EU E-Invoicing for WooCommerce

Overview

EN 16931 e-invoices and e-credit notes from WooCommerce orders: XRechnung (CII and UBL), ZUGFeRD / Factur-X (PDF/A-3) and Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. Everything is created on your own server; no external service is needed.

Requirements: WordPress 6.7+, WooCommerce 10.1+ (tested with 11.2), PHP 7.4-8.3 with mbstring (and Zip for ZIP exports). Works with High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS), the Cart and Checkout blocks and the classic checkout, block themes and classic themes.

This plugin creates documents in the published formats and checks them against the published rules. It does not give tax or legal advice: which format you must send, and to whom, depends on your country and your buyers. Ask your tax advisor when in doubt.

Installation

1. In WordPress go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, choose the plugin zip and activate it. WooCommerce 10.1 or later must be active.
2. Open WooCommerce > Settings > E-invoicing > Seller data and enter at least your legal name, VAT ID (or tax number), address, e-mail and phone. Empty address fields use the store address from WooCommerce > Settings > General; an empty bank account uses the first account of the "Direct bank transfer" payment method.
3. Open General and choose the formats, the default format and the order statuses that create the e-invoice (default: Completed).
4. Check Tax & payment mapping (one row per WooCommerce tax rate and payment method) and Checkout fields.
5. Complete a test order. The order screen shows the e-invoice in the E-invoice box with its validation status; WooCommerce > E-invoices lists all documents.

Own-site build: enter the licence key on the General tab (see Configuration).

Update

Upload the new zip (WordPress offers to replace the installed version). Documents, numbers and settings are kept.

Uninstall

Deleting the plugin keeps the e-invoice records (they are legal records) unless Remove data on uninstall is on. Orders are never changed.

Configuration

All settings are in WooCommerce > Settings > E-invoicing (capability manage_woocommerce).

General

Seller data

Legal name, trading name, VAT ID (with country prefix), tax number, registration ID and scheme, legal information (directors, register court), Peppol ID / electronic address and scheme, address, contact name, phone, e-mail, IBAN, BIC, account holder and a payment terms text. XRechnung needs a phone number and an e-mail; credit transfer needs the IBAN. Without a Peppol ID the Peppol format derives one from the VAT ID, XRechnung uses the e-mail.

Tax & payment mapping

One row per WooCommerce tax rate: Automatic writes S (standard rate) for rates above 0 % and Z for 0 %. Choose E, AE, K, G or O for special rates. Lines without any tax use the "Untaxed sales" setting, with these automatic rules: reverse charge / intra-community supply (buyer VAT ID in another EU country and no tax charged, or orders that a VAT number plugin marked as VAT exempt) and export (buyer outside the EU).

One row per payment method: Automatic guesses the payment means (bank transfer 58, cheque 20, cash on delivery 10, others 68 "online payment service"). Credit transfer without an IBAN in the seller data is written as "not defined" (1) with a warning.

Checkout fields

VAT ID, buyer reference / Leitweg-ID, Peppol ID and purchase order number: each Optional, Required or Hidden. Classic checkout: billing fields after the name / company. Block checkout: "Additional order information" (WooCommerce additional checkout fields). Values are checked by format only (VAT ID letters and digits, Peppol ID scheme:identifier with a known scheme, Leitweg-ID pattern); nothing is looked up online.

Admins edit the classic values in the billing address of the order; block checkout values are shown and editable by WooCommerce on the order screen. VAT IDs stored by common VAT number plugins (_billing_vat_number, _billing_vat_id, _vat_number ...) are used when our field is empty.

Licence

Own-site build: enter the Kavio Labs licence key; the plugin checks it once a day from the admin area for your domain (development hosts such as localhost always work, a new install has a 14-day start period). Without a valid licence no new e-invoices or credit notes are created and nothing is attached to e-mails; existing documents stay downloadable for you and your customers, and the admin pages stay available.

CodeCanyon build: the purchase code enables updates and support; no feature depends on it.

Usage

Creating e-invoices

• Automatically when an order reaches a status from Create invoice at (default Completed). It is created before WooCommerce sends the status e-mail, so the e-mail can carry it.
• By hand: order screen > E-invoice box > Create e-invoice (any status).
• In bulk: orders list > select orders > bulk action Create e-invoices. More than 25 orders are processed in the background (WooCommerce > Status > Scheduled Actions, group kv-eu-e-invoicing).

Every order has at most one e-invoice. Its content is frozen when it is created: the number, date, seller and buyer data, lines, VAT and totals. All formats are rendered from this frozen record, so every download is identical.

Credit notes

• Refunds: every WooCommerce refund of an invoiced order becomes an e-credit note that references the invoice. Refunded items keep their name, unit and VAT rate; refunded shipping and fees become charges; a refund without items (amount only) becomes one adjustment line at the main VAT rate of the invoice.
• Cancellation: a cancelled invoiced order gets a credit note for the whole invoice (only when nothing was credited before).
• By hand: Credit whole invoice in the E-invoice box.

The E-invoice box (order screen)

Shows each document with its number, date, total and status, one download button per format (the dot shows the status of that format), the messages to fix and Rebuild. Rebuild creates the document again from the current order and settings and keeps its number and date: use it after you completed the seller data or changed a mapping.

Messages of the other formats are listed too: Peppol, for example, needs buyer IDs that consumers do not have.

E-mails

The default format (or the format chosen in Attached format) is attached to the e-mails chosen in Attach to e-mails. The "Refunded order" e-mail carries the newest credit note. "Order details" (sent from the order screen with Send order details to customer) carries the invoice.

Customers

Customers see an E-invoices section on the order details in My Account and on the order confirmation page, with one button per format, and an E-invoice button in the My Account orders list. Guest customers download with the link on the order confirmation page (protected by the order key).

WooCommerce > E-invoices

All documents with filters (invoices / credit notes, date range, status, search by number, buyer, VAT ID or order) and downloads. Download ... documents (ZIP) exports the filtered documents in the chosen format (up to 5,000 per ZIP). The orders list also has bulk actions Download e-invoices (format, ZIP).

Developer notes

Formats

The XML is written by a small string builder and the PDF by an own PDF/A-3 writer (embedded subset of Noto Sans, OFL; sRGB output intent; XMP with the Factur-X extension schema). PHP needs mbstring (zlib is used for compression when present); ZipArchive is used for ZIP exports only. No external library or service.

Data

Orders are only read through the WooCommerce CRUD API (HPOS safe). The plugin writes the order meta _kv_einv_invoice (number) and an order note. Checkout fields: classic _billing_kv_einv_{vat_id|buyer_reference|peppol_id|po_number}, block _wc_other/kv-einv/{vat-id|buyer-reference|peppol-id|po-number}. Product meta _kv_einv_unit (UN/ECE code).

Hooks

Example: hand every new document to a Peppol access point.

add_action( 'kv_einv_document_created', function ( $doc_id, $doc ) {
	$file = \KavioLabs\EuEInvoicing\Output::file( $doc, 'peppol' );
	// $file['content'] is the UBL XML, $file['filename'] its name: send it to your access point here.
}, 10, 2 );

WP-CLI

wp kv-einv invoice <order_id>                        create the e-invoice
wp kv-einv credit <order_id> [--refund=<refund_id>]  credit the whole invoice or one refund
wp kv-einv render <doc_id> --format=<format> --out=<file|dir>
wp kv-einv validate <doc_id>                         built-in checks of every enabled format
wp kv-einv docs <order_id>                           documents of an order as JSON

Validation

The built-in checks cover the rules a store can fix (EN 16931 BR-xx, XRechnung BR-DE-xx, Peppol rules and check digits of Belgian, Swedish and GLN identifiers). The release tests run every format through the official validators: KoSIT validator with the XRechnung 3.0 configuration, the CEN EN 16931 and Peppol BIS 3.0 schematron, the CII and UBL XSDs and Mustang / veraPDF for PDF/A-3 and Factur-X.

File map

includes/: Plugin (bootstrap, settings), Repository (tables, gapless numbers), Model/Builder (order and refund to model), Model/Calculator (VAT breakdown, totals), Format/{Xml,Ubl,Cii}, Pdf/{Document,Layout,TrueType,Icc,FacturX}, Formats, Validator, Codes, Issuer (lifecycle), Automation (status, refund, cancel, bulk), Emails, Checkout, Account, Downloads, Output, Parties, Texts, Cli, Admin/*, License/*.

FAQ

Which format do I need?

Public authorities in Germany expect XRechnung. Most B2B buyers in Germany and France accept ZUGFeRD / Factur-X, which is also a normal PDF. Belgian and other Peppol buyers expect Peppol BIS Billing 3.0. Enable all four and let customers download the one they need.

Are the files valid?

The release tests check every format with the official validators (KoSIT XRechnung 3.0, EN 16931 and Peppol schematron, veraPDF / Mustang). In your store, the built-in checks show missing data (seller VAT ID, IBAN, buyer IDs) before you send a file.

Can it send invoices over Peppol?

It creates Peppol BIS 3.0 files. Sending needs a Peppol access point (a paid service, not included). Developers can use the kv_einv_document_created action, see Developer notes.

Does it replace my PDF invoice plugin?

The ZUGFeRD / Factur-X PDF is a complete, readable invoice. If you keep another invoice plugin, use separate number series so that one invoice does not get two numbers.

My prices include tax. Does that work?

Yes. WooCommerce stores net line totals and the tax per rate, so the e-invoice uses the same amounts as the order. Cent differences from per-line rounding are written as rounding (BT-114), so the amount due always equals the order total.

How are coupons shown?

As document-level allowances ("Discount (CODE)") per VAT rate; the lines show the price before the discount.

I sell to consumers only. Do I need this?

E-invoicing mandates cover B2B and B2G sales. Turn on Business orders only to create automatic invoices only for orders with a company or a VAT ID.

Does it check VAT IDs online (VIES)?

No, it checks the format only. Use a VAT number plugin for VIES checks; its VAT ID and VAT-exempt flag are used.

What happens without a licence (own-site build)?

No new e-invoices are created or attached; existing ones stay downloadable. See Configuration.