We will show how to create an automated invoicing system that will do the following for you:
- Calculate hours worked
- Create an invoice
- Store the invoice in Google Drive
- Send the invoice via email to the relevant party (i.e., HR, accounting)
This invoice automation solution will prove useful for freelancers and small business who wish for a standardized process capable of delivering instant productivity gains. Invoicing software for small business need not be expensive as this example will show you. There are many advertisements for free invoicing software for small business, but they provide extremely limited capability, and eventually the user is forced to upgrade. As you see from this example below – additional custom functionality can be easily built to suit your needs as well.
Step 1: Create Timesheets
- The first step is to create a couple of timesheets (here we are using an application called Harvest)
Step 2: Create a new scenario to pull in timesheet data
- Next, we create a new scenario & configuring the Harvest module to pull in the timesheet data
Step 3: Do the maths!
- Here we figure out the total number of hours worked and multiply by our hourly rate to get the total amount for our invoice.
Step 4: Set up filters to pull proper data
- Next, we set up a filter to pull in only the entries that were created in the previous month. This filter is set up between the two modules we created above
- We also set up some variables to calculate the due. These variables will be used in later steps
Step 5: Create a custom invoice from the invoice template
- We now create an invoice from a Google Doc template located in our Google Drive
Step 6: Setup Google Drive for OAuth permissions
- Next, we will create automation to fill up the above template with relevant data, and download it so that it can be emailed to the customer. But before we are able to download we will need certain special permissions to be granted to our bot. Both steps are shown below
Step 7: Email invoice to the customer
- Next, we will configure Gmail to send the invoice to the customer
Step 8: Testing Run!
- Testing time – This is where the rubber meets the road! We will run the scenario once and see if everything works out fine.
Step 9: Test Results
- Seems like we are all set! The scenario was executed without a hitch. Below screenshots show the email received, the invoice in pdf format that was attached, and the original invoice copy that was created and stored in our Google Drive
This is a simple use case where we demonstrated how to create an automated invoice generation bot without needing to buy some expensive software to do the same work and with barely any coding. I hope you have enjoyed this case study! Happy automating!
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