How to Automatically Send Notifications When an Invoice has been Paid.

A client wanted to automate their notification process to inform the sales team when an invoice from a client had been paid and when.

While this hack is specifically about notifying a specific team or user when an invoice has been paid, it can be adapted for other actions too. 

Step 1

The first step was to create two new properties, in this case deal properties.

  • Navigate to settings
  • Under Data Management, click on ‘Properties’
  • Select the object that you want the new properties to sit under - in this case the object is ‘Deals’

  • I created the first property called ‘Invoice Paid’ as a single checkbox
  • The second property called ‘Date Invoice Paid’ is a date picker property.  In this circumstance the client wanted to have the option to backdate this field manually to match their records so we didn’t implement any rules.

 

Step 2

Now that the properties have been created, I wanted to ensure that these new properties could be seen on the deal record.  To do this, I needed to customise the record.  

  • Go to ‘Settings’ and under Data Management, select the Deals object type.  Then select the tab ‘Record Customisation’.  Here you have an option to customise the record for a specific team or portal wide (default view)
  • I created a new card ‘Deal Revenue’ to show on the left-hand side bar.  This included the deal properties ‘Amount’, ‘Deal Paid?’, and ‘Date Invoice Paid’

 

Step 3

Create a test deal and select YES for the ‘Invoice Paid?’ property.  This will determine later if the actions work

 

Step 4

The next and final step is to create the workflow.  To do this click on ‘Automations’ on the left-hand side of the screen and choose ‘Workflows’

  • Click on ‘Create Workflow’ and select ‘from scratch’
  • As this workflow is regarding deal properties, we need to select ‘Deal-based’
  • Give your workflow a name.  Using a good naming convention for workflows is as important as it is for other collateral in your portal

  • Click on ‘Set up triggers’ and select ‘When filter criteria is met’
  • We are filtering on Deal and deal properties.  Type invoice in the search box to bring forward the newly created property “Invoice Paid?’
  • Select ‘is any of’ …. ‘YES’
  • Save

 

  • Next we want to select the next stage, so click on the + sign 

  • Select CRM and ‘Edit a Record’
  • Choose your property, in this case we want to edit the other newly created property ‘Date Invoice Paid’
  • Select the option ‘Date of Step’ then ‘Save’

  • The next action is to create the notification.  To do this we want to create another step in the workflow by clicking on the + sign again
  • This time we want to select Communications, and send an internal email

  • Choose to send to ‘existing owner’ and select ‘Deal Owner’
  • Configure your email.  You can use tokens to create a personalised email

 

Step 5

When you have completed all the actions that you want the workflow to complete you can review and publish.  

Note: It would be possible to update the Date Invoice Paid property using conditional logic if you didn’t need to notify anyone about the payment

 

Carrie Jones

Author: Carrie Jones

Associate Platform Consultant and Onboarding Specialist