Businesses that sell online still invoice by hand surprisingly often: the payment arrives, someone opens Word, types an invoice, exports a PDF and emails it — the next day, if they remember. The customer meanwhile has a card charge and no document. This is how we automate the whole chain on a client's website, and the details that matter for accountants and tax.
The problem
- Invoices typed after the fact: late, inconsistent, occasionally wrong.
- No numbering discipline, which accountants and tax authorities dislike.
- Subscriptions renew and nobody sends the renewal invoice.
- Refunds and failed payments are handled from memory.
The solution
- Checkout on your own website (Stripe Payment Element) for one-time services and monthly plans, with the customer's name, email and company collected at payment.
- Webhook. The moment Stripe confirms payment it calls your site; the site verifies the signature and records the sale.
- Invoice generated with a sequential number (e.g. GRX-2026-0031), date, line items, tax where applicable, your registration details and branding, as a PDF — no manual step.
- Emailed to the customer from your own mailbox with the PDF attached and a permanent download link; a copy to you.
- Recorded in the admin panel: paid, invoice number, plan, customer, with the activation or delivery step (an activation code, a booking, an account) triggered at the same time.
- Renewals produce their own invoice each cycle automatically; refunds mark the invoice and issue a credit note.
Details that matter
- Numbering never has gaps. The number is assigned when the payment is confirmed, not when the checkout page is opened.
- Test mode is separate. Test payments write to test records so they never consume a real invoice number — this is how our daily self-check can run a demo-card payment every morning without touching real sales.
- Tax display follows the customer's country (GST, VAT, sales tax note) from a setting, not a code change.
- The PDF looks like the brand — the same letterhead used for proposals and reports.
What it costs
Payment + invoice automation is usually part of an admin panel build or added to an existing site in about a week. There is no per-invoice fee; Stripe's processing fee is the only running cost. Price the build with the cost calculator, and see the full sequence a customer experiences on our own site: enquiry, instant quote, checkout, invoice.