Create an Invoice in Airtable ⚡ Automate Google Docs from one record
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- Опубликовано: 28 июл 2024
- Create a Google Doc with automation from a single record in Airtable. In this example, we create an invoice with the click of a button. Learn how to automate a Google Doc from one record! 👇
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Table of Contents: 📖 👇
00:00 - What this video covers
01:22 - Outline the data schema
04:03 - Create an automation trigger
04:57 - Find the attached line item records
05:44 - Create the Google Doc
09:07 - Test the Google Doc
09:44 - Add the attached line item records to the Doc
12:21 - Update the Airtable record
13:52 - Test the automation
15:26 - How to Get More Help!
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Software Resources (may contain affiliate links): 💻 👇
Airtable - airtable.com/invite/r/v0eI3ASY
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#GAPConsulting #GarethPronovost #Airtable 
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If you add "/export?format=pdf" to the end of the Doc url, and if the doc was stored in a public folder, you can put that in the Automation step where you're Updating the invoice which will let Airtable upload a PDF version of the file to the attachment field.
You don't need a formula field or extra automation steps, just put the export bit at the end of the file url.
WHAT?!?! 🤯
Could you explain this on video? Because I want to automate forwarding the invoice to a client with a pdf.
@@309BO BuiltOnAir podcast, Season 11, Episode 8. ruclips.net/video/dhkwyxvx5b4/видео.html
I could follow your tip and get a pdf, unfortunately, it asked an authorization.
@@thierrygattlen8248 yep. The file must be in a shared Drive folder. This is true for any use of this trick, not just inputting into Airtable.
You indeed saved me 20 hours per week. Thanks so much!
Love hearing that! 🙌
Hi Gareth, I'm new to Airtable and have binge watched most of your videos. They are ALWAYS super clear, with detailed instructions, without dumbing down the viewer... absolutely perfect! Thank You! PS: Kudos to your followers adding little tips to supplement your videos, like Kamille on this vid explaining how to automate PDF creation. Keep it up everyone and we will some day master this amazing beast that is Airtable 😜
Thanks! Kamille is awesome and an incredible Airtable expert! I'm honored to have folks stepping in and adding extra value. 🔥
Thank you so much Gareth!
Sure thing! Thanks for watching 🙌
Great video !!!
Going to put it into practice tonight, thank you.
Hi Gareth, thank you for explaining the steps very clearly. It's really helpful.
One thing, do you have any video explaining how to link the Invoice table to the Invoice Line Items table? I tried to look for one, but I think I missed which one it is. I would really appreciate it if you can give the link here. Thank you so much!
Great Video! Do you recommend building the invoicing system using Airtable direct or using google sheet?
Understand that Airtable comes with forms, any idea why the forms are not used to create the invoices (with different items) ?
Is Airtable a good solution to generate recurring invoices? We have 500 monthly recurring invoices to be generated.
Very interesting video. Unfortunately, the functionality lack some basic formatting capacities.
I was hoping to be able to use a Google doc template with logo and being able to place elements where I want on the page. I was hoping to solve an interface problem that I face with people not used to Airtable. Any idea on how to add logo, tabulations, etc. to an invoice ?
But thanks for your videos.
Have you tried page designer?
@@tommycoe2333 yes of course. The problem with PD is with multi pages documents and it needs manual work to get a pdf document (print as pdf, save and manually rename it and save where it should be… and manually mail it). I was hoping to save this manual work. I will wait for an update.
@@thierrygattlen8248 you are correct. It's a pain. Hsbr tried documint?
@@tommycoe2333 It seems to be too expansive for my need.
@@thierrygattlen8248 I'm sorry I wasn't aware of thr pricing. Just trying yo help you brainstorm as this thing can be frustrating.
I think I still have to use document because I have some headers and what not that need to be inserted. I don’t think I can even use a header, but I’ll test it.
Wow. Thanks exactly what I need. Do you have a video explaining how to format the string for currency or at least share the formula so we can copy and paste it
I didn't save/paste the formula because I only wrote it to accommodate one comma. So if you have numbers in the millions, that formula wouldn't help. We don't have a video on exactly this formula, but you might check out some of our other formula writing videos for some inspiration.
Just an idea: there is a "miniExtension" called "Convert URLs to Attachments in Bulk on Airtable" ... works quite well for me. Maybe it could be the missing link for you to get your invoice document(s) as attachment(s) accessible in your table.
Thanks for this! Yes, there are a few options that would use 3rd party tools. We create documents in Documint, send them for Esignature in SignNow and then store the signed document back in our Airtable base with a Zapier automation.
As new features like this come out, we get closer to reducing the number of tools we use. For now though, we will still need to keep our automation, and it's good to know that miniExtension has an option as well 🙌
@@GarethPronovost I agree 100%, reducing 3rd party tools is a good approach. I try same with my bases. The last 5 years showed us that Sooner or later Airtablzcame up with solutions that I could drop more and more of my „3rd party workarounds“. KEEP UP YOUR GREAT WORK, GARETH! Without your guides and background information I would not be at the experience level as I am now. Thanks a million!
Hi, thank you for this but It would be interesting to have a video on the previous step: the structure of the invoice & services tables and how they are linked. Also how you automatically create a one-click numbered line reference.
To create a system close to this, I developed a script that, from a button on the headers table, creates a row on the rows table ("services" for you) by taking the key of the header record to group the rows. It works but the problem is that the "await input.recordAsync('xxx', tableRC);" instruction used to identify the current line, triggers the opening of the script dashboard (??) for displaying the key of the record, it’s stupid and therefore unusable, would you know why? I’m stuck on this and maybe I should give up this option, which is too bad, unless your method is better.
I like your videos as French because you speak very clear English.
Hi Gareth. Have you addressed in one of your past videos (searched but not found) the price changes of line items ? In this video, as it is, when the price list is updated, it is directly into the line items table. Hence the invoices table is updated and values are different from the GDocs files, preventing making relevant historical analysis. Thanks for all. Christophe. Thanks to anyone who has got a simple solution (I have one but do not like it).
Unfortunately, changing a price will retroactively impact any other records that rely on that price in formulas or other dependent field types. So the preferred method is to create a new record with the updated price and to "archive" the old price. This way the record still lives in your base and won't mess up your calculations.
@@GarethPronovost You could actually go the salesforce method and make prices dependent on a "price book" that details price/product in a separate table. By then setting a new price book when prices were updated you actually keep that historical data available. A lot of stuff to set up, so wouldn't recommend it unless you really need the data for something.
Any idea how the column/field order of the line items is defined? I need mine to be in a particular order. It's not set by the order in which you toggle them, and it doesn't appear to be tied to the default Grid View. Perhaps it's in the order in which fields were created?
The top most view in your table usually provides the order for the fields. I wish we could control this better, but I tend to create a view specifically for field ordering, then make that the top view and lock it, to preserve the order. Hope this helps!
Hi Gareth! Is it possible to import a custom layout for the invoice?
I would like to have the receiver's information (Company Name, tax ID...) on the right and and the info about the sender on the left. I've tried copy pasting from my Google doc template but it does not seen to work.
Thanks for the tip (and for all your great videos!)
I haven't had any success with formatting just yet. For this, I still rely on Documint - a 3rd party tool that was built to integrate with Airtable for document creation. Here's a video about it (and the formatting options are much more rich!
ruclips.net/video/YXWh0jByJwI/видео.html
@@GarethPronovost thanks you very much!
By any chance, have you ever successfully implemented invoice generation (from Airtable to Google Doc) using Make/Integromat where the line-items appears in a grid? Exactly the same way you can bring inside a grid in Airtable for emails automations. I would love to this that!
(All the tutorials I found are for single item purchases, never a list of items). Thanks for your help!
@@amauryhalle36 You need to use the iterator function in Make for that
@@spiffingpublishing I had this in mind. But how would you bring this information in a grid/table. For instance:
Item 1 - Qty - Unir Price - Full Price.
Item 2 - Qty - Unir Price - Full Price.
Item 3 - Qty - Unir Price - Full Price.
TOTAL PRICE
Hello! I just found out about AirTable Invoice Maker. Any comments on that?
Hi, I don't know what the invoice maker is. Are you referring to the page designer extension?
Super nice video. Unfortunately I found out after 2 hours of making my own database and connection that the google doc function is for Pro users only 😅
Oh no! I'll try to be better about emphasizing what plan you have to be on for these different automations in the future.
Great video! It is a great way avoiding the Page Designer in Airtable. However, I have some trouble inserting logo, page headers and footers. Any idea from anyone?
I have the same problems with page Designer and was hoping to solve it with this functionality.
@@thierrygattlen8248 is it the multiple page problem?
I haven’t test the multiple page in Google doc. But it is a major problem in Airtable Page designer. In Google doc is that you cannot really make an invoice with logo and fields that are in various position. In Switzerland the address in on the right of the invoice. How to position the field address on Google doc via the AT automation ?
@@thierrygattlen8248 you can insert logo in Airtable Page Designer - that is really no problem. But the major issue is when you have multiple pages. It ruins the nice setup. I am not able to make nice page shifts.
How to insert logo: Make an attachment field in the database. In Page Designer insert field (the attachment field). That's it.
@@kimmller-nielsen6461 Sorry, I was not clear. I use today Paged designer and it is OK for a one page document (with logo...). I struggle with multiple pages documents and I'm surprised that Airtable is not improving this extension.
In my message here, I was speaking of the Google doc functionality of Airtable in automation that is demonstrated in this video. In this automation, you cannot (or I don't know how) insert a logo. And an invoice without logo is not professional.
Would be great to have a PDF invoice generated and stored back in the record. I guess there is no free way to do that?
The automation in Airtable can't generate a PDF yet, but you can add a step to share the link with someone. If you've given permission to share with others, then this may be helpful?
@@GarethPronovost
Great video! For many user cases, the desired output is a PDF and this file attached to a column in the record. I've created many templates in Page Designer (which is very tedious) that need to be 'printed' as PDF, downloaded to desktop, uploaded to Gdrive and attached to a column in the record manually
@@lucianodaloisio this way you can export it on pdf document/d/UNIQUE_DOCUMENT_ID/export?format=pdf
@@itmomotitimo Yes, either way creating a template in Page Designer ( free extension from Airtable) or in Gdocs as shown in this video, you can export manually to PDF
The folder needs to be "shared with everyone though" for the automated upload of the pdf export to work.
Is it possible to send this invoice as an PDF to our customer by email?
You definitely can, although it would be a manual process
Hello, can I have tables in my template?
Not sure I understand, do you want a database in a Google Sheet?