WooCommerce PDF plugins (WP Overnight)

We frequently use two PDF-related plugins from WP Overnight: The free woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips and the paid extension to this: woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates. As these plugins are quite intertwined with eachother, there are combined in this article.

Identification

Somehow, PDF-related plugins seem to have names that are as hard to remember as they are to distinguish. The two WP Overnight PDF-related plugins that we use:

woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips

Class	Identifier	Value
Primary	DVB name	`woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips`
	Directory name	`woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips`
	Author	WP Overnight
	Main PHP file name	`woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packingslips.php`
Secondary	Author URI	https://www.wpovernight.com wpovernight.com
	Text Domain	woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips
	Plugin name (main PHP file)	PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce
	@package (main PHP file)	---
	Description (main PDF file)	Create, print & email PDF or UBL Invoices & PDF Packing Slips for WooCommerce orders
	External links	https://wpovernight.com/downloads/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips-bundle/ (this product is not available anymore as a standalone product)

woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates

Class	Identifier	Value
Primary	DVB name	`woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates`
	Directory name	`woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates`
	Author	WP Overnight
	Main PHP file name	`woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates.php`
Secondary	Author URI	wpovernight.com
	Text Domain	wpo_wcpdf_templates
	Plugin name (main PHP file)	PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce - Premium Templates
	@package (main PHP file)	---
	Description (main PDF file)	Premium templates for the PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce extension
	Product links	https://wpovernight.com/downloads/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips-premium-templates/

Related plugins

Not to be confused with these plugins:

Some identifier; Reseller; A name	External links	Notes
`pdf-invoices` Andrew Benbow » WooCommerce.com PDF Invoices for WooCommerce	https://woocommerce.com/products/pdf-invoices/ Not available at wordpress.org/plugins/?
`print-invoices-packing-slip-labels-for-woocommerce` WebToffee WooCommerce PDF Invoices, Packing Slips, Delivery Notes and Shipping Labels	https://wordpress.org/plugins/print-invoices-packing-slip-labels-for-woocommerce/ https://profiles.wordpress.org/webtoffee/ https://www.webtoffee.com/ https://www.webtoffee.com/product/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips/
`woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips`??? WebToffee WooCommerce PDF Invoices and Packing Slips	https://www.webtoffee.com/product/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips/ Not available at wordpress.org/plugins/?	Identifier is unknown: The URL that the reseller uses on its site, isn't authorative. In this case, it would result in the same identifier as for the WP Overnight plugin mentioned earlier
`woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips-bundle` WP Overnight WooCommerce PDF Invoices and Packing Slips Bundle	https://wpovernight.com/downloads/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips-bundle/
`woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips-professional` WP Overnight WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips Professional	https://wpovernight.com/downloads/woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips-professional/
`woocommerce-pip` SkyVerge » WooCommerce.com WooCommerce Print Invoices and Packing Lists & WooCommerce Print Invoices/Packing Lists	https://woocommerce.com/products/print-invoices-packing-lists/ Not available at wordpress.org/plugins/	We use this plugin as well

Licensing

GPLv2
Gratis
Reseller: WP Overnight

Difference between these plugins

Main menu, with both the plugins enabled

Main menu, with the templates-plugin disabled - The Customizer menu item is gone

What's exactly the difference between woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips and woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates?

woocommerce-pdf-invoices-packing-slips is the 'basic free PDF plugin'
woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates isn't just some templates: It als includes some additional functionality: Especially the Customizer menu item in the main menu
Actually: I don't know exactly what the template-part entailed and I don't need to know it right now either
You can see what's in either package, by disabling and enabling the template plugin and check the differences in the menu - See screenshots around here.

Conclusion: We really need the configurability that the Customizer menu from the template-plugin offers.

PDF download location

Concerning the location of the downloadable PDF invoices, check:

wp-admin » WooCommerce » PDF Invoices » Status

For me, this is usually something like var/www/example.com/wp-content/uploads/wpo_wcpdf_....

Interface

After installation, you find stuff here:

wp-admin » WooCommerce » PDF Invoices

The tabs (main menu items) at this page:

General
Documents
Customizer
UBL (beta)
Advanced
Upgrade

UBL

This plugin supports UBL (in beta, as of 2024.11). UBL, or Universal Business Language, is an internationally standardized format used for electronic business documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, and shipping notices. Developed by the OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), UBL is a XML-based data format that allows companies to exchange standardized business documents electronically across different systems and organizations.

Standardized Data Format: UBL provides a common format for electronic documents, which is especially useful in e-invoicing, ensuring that information like pricing, taxes, and customer details are structured uniformly.
Tax Compliance: Many countries require electronic invoices for tax compliance purposes, and UBL's standardized format meets regulatory requirements in regions that mandate such formats (e.g., the European Union and parts of Latin America).
Interoperability: UBL enables seamless cross-border business transactions because its format is widely accepted internationally. Businesses in different countries can easily interpret each other's documents without needing customized systems.
Government Requirements: Some countries mandate UBL-compliant invoices to streamline tax reporting and reduce fraud. By using UBL, businesses meet these requirements more easily, particularly when trading within or with the European Union.

Language

Thanks to the excellent documentation about these plugins: When you have the free basic plugin (as we have): The language of the documents is determined by the user language setting of the account that generates the document:

I always have the backend of WordPress sites in English, so invoices or packing lists that I generate myself through the backend, are in English, regardless the language of the frontend of this site
This has at least theoretically, some implications concerning paper trail: These documents are generated at the moment that I request these documents, not historical documents
Appearantly, with the professional extension of these plugins, you can set the language explicitly.

Maybe a solution if you absolutely have to be able to generate these documents in one other language, other than the backend language, without buying the professiona version of this plugin: Replae all strings from the backend-language into the desired front-end language.

Update translations

As mentioned earlier: PDF orders and packing lists (when using the free basic plugin) are generated in the language of the account of the person generating the document.

Nevertheless, more stuff can be done concerning translations

Go to the Customizer tab: There you often can insert labels at the spot
Go to wp-admin » KB Shop Options » Shop invoice & mails: Many of the fields are covered here.

If that doesn't work, you might want to experiment with the .po files. We typically use Loco Translate for this.

Custom fields

The ability to include custom fields, comes from the woocommerce-pdf-ips-templates plugin. How to incorporate custom and otherwise non-standard product-related fields in documents (packing slips to be precise)?

How some of this works for our specific situation:

Kind	WordPress entity	Item column	Notes
Product field	`wp_postmeta.sku_oem`	Custom field (Product) » `sku_oem`
Product field	`wp_postmeta.ean`	Custom field (Product) » `ean`	Unclear if this will be OEM-EAN or VAR-EAN

Custom blocks

Through the Premium Templates extension, you can add custom blocks via the Customizer menu item. I want to use this to include GPSR-related safety information on the packing list (2024.12). There are two kinds of custom blocks: txt (flexible) and custom field (only the output of a custom field) - I'll use the former.

Case: No PDF attached to order emails (April 2022)

Problem

PDFs were missing from order emails.

Debugging

wp-admin » WooCommerce » Orders: When you click the PDF icon on an order (right side of the screen), you get a fatal error that something is wrong with VAT
WooCommerce EU VAT Number plugin appeared to be deactivated
The PDF template incorporates data from this plugin. It appears that there is no check whether this data is available or not (which is a good choice, by the way). Hence the crash.

Solution

Activate WooCommerce EU VAT Number plugin.

Sources

Documentation