Professional invoices and packing slips, generated from your WooCommerce orders and styled to match your brand. Print them, email them to customers, or let customers download them from their account — all without leaving WordPress.
—
Why It Matters
Invoices aren’t glamorous, but they’re non-negotiable. Whether a customer needs one for their records, your accountant wants them for tax time, or you’re shipping internationally and need documentation in the box — having clean, branded PDF documents ready to go saves you from scrambling later.
Without this set up:
- You’re manually creating invoices in a spreadsheet (or worse, not at all)
- Packing slips are handwritten or missing entirely
- Customers email you asking for invoices you don’t have
- Your documents look disconnected from your brand
—
Before You Start
- Tracksies HQ plugin activated on your WordPress site
- WooCommerce installed with at least one order
- Your brand configured in Tracksies > Designer (optional but recommended — your logo, colours, and business details flow into the PDF automatically)
—
Enabling PDF Documents
The PDF Documents feature has a main toggle and individual sub-toggles for each document type.
- Go to Tracksies > Settings in the left sidebar
- Click the Features tab
- Find the HQ module tile
- Look for PDF Documents and switch it on — this is the parent toggle that enables the entire document system
- Underneath, you’ll see sub-toggles for Invoices and Packing Slips — enable whichever you need
Once enabled, you can configure the documents in Tracksies > Designer > PDFs.
—
Invoices
An invoice is a formal record of what the customer bought and what they owe (or have paid). Tracksies generates them as clean, styled PDFs that include:
- Your business name, logo, and contact details (pulled from Brand Hub)
- The customer’s billing address
- Order number and date
- A line-item table with product names, quantities, and prices
- Subtotal, shipping, tax, and order total
- Payment method
- Sequential invoice number (if enabled — more on this below)
Generating an Invoice
- Go to WooCommerce > Orders and open any order
- Look for the Documents section on the order edit screen
- Click the Generate Invoice button
- The PDF opens in a new tab — you can view, print, or download it from there
The invoice is generated on the fly from the current order data, so it always reflects the latest information.
—
Packing Slips
A packing slip goes in the box with the order. It lists what’s inside so the customer (or your warehouse team) can verify the contents without showing prices.
Packing slips include:
- Your business name and logo
- The customer’s shipping address
- Order number
- A line-item table with product names and quantities (no prices)
- Any order notes you’ve added
Generating a Packing Slip
Same process as invoices:
- Open the order in WooCommerce > Orders
- Find the Documents section
- Click Generate Packing Slip
- The PDF opens in a new tab
—
Email Attachment
You can automatically attach invoice PDFs to order emails — so customers get their invoice without having to log in or ask for it.
Enabling Email Attachment
- Go to Tracksies > Designer > PDFs
- Find the Email Attachment setting
- Toggle it on
- Select which email types should include the invoice PDF
Supported Email Types
You can attach invoices to these WooCommerce email types:
| Email Type | When It Sends |
|---|---|
| Order Complete | When the order is marked complete |
| Processing | When the order is received and payment confirmed |
| Customer Invoice | When you manually send an invoice email from WooCommerce |
| New Order (admin) | The admin notification for new orders |
Pick the ones that make sense for your workflow. Most stores attach invoices to the Order Complete email — it’s the natural point where a customer expects to receive their receipt.
—
My Account Download
Let customers download their own invoices directly from their account on your site. No support tickets, no waiting — they just click and get their PDF.
Enabling My Account Download
- Go to Tracksies > Designer > PDFs
- Find the Frontend Download setting
- Toggle it on
What Customers See
Once enabled, customers will see:
- A Download Invoice button on their order list in My Account > Orders
- The same button on individual order detail pages
Clicking it generates and downloads the invoice PDF immediately.
Security
Customers can only download invoices for their own orders. The system checks the logged-in user against the order’s customer ID before generating anything. No one can access someone else’s invoice by guessing a URL.
—
Sequential Invoice Numbers
For businesses that need sequential, trackable invoice numbers — especially for accounting compliance or EU requirements — Tracksies can generate them automatically.
Enabling Sequential Numbers
- Go to Tracksies > Designer > PDFs
- Find the Sequential Invoice Numbers toggle and switch it on
- Configure the settings:
| Setting | What It Does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Prefix | Text that appears before the number (e.g., INV-) | INV- |
| Starting Number | The first number in the sequence | 1 |
How Numbers Are Generated
Invoice numbers are assigned lazily — meaning the number is generated the first time the invoice is viewed or downloaded, not when the order is placed. This avoids gaps in the sequence from cancelled or deleted orders.
Once an invoice number is assigned, it’s permanent. Viewing the same invoice again always shows the same number.
Where the Number Appears
The sequential invoice number is displayed prominently on the invoice PDF, typically near the top alongside the order number. The order number and invoice number are separate — the order number comes from WooCommerce, while the invoice number is Tracksies’ own sequential counter.
EU Compliance Note
Sequential invoice numbering is a requirement in many EU countries for VAT compliance. The combination of a configurable prefix and unbroken number sequence means you can meet these requirements without a separate invoicing tool. That said, check your specific country’s requirements — some jurisdictions have additional rules around invoice content or numbering resets.
—
Styling Your Documents
Both invoices and packing slips pull their styling from your Brand Hub configuration in Tracksies > Designer.
What flows in automatically:
- Logo — your primary logo from the Branding tab
- Business details — name, address, contact info
- Colours — header, footer, and accent colours from your Document Colours settings
- Typography — PDF font and font size (configurable from 9-18px)
You can also upload custom TTF fonts or let Tracksies scan your theme for available fonts. This is configured in Tracksies > Designer on the Branding tab under PDF Typography.
The result is documents that look like they belong to your brand — not generic white-label PDFs.
—
Where to Find Everything
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Enable/disable document types | Tracksies > Settings > Features > HQ > PDF Documents |
| Configure documents (attachment, download, numbering) | Tracksies > Designer > PDFs |
| Generate a document for a specific order | WooCommerce > Orders > [order] > Documents section |
| Brand styling (logo, colours, fonts) | Tracksies > Designer > Branding and Colours |
—
Troubleshooting
PDF is blank or won’t generate
Check that the order has the required data — billing address, line items, and totals. If the order was created manually and is missing information, the PDF may not render correctly. Also verify that your server has enough memory for PDF generation (128MB minimum recommended).
Logo not appearing on the PDF
Make sure your logo is uploaded in Tracksies > Designer on the Branding tab. The PDF pulls the same logo used in your emails. If it’s there but still not showing, check the image format — PNG and JPEG work best.
Fonts look wrong or characters are missing
If you’re using special characters (accents, non-Latin scripts), you may need to upload a TTF font that supports those characters. Go to Tracksies > Designer > Branding > PDF Typography and upload a font file, or let Tracksies scan your theme for compatible fonts.
Email attachment not working
Verify three things: the PDF Documents feature is enabled in Settings > Features, the Email Attachment toggle is on in Designer > PDFs, and you’ve selected at least one email type to attach to. Also confirm your SMTP plugin is working — if emails aren’t sending at all, the attachment issue is secondary.
Customer can’t see the download button
Check that Frontend Download is enabled in Designer > PDFs. The button only appears for logged-in customers viewing their own orders. Guest checkout orders won’t show the download button unless the customer creates an account.
Invoice number sequence has gaps
This can happen if you enabled sequential numbers after some orders already existed, or if invoice numbers were assigned to orders that were later deleted. The sequence itself always increments — it doesn’t backfill gaps. For accounting purposes, document any gaps with a note rather than trying to renumber.
Invoice number not appearing on the PDF
Make sure Sequential Invoice Numbers is enabled in Designer > PDFs. If you just enabled it, existing invoices that were already viewed won’t retroactively get numbers — the number is assigned on first view after the feature is turned on.