Guide

Find and Download Invoices as PDF and XML in Faktwise

Updated 2026-07-02

Faktwise creates your invoices automatically the moment a Shopify order is paid. Sooner or later you will need one of them on purpose: a customer asks for a copy, your accountant wants a specific document, or a public-sector buyer requests the XML file. This guide shows you where every invoice lives in the dashboard, how the search works, and what the two downloads, PDF and XML, actually contain. It also covers how credit notes show up in the list and what to do when you see the XRechnung fallback notice.

The invoice list in Faktwise: search, credit notes, and per-row PDF and XML downloads

The invoice list in the dashboard

All invoices live in the app’s dashboard. The list shows the newest invoice first, so the moment you open it you see what was created most recently. Each row represents one document and offers two downloads: the PDF file and the XML file. We will look at the difference between the two in a moment.

If your list is empty even though paid orders already exist, check Settings: Faktwise only starts creating invoices once you have saved your company details there for the first time (legal name, address, and your VAT ID or tax number). Orders paid before that first save are skipped and do not receive an invoice.

Searching for a specific invoice

You can search the list in two ways: by invoice number or by order. Faktwise assigns invoice numbers sequentially and without gaps per year, for example INV-2026-00042. So if a customer quotes their invoice number, type it in directly. If your accountant asks for the document belonging to a particular Shopify order, search by the order name instead. Either way you reach the right row in seconds, even months after the sale.

PDF and XML: the two files behind every invoice

Every invoice in Faktwise consists of two files you can download individually. Both contain the same invoice data, just packaged differently.

The PDF: readable by people and by software

The PDF is the document you print or forward by email. Faktwise creates it as a ZUGFeRD hybrid: a PDF/A-3 file (a PDF format designed for long-term archiving that can carry embedded files) with the complete invoice embedded as structured XML following the European standard EN 16931. Your customer sees a perfectly normal invoice, and their accounting software can read the very same file automatically, with no retyping of amounts. If the format is new to you, our ZUGFeRD guide for Shopify explains it in detail.

The XML: the structured e-invoice

The XML download gives you the structured invoice data as a standalone file. You need it whenever a recipient or a system explicitly asks for the raw XML.

Public-sector orders are a special case. If the buyer entered a Leitweg-ID (the routing ID German authorities use to deliver incoming e-invoices to the right internal department), Faktwise issues an XRechnung instead of the ZUGFeRD format, provided your contact email and IBAN are set in Settings (more on that below). XRechnung is a pure XML format with no visual document, and it is the required standard for invoices to German public-sector buyers. In that case, the XML download is exactly that XRechnung. Our XRechnung guide for Shopify covers the format and when it applies.

Credit notes appear in the same list

When you refund an order in Shopify, Faktwise automatically creates a credit note (in German, a Gutschrift). A credit note is a separate document that corrects an invoice you have already issued: it shows the refunded amounts as positive values and references the original invoice number, so the connection is unambiguous. The original invoice itself stays untouched, because issued invoices in Faktwise are not edited afterwards; corrections happen exclusively through credit notes.

Credit notes appear in the same list as your invoices and are marked as credit notes there. You download them just like an invoice. One thing to know: a shipping-only refund, or a refund of a free-form amount without line items, currently does not create a credit note.

The XRechnung fallback notice

Sometimes the dashboard shows a notice that a public-sector order was issued as ZUGFeRD instead of XRechnung. The reason lies in the German XRechnung rules (the so-called BR-DE rules): an XRechnung must include the seller’s contact details and payment information. If your contact email or IBAN is missing in Settings, Faktwise cannot produce a rule-compliant XRechnung, so it falls back to the ZUGFeRD format to make sure the order still gets a proper invoice.

The fix is simple:

Downloading a whole month at once

If you need more than a single invoice, the faster route is the app’s Export page. Pick a month and download a ZIP file containing:

The CSV is a summary for your bookkeeping or your accountant, not a DATEV booking file. Also good to know: Faktwise stores your invoices, XML included, for ten years, beyond the statutory eight-year retention period. If you ever uninstall the app, export your archive first.

Check any file for free

Want to be sure a downloaded file is formally correct, for example before passing it on to a public authority? Use our free invoice validator. It checks XRechnung XML with the official KoSIT validator and ZUGFeRD PDFs with Mustang, including a PDF/A check. It works with any file, not just invoices created by Faktwise.

That covers the essentials: the list, the search, the two file formats, credit notes, the monthly export, and a free way to verify your files. For questions about how a specific document should be treated for tax purposes, your tax advisor remains the right person to ask, because Faktwise is software, not tax advice. If you are not using Faktwise yet, you can install it from the Shopify App Store and see the dashboard with your own orders.