WooCommerce Attach Me!

Some orders do not end with the delivery: they end with a document

It is a case WooCommerce does not allow for out of the box and it appears in more businesses than it seems.

A printer has to send the colour proof for the client to approve before running a thousand leaflets. A workshop hands over the repair certificate. A manufacturer sends the technical sheet and the declaration of conformity. A photographer delivers the signed contract. A machinery shop attaches the manual and the stamped warranty.

All of it ends up being handled by email from a personal account, with the file lost in a thread of twenty messages and no way of knowing what was sent to whom. WooCommerce Attach Me! brings those files onto the order, which is where they belong.

What it does

• Attaches files to a specific order from the admin.
• Accepts any kind of content: images, documents, videos, proofs and whatever you need, with no format limits.
• Keeps the file tied to the order, so it is on record who received what.

Why the order is the right place and email is not

Worth explaining because the change looks minor and is not.

The file does not get lost. Six months from now, when the client claims the proof they approved was a different one, the document is on the order with its date. In an email thread, good luck.

Anybody on your team can find it. It does not depend on whoever sent it being at work today or still at the company.

The customer knows where to look. Their account and their order, always the same place, rather than hunting for an email from three weeks ago.

No more email size limits. A forty megabyte print file gets through almost no mail server, and that is where the dance of transfer services expiring after seven days begins.

Two things worth being clear about

It is not a downloads shop. If what you sell is the file (a template, a digital book, music), WooCommerce does that as standard with the downloadable product type, with its download limits and expiry. This plugin is for the opposite: physical or service orders that need documentation added afterwards.

The files are data. A signed contract, a certificate or a proof carrying the customer's details are subject to the same obligations as everything else: who has access, how long they are kept and what happens when the customer asks for deletion. Worth deciding the retention period before accumulating three years of documents.

Requirements

It needs WordPress and WooCommerce. With large files the server's upload limits have to be reviewed, which is where the first problem usually appears.

Alternatives in the catalogue

If the file you need to attach is an invoice or a delivery note, there is no need to do it by hand: WooCommerce PDF Invoices generates and sends them automatically with each order.

If what you want is generating bespoke documents from the order data or a form, E2Pdf builds the template and fills it in, which is considerably more practical than writing each certificate.

And if the file travels the other way, from the customer to you (a photograph for personalisation, a logo for printing, an identity document for a formality), that is Customer Upload Files for WooCommerce.

Frequently asked questions

What file types does it accept?
Images, documents, videos and generally any content, with no format limitation.

Is it for selling downloadable products?
Not needed. WooCommerce does that as standard with the downloadable product type.

Does the customer see the file in their account?
Yes, it stays tied to their order, which is the advantage over sending it by email.

What if the file is very large?
The server's upload limits have to be reviewed. It is the usual first obstacle.

Can the customer upload files?
That goes the other way. There are specific plugins for customer uploads.

How long should I keep them?
Worth deciding before accumulating them, because they are customer data with the obligations attached.