For any eCommerce business, printed receipts are a vital part of order fulfillment and an essential tool to keep track of all your products and services. Orders don’t just provide proof of purchase; they also make it easier to handle refunds and returns. Even more, they can act as an important point of reference for ensuring order accuracy and even give you a chance to include company branding and promotional information in them!
By default, WooCommerce doesn’t offer the functionality to print receipts. This is why many businesses that want to add value to their eCommerce store use add-ons to get more advanced functionality. However, if you want to go one step further, you could also enable automatic receipt printing; all you need to do is install a plugin.
Fortunately, there are lots of options available that will allow you to make your fulfillment process even smoother and more efficient for your online store. In this article, we will take a look at some of our WooCommerce plugin top picks for setting up automatic receipt printing for your own store. So, let’s get started!
Why Should You Print Your WooCommerce Order Receipts?
Receipts and invoices are essential pieces of commercial accounting documentation. This is true whether you run a brick-and-mortar or a fully online business. But while providing receipts is a necessity for any eCommerce store owner, producing printed ones has considerable added benefits. Let’s go through some of the main advantages of adding the option to print receipts directly from your WooCommerce store.
1. They Ensure Order Accuracy
With physical receipts, customer orders can be verified before shipping to ensure that the products that were purchased are the ones being delivered. Printed receipts also allow customers to keep track of exactly what they have ordered and confirm that they have received the correct products once they arrive. Your order fulfillment team can also use physical receipts as packing slips to ensure the right items are packed up to be sent to customers.
2. They Provide Proof of Purchase
Printed invoices and receipts also give consumers a tangible record of their purchases. This is helpful not just for allowing them to keep records for tax purposes but also for making handling returns and refunds more straightforward.
3. They Make Your Business Appear More Professional
If you want to promote your brand, let customers know about upcoming sales, or provide them with other helpful information, using a printed order receipt is a great way to do all of these things. Using custom receipts can then elevate your company’s credibility and encourage repeat business. For example, you can your branding and promotions directly onto the receipts that you print.
4. They Increase Efficiency (With Automatic Printing)
While printing product receipts already has numerous benefits, setting up automatic printing for your purchased orders can take your business efficiency to the next level. If your company is able to automatically print the documents, you not only reduce the chance of human error associated with manual order processing, but you can also speed up your order fulfillment process. In fact, business owners who have implemented automatic order printing have reported increases in productivity by as much as 30%.
Best Plugins for Printing Receipts in WooCommerce
Unfortunately, receipt printing isn’t a standard feature of WooCommerce. If you want to access this functionality, you will need to install an additional WordPress plugin. There are a few good options out there, so in this section, we’ll be looking at seven of the best plugin options for integrating receipt printing functionality.
BizPrint
The BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce is an all-in-one solution that allows you to automate the printing of receipts and other essential order fulfillment documents. With it, you can print picklists, packing slips, shipping labels, credit notes, delivery notes, and much more – all automatically. This tool is a must-have if you are running a restaurant or online store and want to simplify your order fulfillment process. Here is a detailed analysis of some of BizPrint’s best features.
- Automatic Order Printing: BizPrint’s auto-printing feature is the main one that sets this plugin apart from other receipt-printing competitors because it means you won’t have to manually print each order yourself. Instead, the solution automates the receipt printing process to help you avoid mistakes, free up staff time, and increase productivity. BizPrint’s automatic printing is triggered by a pre-defined order status, which gives you control over exactly when documents are printed during the order fulfillment process.
- Customizable Templates: The plugin includes a range of customizable templates to choose from that you can edit to match your own business and branding needs. Additionally, you can customize the bottom of your receipts to add order details like VAT information, barcodes, future promotions, or even a QR code that directs clients to a customer feedback survey.
- Works With All Printer Models: With BizPrint, you can start printing receipts immediately and using almost any printer model, including the most popular thermal printer brands (like Epson, Star, and Zebra). This means that, by using the solution, you can actually eliminate the need for any additional expensive hardware. And, since BizPrint works with most thermal printers, it is an excellent choice for a restaurant environment, where thermal printers are the industry standard.
- Unlimited Locations: BizPrint has different flexible pricing plans based on the number of prints you want to produce and not the number of locations or stations you will have to use. Depending on your company’s demands, you can configure an unlimited number of printing locations. Using BizPrint’s dedicated mapping add-ons, you can also limit the printing of orders for certain goods to a specific printer location. Not only is this useful for businesses with several locations or fulfillment centers, but it’s also perfect for restaurants with separate food preparation stations.
- Seamless Integration with Jovvie POS: BizPrint is compatible with any WooCommerce POS (Point of Sale) you select. In particular, it integrates well with Jovvie, a streamlined, all-inclusive POS developed by BizSwoop for WooCommerce users worldwide. Jovvie is an excellent choice because it doesn’t need bulky POS hardware. The plugin also includes many advanced features and can synchronize inventory between online and in-person sales. By connecting Jovvie to BizPrint, you will be able to print receipts as soon as an order arrives at the point of sale or your fulfillment center.
Print WooCommerce Order Receipts, Invoices & Labels
Automatically print from WooCommerce straight to your printer.
BizPrint’s flexible pricing plans make it a great fit for all sizes of businesses. Once you establish how much you want to print, the pricing plan you choose can change and can grow with your business.
WooCommerce Print Invoices and Packing Lists
The WooCommerce Print Invoices and Packing Lists plugin allows you to print invoices manually to be used as order receipts, pick lists, and packing lists. You can do this individually or bulk print directly from your WooCommerce dashboard every time a new order is placed on your store. Customers can also view their invoices from their “My Account” page. The plugin also comes with a range of customization options, with no custom CSS requirements.
On the downside, reviews describe the customizations as basic, and there are no regular updates to the plugin (the last one was released in September 2021, and WordPress itself has been updated many times since then!). However, the biggest disadvantage when comparing this plugin to BizPrint is the fact that there is no support for automatic printing.
The cost of the WooCommerce Print Invoices and Packing Lists plugin is $79/year.
WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes and Shipping Labels
Just like BizPrint, the WooCommerce Print Invoices and Packing Lists plugin also allows you to print WooCommerce Proforma invoices, pick lists, credit notes, delivery notes, and packing lists. However, unlike the first, this tool can only do so manually and through the WooCommerce dashboard.
The solution includes multiple built-in templates you can customize using a built-in code editor and supports some custom fields such as VAT number, tax details, tracking information, and some limited branding.
One important thing to keep in mind is that this plugin doesn’t integrate with any shipping or courier services, so you won’t be able to generate shipping labels for specific services automatically. All barcodes will have to be produced manually before you can add them to your labels.
WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes, and Shipping Labels subscriptions start at $69 per year.
WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips
WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips allows you to create PDF invoices directly from the WooCommerce order page and automatically attach them to your order confirmation emails. The plugin also allows you to manually print packing slips and invoices from your WooCommerce order page and includes a basic invoice template with some customization options available.
One important downside to the WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips plugin is that you will need to update to the Pro version if you want to unlock some of the tool’s more advanced features, such as automatic uploading to Dropbox and automatic printing.
The base version of this plugin is free. If you want to add any premium add-ons, these start at $59.
Print Invoices & Delivery Notes for WooCommerce
With this free plugin, you can manually print invoices and delivery notes directly from your WooCommerce orders page. Customers can also print their own invoices from their “My Account” page.
This plugin offers customization of the invoice and delivery note templates, although because this is done through using hooks and custom CSS, you will require some know-how. Print Invoices & Delivery Notes for WooCommerce also supports simple invoice numbering and sequential order numbers, as well as refunds through the default WooCommerce refund system.
The main downside to this plugin is that customer support is only available via the public WordPress forums.
Print Invoices & Delivery Notes for WooCommerce is available for free.
Challan
Challan is another free plugin that enables you to automatically generate PDF invoices, attach them to order confirmation emails and send them out to customers when order status changes occur. Challan also allows you to download invoices and packing slips individually or in bulk from your WooCommerce orders page and manually print them later on.
The free version of Challan lacks many of the features available from other plugins on this list. To unlock additional features, such as printing on custom paper sizes besides A3, A4, A5, and Letter, you’ll have to upgrade to the premium version, which starts at $29 per year.
YITH WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips
The YITH WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips plugin lets you generate invoices, packing slips, proforma invoices, and credit notes automatically. The plugin also offers a few different templates for invoices and packing slips, which can be customized to fit your needs. You can also set this tool to automatically save invoices and packing slips to cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive.
Although YITH WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips offers good support for your store’s invoicing needs, the same cannot be said for other types of documents like shipping labels. This means that if your business needs to produce them, you will need a supplementary plugin. Unfortunately, some users have also reported bugs with the plugin.
The price for the YITH WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips plugin starts at $79.99 per year.
How to Print a Receipt in WooCommerce Using BizPrint
BizPrint only takes a few minutes to install, activate, and set up, so you can easily start using automated printing for all of your WooCommerce orders. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started with BizPrint quickly.
1. Install and Set up the Plugin
If you want to start automatically printing your invoices, you will need to open a free BizSwoop account to access the BizPrint Cloud Dashboard.
To install the BizPrint Print Manager plugin, after downloading it, navigate to the Plugins menu > Add New and type “Print Manager” in the search bar. You can also get the plugin ZIP file directly from this page. Finally, you can refer to the Quick-Start Guide for more information.
2. Set Up and Customize Your Receipt Template
Using BizPrint’s customizable templates, you can add all the important information for your invoices and documents, such as invoice number, promotions, special offers, and even a barcode or QR code that can direct users to your website to fill out customer surveys or learn about offers.
3. Set Up Product and Location Mapping Add-ons
With BizPrint, you can manage an unlimited number of print locations. Using the Product and Location Mapping Add-ons, you can configure where your orders are printed based on variables such as product, category, shipping location, or shipping method. For example, if you have multiple order fulfillment centers or warehouses stocking different products, you can configure BizPrint to only print shipping labels or packing slips for these specific products to the relevant print station.
This can all be managed easily from your WooCommerce admin area – simply navigate to WooCommerce > Print Manager > Printers, then select the printer settings you want to configure. The product and location mapping options can be managed from this page.
4. Set Up Automatic Printing
The BizPrint plugin always ties the automatic printing feature to an order’s pre-determined stage in the fulfillment process, based on its WooCommerce order status. For example, you could print a packing slip as soon as the order reaches the ‘Processing’ stage, or a return shipping label if the customer requests a refund and the order status is changed to ‘Refunded’. The sister plugin to BizPrint, Flow Notify, will even let you define specific order statuses to control exactly when receipts and other documents should be printed, giving you granular control over the fulfillment process.
5. Set Up Device Notifications
With this new feature, you can easily enable local notifications on Mac and PC to confirm when a new order is printing. This ensures orders aren’t missed because of a printer’s internet connection going down or the warehouse getting so loud employees can’t hear the printer. With notifications, you can also stop constantly refreshing your WooCommerce order page to catch requests as soon as they come in!
Automate your WooCommerce receipt printing with BizPrint
By now, you should be familiar with the benefits of printing your WooCommerce order receipts. Receipts provide proof of purchase, can be used to check the accuracy of an order, and are a great place to advertise your company and its products and services or add special promos and discount codes
Automatic printing is even better, for it removes the need for manual printing of receipts, thus reducing the chance of human error. All in all, automatic receipt printing can help your company be more efficient and process orders faster.
This is why it’s critical to choose a WooCommerce plugin that can help you simplify the printing of all your receipts, notes, and documents.
With BizPrint, you get all the features you need to make your order fulfillment process more efficient, including:
- Powerful auto-printing functionality (for all forms of documents required in order fulfillment).
- Customizable templates to allow you to brand your receipts and add important additional information.
- Compatibility with all printer models, including the major brands of thermal printer
- Unlimited print stations.
- Seamless POS integration (especially with sister plugin Jovvie).
BizPrint has a flexible pricing model, allowing you to scale your plan based on your business requirements. Get started to see for yourself how automated printing services can revolutionize your business.
Print WooCommerce Order Receipts, Invoices & Labels
Automatically print from WooCommerce straight to your printer.
