Every order in WooCommerce means an invoice. And if you issue invoices manually - open your accounting program, overwrite name, address, ID, products, amount - you know what we're talking about. Five minutes per invoice seems little until you have twenty orders a day.
Billing automation is one of those things where investing hours in setup saves hundreds of hours a year. And in WooCommerce, it's not complicated - if you have the right tool.
Why manual invoicing is hurting your business
Issuing invoices manually is not only tedious. It is a source of errors. A typo in an ID number, a wrong amount entered, a forgotten invoice on an overnight order - these little things add up and, in the worst case, cause problems for the accounts or a customer claim.
In addition, manual invoicing scales poorly. If you're doing ten orders a day today and you're considering growing, invoicing will become one of the first things to hold you back - unless you automate it.
How Auto Invoicing works in WooCommerce
The principle is simple: WooCommerce captures an event - for example, an order being paid or a status change to „Completed“ - and automatically sends all the necessary data to your billing system, which generates an invoice. The customer receives it by email, you find it in your billing report. The whole thing takes place without your intervention, usually within a few seconds.
The most used online invoicing systems in Slovakia and the Czech Republic are Facturoid a Invoices-online. Both are designed for small and medium sized businesses, both have a clean interface and both can connect directly to WooCommerce.
Option 1 - Fakturoid Connector for WooCommerce
Fakturoid is one of the most popular invoicing systems in the Czech-Slovak environment. It offers a clear interface, contact registration, document management and a well-documented API through which it can be connected to external systems.
Plugin WooCommerce Fakturoid Connector this link is provided directly from the WordPress administration. Once installed and you enter the API key from your Fakturoid account, the plugin will automatically start creating invoices for each new order - with full customer details, order items, prices and VAT.
Setup is done in just a few steps. In the WordPress admin, go to WooCommerce → Settings, find the Fakturoid Connector tab and enter your Fakturoid login and API key, which you can find in your Fakturoid account settings under the API section. Next, you'll set what event to create the invoice for - we recommend selecting the „Paid“ status, not „New Order“, to avoid creating invoices for unpaid orders.
The plugin is available at makemehappy.sk for an annual license of 39 € for one site, including updates and email support.
Option 2 - Invoices-online Connector for WooCommerce
Invoice-online is another popular invoicing system that has gained popularity especially among smaller businesses because of its simplicity and friendly price. Like Fakturoid, it offers invoice, contact and credit note registration.
Plugin Woocommerce Invoices-online Connector works on the same principle - it connects your e-shop with your Invoice-online account via API and automatically transfers data from each order to the invoicing system. Customers who use it give it a rating of 5 out of 5 - which says it all.
The setup is the same as with the Fakturoid Connectore - you enter the API key from your Invoice-online account via the WooCommerce settings and specify the trigger at which the invoice will be generated. The plugin is available for the same price of €39 per year.
Invoroid or Invoices-online - which one to choose?
If you are already using one of these systems, the answer is simple - connect the one you have. If you're starting from scratch, here's a quick comparison:
Fakturoid has richer features, a better API and a larger community of users. It's better suited for businesses that need more advanced record keeping, a link to the bank, or integration with other tools. Invoice-online is simpler, quicker to learn and affordable for freelancers who invoice several dozen documents per month.
For most Slovak e-shops, both systems will be equally good - it is crucial which one suits your working style better.
What to watch out for when setting up
Some practical tips to save you the trouble later:
Trigger for issuing an invoice - do not set the invoice to be issued in the „New Order“ status. The customer could cancel or not pay the order. The correct trigger is „Paid“ when paying by credit card or „Processed“ when making a bank transfer, when you manually verify the payment.
Business registration number and VAT number for B2B customers - if you also sell to companies, the customer enters the ID number and VAT number when ordering. Check that the connector maps these fields correctly to the corresponding fields in Invoiceroid or Invoice-online. If customers are entering company details manually and making a lot of mistakes, the Swiftyper plugin will help by automatically populating the company details according to the ID number directly at checkout.
Credit note on return of goods - Check if your connector will automatically issue a credit note when you refund in WooCommerce or if you have to do it manually in the invoicing system. This is especially important if you have a higher rate of returns.
Test order before launch - Before the live launch, create a test order with real data and check that the invoice in Fakturoid or Fakury-online looks correct - correct amount, VAT, address and numbering.
What you get by automating invoicing
Once the connector is set up, invoices are created by themselves, immediately after payment, with the correct data and in the correct format. The customer receives the invoice by email without you having to think about it. You always have an up-to-date overview of the issued documents in the accounting system and don't have to worry about forgetting anything.
For a small e-shop with dozens of orders per month, this means several hours of savings per month. For a larger e-shop with hundreds of orders, automatic invoicing is simply a necessity - not a convenience, but a requirement for operation.
Setup takes less than an hour. The time saved will be returned with the first major wave of orders.