This article was originally published on February 26, 2008. We've updated the content to be current as of October 13, 2010 for the upcoming holiday selling season. Check out Holiday How-To: Offering Services for more great tips on providing those special extra touches for your holiday shoppers. How to send a revised invoice is a question that comes up from time to time. There are a few situations in which a seller might need to send a customer an updated invoice before she pays. For example: to offer a discount or sale price without editing the listing or if the buyer mistakenly chose "other payment" intending to pay by credit card through PayPal. To get started, here is the info you'll need to gather for the PayPal invoice. This is all conveniently included on the Etsy invoice page under Your Etsy > Sold Orders.
  • buyer's email address
  • quantity of item(s)
  • Etsy transaction ID number (for the "Item ID" field in PayPal)
  • item title or short description
  • price of the item
  • cost of shipping
Here's how to create an invoice in PayPal for your transaction:
  1. Go to PayPal.com and login to your account.*
  2. Click the "Request Money" tab.
  3. Click "Create Invoice" in the header.
  4. Select "New Invoice" from the drop-down menu and press the "Continue" button.
  5. On this page, you will enter in all the details of the transaction, as noted above. For "Invoice Type," select "Goods." Press "Continue" when you've got all the info entered. (see the screenshot below)
  6. Review the Invoice. Make sure everything is accurate, then press "Send Invoice."
  7. You can save a template of the invoice you just sent if you think it will be a common transaction.
Here is how Step 5 looks: An email will be sent to your customer with all the details and a link back to PayPal to complete the payment. If you go back to My Account, you will see an entry in your My Recent Activity section for the invoice you just sent. This will have a Pending status until the buyer pays you. (Remember, never send the item until you have confirmed payment was received.) HOT TIP: A buyer can pay using a credit card even if they're not a registered PayPal member depending on your PayPal settings. *For international sellers who use a version of PayPal localized to their country (such as PayPal.co.uk for the United Kingdom), the steps may be slightly different in the non-USA versions of PayPal. Please consult PayPal's Help Center for more information.