How do I invoice buyers for a digital course?
The invoice comes from whoever is the legal seller. If that is you, issuing it, getting the VAT right on it and keeping it are all your job. If someone else is the seller, none of it is.
Most people ask this expecting a template. The template is the easy part. What matters is who the invoice comes from, and what happens to it afterwards.
An invoice is a record, not a formality
It is the document that says who sold what to whom, on what date, and how much tax was charged. A tax office reading it later should be able to see the whole transaction without asking you anything.
That is why a payment confirmation email from your checkout tool is usually not enough on its own. It proves money moved. It does not always prove the tax was handled correctly.
What it needs to show
- Who sold. Your legal name and address, and your VAT identification if you have one
- Who bought, and where they were
- What they bought, described plainly enough to recognise
- The date of the sale, and a unique invoice number that never repeats
- The price before VAT, the rate applied, the VAT amount, and the total
The exact requirements vary by country, and a business buyer usually needs more detail than a consumer. Check what applies where you are registered before you send the first one.
Consumers and businesses are not the same
A consumer buying a course wants a receipt. A business buying the same course often needs a proper invoice carrying their own tax details, and the VAT treatment can differ from a consumer sale.
If you sell to both, you need to be able to tell them apart at checkout, before the invoice is generated. Working it out afterwards means reissuing documents.
The part people forget
You have to keep them. Sales declared under the EU single-registration scheme carry a ten-year retention period, counted from the end of the year the sale was made. That covers the evidence of where each buyer was, not only the invoice total.
Refunds need a document too. A refunded sale is not deleted, it is corrected, and the correction is part of the record.
Two ways it gets done
| Who does what | Selling direct | Through a merchant of record |
|---|---|---|
| Issues the invoice | You | Them |
| Named on it as seller | You | Them |
| Gets the VAT right on it | You | Them |
| Corrects it on a refund | You | Them |
| Stores it for the retention period | You | Them |
Selling through a merchant of record does not mean the invoice disappears. It means it is not yours.
Where Click2Pop fits
Click2Pop is the Merchant of Record and the sole legal seller on every sale, so the buyer's invoice comes from Click2Pop, in its own name, showing the VAT it charged. You never invoice the buyer, never chase a payment and never issue a correction when a sale is refunded.
Click2Pop also holds those records for the full retention period, along with the evidence of where each buyer was at the moment of sale.
How you are paid, and what paperwork sits between you and Click2Pop, is set out in the Seller Agreement rather than here.
What OSS is and whether you need to register, what a merchant of record is, or apply to sell with Click2Pop.
Last updated: September 2026
How do I invoice buyers for a digital course?
The invoice comes from whoever is the legal seller. If that is you, issuing it, getting the VAT right on it and keeping it are all your job. If someone else is the seller, none of it is.
Most people ask this expecting a template. The template is the easy part. What matters is who the invoice comes from, and what happens to it afterwards.
An invoice is a record, not a formality
It is the document that says who sold what to whom, on what date, and how much tax was charged. A tax office reading it later should be able to see the whole transaction without asking you anything.
That is why a payment confirmation email from your checkout tool is usually not enough on its own. It proves money moved. It does not always prove the tax was handled correctly.
What it needs to show
- Who sold. Your legal name and address, and your VAT identification if you have one
- Who bought, and where they were
- What they bought, described plainly enough to recognise
- The date of the sale, and a unique invoice number that never repeats
- The price before VAT, the rate applied, the VAT amount, and the total
The exact requirements vary by country, and a business buyer usually needs more detail than a consumer. Check what applies where you are registered before you send the first one.
Consumers and businesses are not the same
A consumer buying a course wants a receipt. A business buying the same course often needs a proper invoice carrying their own tax details, and the VAT treatment can differ from a consumer sale.
If you sell to both, you need to be able to tell them apart at checkout, before the invoice is generated. Working it out afterwards means reissuing documents.
The part people forget
You have to keep them. Sales declared under the EU single-registration scheme carry a ten-year retention period, counted from the end of the year the sale was made. That covers the evidence of where each buyer was, not only the invoice total.
Refunds need a document too. A refunded sale is not deleted, it is corrected, and the correction is part of the record.
Two ways it gets done
| Who does what | Selling direct | Through a merchant of record |
|---|---|---|
| Issues the invoice | You | Them |
| Named on it as seller | You | Them |
| Gets the VAT right on it | You | Them |
| Corrects it on a refund | You | Them |
| Stores it for the retention period | You | Them |
Selling through a merchant of record does not mean the invoice disappears. It means it is not yours.
Where Click2Pop fits
Click2Pop is the Merchant of Record and the sole legal seller on every sale, so the buyer's invoice comes from Click2Pop, in its own name, showing the VAT it charged. You never invoice the buyer, never chase a payment and never issue a correction when a sale is refunded.
Click2Pop also holds those records for the full retention period, along with the evidence of where each buyer was at the moment of sale.
How you are paid, and what paperwork sits between you and Click2Pop, is set out in the Seller Agreement rather than here.
What OSS is and whether you need to register, what a merchant of record is, or apply to sell with Click2Pop.
Last updated: September 2026