including specific details like product information and payment details. To meet these legal requirements, WooCommerce store owners need to adopt a reliable receipt management system that can handle both standard and invoice receipts with minimal fuss.
WooCommerce provides basic receipt functionality for users. By default, WooCommerce sends an order confirmation email that can serve as a simple receipt, but it doesn’t offer detailed customization options or support for printing receipts directly. For more advanced receipt management, you’ll likely need to use a third-party extension.
How to generate WooCommerce receipts
Generating WooCommerce receipts can be achieved through various methods, each offering different levels of customization and automation.
Standard WooCommerce receipt methods
As we mentioned above, WooCommerce sends an order confirmation email that can serve as a basic receipt. However, for physical receipts, store owners have to rely on manual processes or plugins that go beyond WooCommerce functionality.
Using BizPrint for enhanced receipt generation
Our focus tool BizPrint offers a more sophisticated solution by providing extensive customization options and integration with WooCommerce. The platform allows businesses to design receipts that match their brand, include necessary legal information, and automate the printing process.
This makes it ideal for both in-person sales and B2B transactions, and best of all the whole thing is cloud-based so won’t encroach upon your system performance or speed. You can even print a receipt directly from your Jovvie POS station!
Automatic vs. manual receipt creation
Automatic receipt generation, as offered by BizPrint, saves time and reduces errors by printing receipts upon order completion. In contrast, manual processes require more effort and are prone to human error.
For businesses handling multiple receipts on a daily basis, an automated option is the smart choice – physically creating countless receipts is a time-consuming and thankless task that a machine can deal with in no time at all.
Customizing your WooCommerce receipts
Customizing WooCommerce receipts helps to reinforce your brand identity and ensure compliance with legal requirements. Here’s how you can tailor your receipts to meet your business needs.
Basic receipt customization options
WooCommerce’s built-in features allow for basic customization of receipts through email templates. You can modify the subject, heading, and body of order confirmation emails to include essential details like order summaries and customer info. Here’s a step-by-step guide to customizing receipts using native WooCommerce alone:
- Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Emails from your WordPress dashboard.
- Look for the ‘Processing order’ and ‘Completed order’ email templates. These can serve as receipts.
- Select ‘Manage’ next to each template to customize its content. You can modify the email subject, heading, and body.
- Include additional details such as a thank-you message or store policies.
- Once you’re satisfied with your changes, select ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom of the page.
Advanced branding and layout customization with BizPrint
BizPrint offers extensive customization options for WooCommerce receipts. It allows you to design branded receipts with your logo, company information, and specific order details.
The platform supports over 25 templates and allows for custom branding, making it easy to create professional-looking receipts that align with your business identity. You can view a sample template below!
Here’s how to customize WooCommerce receipts using BizPrint:
- Install the BizPrint plugin in your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to WooCommerce > Print Settings > Settings, and enter your BizPrint public and secret keys to connect your WooCommerce site to BizPrint.
- Go to WooCommerce > Print Settings > Locations and select ‘Add New’ to create a printer location.
- Choose a template from the available options or upload your own.
- Include your logo, company name, order details, and footer information such as customer feedback prompts or policies.
- Adjust page orientation, layout size, and typography to match your branding needs.
- Set up automatic printing via WooCommerce > Print Settings > General.
- Select which order statuses trigger printing (e.g. ‘Processing’), and you’re good to go!
Adding required legal information and policies
Including legal information and policies on your receipts is needed for compliance and transparency. You can add tax details, VAT information, and other necessary legal disclaimers to your receipts using plugins like BizPrint or WebToffee.
Users can also include policies such as refund terms and contact information to ensure clarity and build trust with customers. This helps in maintaining legal compliance and improves customer satisfaction levels by providing transparent transaction details.
Complete guide to receipt delivery
Delivering receipts to customers is another customer service essential. It ensures a professional feel to the whole transaction, and provides proof-of-purchase to both brand and consumer. Here are a few options as to how you can achieve this feat:
Email receipt options
Emailing receipts is a common method for WooCommerce stores, given the default Woo order confirmation emails that can serve as basic receipts. However, for more professional and customizable receipts, platforms like BizPrint allow you to include detailed order information directly in the email or as attachments. This method is convenient for both online and in-person sales, as it ensures customers receive their receipts promptly.
PDF downloads and customer access
Providing customers with the option to download PDF receipts offers flexibility and convenience. Plugins such as Flexible Invoices enable you to generate and send PDF receipts via email, allowing customers to download and save them for future reference. This feature is particularly useful for customers who need receipts for tax purposes or record-keeping.
Printing physical receipts (desktop & mobile)
Businesses with a bricks-and-mortar store alongside their digital presence may need a physical receipt-printing option too. BizPrint integrates with thermal printers, so the automated printing of receipts can occur upon order completion.
For mobile scenarios, WooCommerce’s mobile app allows printing receipts using WiFi or WiFi Direct printers, making it suitable for point-of-sale transactions. This ensures that customers can receive physical receipts immediately, for a professional shopping experience.
Setting up automated receipt workflows
As we’ve seen, automating receipt workflows helps to keep things organized and reduce human errors. You can set this up using a few different methods.
Configuring receipt generation by order status
BizPrint allows you to automate receipt printing based on specific order statuses. As we touched upon above, you can configure the plugin to trigger printing when an order is marked as ‘Processing’ or ‘Completed’. This gives you control over when receipts are generated during the fulfillment process.
Bulk receipt processing for multiple orders
For managing multiple orders simultaneously, plugins like WooCommerce Order Receipt Cloud Thermal Printing offer bulk printing capabilities. This feature enables you to print receipts for several orders at once from multiple thermal printers, reducing manual effort and increasing overall productivity.
Receipt management for different sales channels
When managing receipts across various sales channels, such as online, in-store, or through marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, consistency is a must. BizPrint integrates with WooCommerce POS systems, allowing easy receipt management for both online and offline transactions. This integration helps you maintain a unified workflow across different sales channels.
Troubleshooting common receipt issues
Common problems with WooCommerce receipts include issues with tax calculations, invoice formatting, and timely delivery.
Incorrect tax rates can lead to legal issues and customer dissatisfaction, so it’s essential to address this. Plugins like TaxJar or Avalara can automate tax calculations, ensuring accuracy. For a plugin-free option, be sure to correctly configure WooCommerce’s native tax settings.
Another issue is the lack of proper receipt formatting, which can cause confusion and appear unprofessional. BizPrint provides customizable templates that can be tailored to match your business needs, ensuring clarity, professionalism, and compliance with legal requirements.
These templates include essential receipt sections such as company name and address, taxes, and payment terms. You can also customize fields and adjust branding elements such as logos and typography.
Any failure to send receipts on time can frustrate customers and affect record-keeping. Automating receipt emails using plugins like WebToffee PDF Invoices can help resolve this issue by ensuring timely delivery.
Difficulty in printing receipts is another common problem, as manual printing can be time-consuming and inefficient. As we’ve seen, BizPrint allows for the automatic printing of receipts to various printers based on order status.
Finally, some customers may struggle to access their receipts for record-keeping. Adding a ‘Download’ button using the WooCommerce PDF Invoices plugin allows customers to easily access their receipts without contacting support, boosting customer satisfaction and reducing support queries.
Alternative WooCommerce receipt solutions
When exploring alternative solutions for managing WooCommerce receipts, two notable options are WooCommerce PDF Invoices and Sliced Invoices. Let’s see how they compare to our featured tool, BizPrint.
WooCommerce PDF Invoices
WooCommerce PDF Invoices is a versatile plugin that allows you to print PDF invoices and receipts directly from the WooCommerce orders page. It supports bulk printing and customer self-service for receipts, which is convenient for both online and offline transactions. The tool also offers Unicode and Right-to-Left (RTL) language support, making it suitable for multilingual stores.
On the flipside, WooCommerce PDF Invoices has limited customization options when compared to BizPrint. Although the plugin provides basic invoice templates, it lacks the advanced branding and layout customization that BizPrint offers. This is a drawback for any business seeking to reinforce their brand identity through receipts.
Sliced Invoices
Sliced Invoices is primarily an invoicing plugin with wide functionality, including support for various payment gateways and language translations. However, its receipt printing capabilities require a premium extension, which adds a further cost. BizPrint naturally comes with this feature as standard.
BizPrint brings automatic invoice and receipt printing to WooCommerce stores
It’s clear that managing WooCommerce receipts requires a reliable, and multi-functional solution. BizPrint stands out as a premium choice by integrating perfectly with Jovvie’s POS system, allowing for automatic receipt printing and real-time order tracking. And by using BizPrint, you can manage bookkeeping, support international shipping, and ensure business continuity even during hardware or internet issues.
Unlike other plugins, BizPrint offers extensive customization options, ease of setup, and compatibility with existing hardware. It supports your WooCommerce fulfillment from start to finish, and scales in line with your brand’s growth.
To experience the benefits firsthand, explore BizPrint’s flexible pricing plans today!
