It’s become very important for us to generate multiple invoices for a single successful transaction.
HivePress currently generates invoices only after a project is marked as closed, which does not comply with legal requirements in many regions.
Requirements
Immediate Invoice Generation Upon Payment:
Invoices must be generated at the moment when the payment is made, not when the project is marked as closed. This ensures compliance with legal standards and provides immediate documentation for both buyers and sellers.
Multiple Invoices for One Successful Transaction:
Invoice 1: Seller to Buyer: This invoice documents the transaction where the seller provides services or goods to the buyer. It should be generated immediately upon payment.
Invoice 2: Platform to Buyer: This invoice accounts for any platform fees charged to the buyer. It must be generated simultaneously with the seller to buyer invoice.
Invoice 3: Platform to Seller: This invoice reflects any platform fees charged to the seller.
Credit Notes for Refunds:
In the event of refunds, credit notes must be generated to document the transaction reversal. These credit notes should correspond to the original invoices and be linked for easy tracking.
Accessibility and Downloadability:
All invoices and credit notes should be easily accessible and downloadable from either the orders tab or a dedicated invoices tab in the user dashboard. This feature is crucial for both buyers and sellers to maintain their financial records.
Compliance and Legal Requirements:
The current system, where invoices are raised only after a project is closed, does not comply with legal requirements in many regions. Immediate invoice generation upon payment is necessary to ensure legal compliance and accurate record-keeping.
Implementation Suggestions
Invoice Management System:
Develop a robust invoice management system within HivePress that can handle the creation, storage, and retrieval of multiple invoices for each transaction.
Custom Post Types:
Utilize custom post types for invoices to manage and store invoice data efficiently. Each invoice type (seller to buyer, platform to buyer, platform to seller) should be a distinct post type with relevant metadata.
WooCommerce Integration:
If HivePress is integrated with WooCommerce, leverage WooCommerce’s existing infrastructure for payment processing and order management to generate invoices immediately upon payment confirmation.
User Interface Enhancements:
Enhance the user interface to include a dedicated invoices tab where users can view and download their invoices and credit notes. Ensure the interface is intuitive and user-friendly.
I would be willing to pay if you make this as a separate plugin as well.
Thanks for your suggestion, we’ll consider adding this feature. In this version, HivePress does not generate invoices, they are generated exclusively from the WooCommerce side, we will try to add peer-to-peer invoices and other invoice features in future updates. Also, we recommend checking out additional WooCommerce extensions, they may have this feature.
Thanks andrii, I tried with third party plugins, but none generate multiple invoices for a single transaction. If you have suggestions, it ll be great.
In my case (I use direct payout, so I only take a commission, and let users settle the remainder of the payment afterwards), I am fine with with PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce (free version).
At first I thought it was not working so I reach the support, and they help me out understand how it works. You can actually issue the invoice at various stages (statuses) of the order (as shown below). As my invoice was still in “processing” status, the invoice was not issued (yet).
On another project, I have very special requirements (I thought it was impossible actually to solve), but they sorted it out with some code.
But I had to buy the pro version for this code to work.
I had to address a small glitch though, the button “invoice” was also appearing when the vendor was looking at customers’ orders (customers get charged, not vendors*). Even if you clicked on the button, there was an error message, so the vendor could not access it anyway.
All I had to do was hide the button with CSS.
Note : Vendors also get charged as I use “Paid Listings”, but HivePress provides another page for these orders (and the invoice button works also fine, and customers don’t have access to it).
