2026 Is Here: One Critical Feature Will Decide Whether Many of Us Can Move Fully to FluentCart… or should stand for 1y
As 2026 approaches (and with a little extra relief thanks to the postponement of some EU regulatory requirements to 2027) many of us are genuinely excited about the idea of running 100% of our business inside FluentCart next year.
But there is one very real obstacle that continues to surface across the community, especially among professionals who sell services:
we still can’t create manual orders in a way that meets the operational and regulatory standards required in Europe.
Let me break down what this means and why it matters.
1.Manual orders need proper tax calculation
Right now, when creating a manual order, FluentCart doesn’t calculate taxes with the same logic used at checkout.
For lawyers, consultants, designers, agencies, and anyone who invoices services, this creates immediate friction (and in many cases, compliance risk).
2.Tax labels must reflect the actual tax applied
Terms like “estimated tax” or “excluded tax” won’t work for professional invoices.
In Europe, the requirement is explicit:
the tax must be identified by name, such as ES VAT, IT VAT, FR VAT, etc.
This isn’t a cosmetic detail.
It’s a legal and accounting necessity.
3.“Pay What You Want” is essential for service businesses
Many consultants agree on a price directly with a client and then generate a manual order that reflects that agreement.
Without PWYW inside manual orders, the workflow breaks (and people can’t switch their billing system).
Why this matters right now?
On January 1st, every service provider in Europe needs their billing setup locked, compliant, and ready for the new fiscal year.
If the system isn’t fully ready on Day 1, switching mid-year becomes nearly impossible from an accounting standpoint.
So the decision becomes binary:
- If FluentCart supports manual orders properly, we can finally migrate everything.
- If not, we must stay with our current providers for the entire 2026 cycle.
And that would slow down adoption at the exact moment demand is rising.
The opportunity:
If FluentCart delivers these three features prior to 2026:
✔ correct tax computation in manual orders
✔ proper tax labels
✔ pay-what-you-want support
…it instantly becomes a top choice for European professionals who rely on precise invoicing: consultants, lawyers, designers, agencies, coaches, accountants, and more.
These users are loyal, long-term, and deeply integrated once they standardize their billing workflow.
We’re all rooting for this.
We want to move fully into the Fluent ecosystem.
And we’re very close (genuinely close).
If you need feedback, test cases, or real-world workflows, we’re ready to help. Let’s make 2026 the year FluentCart becomes the default for service businesses across Europe :)
If not, we’ll be crying on the sidelines while the rest of you enjoy FluentCart all through 2026 😂
PS.: Service providers… assemble!
I'm not in the EU and therefore not subject to these requirements, but I'll assemble with fellow service providers! 🦸🏻♀️ (And also we have a rn use case for PWYW so 🤞🏼)
Charlotte D thank you Charlotte! 😄
I’m sure we all share many of this requirements!
I'm building custom PWYW functionality for our charity donors. It definitely won't be ready before Jan 1, but I might see what I can do to make it available when it's stable... We're currently testing and hope to go live on our site in the next few days, if all goes well...
Chris Conlee this looks very interesting Chris! Congratulations!
Jorge de los Reyes Yeah, we're super excited. So far the process of building a headless FluentCart so we could customize it to this extent has not been painless, but also not impossible. The one thing we haven't been able to do is pass the charity's name thru to the printed invoices, although it does propagate to the order summary on the donor's profile. In the US that's sufficient; probably not in the EU. We're rolling with it, and are now doing final testing before going live. It would definitely be great if PWYW was implemented out of the box, though, so this kind of customization wasn't necessary. Having said that, it's absolutely IMPRESSIVE the level of control they've granted developers, and how cleanly it can be implemented! Shahjahan Jewel
Chris Conlee this is so good !!
Chris Conlee I would be very much interested in this. While a pay what you want ought to be core for FC, somethings thats specific and separate for donations like what you've built is a great addon. Love that there's an option to cover processing fees. In my experience, clients would also like a way to deposit donations to a separate bank account. One past use case was a physical product for a non profit while they also had for profit products on the site.
Another useful feature would be setting a minimum donation - like for charity event tickets or the physical product example.
I would love to get started the first of January too if not it's the following year for me too... the expense options and invoicing would be great..
Camilo Barrett can’t wait tbh!
Would love to start this 2026 😄
This is my situation too, I was hoping to start the first of the year. All of my stuff is service-related with lots of custom pricing. Right now, the biggest thing is that you can't create a manual order for a customer that includes a private product (impossible to add to the order unless published in the plugin's current state).
Sharif Munawar Jameel I really hope this post gets attention!
I always considered FluentCart being the store front, not the accounting/invoicing system. If I invoice a client for services, I'll send them an invoice directly. For many B2B and even B2G we need proper e-invoicing. Using the store front for manual invoicing does not make sense to me. It's like trying to drive a screw in with a hammer.
But I fully agree with taxes. I am working on a custom solution to calculate and show prices including proper tax for services (not products, though) in FluentCart.
André Daus I get your point totally!
But here’s the reality in Europe:
If a software generates invoices and is sold in the EU, it has to meet EU invoicing requirements: both the software seller and the user.
Intent doesn’t matter. Features do.
FluentCart already includes invoicing elements (tax fields, tax display, tax logic).
The moment a tool lets you issue something that looks and acts like an invoice, the rules apply.
So it’s binary:
If you offer invoicing, it must be compliant.
If it must be compliant, manual orders need correct tax calculation, proper tax labels, etc.
And PWYW it’s just a handy feature most of the invoicing softwares include.
So, it’s not a matter of anyone wanting FC to become an accounting system (fill tax forms and so).
but because the second it outputs an invoice, it’s playing in regulated territory.
FluentCart is 90% there.
They are even working on the XML format for EU.
We just need the last 10% so service providers in Europe can actually switch.
Jorge de los Reyes the invoicing in FluentCart has so many shortcomings that it currently only fits the simplest workflows. I always said, that it should be handled in a proper accounting/invoicing system. Anyway, I never understood why we would need manual orders in the store front. It just doesn't make sense to me. How did we process manual orders before FluentCart?
André Daus an order is usually the trigger for many actions. From account creation, granting access, customer relationship boards, CRM, ERPS, any system you use...
Any e-commerce tool allows you to create this for many use cases: from out-from-store payments, workflow automation (for teams creating orders for specific pricing), sending a payed invoice, sending an invoice with payment due…
It’s just a quite extended feature in e-commerce. Specially for HT services, and custom pricing.
But of course, many will never use it (eg.: if you only sell one time purchases or basic subscriptions, or physical products). It will depend on your business, SOPs and your processes.
For service providers, as mentioned in the community by different users and quoted in the post, it’s a must. For the operative and for compliance.
And also, a reason for switching in 2025, or in 2027.
André Daus In person with checks and cash, I guess. But non-profits need a way for donors to specify what they want to donate.
Chris Conlee pay what you want is a totally valid feature. All I am saying is that manual orders should not have a priority when we have other topics much more important like taxes. And without taxes it is hard to go live.
André Daus well, for my use in the US, I don't care about taxes and couldn't go live without customization. So I guess each user's needs differ. 🙂
Chris Conlee absolutely. However, this post is more about Europe. I can also easily use it for my US clients 😎, but within the EU it’s a PITA. 🤷♂️
André Daus woocommerce was good in terms of invoicing in my experience. I dont believe it has to be separate solution, because for example for an agency, a standard website might be a digital product that people can check our on their own with addons and upsells for copy and seo. But then if a client wants a custom site, the product can be used for the invoice, just price modified and custom line items added. This creates a more unified flow, because what if there's the same automations triggered for the self checkout package and the custom invoice package.
I also dont see how manual orders shouldn't have a larger priority.
How did we do manual orders before FC? With woo....
I needed to buy a license from my test store yesterday. So I added a dummy client and bought him a test license all from the backend. I’d call that a manual order. So it already works, doesn’t it? But taxes are still incorrect.
André Daus yeah. Manual orders have been working since the beta. The problem we were talking about is that it does not calculate taxes like in the checkbox (point 1 of this post).
Once this is added + correct tax labeling -point 2- (not just “estimated” but the proper tax naming) I am sure many will migrate prior to 2026 😄
And of course, this function benefits so much of the PWYW. So that’s why it was raised as point 3.
Sharif Munawar Jameel also pointed something key: being able to create this orders with private products too. Something that is also pretty common.
As an agency selling services, we support this request !
lets make Fluentcart the best tool for agencies 👍