Invoices and Receipts

An invoice tells a customer what they owe and gives them a link to pay it. A receipt is their proof that a payment arrived. Both have short numbers that customers can quote to you, both print cleanly, and both carry your business's name, logo and contact details.

Menu	Commerce > Transactions (administrators), Commerce > My Transactions (customers)
Permission	Manage transactions, or View own transactions for a customer's own invoices and receipts
Feature	Transactions and Receipts (printable invoices and receipts), Send Payment Receipts (receipts and refund notices sent to customers), Transaction Reminders (invoices and pay links)

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

Invoice numbers

A transaction gets an invoice number the first time the customer is told about a payment they pay themselves: when an administrator clicks Send invoice, or with the first payment reminder for it, either the notice that a payment is coming due or the first reminder once it is due. Numbers run in order across the whole site: INV-1001, INV-1002, and so on.

• A transaction keeps its number for good. Every later reminder, and the printed invoice, shows the same number.
• A payment charged automatically to a saved card, such as a scheduled payment of an installment plan, gets no invoice. The customer is only told which card will be charged and when.
• If a reminder can't be delivered, the number it was given is kept, so the next attempt sends the same number.

Once a transaction has an invoice number, it shows as Invoice on the transaction's page, for administrators and for the customer.

Pay from a reminder

Every reminder for a payment the customer pays themselves carries a link that pays it without signing in. Email reminders show it as a button, such as Pay USD 50.00.

• The link opens a page for that one payment. Nobody needs an account or a password to use it, so a guest who bought without an account can pay too.
• Each link works for 60 days. Every reminder sends a fresh link, so the newest reminder always has one that works.
• Anyone who has the link can pay with it. Forwarding the reminder to someone else, such as the person who handles payments at the customer's company, is fine.
• With the Receipts feature on, a reminder to a customer with an account also has a View your invoice link to the invoice page. It asks them to sign in. See Links to the customer's pages.

The pay page

The page shows the payment's title, the Amount due and the Due on date, and a button such as Pay USD 50.00. Clicking it opens checkout with the balance ready to pay. With the Receipts feature on, the full invoice is shown under the button, with a Print invoice button.

The checkout brings the customer back to this page. The Payment step has a Back to the payment page link for a customer who decides not to pay now, and once the payment goes through the confirmation is headed Payment received and has a Back to the payment page button, which shows the payment as received.

The page says instead:

Message	What it means
This payment has been received. Thank you.	The balance is already paid.
This payment was canceled, so there is nothing to pay.	The transaction was canceled.
Online payment is not available right now. Please contact us to pay.	Online payment isn't set up on the site.
This payment link no longer works	The link is more than 60 days old, was changed, or the payment no longer exists. The customer can sign in and pay from My Transactions, or ask you for a new link.

Print an invoice

The invoice page shows the invoice exactly as it prints.

1. Open the transaction: Commerce > Transactions for an administrator, Commerce > My Transactions for a customer.
2. Click the invoice number next to Invoice.
3. Click Print invoice. Only the invoice is printed, without the site's menus.

Customers can also open and print their invoices on the website, without the admin; see My Transactions on the website.

The invoice shows:

• your business's logo, name and address, from the receipt branding settings, under the heading Invoice;
• Invoice: with the invoice number, and the Date the transaction was recorded;
• Billed to: the customer's name and email;
• the Status: Due while something is owed, Paid once the balance is paid;
• the line for what the payment is for, a line for each adjustment that takes its amount off (such as Waiver: Financial aid), any Tax, the Subtotal and the Total, which is what is owed after the adjustments;
• Notes with the due date and, after a part payment, how much has been received and how much is still due;
• your footer text and contact details.

A customer whose invoice is still due also sees Pay now on the invoice page.

Copy the payment link for a customer

Administrators can send a customer the pay link themselves, for example in a reply to their email.

1. Open the transaction from Commerce > Transactions and click the invoice number.
2. Under Payment link, click Copy. The button changes to Copied.
3. Paste the link into your message.

The link works for 60 days, and a new one is made each time you open the page. It is shown only while there is something to pay.

Receipts

With the Send Payment Receipts feature on, the customer is sent a receipt after every payment on a transaction, however it was paid: online through checkout or a pay link, charged automatically to a saved card, or recorded by an administrator with Record payment or Mark as paid.

• Each receipt gets its own number, in order across the site: R-1001, R-1002, and so on. The number never changes, so a reprinted receipt shows the number the customer was sent.
• The message is titled Receipt for your payment of, followed by the amount, thanks the customer, gives the receipt number, and includes the receipt itself.
• Customers with an account get it through the site's notifications, on the methods they chose, with a View your receipt online link to the receipt's page. Guests get it by email at the address they gave when they bought.
• The transaction's Timeline notes that a receipt was sent.

A receipt shows:

• your business's logo, name and address, under your Header title (Payment receipt unless you change it);
• Receipt: with the receipt number, and the Date of the payment;
• Billed to, and the Status Paid;
• the amount paid, with its share of the transaction's tax;
• Notes: Paid offline. for a payment an administrator recorded, Payment for invoice INV-1001. when the payment settled an invoice, and how much of the charge was taken off without being paid when the transaction was adjusted;
• a Test payment badge when the payment was made through a payment provider in test mode, unless you turn the badge off;
• your footer text and contact details.

Print a receipt

1. Open the transaction: Commerce > Transactions for an administrator, Commerce > My Transactions for a customer.
2. Find the payment in the Timeline (administrators) or History (customers) and click View receipt.
3. Click Print receipt.

Refund notices

With the Send Payment Receipts feature on, when a refund of a payment on a transaction succeeds, the customer is told. The message is titled Your refund of, followed by the amount, and says the money went back to the card or account they paid with and can take a few business days to appear on their statement. The transaction's Timeline notes that the customer was told. A refund that an administrator settles by hand with Mark settled sends the same notice. See Payments and Refunds.

Links to the customer's pages

Receipts and reminders sent to a customer with an account carry a link to the document's page: View your receipt online in a receipt, View your invoice in a reminder for an invoiced payment. The customer signs in and sees only their own documents. Guests don't get these links, because they have no account to sign in with; their pay link is all they need.

The links open the customer's pages in the admin (Commerce > My Transactions) unless your administrator sets them to open the pages on the website. That is a setting in the site's configuration, not on a settings screen.

Brand your invoices and receipts

Invoices and receipts share one set of branding settings.

Menu	Settings > Commerce > Receipts
Permission	Manage receipt settings
Feature	Receipts

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

1. Open Settings > Commerce > Receipts.
2. Fill in the fields below and click Save.

Field	What it does
Header title	The heading printed at the top of every receipt. Empty uses Payment receipt. Invoices always use the heading Invoice.
Business name	Your business's name, shown at the top. Empty uses the site name.
Logo URL	The web address of the logo shown at the top.
Business address	Your postal address, shown under your name.
Contact email	An email address printed at the bottom.
Contact phone	A phone number printed at the bottom.
Website	A website address printed at the bottom.
Footer text	Free text printed at the bottom, such as a thank-you note or your return policy.
Show a test-payment badge for test-mode payments	Marks receipts for payments made in a payment provider's test mode with a Test payment badge. On by default.

Make sure links point at your site

The pay links in reminders, the links to the customer's invoice and receipt pages, and the link you copy from an invoice, use your site's public address. Your administrator sets it in Base url under Settings > General, for example https://shop.contoso.com.

Set it before you rely on pay links. Without it, a link copied from the invoice page uses whatever address you opened the admin from, which a customer may not be able to reach, and the reminders the site sends on its schedule go out without a pay link: customers with an account are asked to sign in to pay instead.

Related pages

• Transactions: the report, recording payments and reminder settings.
• Payments and Refunds: refunding a payment.