The three things Shopify calls a “template”
Much of the confusion comes from three areas sharing the same name. They do completely different things:
| Where in the admin | What it really is | Usable as an invoice template? |
|---|---|---|
| Settings → Notifications | The HTML templates for your store's emails, e.g. the order confirmation | No. The order confirmation is not an invoice for tax purposes. |
| Order Printer app → Templates | Print templates made of HTML and Liquid for documents related to an order | Yes, with some learning. You build the layout and content yourself. |
| Online Store → Themes | How your store looks in the browser | No. Has nothing to do with documents. |
So when you search for “Shopify invoice template”, you almost always mean the middle case – or you're actually looking for something Shopify doesn't have at all: a finished, good-looking invoice that is created on its own.
Why the order confirmation is not an invoice
After a purchase, Shopify automatically sends an order confirmation. It looks tidy, lists the items and states the amount. Still, it is not an invoice: the sequential invoice number is missing, the tax is not shown in the form that VAT law requires, and your mandatory details as the seller are usually only partly included.
For sales in Germany, § 14 (4) UStG (Umsatzsteuergesetz, the German VAT Act) sets out what an invoice must contain (as reviewed in August 2026, source: Gesetze im Internet). There are nine points:
- the full name and address of the supplier and of the recipient
- your tax number (Steuernummer) or your VAT identification number
- the date of issue
- a sequential number that is assigned only once
- the quantity and type of the goods supplied or the scope of the service
- the time of the supply or service
- the payment amount broken down by tax rate
- the tax rate and the tax amount due on it – or a note on the tax exemption
- a note on any reduction in payment agreed in advance
A template that leaves out one of these points may look good, but it doesn't do its job. That is the real reason why the question of an invoice template can't be answered from a design point of view alone.
Option 1: Customize an Order Printer template with Liquid
Shopify's Order Printer app prints documents for an order, and its templates consist of HTML and Liquid – the same template language that themes use. This gives you full control over every detail.
Here's how it works: you open the app, create a template or copy an existing one, and write your layout in it. You access the order data through Liquid objects, such as the order's line items or the billing address. You format numbers yourself, calculate tax lines yourself and build texts for special cases as conditions.
That's powerful and costs nothing – but it's programming work, and it never quite ends. Every new tax case means a new condition in the template. A sale to a business in France needs a different note than a delivery to Switzerland. If you sell as a small business under the small-business scheme (Kleinunternehmerregelung), you must not show VAT and need a legal note instead. And a print template doesn't generate the sequential number – it only prints what is already there.
Important for your search: Shopify has discontinued the old Order Printer app. What that means for your existing templates is covered in detail here:
Option 2: Customize the email templates
Under Settings → Notifications, you edit the HTML of your store's emails. There you can add your logo, change colors and reword text snippets. That makes sense for how you present yourself to customers.
The result still isn't usable as an invoice. An email is not a document your customer can file and your tax advisor can check, and you can't fit the mandatory details listed above into it cleanly. That's why the usual approach is: the email as the cover message, a PDF attached as the document.
Option 3: Ready-made templates from an app
The third option is not to build the layout yourself, but to choose one. That's exactly why we built Belegio: six ready-made layouts that you combine with your logo and brand color without a single line of code.
| Layout | Character | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Modern | Sans-serif font, clean lines, lots of white space | Brands that should look contemporary and calm |
| Bold | Colored header block, strong typography | Stores with a strong brand color |
| Compact | Card look, compact blocks | Many line items on little paper |
| Classic | Classic business letter | Conservative industries, B2B |
| Minimal | Black and white, pared down | Anyone who wants no color on their documents |
| Business letter | Structured after DIN 5008, in 20 styles | Anyone who expects the familiar German letter layout |
All layouts are designed for DIN A4. If you like, you can switch the margins from 25 mm all round to 25/20/25/30 mm – the wider left margin leaves room for punch holes if your documents go into a binder.
What the DIN 5008 business letter offers – and what it doesn't
DIN 5008 is the German standard for laying out business letters: among other things, it defines where the address field sits, where the information block goes and how fold marks are placed. A document that follows this structure looks familiar to German recipients and fits window envelopes.
To be honest: our business letter layout follows the structure of the standard, but it is not a certified DIN 5008 implementation. Depending on the style you choose, the address field sits between 46 and 70 mm from the top instead of exactly at the 45 mm the standard specifies. That works for window envelopes in standard sizes, but it is not enough for a formal conformity check. That's why we call it “business letter” and not “DIN 5008”.
Set separately for each document type
Invoices, credit notes and delivery notes each get their own layout. In practice, many stores use the same style for all of them, but keeping them separate helps if you want the delivery note to be deliberately plainer than the invoice that ends up in your customer's accounting.
Preview before you commit
In the settings, a live preview shows the finished document with sample data – including the taxation that actually applies to you. If you're set up as a small business (Kleinunternehmer), the preview shows 0 % and your legal note instead of a made-up 19 %. An Austrian store sees 20 % and 10 %, not the German rates. When creating an invoice, you can also view the finished document as a PDF before it exists and uses up a number.
Which option suits you?
| Build your own Liquid template | Choose a ready-made layout | |
|---|---|---|
| Effort at the start | High – HTML and Liquid required | Minutes, no code |
| Design freedom | Unlimited | Six layouts, plus logo and color |
| Tax cases | You build them in yourself as conditions | Built in |
| Sequential number | Has to come from somewhere else | Assigned automatically |
| Ongoing maintenance | With every change | None |
If you enjoy designing things yourself, know Liquid and your number sequence comes from another system anyway, your own template is the right way to go. If, on the other hand, you want a proper document to simply be there, it's worth looking at an app. How the two differ in everyday use is covered in more detail in our overview:
What to keep in mind when changing the layout
One point is often overlooked: invoices that have already been created must not change afterwards. The GoBD (German principles for proper bookkeeping) require that a finalized document stays exactly as it was issued. So if you switch the layout in Belegio, it only applies to new documents – old ones keep their original look. That's not an oversight, it's intentional.
Also handy: the contact person from your company master data appears above the sender line, and the country in the footer is written out in full and in the language of the document. On an English invoice it says “Austria”, not “AT”.
Note: This article is a general overview, not tax or legal advice. For your specific situation, talk to your tax advisor. Legal status of the regulations mentioned: August 2026.
Your own document design in three steps
- Install Belegio from the Shopify App Store.
- Import your company master data from Shopify with one click, and add your logo and brand color.
- Choose a layout, check it in the preview, done – from the next paid order on, the document is created on its own.
Belegio is free during the launch phase, with all features and unlimited documents, no credit card required. This is a launch-phase offer, not a permanent commitment.
