Smart Woo Usage Guide

In this guide, I’ll walk you through, step by step, how to set up Smart Woo Service Invoicing (or Smart Woo for short), so you can start accepting payments via invoices in your WooCommerce store. But before we dive in, let’s take a moment to understand what Smart Woo is, who it’s for, and the problems it’s designed to solve.

What is Smart Woo Service Invoicing?

Smart Woo is a WooCommerce extension that allows you to charge both recurring and one-time payments on your WordPress website. Think of it as a subscription plugin with the added flexibility to generate professional invoices for your clients—right at the end of their billing cycle.

Who Is Smart Woo For?

Smart Woo is perfect for businesses that collect payments through invoices. Whether you’re a freelancer, property manager, IT service provider, consultant, or run a physical or virtual service-based business—Smart Woo gives you the tools to streamline your invoicing and payment collection effortlessly.

What Problems Does Smart Woo Solve?

Running a service-based business comes with challenges, especially when it comes to billing. Smart Woo takes the hassle out of invoicing and subscription management, so you can focus on growing your business. Here’s how it helps:

✅ Recurring Billing Management

Manually keeping track of recurring invoices can be overwhelming. Smart Woo automates this process—generating and sending invoices on a schedule (weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually), so you never have to worry about missed payments.

✅ Seamless Subscription Adjustments

Managing changes in a customer’s subscription—whether it’s proration, upgrades, downgrades, or cancellations—can get complicated. Smart Woo simplifies these transitions, ensuring smooth billing adjustments without any extra effort on your part.

✅ Automated Payment Reminders

Late payments can hurt your cash flow. Smart Woo sends automated reminders to clients when invoices are due, reducing the chances of missed payments and keeping your revenue on track.

✅ Flexible Payment Collection

Clients can pay invoices directly from their email or the client portal —using any payment method you’ve enabled in WooCommerce. This flexibility makes the payment process convenient for both you and your customers.

✅ Professional, Customizable Invoices

Forget about generic invoices! Smart Woo lets you create professional, branded invoices that reflect your business identity. Plus, with the Pro version, you can fully customize email templates for a seamless customer experience.

With that out of the way, let’s dive into today’s topic: “The Usage Guide for Smart Woo Service Invoicing”.

1. Installing and Activating the Plugin

To get started, you’ll need to install and activate the Smart Woo Service Invoicing plugin:

1. Go to your WordPress Admin Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Plugins > Add New.
3. Search for Smart Woo Service Invoicing and click Install Now.
4. Once installed, click Activate.

Before installation, please make sure that WooCommerce is installed and activated. Learn how to install WooCommerce.

2. Configuring Settings and Options

Before you start using Smart Woo, you’ll need to configure your business, invoice, and email settings.

To do this:
🔹 Navigate to the Smart Woo admin menu and click on Settings
🔹 Or, click the Settings button on the Smart Woo Dashboard

Refer to the screenshots below for guidance.

Smart Woo business settings page

On the Business Settings page, you can configure key details about your business that will appear on client invoices and affect service subscriptions.

• Business Name: The name displayed on invoices (defaults to your site title).
• Phone Numbers: A comma-separated list of phone numbers shown on invoices.
• Service Page: This page serves as the client portal, where customers can view their service subscriptions. By default, Smart Woo creates this page upon installation, and it contains the shortcode: [smartwoo_service_page].
• Service ID Prefix: Add a custom prefix to service IDs to keep them unique for your business.
• Allow Proration (Pro Feature) – Choose whether to prorate service subscriptions when customers change plans.
• Product Category for Upgrades (Pro Feature) – Select a specific WooCommerce product category for service upgrades.
• Product Category for Downgrades (Pro Feature) – Select a specific WooCommerce product category for service downgrades.

Smart Woo invoice settings page

On the Invoice Settings page, you can configure essential invoice-related options to customize how invoices appear and function.

• Invoice Page: This page serves as the client portal, where customers can view and pay their invoices. By default, Smart Woo creates this page upon installation, and it contains the shortcode: [smartwoo_invoice_page].
• Invoice ID Prefix: Add a custom prefix to invoice IDs to keep them unique for your business.
• Logo URL: Upload the logo image that will appear on invoices. The recommended size is 500×500 pixels.
• Watermark URL: Upload an image to be used as the PDF invoice watermark.

Smart Woo Email Settings Page

On the Email Settings page, you can configure essential options to control how Smart Woo sends emails and what content they include.

The table below provides an overview of each email option, along with details on whether its template can be customized

• Attach PDFs to Emails (Pro Feature) – Enable this option to automatically attach a PDF version of the invoice to invoice-related emails.
• Prevent WooCommerce Order Emails – By default, WooCommerce sends order-related emails as part of its order management workflow. However, this can sometimes lead to excessive emails being sent to customers. Enabling this option prevents WooCommerce from sending its default order emails for Smart Woo orders, reducing email clutter.
• Sender Name – Set the name that will appear as the sender in outgoing emails. This can be the same as your business name or a different name (e.g., Billing Dept).
• Billing Email – Specify the email address that will be used as the sender for outgoing emails.

Smart Woo Advanced Settings

On the Advanced Settings page, you can configure additional options to fine-tune how Smart Woo operates.

• Product “Add to Cart” Text – Customize the button text for subscription products when they are added to the cart.
• Allow Invoice Tracking – Enable this option to embed metadata into the invoice PDF, making the file verifiable.
• Remove Plugin Data on Uninstall – Choose whether to completely remove all Smart Woo settings and database tables when the plugin is deleted.

3. Creating a Service Subscription Product

After the configuration, you can begin creating subscription-based service products:

• Go to the Service Products submenu under the plugin menu.
• Click Add New to create a service product.
• Fill in the relevant details for the product, including its name, description, and billing cycles.
• Click Create Product to save.

You can also edit created products by clicking the Edit button in the product table. Each form field is accompanied by a concise description to guide you in entering the correct information.

4. Customer Registration and Setup

Once your service product is created, customers can register and subscribe to your services:

• Customer registrations are handled automatically by WooCommerce during the checkout process.
• If the order is for a service product, Smart Woo Service Invoicing will extract the customer’s details from the order and generate an invoice.

5. Managing Orders and Service Subscriptions

You can easily manage and process your service orders:

• Navigate to the Service Orders page in the admin area.
• Orders that are awaiting processing can be handled by clicking the Process Now button.
• On the Service Processing Page, you’ll see all details from the order, such as the service name, start date, billing cycle, and more.
• Confirm the details, assign an asset to the service, and generate a Service ID.
• Update the service’s status, set the start date, next payment date, and end date.
• Once everything looks good, click the Finish Processing button to create the service subscription.

After processing, a Service Processed Email will be sent to the customer, notifying them that their service is active.

6. Automatic Invoice Generation

Smart Woo Service Invoicing automates the renewal and invoicing process:

• A service renewal will automatically occur on the Next Payment Date of a service subscription. This date always falls towards the end of the service billing cycle (end date).
• The service renewal process creates a Service Renewal Invoice if the service status is Due for Renewal.
• A new invoice email is sent to the customer, notifying them about the service renewal invoice. The email contains an auto-login payment URL to make it easier for clients to pay directly from their email client.

7. Customer Invoice Payment

Managing invoice payments is straightforward:

• When a client has an unpaid invoice, a new invoice email is sent when the invoice is generated.
• Additionally, a payment reminder email is sent once daily (by default). All emails contain an auto-login payment link to facilitate the payment process.
• Invoice payments can be made via:
  • Client portal
  • Service details page (when service status is Due for Renewal)
  • Invoice view page
  • Invoice emails

8. Configuring Payment Options

Smart Woo Service Invoicing integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce’s payment systems:

• When an invoice status is unpaid, there is always a WooCommerce Order associated with the invoice.
• Clients typically pay for this order, and the invoice associated with it is automatically updated once the payment is made.
• All payment methods supported or built for WooCommerce will work with Smart Woo Service Invoicing, provided the payment method can update the order’s payment status.

Need Expert Help?

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