By integrating ClickSend with your favourite small business account software via Zapier, you can do some seriously cool things, like:
- Send your customers an SMS alongside their invoice being emailed
- Send automated invoice reminder messages by SMS
- Automatically get hard copies of your invoices printed and posted alongside them being emailed or later as a reminder.
If your customers get your invoice by email plus in the post with an SMS alerting them to this, how can they ever say ‘I never got that invoice’.
With integration, you can seamlessly increase invoice distribution, maximise on-time payment and cut hours chasing down late payments. This can all be done without coding custom integrations using an online automation tool like Zapier.
Automation tools open a whole new world of productivity, where you can integrate two of your chosen applications to combine and do even more for you. You choose the trigger action from one application to fire an event in the other application – in Zapier, this is called a zap. There’s no need for coding or to engage your developers; you can have your zaps up and running in a few clicks.
Okay, let’s walk through integrating ClickSend into your small business accounting software using Zapier. We’ll use InvoiceBerry in this example, but the process is the same for others (Xero, MYOB etc.).
Things you need for this:
- A ClickSend account, set up in minutes
- A Zapier account, set up in minutes
- And obviously, small business accounting software, InvoiceBerry in this instance
Integration on Zapier
To get started, create an account on Zapier.com. Once logged in, you can make a Zap!
1. When this happens… Search for your small business accounting software, InvoiceBerry for us, and trigger action – choose from; new client, new expense, new invoice, new credit note, new item or new quote. We’ll go for a new invoice, so when a new invoice is created, it triggers an SMS.
If it’s your first time using Zapier with InvoiceBerry, you just need to allow Zapier to access your InvoiceBerry account. This is easily done via the API key and password provided by InvoiceBerry under Settings.
2. Send SMS in ClickSend SMS… Action events you can choose to be triggered are Send SMS, Send Fax, Send SMS to Contact List, Send Voice, Send MMS, Create Contact, Send Post Letter, Create Contact List, Delete Contact, Delete Contact List or Send Postcard. We’re going to Send an SMS.
Then customise your SMS and turn on your Zap.
And that’s pretty much it. No APIs, no developers – easy-peasy.
Zaps to Automate Invoice Sending
Email your invoices straight from InvoiceBerry upon creation, or choose other delivery methods depending on your customers. You can also follow up using a different medium.
Letter Integration
Do your clients prefer to have physical documents rather than receive them by email? No problems. Integrate the ClickSend Online Post with InvoiceBerry and have documents printed, folded, inserted into envelopes, stamped and posted automatically. Don’t worry about printers, paper and envelopes, or trips to the post office – integrate the ClickSend letter service and have your invoices mailed effortlessly.
Set and forget your invoice mailing; simply create a zap that tees up ‘new invoice’ from InvoiceBerry with the ‘send post letter’ action in ClickSend.
Fax Integration
Still, have clients who rely on the fax? In many industries, the fax is the preferred method of sending and receiving important documents, like legal, healthcare and government. Not to worry, with ClickSend, you are covered – no need to own a fax machine.
Zap to Getting Payments Faster
If you’ve ever had to oversee invoicing, be it in a company accounts team, freelancer or small business owner, chances are chasing up receivables is one of your least favourite tasks. No one likes calling clients to ask for money. Cut down on the payment chasing while ensuring you get paid on time using automated communications. Here’s how.
SMS Notifications and Reminders
Add time delays and conditional filters to choose who you send communications to and when. Besides sending an SMS alert automatically when an invoice is generated, as shown above, you can follow up with another SMS as a gentle reminder a day or two before the invoice is due to encourage on-time payments. All automated.
To access filters and time delays, click the plus sign in between the blocks:
Combining your automation with conditional logic and time delays, there are endless ways to create the best experience for your clients. Should you want to send a letter, postcard, fax or text-to-voice call to remind your clients of their outstanding invoices? Your clients will be unable to say they ‘forgot’ to pay you if you are continually in contact.
Or you can even use ClickSend to thank your clients for punctual payments with a beautifully printed postcard; printed and posted right from the ClickSend cloud printer.
Zaps for Contact Management
Ever need to send important notifications to your clients? For example, you might need to alert them to new payment terms, ways to pay, pricing changes or additions to your product range. Instead of laboriously exporting and importing contact details, simply zap to have each new client in InvoiceBerry added to a contact list in ClickSend. That way, when you want to send all clients an SMS or email broadcast, your contacts are all in one place and you won’t need to waste time with lists and spreadsheets.
Integrating Invoicing Software with Other Applications
Integration with Your Payment Gateway
Do you need to generate invoices for products or services after the payment has been made? If you use Stripe or Paypal to receive funds, simply connect your accounting software to your payment gateway and have an invoice automatically generated when the payment goes through. Too easy!
Integration with Amazon Seller Central
If you’re a high-volume Amazon seller, this integration could be a godsend for you. Don’t get bogged down in having to manually create an invoice for every order – simply create a zap connecting Amazon Seller Central sales to your accounting software with Zapier.
Calendar Integration
Do you like having a visual representation of when your invoices fall due? Integrate your calendar application like Google Calendar with your invoice generation tool and have your calendar automatically update with outstanding payments.
In any client relationship, communication is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction – and satisfied customers are far more likely to do right by you when it comes to making payments.
Adding ClickSend and Zapier to your application stack, you can automate your way to a new level of productivity with accounts communications, as well as all aspects of processing accounts receivables.
Check out the ClickSend integrations page on InvoiceBerry and Zapier.
