How to set up invoices and VAT for your store

In TeleportHQ, you set up your store's invoices in E-Commerce Settings: switch on Invoices, click Configure Invoices, set your invoice prefix and tax on the Settings tab, add your business details on the Company tab, and click Save Changes. TeleportHQ then creates a PDF invoice for every paid order, and can email it to the customer: the invoice email switches on by itself when you save an email sending service. No payment provider is needed. To charge a different tax rate in some countries, add tax rates in Shipping & Tax Regions.

These are the invoices your store gives your customers, and the tax you charge them. They're separate from TeleportHQ's own invoices for your subscription and the VAT on your TeleportHQ plan: see Where do I find my invoices? and Are prices shown with VAT, and why are they in USD or EUR?.

Before you start#

• Your project needs an online store. See How to add a store to an existing project.
• To email invoices, you need an account with an email sending service (SendGrid, Resend, Mailgun, Postmark or MailerSend) and its API key. If your project already sends email through one, TeleportHQ uses it.
• Invoices come with every TeleportHQ store. They need no extra plan.

Steps#

1. Turn on invoices#

1. In the left sidebar, click E-commerce. If you don't see it, click Plugins, then E-commerce, then Open next to E-commerce panel.
2. At the top right of the E-Commerce panel, click the gear (E-Commerce Settings). The E-Commerce Setup panel opens.
3. Switch on Invoices.
4. Click Configure Invoices. The Invoice Configuration panel opens on its Settings tab.

2. Set numbering and tax#

1. Under General Settings, in Invoice Prefix, type a prefix, for example INV-. Invoices are then numbered INV-0001, INV-0002 and so on.
2. In Default Tax Rate (%), type your rate, for example 19. Leave 0 if you don't charge tax.
3. Under How is tax applied?, choose:
   • Added on top: your product prices don't include tax. The cart, the checkout and the invoice add it.
   • Included in price: your product prices already include tax. Shoppers pay the price they see, and the invoice shows the tax part separately.
4. Keep Auto-generate on payment on. The invoice is then created once a payment is confirmed by the payment provider, or by a gift card that covers the whole order.
5. Orders paid on delivery or at pickup is on by default: a cash-on-delivery or store-pickup order gets its invoice as soon as it's placed, before you collect the money. With it off, those orders get no invoice.

3. Add your company details#

1. Click the Company tab. The first time you switch on Invoices, TeleportHQ fills the empty fields from your workspace's billing details, the owner's email, the project name and your site's address. Renaming your project later renames the company here too, until you type your own.
2. Optional: click Import from Billing. It copies the company name, address, country, VAT number and registration number from your TeleportHQ workspace's billing details, and replaces what those fields held. After that the two are separate: changing one never changes the other.
3. Click Click to upload your company logo and choose your logo. A 300×100 px PNG or SVG works best.
4. Fill in Company Name, Email, Address, City, ZIP / Postal Code and Country, and, if you have them, VAT Number and Registration Number. Phone, Website and State / Province are optional.

4. Check the invoice email#

A TeleportHQ store can email each invoice to the buyer, with the PDF attached. The first time you save a sending service while Invoices is on, for example in Order Notifications or in the Customer Emails of Bookings, TeleportHQ switches on Invoice Email Delivery with that service and its sender. A message says, for example, "Invoices will also be emailed to your customers, through Postmark from billing@mybakery.com. You can turn this off in the invoice settings." If you switched Invoice Email Delivery off yourself, it stays off. Your live store sends the emails after you publish.

To set up or change the invoice email yourself:

1. Go back to the Settings tab and scroll to Invoice Email Delivery.
2. Switch on Invoice Email Delivery, or switch it off to stop emailing invoices.
3. Under Email Provider, choose your sending service. Under Credentials, paste its API key or connect a key already saved in your project's secrets.
4. Under Sender Details, fill in From Email (for example billing@mybakery.com) and From Name.
5. Optional: under Email Content, change the Subject (by default "Your Invoice {{invoiceNumber}} from {{companyName}}") or open the Body template.

5. Save and publish#

1. At the bottom of the panel, click Save Changes. One button saves both tabs.
2. Publish your site so the new settings reach your live store.

Set a different tax rate by country#

Your Default Tax Rate (%) applies to every buyer, unless you give some countries their own rate in Shipping & Tax Regions:

1. In the E-Commerce Setup panel, switch on Shipping & Tax Regions. TeleportHQ sets it up, which takes a moment. See How to charge different shipping prices by country (shipping zones).
2. Click Manage Regions, then the Tax rates tab. The line Everywhere else shows your store default from Invoices → Tax.
3. Click Add tax rate.
4. In Countries, choose one or more countries, for example Germany. With one country chosen, State or region (optional) lets you set a rate for a single state.
5. Optional: in Products (optional), choose a category to give its products a different rate, such as a reduced rate for food.
6. In Tax rate (%), type the rate, for example 7.
7. Under Your product prices, keep Same as store, or choose Included in price or Added on top for these countries. Switch on Tax shipping too to charge the rate on the delivery fee as well.
8. Click Save tax rate. With several countries chosen, the button says Save for 3 countries.

The checkout and the invoice then charge each buyer the rate of their country.

Who the invoice is made out to#

A TeleportHQ store invoice is made out to the buyer, with the details they typed under Billing Details on your checkout page. In the default design, its BILL TO block shows:

• the buyer's name (First Name and Last Name) and Email Address;
• the street (Address Line 1 and Address Line 2);
• the town, state, postal code and country from Billing Details, also when the buyer ticks Ship To Different Address or picks the order up in store;
• the buyer's company, under their name, when they typed a Company Name under Billing Details.

On a store published before this was added, it applies from the store's next publish. Orders placed before then keep their invoice's address: the street from Billing Details with the town, state, postal code and country the order was sent to.

The checkout has no field for a VAT number, so a store invoice shows none for the buyer. When a business customer needs their VAT number on their invoice, correct it in your live site's admin panel and rebuild it: see How to open and download order invoices.

Customers who book with TeleportHQ Bookings can add invoice details of their own (Add invoice details) when they book. The store's checkout has no such option. See How to choose how customers pay for bookings.

Details an order doesn't have stay empty on its invoice. The sample customer you see while you design the invoice never appears on a real one.

Check that it worked#

• The message Invoice settings saved successfully. appears.
• With Added on top, the editor's cart preview says "Prices include 19% tax, added on top of the product price. Change this in Invoices → Tax."
• After your next paid order, open Growth → E-Commerce → Orders and click the order in the table. In its details on the right, the Invoice section has the invoice number and Open Invoice PDF. See How to open and download order invoices.

Troubleshooting#

A paid order has no invoice Check that Invoices and Auto-generate on payment are on, and that you published afterwards. Online orders are invoiced when the payment provider confirms the payment, so the payment webhook must mark them Paid: see How to set up the payment webhook. Cash-on-delivery and pickup orders are invoiced only while Orders paid on delivery or at pickup is on.

Customers don't receive the invoice email Check that Invoice Email Delivery is on, with a provider, an API key and a From Email your sending service allows. Your site's admin panel lists every email it sent, and why one failed: see What is the admin panel?.

Tax rates by country aren't charged The Shipping & Tax Regions panel says "Your checkout page was built before shipping zones and tax regions existed…". Click Recreate checkout page, then publish.

Good to know#

• The tax rate changes what shoppers pay, even with Invoices off: with Added on top, the cart and the checkout add it to every price.
• Change the invoice design with Edit Component, under Invoice Component on the Settings tab. The invoice opens on the canvas like any component.
• One VAT setting for TeleportHQ, one for your store. What you pay TeleportHQ, and its VAT, is set in your workspace's billing. To put your company name and VAT number on TeleportHQ's invoices to you, see How to add your company name and VAT number to invoices.