Accounts Receivables Automation with Invoice Tracking – QuickBooks Online

Account receivables automation helps businesses to save time on credit control tasks and collect the outstanding debt faster. There are several parts to account receivables automation including creating an invoice tracker, identifying which invoices are outstanding, automatically following up on the invoices.

Whether it’s chasing down late payments, dealing with piled-up receivables, or trying to prevent bad debt, the accounts receivable process can be a constant source of headaches. But what if there was a way to automate this entire workflow, freeing up your time and resources to focus on growing your business?

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore how you can leverage the power of robotic process automation and the QuickBooks Online connector to create a custom automated invoice tracking system. By the end of this article, you’ll have a deep understanding of how to streamline your accounts receivable process, improve cash flow, and enhance your overall business efficiency.

The Challenges of Manual Invoice Tracking

Before we dive into the solution, let’s first examine the common challenges businesses face when it comes to managing their invoices and accounts receivable:

• Lack of visibility: Without a centralized system, it can be difficult to keep track of which invoices are outstanding, overdue, or have been paid. This can lead to missed payments, frustrated customers, and a lack of financial clarity.
• Time-consuming processes: Manually following up on late payments, updating spreadsheets, and generating reports can be a significant drain on your team’s productivity, taking them away from more strategic tasks.
• Increased risk of errors: Human-driven processes are prone to mistakes, such as incorrect invoice details or missed follow-ups, which can further complicate the accounts receivable process.
• Delayed cash flow: When invoices go unpaid or are not followed up on in a timely manner, it can have a direct impact on your business’s cash flow, making it difficult to manage expenses and invest in growth opportunities.

These challenges are not unique to small businesses – even large, well-established organizations can struggle with the complexities of accounts receivable management. That’s where the power of automation comes in.

Which Parts of Account Receivables Process Can Be Automated

The first step to automating the account receivables process is to break it down into individual tasks that need to be automated. Here is the list of tasks based on our experience:

• Data Extraction: We need to automatically extract invoice data, including details like invoice ID, client contact email, due date, total amount, and status.
• Identify Outstanding Invoices: After extracting the data on all the invoices, we need to narrow this list down to only invoices that are outstanding.
• Automated Follow-up Reminders: We need to write an email template for chasing customers for payment and automatically insert the relevant data into it including invoice number, outstanding amount, number of days outstanding, etc. We then need to schedule the emails to be sent every month/week until the payment is made.
• Secure Access and User-based Permissions: We often need to incorporate security policies that allow you to control which users can access and view the invoice data, ensuring sensitive information is protected.

By combining these features, the automated invoice tracking solution streamlines your accounts receivable process, reduces manual effort, and helps you maintain a healthy cash flow – all while ensuring your data is secure and accessible to the right stakeholders.

Technologies to Automate Account Receivables

We used the following list of technologies to deliver automated account receivables solutions for our clients:

We used QuickBooks Online Connector to automatically extract the invoice data into an Azure SQL Server Database. If you are using a different accounting package like Xero, there are similar connectors that can be used!

We then used Microsoft Power Automate to show the list of outstanding invoices to our client in a SharePoint List and refresh it automatically. Finally, Power Automate was used to insert the data from SharePoint list into an email template and send it on a schedule.

Implementing the Accounts Receivables Automation

Now, let’s dive into the step-by-step process of implementing the automated invoice tracking solution in your business:

Step 1: Set up the QuickBooks Online Connector

The first step is to set up the QuickBooks Online connector. This connector allows you to securely access your QuickBooks Online data and integrate it into your automated workflows.

The connector also pulls all the invoice PDFs into a folder on your Azure and generates a link for each one of them. You can later attach these pdfs to your follow up emails to customers.

To get started, you’ll need to visit the Vidi Connectors website and install the QuickBooks Online connector. Once you’ve installed the connector, your data will be easily accessible in an Azure SQL Server database and ready to be used in Power Automate.

Step 2: Create Outstanding Invoice Reporting

The next step is to create a Power Automate flow that will automatically extract the necessary invoice data from Azure SQL database in a SharePoint List. This process will run on a scheduled basis (e.g., daily or weekly) to ensure your invoice data is always up-to-date.

The key steps of putting this report together include:

• Connecting to the Invoice table in the Azure database to retrieve invoice metadata, such as invoice ID, client ID, due date, total amount, and status.
• Joining invoice data with payments data to identify which invoices are paid.
• Adding a link to every invoice pdf into the SharePoint list.

By creating this account receivables report, you can increase visibility of your outstanding invoices and reach out to customers if needed.

Step 3: Automate Client Follow Ups

Now that your outstanding invoices can be clearly seen, you can create a series of Power Automate workflows to follow up with clients. These workflows can include:

• Automatically Inserting Data to Email Templates: A workflow that inserts the data into your email template: number of days the invoice has been outstanding, invoice number, invoice amount, etc
• Sending Emails Automatically: A workflow that automatically sends customized email reminders to customers with overdue invoices, based on the schedule that you control.
• Secure Data Access: A workflow that controls which users can access the invoice data, based on your organization’s security policies and user permissions.

By automating these key processes, you can free up your team’s time and resources, while ensuring that your accounts receivable management is consistent, efficient, and secure.

Step 4: Integrate with Power BI for Customized Reporting

To provide your team with a comprehensive view of your accounts receivable, you can integrate the automated invoice tracking solution with Power BI. This will allow you to create custom reports and dashboards that display key metrics, such as:

• Total outstanding invoices
• Overdue invoices by age (e.g., 1-30 days, 31-60 days, 61-90 days, etc.)
• Average time to payment
• Top customers by outstanding balance
• Trends in invoice payments and collection rates

By leveraging the power of Power BI, you can gain valuable insights into your accounts receivable, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your cash flow and financial management.

Benefits of Accounts Receivable Automation & Invoice Tracking

Implementing an automated invoice tracking solution like the one we’ve described can provide a wide range of benefits for your business, including:

Improved Visibility and Control

By centralizing your invoice data and automating the tracking process, you’ll have a clear, real-time view of your outstanding receivables. This increased visibility allows you to identify problem areas, make informed decisions, and take proactive steps to improve your cash flow.

Enhanced Efficiency and Productivity

Automating the tedious, repetitive tasks associated with invoice tracking – such as data entry, follow-up reminders, and report generation – frees up your team to focus on more strategic, value-added activities. This can lead to significant time and cost savings for your business.

Reduced Risk of Errors and Missed Payments

Automated workflows and data-driven processes help eliminate the human errors that can occur with manual invoice tracking, ensuring that no invoices slip through the cracks and that your financial records remain accurate and up-to-date.

Improved Customer Relationships

By automating the follow-up process and providing customers with timely reminders, you can improve your collection rates and maintain stronger relationships with your clients. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and a more positive overall experience.

Better Financial Management and Decision-Making

The comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities of the automated invoice tracking solution provide you with valuable insights into your accounts receivable. This can help you make more informed decisions about cash flow, credit policies, and other financial strategies to support the growth and sustainability of your business.

Get Started with Accounts Receivable Automation & Invoice Tracking

If you’re ready to take control of your accounts receivable and streamline your invoice tracking process, the automated solution we’ve described can be a game-changer for your business. By leveraging the power of Microsoft Power Automate and the QuickBooks Online connector, you can create a robust, customizable system that delivers tangible benefits to your organization.

To get started, we recommend reaching out to the team at Vidi Corporation. As experts in Power Automate and QuickBooks integration, we can help you assess your specific needs, design a tailored solution, and guide you through the implementation process. With our support, you can unlock the full potential of automated invoice tracking and take your accounts receivable management to new heights.

Don’t let outstanding invoices and manual processes hold your business back. Embrace the power of automation and transform your accounts receivable workflow today.