In Settings » Triggers you choose which documents the app creates in Pennylane, and when.
📄 Available documents
Invoice
Proforma
Credit note
By default, the invoice is created when any order is created. The proforma and the credit note are set to Never.
⚡ Triggers (WHEN to generate)
Invoice and proforma
Never: the document is never created automatically.
When unpaid order is created: an unpaid order is created (or imported).
When order is paid: a paid order is created (or imported), or an unpaid order becomes paid.
When order is fulfilled: a fulfilled order is created (or imported), or an order becomes fulfilled.
When any order is created: any order is created (or imported).
Credit note
Never: no credit note is created automatically.
When order is partially or fully refunded: you refund products or shipping in Shopify.
When order is canceled: a credit note for the whole order.
At the bottom of the Triggers card you can also skip orders and choose who gets the invoice and the proforma: see Skip orders and Generate for.
✉️ Send documents in email
Tick Email this document to the customer and Pennylane emails the invoice or credit note to the order's email address, right after it's created. By default it's on for the invoice and off for the credit note.
Pennylane can't email proformas, so there's no checkbox for them.
The Monitor shows under each document what happened to its email. A failed email isn't sent again automatically, and an email is never sent twice.
✋ Create a document by hand
On the Shopify order page: More actions » Create Pennylane document.
On the Monitor: Generate document or Try again.
You can create an invoice or a proforma. Credit notes are only created by their trigger.
Skip these orders and Generate for don't apply here, and a new document is created even if the order already has one. Email sending follows your setting for that document.
ℹ️ Additionals
Credit note details
A credit note is only created for an invoice the app created. If there's none, no credit note is created and the Monitor shows no error.
The corrected lines show with negative quantities.
Partial refund: only the refunded products and shipping, with the refunded quantity. One order can get several partial credit notes.
Full refund (the refunded amount equals the order total) or cancel: every line of the order, once per order.
If the order already has a partial credit note, a later cancel or full refund still credits every line. Check the amounts in Pennylane.
In Pennylane the credit note is linked to its invoice, and the invoice number is added after the title, for example (F-2026-0012).
Pennylane numbers it. The due date is the issue date, and it isn't marked as paid.
If the invoice was deleted in Pennylane, the Monitor shows error 3-3.
Order adjustment limitation
If you refund only an amount in Shopify, without picking a product or shipping, no credit note is created. If that amount is the whole order total, the whole order is credited.
Draft, archived and cancelled orders
Draft orders never get a document: a draft becomes an order only when you complete it.
Archived (closed) and cancelled orders aren't filtered out: if a trigger runs for them (for example the order gets paid or fulfilled), the document is created.
Trigger delay for COD orders
Only when the payment method is Cash on Delivery (COD): When any order is created runs after 30 seconds, When unpaid order is created after 35 seconds.
For other orders the trigger runs right away.
In the meantime the app waits for the latest order data and creates the document from it.
POS orders
POS orders get documents like online orders: same triggers, document types and settings.
The document is created about 60 seconds after the sale, so Shopify can link the customer to the order first. Credit notes have no delay.
Without a customer on the order, the name is the order's email address, or Shopify POS. Pennylane needs a full billing address, so the document fails with error 3-2. Add a customer with a full address to the POS order, or skip POS orders.
Linked documents
If the order already has a proforma, the invoice mentions it in its special mention field: Proforma <number>. No other link is made in Pennylane.
The invoice is made from the current order data, not from the proforma.
If the proforma can't be found in Pennylane (for example, it was deleted), the mention shows an internal ID instead of its number.
Triggers by payment method, B2B or B2C
B2B / B2C: use Generate for to create a document only for companies or only for individuals.
Payment method: different triggers or skipping by payment method aren't possible yet.