How To – Configure WooCommerce Products to Accept Payments in Constellation Client Portal

Overview

Constellation Client Portal Pro integrates with WooCommerce and allows you to accept payments for invoices.

In order to configure products, you will first need to configure WooCommerce, if you have not done so already. Configuring a new installation of WooCommerce is beyond the scope of this article, however, instructions for configuring WooCommerce can be found here.

You will also need to have a functioning payment processor, of your choice, that is ready and able to accept payments. Configuring a payment processor is also beyond the scope of this article, however the that information is also contained within the WooCommerce set up documentation.

Once you have WooCommerce configured and ready to accept payments, you are ready to begin adding products that can later be used with your Constellation Client Portal invoices.

Getting Started

Before adding products, it’s best to make a quick list of the products and services that you will need to add.

For instance, you may have a combination of flat fee products or services, along services that are billed at specific rates per time interval (example: service A is billed at X dollars per 1/4 hour).

Example List:

Taking the time to make an initial list of the products that you will need to create will help give you a high level view of your products that you can edit and adjust before adding them in WooCommerce.

It is also best to lay out and decide what your product SKU’s are going to be, as changing product SKU’s, that have already been in use, is not advisable in any operation.

Create Products in WooCommerce

Once you have your initial list of products set, you are ready to being adding the products in WooCommerce.

The basic steps for creating your products is listed below.

1. In the WordPress admin navigate to Products -> Add new product.
2. Enter the title of your first product in the “Product name” field on the new product screen.
3. Click the “General” tab in the “Product data” section and enter the price of your product in the “Regular price” field.
4. On the same “General” tab, review the “Tax status” and “Tax class” options, and adjust according to the needs of your operation.
5. Click the “Inventory” tab in the “Product data” section and enter your product SKU in the SKU field.
6. Next, if you would like to add a product image, this can be done by clicking “Set product image” in the “Product image” section in the sidebar.
7. Lastly, click the “Publish” button to save your data and publish your product.

The above steps can be repeated for all of your products. These steps will produce basic products that can be added to invoices, however your operation may require additional product configurations. More in depth information about configuring products can be found in the WooCommerce documentation.

Create Unique Products for Each Invoice

The above steps are an efficient way to create products that can be added to Constellation Client Portal invoices, and these steps are useful in cases where your operation has defined services and/or products with set pricing. This is the preferred method, as it is scalable, and will work with low volume and high volume invoicing.

In some cases, your operation may have unique pricing for all invoices, where the invoices are not necessarily composed of common services or products. In cases like this, you have the option of creating unique products for each invoice. This method is more suited for operations that have low invoicing volume.

Example Custom Product Based on a Project

Project Product

Title: Sculpture for Plaza

Price: $20,000.00

Billing Unit: Fixed price item.

SKU: INV178 (the product SKU can be anything that you like that makes sense in your operation).

Conclusion

Once you have configured and published your products, they will be available to add to invoices.