One of the worst parts of invoicing clients is having to remember all the services you offered when moving over to a completely different software to send out the invoices to your clients. You have to remember every two weeks or month to send them out and it becomes a huge pain.
Since so many of us work in WordPress all day, why can’t we just send out invoices while in the WordPress dashboard? Well, I have some good news for you. You can! Let’s take a look at how to send out client invoices through WordPress.
Use a WordPress Plugin to Send Out Client Invoices Through WordPress
There are actually quite a few options to choose from when it comes to sending out invoices through WordPress via a plugin. I’m going to walk you through a quick tutorial by using the WP-Invoice plugin, but feel free to select another option, since there are so many to choose from, and I understand that every person and company has their own integration needs and preferences when sending out invoices.
WP-Invoice
Download the WP-Invoice plugin and activate the zip file on your WordPress dashboard. You can also do this by going to the Plugins page in the dashboard and searching for WP-Invoice.
Once the plugin is activated, you can find the Invoice tab on the left hand side of your dashboard. Click on it and navigate to Settings to get started.
Basic Setup
This reveals the basic Setup page, where you can basically just fill in all the default settings that you only have to modify once. For example, you can type in the name of your business to show up on your invoices. You can also select a particular page on your website that shows the invoices. I would recommend creating a specific invoices page so regular visitors don’t stumble upon this.
Choose where you want to place the invoices on the page and designate how you want to accept payment. I specified that I want to bill clients with PayPal, but you can also choose the credit card option or things like 2Checkout or Stripe. There is even an option for you to allow the client to change the payment method if needed.
If you plan on accepting credit cards then you need to input your gateway payment processing information. This usually requires separate fees for processing, and you can find the best deals for this at places like Authorize.net.
The PayPal setup is much simpler, with an area to type in your PayPal username, a test mode option, and an automatically generated PayPal IPN URL from your own domain name. Click on the Save All Settings button when you complete these fields.
Add Invoices
Once you complete the basic settings it brings you directly to the Add New page which gets you started with a brand new invoice. You can always come back to this page by clicking on the Add New tab in your dashboard.
Start by typing in the email address you plan on sending the new invoice to. Click on the Create New button once done typing in the email.
The new invoice editor is rather similar to the WordPress editor you see for creating posts and pages. Create a title for the client invoice and you can also throw in a description if you need to send a message to the client.
Scroll down below the description to find an area to type in what you plan on billing your client for. Type in the services or products you are charging for and modify the price and quantity. Feel free to incorporate discounts or add additional lines if you have more items to include.
Right below that, you can change around the payment settings to specify what type of currency you accept and which payment methods are allowed. I really like how they also provide an option for you to accept manual payments.
Billing Options
If you go to the right sidebar you will find some interesting features to either Allow Partial Payment or Recurring Billing. If you click on the partial payment option you simply type in the minimum payment you are willing to accept. If you select the recurring billing option there are various fields to fill in such as intervals, billing cycles and which payment processing system you are working through.
If you scroll down a little more in the right side column you can fill in the User Information details. This is the personal information for the client you plan on sending the invoice to. So, make sure everything is correct, and choose the proper email address so it doesn’t go to the wrong person. Options include First Name, Last Name, Company, Phone Number, and more.
Click on the Save button to complete the process. However, just because you hit Save doesn’t mean the invoice sent out. You have several options for sending out the invoice. Choose to either View Online, Enter Payment, or Send Notification.
If you view the invoice on your website, you can simply grab this link and email it to the client if this is how your invoicing process works. They can then review the invoice online and click on the Process Payment button which redirects them to PayPal or to a credit card processing page.
If you click on the Send Notification option, this lets you shoot a quick email through WordPress, telling your client that the invoice is available. I like this option the best because you don’t have to open up your email client to send out the notification. Simply type in the email address you want to send it to and change up the message however you want. Click the Send Notification button and they receive a quick link to your invoice.
Once someone makes a payment it is automatically tagged as Paid through the WordPress invoicing system. You don’t have to do anything after this. However, if someone pays you with a check or they choose some other method of payment, you can also click on the Enter Payment button to record the payment manually.
Choose that you received the payment. This drop down also gives you options for refunds and adjustments. Type in how much the client paid you, along with a date and note if needed. Click the Process / Charge Payment button to finish the process.
Reports
After you start collecting a few invoices, feel free to click on the Reports tab in the WordPress dashboard. This area simply breaks down how much money you have invoiced, your most valuable clients and even your top grossing line items if you sell products.
Sliced Invoices
Sliced Invoices is a flexible, well supported, and easy to use plugin that lets you harness your WordPress site to send professional-looking quotes and invoices, and get paid online.
Sliced Invoices comes with many features right out of the box, including customizable invoice templates complete with your business details and logo, one-click invoice email sending, customizable email templates, flexible tax settings, pre-defined line items, invoice reporting, CSV import & export. If you need more, several free and paid extensions are available.
The free Sliced Invoices plugin provides all the features you need to send quotes and invoices and to collect payment via PayPal, or offline payment methods (bank, check, money order, or anything else). Set your due date and Sliced Invoices will automatically send payment reminders on the schedule you setup, until you get paid!
Extensions bring additional features such as PDF invoices, a secure Client Area, Recurring Invoices, Secure Invoices, additional payment gateways such as Braintree and Stripe, and more. There are also integrations available for popular WordPress plugins such as WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, and Gravity Forms.
Sliced Invoices is backed by great support to help you along the way. Do Invoicing the “WordPress Way” and make your billing and accounting a breeze!
Wrapping Up
What other WordPress invoicing plugins are available? There’s a quite few – just do a quick search and you’ll find Sprout Invoices, WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips, among others.
It’s rather simple to setup one of these systems to start tracking clients or products and start sending out invoices to your customers. I personally enjoy the WP-Invoice plugin the most, but many of these plugins and tools are nice for keeping all your finance modules in one place. Think about how you wouldn’t ever have to open up a brand new tab in your browser every time you wanted to send an invoice.
Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions about how to send out client invoices through WordPress.