More Than Just a Bill
An invoice/receipt is so much more than a bill. It’s the official record of sale, but also the final “thank you” to your customer and an important part of the “brand experience”. Since we’re not in the stone age anymore, creating invoices manually should be the de facto experience and not an afterthought.
From Manual to Automated
Gravity Forms is a fantastic tool to build complex order forms, but what happens after a customer hits submit and pays? You could manually write and send an invoice, but in business, efficiency is the name of the game.
With Gravity PDF you get the perfect product to handle that crucial next step. The moment a user submits a form, the plugin takes that data and automatically create a polished, professional invoice for you. We’ve designed a range of easy-to-use invoice templates to make sure you give a great impression right from the start.
We have a fantastic guide for first-timers automating their invoices with Gravity Forms, so I won’t rehash the same information. Instead, I want to share five expert tips to turn your invoices from a simple receipt into a smart, branded asset for your business.
1. Standardize Your Branding for a Professional Look
First impressions matter, and let’s be honest: a generic-looking invoice just doesn’t cut it. Imagine if your invoices look and feel more like your website? It would create a seamless experience for your customers, and that kind of consistency builds trust for your brand. Every interaction you have with your customers – including PDF documents – is an opportunity to make a great impression!
Here’s how easy it is:
Gravity PDF gives you full control over how your invoices look, right in the settings:
Pop in your Logo: Just head to the Template tab and upload your logo. It’ll sit right (or left) at the top of your invoice.
Add Your Company Info: Fill in the fields for your business name, address, contact details, and tax number so clients know exactly who the invoice is from.
Match Your Brand Colors: The color options available will depend on the invoice template you choose. For instance, in Iconic Highlight Color controls the background of the summary section. This is perfect for adding a splash of your brand’s primary color. And if your company style guide requires off-black for text you can easily set the font color, too.
Get The Font Just Right: While invoices come with recommended fonts, Gravity PDF’s Font Manager makes it simple to add new fonts that suit your brand.
2. Leverage Your Invoice as a Communication Tool
Your invoice is a key communication channel. Using it effectively gives you leverage to build trust and set clear expectations. The Additional Information setting in Gravity PDF Invoices is the perfect avenue for this.
Here's how you could use it for maximum leverage:
- Set Clear Payment Terms: If you aren’t collecting payment during the form submission, indicate your bank details or deadlines like ‘Net 30’. This clarity prevents late payments and reduces follow-up work.
- Build Customer Relationships: Write a personal thank you message by taking advantage of Gravity Forms merge tags (example: “We appreciate your business, {Name (First):1.3}!”) and build loyalty.
- Prevent Future Disputes: Proactively add your return policy or warranty info to provide clarity and reduce customer friction.
- Encourage Repeat Business: consider offering a loyalty discount on their next purchase
3. Create Smarter Invoices with Conditional Logic
What if your forms could automatically decide when to generate an invoice? That’s the magic of Conditional Logic. It lets you set up smart rules for your invoicing. For example, maybe you want to use a specific invoice template just for credit card transactions. Or maybe you want to only generate the invoice after a payment has been successfully Paid. Conditional Logic gives you that fine-tuned control, making your entire workflow a whole lot smarter.
Here's how to set up your rules:
You’ll find Conditional Logic right inside your PDF settings under the General tab. Just tick the box to enable the feature, and you’re ready to create your rules!
For example, you could configure conditional logic so:
- The PDF is enabled when the Payment Method is Credit Card and the Payment Status is Paid, or;
- The PDF is enabled when the Payment Status is not Paid
From now on, instead of manually tracking which entries need invoices, Gravity PDF can handle it based on the criteria you set.
4. Take (Some of) the Headache Out of Taxes
Let’s be real, nobody enjoys dealing with taxes, but it’s one of those things you have to do. Displaying tax info clearly on your invoices keeps everyone happy: your customers, your accountant, and the tax man.
Across the world there are two main ways taxes are displayed in invoices:
Tax-Inclusive: The tax is already included in the price
Tax-Exclusive: The tax is added on top of the price
Gravity PDF Invoices have native support for tax-inclusive pricing, and third-party support for tax-exclusive pricing.
For Tax-Inclusive Pricing:
This built-in feature will automatically extract and display the tax from the product subtotal. You’ll find all the related settings under the Tax tab in your PDF settings.
Here are the options you can control:
- Enable Tax Calculation: Turn on the tax-inclusive price feature in your invoice
- Customize the Display: Choose to show the tax in the product table, the final summary, or both.
- Change Tax Labels: Easily change the “Tax” label to “VAT,” “GST,” or whatever you need for your region.
- Use Different Tax Rates: Many times you’ll sell multiple products in the same form with different tax rates. PDF Invoices support this through the Custom CSS Class
tax-{rate}-{label}.For example, if you wanted a specific product to be taxed at 5.25% with the label “VAT”, you would add the CSS classtax-5.25-VATto the Product field in the Form Editor.
For Tax-Exclusive Pricing:
When you need to add tax on top of your product prices, the best tool for this is the eCommerce Fields perk from our friends at Gravity Wiz. This perk adds powerful new pricing fields to Gravity Forms, including a dedicated Tax field. Here’s a quick guide on how it works:
Add a Tax Field: After installing the perk, edit your form and drag the Tax field from the Pricing Fields section into your form.
Configure the Rate: Click on the field to set your tax rate. You can apply it across all products or be selective. You can even add multiple Tax fields to handle different tax rates.
Note: You cannot use inclusive and exclusive pricing at the same time. When Gravity PDF detects that you’ve added the perk’s Tax field to your form, it automatically disables its the Tax-inclusive Pricing feature to prevent conflicts.
This is just a quick overview, of course. Since taxes can get complicated depending on your setup, we have resources that go into much more detail. For a deep dive, check out our detailed guide and our documentation on how to enhance Gravity PDF invoices with Gravity Perks.
5. Take Your Invoices to the Next Level with Gravity Perks
If you’re looking to build an invoicing solution that’s perfectly tailored to your business, there’s an amazing toolkit waiting for you: Gravity Perks.
This suite of powerful perks plug right into Gravity Forms and we’ve made sure it works beautifully with Gravity PDF.
Here are a few fan-favorites that are perfect for invoicing:
Unique ID: A must-have if you need sequential invoice numbers. It replaces the default entry ID with a reliable, sequential number that’s specific to your order form, so every PDF invoice you generate gets a unique invoice number.
Inventory: Perfect for selling anything with limited stock. This perk automatically tracks your inventory on the form to prevent overselling. Your Gravity PDF invoice then serves as a definitive proof of purchase for a confirmed and reserved item.
QR Code: Create a seamless event check-in system by turning your invoice into a scannable ticket. Use the QR Code perk and Easy Passthrough perk to generate a unique check-in code, then add it to the invoice via the Additional Information field.
And that’s just scratching the surface! There are a whole bunch of other perks that can enhance your invoices.
Wrapping Up!
And there you have it! As you can see, leveling up your invoicing system is all about mixing smart automation with your own unique branding. These five tips are designed to help you move beyond a simple receipt and create documents that truly work for your business.
The result? You’ll save a ton of time, cut down on errors, and make your brand look fantastic. Most importantly, you’ll give your customers a smooth and professional experience from start to finish.
So go ahead and put these tips into practice, your business (and your customers) will thank you for it!
