Commerce - Invoices

[TDBF]

I have noticed that invoices are being created when a user clicks on the checkout page, even if they do not complete the transaction. Is there anyway to stop an invoice being created unless they actually make a payment and complete the transaction?

[Joel R]

This might actually be useful information as follow-up marketing.  Kind of like an abandoned cart drip campaign.  

[PoC2]

If it was me I would consider such a follow up intrusive, especially with better privacy these days.

So +1 for removing redundant invoices.

[Joel R]

It's also smart marketing.  A user took the time to already add an item to his cart but never finished.  The conversion on those abandoned carts is way higher than a raw lead.  

[TDBF]

6 hours ago, Joel R said:

This might actually be useful information as follow-up marketing.  Kind of like an abandoned cart drip campaign.  

My first thought was not of that, but is this broken and is this a bug which I need to report.

I only want to hand my members a receipt/invoice on payment, I was looking through that list wondering if there was an issue with the Payment, Payment gate way or why my members were getting invoices. It wasn't until I started looking into this I noticed that there was an invoice created when I was on the Payment Page and had not actually paid.

I personally would like if I could turn this off, as I do not like collecting information about people unless I really have too.

Thanks for your reply, now at least I know what is going on ?

3 hours ago, Joel R said:

It's also smart marketing.  A user took the time to already add an item to his cart but never finished.  The conversion on those abandoned carts is way higher than a raw lead.  

I understand what you are saying, but I use this for my members to donate and purchase a Gold Membership, it is not a hard sell issue on my part and I would defiantly not be looking to follow this up in anyway.

Cheers ?

[Pyrotechnic]

On 6/27/2018 at 8:49 PM, PoC2 said:

If it was me I would consider such a follow up intrusive, especially with better privacy these days.

So +1 for removing redundant invoices.

+1

[OptimusBain]

On 6/27/2018 at 9:53 PM, Joel R said:

It's also smart marketing.  A user took the time to already add an item to his cart but never finished.  The conversion on those abandoned carts is way higher than a raw lead.  

I second this feature. We really need it

[opentype]

The topic mixes a few issues. I agree that “starting a checkout” should not create an invoice. Clicking the final “buy now” should. That’s when the sale is being made and that’s when the buyer can be charged through the invoice. (Note that this is unrelated from saving the basket and anything like that.)

It’s not just a matter of practicality. It’s also a quite serious legal issue. If I ever get audited by our local tax department, I will have a lot of explaining to do about the non-consecutive invoice numbers I actually declare. The normal and expected procedure would be that each invoice number identifies an actual transaction with a payment and that “missing numbers” are an exception, where the invoice actually got cancelled and of course that needs a proof as well. With the current system, the tax department will likely assume that I didn’t properly declare the income for all these invoices and they might require evidence for what happened to each and every invoice number that I didn’t actually declare as income. 

Edited February 13, 2021 by opentype

[kmk]

On 6/27/2018 at 11:08 AM, Joel R said:

This might actually be useful information as follow-up marketing.  Kind of like an abandoned cart drip campaign.  

That unfinished check out proces don't have to convert in an invoice, is enough generate a notification to admin "member X try to purchase but unfinished". 

Then as marketing strategy, staff members can contact to member X if he need some help. 

[bradl]

On my dog club site the existence of all those "invoices" causes consternation at regular intervals - every time we get a new treasurer, or a treasurer looks at the commerce section after a long absence. I usually get a frantic call about all the people who owe us money but haven't sent it, or all the "failures" of the site since there are all these incomplete invoices. It even freaked me out the first time I noticed them, way back when ...

It might be a nice idea to have a "save for later" button on store items (that might be a service or benefit to users) and maybe some followup marketing or prompts *might* be plausible against those but I would never in one thousand years send a note to any of the spurious invoices that currently exist. 

[bfarber]

There's some good discussion in here about the behavior of invoice generation so I've moved the topic to the feedback forum.

[Jordan Miller]

On 2/13/2021 at 4:23 PM, bradl said:

It might be a nice idea to have a "save for later" button on store items

Love this! 

I do tend like the idea that we could send someone a friendly reminder to finish their purchase if they abandoned it. But maybe as a PM versus an email. 

I also can see why we wouldn't necessarily want to create an invoice if the user has not finished the purchase process. 

On 2/13/2021 at 5:24 AM, opentype said:

I agree that “starting a checkout” should not create an invoice. Clicking the final “buy now” should.

👆 I tend to agree. 

[Mopar1973Man]

I would rather have the invoice created AFTER the pay now button. All the incomplete invoices are annoyance to me for accounting purpose having to skip over all the incomplete transactions. Searching out the completed transactions for sale tax and other thing you have to account for. I've got a lot of people looking at stuff on my site and plan to purchase later.

I also use the invoice system for my business as working on customers trucks. Works great just wish it would handle fractional quantity.

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Mopar1973Man

[OptimusBain]

5 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

I would rather have the invoice created AFTER the pay now button

Incomplete payments should not be called invoices. That's the first thing. That's the origin of this discussion 

Client pays = a legal invoice will be generated. No payment = no invoice.

In Spain we do that distinction and we do not call those in invoices since the word invoice requires an actual payment. We use another word for invoices that are pending. By doing so, we avoid that confusion.

[Mopar1973Man]

17 hours ago, OptimusBain said:

Incomplete payments should not be called invoices. That's the first thing. That's the origin of this discussion 

Client pays = a legal invoice will be generated. No payment = no invoice.

In Spain we do that distinction and we do not call those in invoices since the word invoice requires an actual payment. We use another word for invoices that are pending. By doing so, we avoid that confusion.

Like what I'm used to...

BEFORE Payment - Purchase Order this where the customer wishes to purchase an item but not paid yet. 

AFTER Payment - Invoice is generated because the customer has his/her goodies in shipping to them and been paid for. 

[Jimi Wikman]

On 2/17/2021 at 2:47 PM, Mopar1973Man said:

Like what I'm used to...

BEFORE Payment - Purchase Order this where the customer wishes to purchase an item but not paid yet. 

AFTER Payment - Invoice is generated because the customer has his/her goodies in shipping to them and been paid for. 

This is the preferred way since it allow for re-targeting as well as align with legal requirements that @opentype refer to. You also tie stock to purchase order to make soft reservations (usually with some rules, so you don't run out of this to sell based on soft reservations). Purchase Orders also often have a defined lifespan, so they are removed from the system after a certain time and so soft reservations are released even earlier.

The advantage with this setup is also that you can work with FOMO to show live data on how people place things in their basket (which has a good impact on CRO).

[Jordan Miller]

Hi there! Just wanted to pop in and say we will look into doing this for a future release 🙂