If you use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) app in your business, it is often a common workflow requirement to create an invoice in your accounting system once a deal or opportunity reaches a certain stage in the CRM. If an integration exists between your two apps, often the integration may not do what you need it to do or still requires manual steps.

If, for example, you use Pipedrive and Xero to manage your sales and finances, then you probably know that a great native integration exists between the two systems. It allows you to generate invoices in Xero and see invoice statuses sync between the two apps, which is very handy for visibility. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to create those invoices automatically in Xero based on certain trigger criteria in Pipedrive. Say, for example, if you wanted to create an invoice in Xero when a deal reached a certain stage in Pipedrive, the process would still require manual effort, so can be time-consuming and inefficient.

There is a solution, however! You can automate the entire process using Zapier to take out the manual steps, streamline the process and reduce errors.

Our video teaches you how to automate adding invoices to Xero when events happen in Pipedrive

Our new video shows you how easy it is to configure Zapier to connect Pipedrive and Xero to create a contact for a new customer and then add an invoice to Xero, when a deal reaches a particular stage in Pipedrive.  Zapier’s pre-built integrations mean that you don’t need to write any code, or hire a developer, to automate tasks in other apps when events happen in Pipedrive.

For our example, when a deal is updated to the ‘invoiced’ stage we can trigger a series of steps to look for an existing contact, and if it’s not found then create a new one.  The trigger step can be customised to work with other relevant triggers in Pipedrive; here is a link to the full list of Zapier trigger events with Pipedrive.  We could also have used the Create/Update Contact integration for Xero. You can check out the other Zapier integrations with Xero here.

Then we create a sales invoice for the contact, all using Zapier’s super-simple visual builder interface.  Zapier takes you through each trigger and action event, asking what data you need and testing each step as you go, to ensure it works.

The steps in Zapier which add new contacts and create an invoice

Our video is a step-by-step guide to the automation for adding new contacts and creating an invoice when a deal is updated in Pipedrive.  We explain each step in detail and explain why some of the integrations were chosen as there is often more than one way of automating a particular process.

The steps are:

• Create a trigger event for when a deal in Pipedrive is updated to the ‘invoiced’ stage.
• Split the person’s full name into forename and surname using the Formatter By Zapier app
• Split the address into separate lines using Formatter By Zapier so that each can be stored in a different field in the contact record.
• Find or create the contact in Xero by searching for the organisation and if it doesn’t exist then create a new contact using the name and address details from the previous steps.
• Create a sales invoice in Xero, mapping the products from the Pipedrive deal into separate line items.

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Some handy tips

Here are a few bonus ideas to get you thinking about how you can improve this process further:

1. You can create more visibility in your CRM by enabling the use of custom fields and adding extra steps in your workflows to pass back invoice numbers or invoice URLs, and invoice statuses.
2. You can also create additional workflow automations to update your invoice statuses in your CRM when the status changes in Xero to “paid”.
3. You can add additional steps in your workflow to send the invoice out automatically to your customer and mark it as “sent” in Xero. Watch another one of our videos that includes an email sending step.

Other CRM options

Although this example for adding invoices and contacts to Xero uses Pipedrive, there are many other CRMs that have pre-built integrations in Zapier, including Salesforce and Hubspot, just to name a couple. We could replicate this process in Salesforce as it has similar trigger events in Zapier, when a Lead or Opportunity changes its pipeline stage.  You can view all the Salesforce integrations here and we will be creating a video using Salesforce zaps very soon!

Use this link for a 30-day Pipedrive free trial instead of 14 days.

More about automation using Xero

If you’re a Xero user then we have some other automations you can use to connect it with your other business apps.

• Send a Slack message with a daily digest of paid Xero invoices
• How Xero automation saves time and reduces errors
• How to automate thanking your customers for paying their Xero invoices

We also have a brilliant case study for one of our clients, One Year No Beer, who saved over £2800 by optimising their Xero setup using Zapier.

Our other resources

We also have plenty of free resources:

• Our free e-book is the perfect introduction to business automation.
• Our Zapier functions cheat sheet delves into the powerful inbuilt helper apps which can supercharge your automations.
• A free checklist to help you justify an automation budget

And finally, our founder / chief problem solver / chief automator Kelly Goss’ new book, Automate It with Zapier, is out now and is the most comprehensive Zapier guide on the market. It will get you up and running and to the stage where you can build and debug advanced automations. Buy your own copy today directly from publisher Packt using this link. Or here are links to Amazon (.co.uk) and Amazon (.com) if you prefer.

Read more about how our certified experts use Zapier workflow automations to simplify processes and increase efficiency.

Solvaa is a process and automation consultancy specialising in improving sales, operations and financial administration workflows. We help you to simplify and streamline existing processes, integrate your business tools to make data transfer more efficient and automate manual tasks to increase productivity. We are Zapier Certified Experts, Pipedrive Certified Experts and Xero Certified Advisors. 

Contact us today to discuss how Solvaa can help you simplify, improve and automate all aspects of your business with Zapier to save you time, reduce costs and keep you agile as you grow.

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