Automating Accounts Receivable Without Code

Continuing our #nocode series, this post covers how Optimus uses no-code tools to automate accounts receivable tracking, which we'll simply call receivables from here on.

PROBLEM

Normally, when you want to know where receivables stand, you ask accounting. The problem is:

- Accountants usually don't record the data every day. They do it in batches every now and then

- So when you need the numbers, they aren't ready right away, and you have to wait

- How long you wait depends on timing. If accounting is busy with quarterly or year-end reports, a week is normal, not to mention when someone is out sick, on leave, or traveling...

Receivables are key information for salespeople working with customers and for planning cash flow. When this information depends on a single person, sales is always on the back foot, and every related decision moves slowly.

To manage receivables, accounting basically goes through these steps:

1. Record the amount due from each customer, based on the e-invoices issued

2. Record the amount received from each customer, based on the bank's balance-change notifications

3. Match the amounts due against the amounts received for each customer to work out what is still outstanding

All of these steps are done by hand, so they are slow and error-prone.

SOLUTION

Steps 1 and 2 follow fairly clear logic, so they can be automated with no-code tools. The goals are:

- Automatically record the amounts due and the amounts received for every customer

- Automatically notify the salesperson when a customer pays

- Provide a tool that makes matching payments to invoices easy

TOOLS

The tools used: Gmail, Integromat (Make.com), Google Sheets, Wave.

Here is how the flow works:

- Gmail: receives the bank's balance-change emails and the invoice emails sent to customers

- Integromat: filters out everything except the relevant emails and pushes their content into Google Sheets

- Google Sheets: extracts the needed details from each email using text functions, and uses keywords in the email to work out which customer an invoice or payment belongs to

- Integromat: pushes the processed data from Google Sheets into Wave

- Wave: stores invoices and payments, gives salespeople a screen to match payments to invoices, and produces the receivables report

- Gmail: emails the salesperson when a customer payment comes in

RESULTS

- Amounts due and amounts received are recorded automatically, with a delay of about 15 minutes

- Salespeople are notified automatically when a customer pays. If there's an email, the customer has paid; if there isn't, they haven't. No need to ask accounting

- Wave is fairly easy to use, so salespeople can match payments to invoices themselves to see whether a customer has paid in full. This also makes sense in practice: when one customer has several contracts, the salesperson knows better than accounting which payment belongs to which contract, since accounting only looks at the total due and the total received

- The receivables report is always ready. Whenever you need it, just open Wave

DEMO

Every bank sends balance-change emails using a fixed template, so Google Sheets can cut out the details we need

E-invoicing software also sends emails with a fixed template, so the same approach works as for the bank emails

Email data is processed in Google Sheets, with each detail cut out into its own column. The transaction description is compared against a keyword list to tell whether it is a customer payment, and from which customer. The keyword list needs updating whenever a new customer comes on board

Integromat pushes data from the emails into Google Sheets, then takes the processed data from Google Sheets and pushes it into Wave

Invoice data is displayed in Wave. Once a salesperson matches an invoice to a transaction, the invoice status updates automatically. This view shows where receivables stand

The email tells the salesperson that the customer has paid. It only includes the details sales needs, and it is only sent for payments from customers

NOTES

Wave no longer accepts new accounts outside the US and Canada. Wave recommends Zoho Books instead. I haven't tried it yet, but its features should be similar to Wave's, and Zoho Books also integrates with Integromat.

CONCLUSION

Since most banks and e-invoicing software in Vietnam don't offer an API, automatically extracting data from emails is one way to get payment and invoice data.

This approach still has some drawbacks:

- The email templates used by banks and e-invoicing software can change (though it rarely happens). When they do, the extraction formulas in Google Sheets need adjusting.

- Some banks may not send notification emails, or may leave details out. For those banks, this approach won't work.

Overall, Optimus finds that this solution saves a great deal of effort. Salespeople can work almost independently of accounting, and information and related decisions flow much faster.

Optimus is a Make.com (formerly Integromat) Partner. Contact us for advice on and implementation of no-code automation.

If you'd like to set it up yourself, use Optimus's sign-up link to get one month of the Core plan free, with 10,000 operations included.