Overview

Zapier is an online automation tool that connects your favorite applications, such as QuickBooks, Gmail, Slack, and more. You can automate repetitive tasks without coding or relying on developers to build the integration. It's easy to set up automated workflows, also known as Zaps, which can save significant time and enhance productivity in an accounting setting.

What are Zaps?

Zaps are automated workflows that connect your applications and perform tasks automatically, triggered by specified events. For an accountant, Zaps could be set up for an array of tasks, such as sending notifications for new invoices, auto-generating expense reports, or sending follow-up emails for overdue payments.

Understanding Triggers and Actions

Triggers are the events that start a Zap. For instance, receiving an email in Gmail or a new invoice being generated in QuickBooks could be triggers.

Actions are the tasks you're automating that follow the trigger. For example, after receiving an email (the trigger), an action could be creating a new bill in QuickBooks Online or sending a notification to Slack.

Zapier for Accountants

Here are some ways Zapier can be relevant to accountants:

  1. Automate Data Entry: With Zaps, accountants can drastically reduce the time spent on manual data entry. For example, when a new sale is recorded in a POS system like Square, a Zap can trigger and automatically create a corresponding invoice in QuickBooks with multiple line items and custom mapped income accounts per line.
  2. Expense Reporting: Zaps can automatically create expense reports from scanned receipts or emails. For instance, when an email with a receipt is received, it can add that line to a draft payable in Xero using data it parses from the email or attachment.
  3. Invoice Reminders: Accountants can set up Zaps to send reminders for overdue invoices. If an invoice in QuickBooks is marked as overdue, a Zap can trigger an automatic email reminder to the client with custom variables like “is this client on this specific do not contact list” and ignore sending the email, or “if they’re on this other list and the due date is greater than 60 days in the past, use this template with angry language”.
  4. Notification Sync: Zaps can help accountants stay updated across multiple platforms. A Zap could be set up to send a Slack notification when a new transaction is recorded in QuickBooks to a specific account such as “ask my accountant”. Let’s just hope there’s not 80,000 items in that account though.
  5. Financial Reports: You can automate the generation and distribution of financial reports. A Zap could be set up to create a monthly financial report in Google Sheets and send an email notification to the relevant personnel when it's ready. It’s a bit of a heavy lift and there are other apps for this, but it could be done.