Why Shopify alone doesn't create an invoice
This article puts all four side by side so you can pick the right one – and names the limits of each, including our own.
The automatic order confirmation looks like an invoice, but it isn't one. It lacks the sequential number that is only ever issued once, the tax breakdown by rate and, as a rule, some of the mandatory details about you as the seller. For sales in Germany, § 14 (4) UStG (German VAT Act) lists nine such details (legal status: August 2026).
On top of that, Shopify knows tax rates but not the legal consequences. Whether a delivery to Poland falls under the One-Stop-Shop scheme, whether your B2B customer in France owes the tax themselves, or whether as a small business you may not show any VAT at all – that is decided outside your store. And that is where the real effort lies.
The four ways compared
| By hand | Order Printer | Accounting software | Invoicing app | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How the invoice is created | You type it up | You trigger the print | You transfer the order | Automatically on payment |
| Effort per order | 5–15 minutes | 1–2 minutes | A few seconds to automatic | None |
| Sequential number | You keep track yourself | Not provided by the app | Yes | Yes |
| Tax cases (§19, OSS, reverse charge) | You need to know them | You build them into the template | Yes | Yes |
| Layout | Free | Free, via HTML and Liquid | Predefined | Ready-made layouts, no code |
| Sending to the customer | By hand | By hand | Depends on the provider | Automatically by email |
| Makes sense from | A few orders a month | Occasional printing needs | When you already run accounting | Regular orders |
Way 1: By hand in Word or a spreadsheet
You export the order data and write the invoice yourself. With a handful of orders a month, that's perfectly fine and costs nothing but time.
The limit comes sooner than you think, and it isn't the time spent but the number sequence. The numbers have to run in sequence. If you discard an invoice because the customer changed their mind, you have a gap – and need to be able to explain it later.
Way 2: Order Printer and similar print apps
Shopify's Order Printer app prints documents for an order; you build the layout yourself from HTML and Liquid. It's free and gives you full design control.
Important to know: these apps print what's there – they don't generate an invoice number and don't know your tax situation. You build every special case into the template yourself as a condition. And Shopify has since discontinued the old Order Printer app.
→ What the discontinuation means for you
Way 3: Through your accounting software
If you already work with sevdesk, Lexware Office or a similar program, you can transfer your orders there and have the invoice created there. The advantage: document and bookkeeping sit in one place, and the advance VAT return (Umsatzsteuervoranmeldung) draws on it directly.
The price for this is the layout – you get the templates of your accounting program, which was built for invoices to business customers, not for the document in an online store's parcel. For this way there's our sister app zrapp, which transfers Shopify orders to sevdesk and Lexware Office.
Way 4: Automatically with an invoicing app
The invoice is created without you lifting a finger as soon as the order is paid, and it goes to the customer by email. The number sequence, tax case and layout come from the app. That's exactly what we built Belegio for.
What Belegio takes care of
Belegio creates invoices, delivery notes and credit notes from your Shopify orders. Setup takes three steps: install the app, import your company details from Shopify with one click and choose a layout. After that, it happens on its own.
Built-in tax cases
- Germany with 19 % and 7 %, Austria with 20 %, 13 % and 10 %
- Small-business scheme (Kleinunternehmerregelung): no VAT, but the legal notice for your country of establishment – § 19 UStG in Germany, § 6 Abs 1 Z 27 UStG 1994 in Austria
- EU B2B with reverse charge, including a check of your customer's VAT identification number
- One-Stop-Shop for B2C deliveries to other EU countries, with the rate of the destination country
- tax-exempt export deliveries to non-EU countries
- the cross-border EU small-business scheme, if you have stored an EX identification number
The small-business scheme is the case where the most goes wrong – if you show VAT by mistake, you owe it to the tax office.
→ Small businesses on Shopify: what matters
Six layouts instead of template code
You can choose from Modern, Bold, Compact, Classic, Minimal and a business letter structured to DIN 5008, which alone comes in 20 looks. You set your logo and brand colour once, and a live preview shows the result right away. You can set a separate layout for invoices, credit notes and delivery notes.
What makes the difference day to day
- GiroCode on the invoice: a QR code to EPC069-12 that the customer scans with their banking app (for euro amounts)
- Documents in six languages, matching the order
- automatic credit note for refunds, for partial refunds too if you like
- Single and bulk printing directly in the Shopify admin
- Sending from your own email account instead of someone else's sender domain
- Tax advisor export: all documents for a period as a CSV for your accounting or as a package with all PDFs
- Invoices without an order too, for example for consulting services or sales outside Shopify
The three mistakes that most often get expensive
1. Gaps in the number sequence
Invoice numbers must run in sequence and be unique. If you work by hand, gaps are almost inevitable: an invoice is written, the customer backs out, the document ends up in the bin – and the number is missing. You still have to explain it later. The cleaner way is to cancel the discarded invoice rather than delete it, so the number stays accounted for.
2. Showing VAT by mistake as a small business
If the invoice shows a tax amount even though the small-business scheme applies, you owe that amount to the tax office – regardless of whether you ever collected it. This happens faster than you'd think, for example when a template dates from a time when standard taxation still applied.
3. Forgetting the note on the tax exemption
For a tax-exempt delivery, leaving out the tax line isn't enough. In its place, the law requires a note on the reason for the exemption – for EU B2B business, the reverse charge; for exports, the tax-exempt export delivery; for small businesses, the relevant national provision. An invoice without this note is incomplete, and your customer can object to it.
Which documents belong to an order
An invoice isn't the only document. In day-to-day shipping, three documents with different jobs come up:
| Document | What for | Contains prices? |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice | Claim against the customer, basis for bookkeeping | Yes, with tax breakdown |
| Delivery note | Packing slip for the warehouse, enclosed in the parcel | Usually not |
| Credit note | Offsets an invoice in full or in part | Yes, with reference to the invoice |
All three should come from the same source so the numbering logic and design match.
Where Belegio reaches its limits
For the sake of completeness, because no tool can do everything:
- Belegio isn't accounting software. It creates documents and exports them – the bookkeeping itself is done by your program or your tax advisor.
- There's no DATEV format. The export provides a CSV that can be imported into common programs, but no DATEV booking batches.
- Invoices that have already been issued can't be edited. That's intentional: the GoBD (German rules for proper digital bookkeeping) require finalised documents to remain unchanged. Corrections are made via a credit note.
Selling in multiple currencies
If you sell in several currencies through Shopify Markets, you'll run into a question many only notice late: in which currency does the invoice have to be issued? The answer is uncomfortably clear – in the currency in which the transaction was settled, and the tax amount must be traceable in the currency of your country of establishment.
In practice, this means: if a customer buys in US dollars, the invoice should be issued in US dollars, not in a conversion that never existed. That's why Belegio takes the order's currency and converts nothing. It's less convenient than a uniform euro view, but it's the amount your customer actually paid – and only that belongs on the document.
Where your data is stored
Hosting is exclusively in Frankfurt am Main. The data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR is concluded during setup. Documents remain available – also with a view to the ten-year retention period under § 147 AO (German Fiscal Code).
Note: This article gives a general overview of the options and is not a substitute for tax advice. For your situation, talk to your tax advisor. Legal status of the provisions mentioned: August 2026.
What it costs
Belegio is free during the launch phase: all features, unlimited documents, no credit card. This is a launch-phase offer, not a permanent price commitment – we'll let you know in good time before anything changes.
