What can be automated around QuickBooks?
A lot is already built in: automatic invoice reminders, recurring invoices, invoices made from estimates, and bank feeds (your bank transactions pulled in each day). Switch those on first. What I add is the joining-up between QuickBooks and your other tools.
What QuickBooks already does
Intuit's UK help article on invoice reminders gives the steps. In Settings, under Account and settings and then the Sales tab, there is a Reminders section where you turn on automatic invoice reminders and choose how many days Before or After the due date each goes out. The article says "You can schedule and send email reminders up to 90 days before or after the invoice due date", and that you can add second and third reminders.
The same article sets some conditions. A reminder goes "only for invoices you’ve already emailed", and the customer needs an email address on file. The article says it covers QuickBooks Online (Advanced, Essentials, Plus, and Simple Start) and Sole Trader.
Intuit's invoicing page adds that you can create invoices from your original estimates, and set up recurring invoices that are created and sent automatically on a schedule you choose. A footnote there says recurring invoices are on the Essentials plan and above.
Its UK homepage goes further on the typing. It says you can "Automate invoices from handwritten notes, PDFs, photos and even emails you forward".
What I would do first, in your position
- Turn on reminder 1 and write it in your own voice.
- Work out which of your invoices are repeats, such as a monthly retainer, and make them recurring.
- Connect your bank feed, so payments arrive without typing, and check them once a week.
Where outside help comes in
What is left is the work around the accounts rather than inside them:
- Enquiry to estimate. A quote request arrives by email or a website form, and someone still retypes the details of the job. Turning that into a QuickBooks estimate is the part I would build.
- Job done to invoice. A job finished in a calendar or job sheet, and the invoice raised from it without retyping.
- A weekly nudge. One short message listing who is overdue, so you are not hunting through screens.
Intuit's own guide for developers says other software can create records in QuickBooks Online through its developer connection (the API), for example "a new Invoice, a new SalesReceipt, or a new Item". That is the connection the three jobs above would use. What it allows for your set-up, I confirm before quoting.
An example I am working on
A scaffolding firm I work with raises its invoices in its main office system, and each one is then typed again by hand into QuickBooks for the accountant. I am working with that firm on a new office system, and a link to QuickBooks is something I would add later, not yet agreed. This is what I would have it do:
- Each invoice goes into QuickBooks the moment it is raised, unsent, for the accounts person to check. Nothing goes to the customer on its own.
- The customer's details go across with it, so the customer list is not kept twice.
- Payments recorded in QuickBooks show in the office system too, if QuickBooks lets that be read back.
- Everything else stays with the accountant, in QuickBooks.
The developer guide above walks through creating an invoice for a customer and reading records back. How it connects depends on which version of QuickBooks the firm has: Intuit's guide covers QuickBooks Online only. I check that, and whether paid status can come back, before promising either.
None of this is built yet, for that firm or anyone else. For any client, the link would be scoped and agreed in writing before I build it.
What this will not do
None of this replaces your accountant, or decides how to treat a transaction for tax.
If you want help with it
Practical Automation is me, Will Darbey, working on my own for small businesses in south west London, and anywhere in the UK remotely. Because I also have a day job, I agree dates with you in advance instead of promising a fast turnaround.
If you want a second pair of eyes on where retyping happens between your quotes, jobs and QuickBooks, the first step is a free 30 minute call. If the built-in features cover it, I will tell you. Really no pressure.