ChannelEngine: automated VAT invoices (new orders)

About this article

This article describes how to automatically email VAT invoices with new orders to your buyer.

Table of contents

Introduction

Settings and configuration

• Invoice template
• Email settings
• VAT settings
• Channel settings

Automatic translations

Example translation

Introduction

ChannelEngine offers the option to automatically send an invoice that includes VAT either directly to the buyer by email or to the marketplace via API to forward to the buyer. Because most marketplaces do not calculate VAT themselves (due to VAT differences per country), you must create VAT invoices for businesses that require it, be it to reverse-charge the VAT or for other tax purposes.

Invoice generation: orders vs. shipments

There are two ways to enable sending automated VAT invoices from ChannelEngine:

• Option 1: invoices with new orders - on any channel, enable automated invoices at Setup, Invoice settings. ChannelEngine automatically generates an invoice after it receives an order from the marketplace and emails it directly to the buyer.
• Option 2: invoices with your shipments - on select channels, enable automated invoices at Setup, Advanced settings. ChannelEngine automatically generates an invoice after it receives your shipment and exports the invoice to the marketplace with the shipment. 

This article describes Option 1: invoices with new orders. For guidance on Option 2: invoices with your shipments, check out ChannelEngine: order invoices.

Settings and configuration

Step 1: invoice template

First, set up your invoice's general settings: 

1. From the sidebar, go to Settings, Invoice settings.
2. Enter your company name and logo, if desired, your address, your chamber of commerce and VAT numbers, and your customer service's email address and phone number.

If you want to further personalize the invoice's layout, add a header or footer to the invoice.

By default, ChannelEngine uses the Order ID as the invoice number. However, some marketplaces require unique invoice numbers to avoid duplication and for compliance reasons. To help ensure invoice numbers remain unique, you can use the Invoice number prefix setting to add a prefix to generated invoice numbers.

Step 2: email settings

Then, configure your general email server settings. ChannelEngine requires your email server credentials so that it can send emails on behalf of your company.

Outgoing email settings (SMTP)

Go to Settings, Settings, Outgoing email settings (SMTP), and enter your credentials.

Due to common restrictions, such as SPF records, DKIM keys, and DMARC, ChannelEngine cannot easily send emails from your domain unless it uses your own email server and IP address – and buyers would be confused if they received emails directly from ChannelEngine.

If you use Google Mail as your email server, you may have to set Access to less secure apps to On in your Google account settings.

Commercial order number

If the order number you see on invoices generated by ChannelEngine does not match your desired order number, you can use the commercial order number instead.

To use the commercial order number as the order number on invoices and packing slips, contact your customer success manager or the Support team. 

Step 3: VAT settings

To add VAT to an invoice, you also need to enable VAT calculations on ChannelEngine. To enable VAT calculations, go to Settings, VAT rate settings.

A list of countries and their default VAT rates is displayed:

1. Go to the countries for which you have a VAT number.
2. Select Edit. 
3. Enter your VAT number. ChannelEngine can only check and accept international VAT numbers, not local VAT numbers, such as the German Steuernummer.
4. Click Save. 

Note that only invoices generated from this point on include the VAT calculation; it is not possible to apply this setting retroactively.

Step 4: channel settings

Finally, enable automatic invoices per channel.

1. Go to the Setup step of the channel where you want to enable automatic VAT invoices.
2. Scroll down to Invoice settings, and switch on the Send emails setting.

From this point on, when an order for this channel comes in, the buyer automatically receives a VAT invoice in their inbox.

Automatic translations

The invoice is sent to the buyer in the language (a.k.a. locale) that fits the customer's address, if ChannelEngine supports the locale. E.g.: if a customer in France places an order, they receive an invoice in the French language. 

There are three translation scenarios for invoices and packing slips: 

1. Buyer's language - an invoice is sent in the language of the billing customer, if available. In Order details, click Download invoice (language) to view the invoice.
2. Your default language  - an invoice is sent in the language set in your ChannelEngine account. In Order details, click Download invoice to view the invoice in your account's language.
3. English - if there is no supported translation available, ChannelEngine sends the invoice in English.

Depending on the situation, these languages could be the same. 

Example translation

The invoice is sent in the buyer's locale

The translated invoice is based on the country of the invoice address. In the example below, this language is Russian. Selecting that option results in an invoice with attributes in Russian, as seen below. This is also the invoice sent to the buyer.

The invoice is prepared in the language setting of the account. 

In the example below, the invoice is in English.