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Why is my downloaded invoice just named invoice.pdf, without the invoice number?

Because your invoice number is written in Arabic letters or digits. The tool builds the file name from the invoice number but keeps only Latin letters, Western digits, dots, dashes and underscores, and drops everything else. A number like 'فاتورة-١٢' leaves nothing behind, so the name is plain invoice.pdf. The number inside the PDF is not affected.

Published · 2 min read

Examples from the tool itself

These are the file names the Basic invoice generator produces for different invoice numbers:

  • 'فاتورة-١٢': invoice.pdf, because the letters are Arabic and the digits Arabic-Indic.
  • 'فاتورة 2026-15': invoice-2026-15.pdf, the Arabic word dropped and the Western digits kept.
  • 'INV-2026/0042': invoice-INV-2026-0042.pdf, with the slash turned into a dash.

Each character that is not allowed, or run of them, becomes a single dash, then dashes are trimmed from both ends. The invoice number field itself holds up to 30 characters.

Why not keep the Arabic name?

Because the file travels: to the client's email, to WhatsApp, into an accounting system that may be old, onto a computer set to another language. File names in Arabic script or with special symbols can turn into garbled characters in some of those places, be refused, or break when zipped. A Latin name works almost everywhere, which is why the tool uses one.

Getting the number into the file name

  1. Write the invoice number in Latin letters and Western digits, such as INV-2026-0042. That is the format the tool suggests in the field.
  2. If you are used to Arabic-Indic digits, convert the number to Western digits first with the Arabic/Persian/Western digit converter.
  3. Avoid spaces and symbols like # or /; they become dashes and can make the name longer than you want.

The invoice number is printed inside the file exactly as you typed it, in Arabic if you wrote it in Arabic. Only the file name changes.

And if you want an Arabic file name?

You can rename the file on your device after downloading; the tool does not stop you. But think about who receives it: a Latin number in the name makes the invoice far easier to find in email or in an accountant's folder full of files from many suppliers. And if you send several invoices a day, a name that carries the number stops you attaching the wrong one.