Electronic Invoicing on Shopify in Italy: Data, SdI and Integrations

What does Shopify do and what should the invoicing system do?

Shopify manages the order, customer, products, payments and checkout data within the limits of the configured features. Generating and sending an Italian electronic invoice are functions that must instead be handled by a system suited to the merchant's tax context.

For this reason I always separate the two levels:

• Shopify: collects and stores the commercial data of the order;
• invoicing system: uses the necessary data to generate, number, send and manage the document according to the applicable flow;
• accountant or tax adviser: defines which documents must be issued and how they should be treated in the specific case.

Which tax data are needed?

The necessary data depend on the type of customer and the document to be issued. In an Italian store it may therefore be necessary, when relevant, to collect or validate information such as the Italian tax code, VAT number, certified email address (PEC) or recipient code.

It is not useful to make every field mandatory for every buyer before defining the tax flow. The interface should ask only for what the document and customer type actually require.

Where should tax data be collected on Shopify?

The solution depends on the surfaces available on the plan and on the selected app. In many cases data are collected before checkout through the cart, cart drawer or app components and then saved on the order. Other integrations can use the official surfaces made available by Shopify.

Before implementation I always verify:

• that the data actually reach the order;
• that they remain associated with the correct order for guest customers too;
• that validation does not block purchases that do not require those data;
• that the invoicing app reads the field from the expected location.

How does the invoice reach the SdI?

Applications and management systems are available that generate electronic documents and support transmission to the Sistema di Interscambio. The Shopify App Store includes solutions that declare features for collecting tax data, generating XML/PDF files, sending to the SdI or connecting with external management systems.

However, the presence of an app in the store does not mean its configuration is automatically correct for every tax regime or sales model. Before go-live, the flow should be checked with the merchant's tax professional and tested with test orders.

Shopify app or custom integration?

For many stores, an existing app is the best choice because it already maintains the connection with invoicing software. Custom development makes sense when there is a specific requirement that available solutions do not cover, such as special mappings, flows to a proprietary management system or internal synchronization rules.

In that case the project should be treated as Shopify app or integration development, including API management, authentication, webhooks, retries and error handling. I would not put this logic directly in the theme.

How to avoid duplicate records and inconsistent data

One of the main risks is having multiple systems modify or interpret the same order without a clear source of truth. Before automating I define:

1. which system decides whether a document must be issued;
2. which identifier links the invoice to the order;
3. how cancellations, refunds and credit notes are handled;
4. how a transmission error is reported;
5. who intervenes when tax data are incomplete or invalid.

Retention and obligations

Retention, registers, issuance deadlines and other tax obligations are regulatory matters and may depend on the transaction and the taxpayer. I do not treat a Shopify theme or a simple app as a guarantee of complete tax compliance.

My technical role is to make sure the necessary data are collected, transferred and reconciled in the agreed way. The tax treatment must still be defined and verified with the competent professional under the rules currently in force.

Which checks should be performed before launch?

• B2C order without an invoice request;
• order with the tax data required by the defined flow;
• guest customer;
• company customer with tax data;
• full and partial refund;
• validation error;
• transmission or synchronization error;
• consistency between order number, document and management system.

How I work on Shopify tax integrations

I am Francesco Guiducci, a freelance Shopify expert and Shopify app developer. I can work on data collection in the theme, configure existing apps or develop custom integrations when Shopify needs to connect to an external system.

I work on Basic, Shopify and Advanced plans and keep the technical scope separate from the tax scope: I implement the agreed flow, but I do not replace the accountant or legal adviser in determining the obligation.

Updated September 3, 2026. Features and availability of any cited apps should be checked on their current Shopify App Store listings at the time of installation.