A 2026 walkthrough of sending eBay invoices from Seller Hub, with combined shipping, managed-payments payout timing, and troubleshooting, sourced from eBay's help pages.
Written by
Jason
Published on
June 13, 2026
Key takeaways
To send an invoice on eBay, open Seller Hub, go to Orders, find the order under Awaiting payment, and click Send invoice. On the invoice screen you can adjust shipping, add a discount, include a note, then send it. The buyer gets the invoice by email and can pay from it directly. The whole thing takes under a minute once the sale is made. eBay invoices are most useful for combined orders (several items shipped together), for buyers who need a document for their records, and for sales where you negotiated a price that differs from the listing total.
Below is the current 2026 process in Seller Hub, plus when an invoice is actually required, how combined shipping changes the total, and what to do when the Send invoice button is missing.
eBay's own help page, Sending invoices to buyers, describes the same Orders, Send invoice path.
The buyer can pay straight from the invoice email, so there is no need to send your PayPal or bank details separately. Payment runs through eBay's managed payments and lands in your linked checking account on your payout schedule. Per eBay's Getting paid for items you've sold help page, payouts are initiated daily by default, sent to your bank within two days of the buyer's confirmed payment, and then take another one to three business days to clear. You can switch the schedule to weekly, biweekly, or monthly in the Payments tab.
Most eBay sales never need a manual invoice. When a buyer clicks Buy It Now or wins an auction, eBay generates the order total automatically and prompts them to pay. You only need to send an invoice in a few specific cases.
If one buyer purchases several of your items within a short window, you can group them into a single shipment and charge shipping once. This is where invoices earn their keep. To make it work, set up combined payments first, then build the invoice. eBay's Offering combined shipping help page covers the underlying settings.
Here is a worked example. Say a buyer wins three t-shirts that each list shipping at 5.00 USD. Sent as three separate orders, that is 15.00 USD in shipping. Combined into one invoice at a single 7.00 USD rate, the buyer saves 8.00 USD, which is exactly the kind of nudge that closes a hesitant multi-item sale. If the items all fit in one polymailer, the combined rate still covers the real postage. You pay one set of final value fees on the item totals either way, and combining shipping does not change those item fees.
The buyer receives an email with the seller name, the item titles, item prices, shipping, any discount you applied, and the grand total. There is a clear Pay now button. Your note appears near the top, so it is a good place to say thank you or to explain a combined shipping adjustment. Buyers can also see the invoice in their Purchase history under the order. The document is itemized enough for most business expense records, though it is a transaction receipt rather than a formal tax invoice with a VAT or sales-tax breakdown.
If you cannot find the option to invoice an order, one of these is usually the reason.
| What You See | Why | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| No Send invoice button on the order | The buyer already paid | Check the Paid or All orders filter. Paid orders cannot be invoiced. |
| Order not in Awaiting payment | It was paid instantly at checkout | Nothing to do. The sale is complete and ready to ship. |
| Cannot change shipping on the invoice | Combined payments not enabled | Turn on combined payments in shipping preferences, then reopen the invoice. |
| Invoice option greyed out | Order is past eBay's invoice window | Message the buyer directly and arrange the order through standard payment. |
Invoices close the sale. What loses you money after the sale is a return because the item did not fit. The most common fix is to put a clear, garment-by-garment size chart in every clothing listing so buyers check the numbers before they commit, in both inches and centimeters. Sizely is a web tool that lets online sellers create a brand-styled size chart and embed it directly in eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, Etsy and Shopify listings. Per Sizely's homepage, it is used by 85,000+ sellers and ships more than 300 chart templates. You can start at www.size.ly. It is used by more than 85,000 sellers.9908
You can send a revised invoice as long as the buyer has not paid. Open the order in Awaiting payment, click Send invoice again, change the shipping, discount, or note, and resend. The new invoice replaces the old one. Once the buyer pays, the totals are locked and you would handle any adjustment through a partial refund instead.
No. An invoice is a payment request, not a charge. The buyer still has to open it and click Pay now to complete the purchase using their own payment method.
On the invoice screen there is a field for a seller discount. Enter a dollar amount or adjust the shipping figure, and the grand total updates before you send. This is the standard way to apply a multi-item or loyalty discount.
eBay invoices go to the buyer's registered email and also appear in their Purchase history on eBay. Ask the buyer to check spam, then look under Purchases on their account. If it is still missing, resend it from Awaiting payment.
The Seller Hub invoice flow is most reliable on a desktop browser. The mobile app handles order management, but for sending or editing an invoice with combined shipping, use eBay.com on a computer.
After the buyer pays, the funds run through eBay's managed payments. On the default daily schedule, eBay initiates the payout within two days of the confirmed payment, and your bank typically takes another one to three business days to make the money available. You need a checking account on file, since savings and PayPal accounts cannot receive payouts.
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