Customize invoices

You can customize the content of an invoice in the following ways:

• Through the API
• Through the invoice editor
• Through the subscription editor
• Through invoice templates
• Through account Invoice settings

You can also set a customer preferred language and include public information in your account details. Because you know more about your customers and your business than Stripe does, make sure your invoices include all of the required information. Your invoices must be accurate, charge the appropriate tax, and comply with all applicable laws and regulations in your region.

Branding

Stripe allows you to customize (as well as preview) email receipts, hosted invoices, invoice PDFs, and so on, in your Branding settings.

Icons and logos must be in JPG or PNG format, less than 512kb in size, and equal to or greater than 128px by 128px.

• Icon—A square, digital-friendly icon or logo.
• Logo—A non-square logo to override some uses of the icon.
• Brand color—Used on receipts, invoices, and the customer portal.
• Accent color—Used as a background on emails and pages.

Apply brand settings

Brand settings apply to your whole account and take effect in many places.

Invoice numbering

Stripe automatically generates invoice numbers to help track and reconcile invoices. Invoice numbers have a prefix and suffix, such as 586A2E-0139 or MYSHOP-1203. (​​The full invoice number is always unique across your account in both schemes.) ​​Stripe supports two invoice numbering schemes:

• ​​Sequentially for each customer (customer-level)—Uses a unique prefix for each customer and assigns invoice numbers sequentially for a given customer.
• ​​Sequentially across your account (account-level)—Uses the same prefix for every customer and assigns invoice numbers sequentially across your entire account.

Stripe chooses a default behavior based on the country your Stripe account is based in. European Union member countries and the United Kingdom typically require account level sequencing. All other countries default to customer level sequencing because it doesn’t expose the total number of invoices. When switching between schemes or updating prefixes, only future invoices use the new settings. This doesn’t impact existing invoices.

Customer-level prefixes

When you configure an invoice to use customer-level numbering, each invoice number begins with the customer’s unique invoice prefix.

For example, if one of your customers is a business named Typographic, you might set the prefix to TYPGRA. The first invoice number for Typographic would be TYPGRA-0001, the second would be TYPGRA-0002 and so on.

Prefixes must be between 3 and 12 characters and can’t match any other customer prefix, including prefixes that are no longer in use.

You can set prefixes on the Customers page in the Dashboard or using the API. If you model customers as customer-configured Account objects, use the configuration.customer.billing.invoice.prefix parameter. If you model customers as Customer objects, use the invoice_prefix parameter.

Account-level prefixes

When you configure an invoice to use account-level numbering, each invoice number starts with a common prefix and has a sequential number.

For example, if your business is named Rocket Rides, you might set the prefix to RKTRIDE. Your first invoice would be RKTRIDE-0001, a second invoice to a different customer would be RKTRIDE-0002, another invoice to the first customer would be RKTRIDE-0003, and so on.

Stripe automatically assigns the account-wide prefix, but you can override it to make it clearer that these invoices come from you. If you want to modify the prefix for your account, you can change it in Invoice settings. This requires that your account’s default API version is at least 2020-03-02. Prefixes have to be between 3 and 12 characters and they can’t match any customer prefix, including prefixes that are no longer in use.

Connect account prefixes

When creating invoices with the on_behalf_of parameter, Stripe uses the connected account as the merchant of record. Each merchant of record maintains its own separate invoice number sequence, which means:

• Each connected account has its own invoice numbering sequence that starts at 0001.
• Invoices for the same customer from different connected accounts (specified using on_behalf_of) can have the same invoice number prefix and suffix.
• The merchant of record determines which invoice sequence is used, not the platform account.

Set the starting invoice number

By default, invoice numbers start at 0001. If you’d like to use a different starting invoice number, however, you can change it. For example, some users—when migrating existing customers to Stripe Invoicing—want their invoice numbers to continue where their old system left off. If the user left off at invoice number 123 in their old system, Stripe allows them to resume the invoice number at 124.

​​If you use customer-level prefixes, set the starting number on the Customer details page in your Dashboard or using the API. If you model customers as customer-configured Account objects, use the configuration.customer.billing.invoice.next_sequence parameter. If you model customers as Customer objects, use the next_invoice_sequence parameter.

If you use account-level prefixes, set the starting number in the Next invoice sequence field on the Invoice settings page in your Dashboard.

You can only set the next invoice number to numbers greater than any numbers used on an invoice. The maximum allowed invoice number is 1,000,000,000 regardless of how you set it. Use the lowest value possible so that you don’t reach this limit.

Invoice fields

Learn more about the different Invoice fields, including memo, footer, and custom fields. To set the same value on these fields for groups of customers, you can use Invoice Templates.

Default memo

A memo is included in invoice PDFs, invoice emails, and the Hosted Invoice Page. Memos are commonly used as a notes section, thanking the invoiced customer for their business, or giving more context around the invoice (such as a note from the salesperson who talked to the customer).

You can set a default memo field for your account in Invoice settings. ​​Any new invoices use this value. You can also specify the memo on Invoice Templates, which replaces the default memo on invoices using a template.

You can specify a different memo for a particular invoice when you create or update it in the Dashboard. You can also specify a memo using the API by calling update invoice and including the description parameter.

Default footer

​​Invoice PDFs can include an optional footer text block. The footer field is often used for contractual or legally required text. A common use case is displaying legally required company registration information, such as a UK Companies House registration number.

Like the memo field, you can set the default footer value in Invoice settings or specify footers on Invoice Templates. ​​You can specify a different footer for a particular draft invoice when you create or update it in the Dashboard, or with the API by calling update Invoice. If an invoice has been finalized, you can’t update its footer field.

Default item prices

You can issue invoices with line item prices that exclude inclusive tax. Tax-exclusive prices are only shown in the invoice PDF. That means, when using inclusive tax, the Hosted Invoice Page and invoice emails show tax-inclusive prices. You can define the settings for net prices in the Dashboard or API.

• Include inclusive tax—The invoice PDF displays line item prices including the inclusive tax. (This is the default.)
• Exclude tax—The invoice PDF displays line item prices excluding tax.

Custom fields

Add custom fields to enhance your invoice PDF documents and help you comply with your business practice and tax reporting obligations. Custom fields allow you to provide up to four key-value pairs ​​that display in the invoice header. You can set up to four custom field key-value pairs in the Invoice Editor, with the Invoices API, or with Invoice Templates.

Some common uses for custom fields are:

• Purchase Order (PO) numbers
• Contractor numbers
• Tax compliance

Custom field inheritance

You can set custom invoice fields on the object you use to represent your customer. Any custom fields you set at the customer level apply to all of the draft invoices you generate for that customer. You can always modify these inherited custom fields while the invoice is still a draft. After the invoice finalizes, you can’t update the custom fields.

Tax IDs

Add tax IDs to display on invoice PDFs and email receipts. You can set one or more as defaults to include them on all invoices automatically, or select different IDs when creating individual invoices.

To manage tax IDs, go to Settings > Billing > Invoices and scroll to the Invoice tax information section.

After you add a tax ID, you can’t change the ID or type. To update a tax ID, delete it and add a new one.

PDF page size

You can set the page size for your invoice PDF, including finalized invoices, to A4 (8.27 x 11.69 inches) or Letter (8.5 x 11 inches).

Group line items

To help your customers better understand your invoices (including PDFs, Hosted Invoice Page, and invoice emails), categorize, and display invoice line items under different groups. You can also hide groups of line items. If some line items are excessively detailed, you can configure it so that only their group-level subtotal is visible to your customers.

Default payment terms

Under Default payment terms in Invoice settings, you can select when the payment is due after you send the invoice. You can also choose whether to include a link to a payment page in the invoice email. Customers can visit this link to pay, download, and see the status of their invoice. Lastly, you can manage your accepted payment methods in this section.

Customer preferred languages

When you create a customer, use the Language dropdown to add their preferred language. (You can also add or edit a customer’s preferred language by editing their billing details in the Dashboard or when creating an invoice.) Stripe uses the preferred language to localize invoice emails and PDFs, receipt emails and PDFs, and credit note PDFs.

To update a customer’s preferred language through the API, set defaults.locales for customer-configured Account objects, or preferred_locales for Customer objects. Both properties are arrays, and you can add multiple locales in preference order.

Stripe Invoicing supports the following languages:

• Bulgarian
• Chinese (Hong Kong)
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Taiwan)
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (United States)
• Estonian
• Filipino
• Finnish
• French (Canada)
• French (France)
• German
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Malay (Malaysia)
• Malayalam
• Maltese
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese (Brazil)
• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Romanian
• Russian
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Spanish (Latin America)
• Spanish (Spain)
• Swedish
• Thai
• Turkish
• Vietnamese

Billing and shipping addresses

Billing addresses

Stripe uses a customer’s identity.individual.address (for customer-configured Account objects) or address (for Customer objects) as the billing address on the invoice PDF. If you don’t explicitly set that address, Stripe renders their shipping address as the billing address on the PDF.

You can also add or edit a customer’s billing address on the Customer details page in the Dashboard.

Shipping addresses

To render shipping details on the Invoice PDF, set the shipping_details property. If you don’t set the invoice’s shipping_details property, Stripe renders the shipping address on the PDF using the shipping address from the customer-configured Account object or Customer object.

Public support information

Invoices include any public information that you specified under Public business information, such as your support email address or business website. Using these settings, you can also choose to include a support phone number in customer-facing documents—like invoice PDFs and emails—or default to your business address.