WooCommerce invoices in Germany: plugins, mandatory details, e-invoicing

Can WooCommerce create invoices itself?

No. WooCommerce knows orders, payment methods and order statuses, but not invoices. The email your customer receives after buying is an order confirmation. In its default form it lacks several details that an invoice must contain under § 14 UStG (the German VAT Act). Selling with WooCommerce therefore always needs an add-on: a plugin in the shop or a service that pulls the orders.

Which mandatory details the order provides and which are missing

Some of the mandatory details are part of every WooCommerce order. The rest has to come from the invoicing tool.

The date of supply is where many shops go wrong: if the invoice is written at payment, it easily shows the payment date instead of the shipping date. The page on the date of supply explains why that is wrong.

Three ways to a WooCommerce invoice

For small shops with few orders, a plugin is often enough. As volume grows, three questions come up that you should ask of every route.

Does the invoice go out as an e-invoice?

Invoices to domestic business customers fall under mandatory e-invoicing: from 2027 for businesses with more than 800,000 euros in prior-year revenue, from 2028 for everyone (§ 27(38) UStG, German). A plain PDF is then no longer enough; a structured format such as ZUGFeRD is required. Some plugins can do this by now, partly only in the paid version. So check whether your plugin really generates the XML file and sends it along. Because business customers order through the normal checkout too (hidden B2B), this affects practically every shop, not only those with a business customer program.

Who sees payments, fees and payouts?

The invoice is half the job. The other half is payments, fees and payouts from Stripe, Mollie or PayPal. An invoicing plugin usually only sees that the order is paid. Someone has to reconcile fees and bundled payouts separately, usually your tax advisor (Steuerkanzlei), every month. The guide to the WooCommerce DATEV export shows how payments, fees and documents get into DATEV cleanly. Every growing shop knows the result: the invoices are correct, but the payout on the bank statement can't be matched to any invoice.

Is the archive tied to the shop?

Plugins store invoices in the WordPress installation. You have to keep them for eight years, though (§ 14b(1) UStG, German), and under GoBD the storage must stay unalterable during that time, whether the shop moves, an update fails or a plugin is deactivated. An invoice archive tied to the shop hosting is a risk that only shows up during a tax audit.

The system route with invoices outside the shop

Rechnungskit leaves WooCommerce to do what it does well (selling) and takes over the invoicing outside it: order and payment come in, a validated ZUGFeRD invoice goes out at shipping, with GoBD archive and DATEV export including fees and payouts. Refunds automatically become cancellation invoices (Stornorechnungen). The connection runs through the REST API, so no plugin is needed in the shop. The WooCommerce integration shows exactly what happens, and the WooCommerce help page covers setup in three steps.

For direct bank transfers, WooCommerce prepayment explains the flow from the status "On hold" to the paid invoice. The page e-invoicing software gives an overview of all features.