How to create an invoice generator

Generating invoices is a fundamental process for many businesses when it comes to billing clients and collecting receipts. However, manually creating these invoices every month is a monumental task that demands a lot of time – something that businesses don’t have. The solution: an invoice generator.

For example, let’s say I have a huge list of clients that purchase a variety of your products per month. Rather than manually entering hundreds of invoices for your clients, I can make my own invoice generator that can automatically transfer my clients’ order data to create accurate, custom invoices, bills, or invoicing receipts immediately. As a result, I can save time on manual input and focus on receiving client payments.

An invoice generator is an essential tool for any business. Interested in learning how to create invoices automatically? Let’s look in more detail at how you can create your custom invoice generator with Sheetgo.

What is an invoice generator?

An invoice generator is an intelligent tool that automatically creates your business’ invoices using the data you provide. An invoice generator usually allows you to create an invoice template as the foundation for every invoice. It then takes the data you insert into a file and then transfers this data into the corresponding areas of your template.

At this point, your invoices are automatically created, ready to send out to your clients. With an invoice generator, not only are you saving time, but you are also eliminating human error, which is particularly important.

Why use an invoice generator?

Invoice generators provide a much more comprehensive solution than just an invoice template you create on a spreadsheet or document. Usually, invoice generators can automate the entire process for you, also providing extra support when it comes to sending the invoices and receiving status updates, such as when the invoice has been received or paid.

Here are the main benefits of opting for an invoice generator over a simple invoicing template:

• Save time: Unlike invoicing templates which still require manual input, an invoicing generator will transfer invoicing data from a file (usually a spreadsheet) and add it to the template automatically, saving you hours of work.
• Avoid human error: The automated process carried out by invoice generators means there is no risk of human error caused by manual copy and pasting of data.
• Easily customizable: You have a wide selection of ready-made templates that you can easily customize to suit your needs and objectives. For example, you will be able to add additional lines or columns for other variables, such as item descriptions.
• Additional features: A lot of invoice templates may have additional features such as automatic mail merging or insights into your payment methods. You can usually track the status of your invoices sent to clients.

Now that you know why invoice generators are the best option when it comes to streamlining your invoicing process, let’s take a look at how you can make your own invoice generator using your everyday tools!

How to create an invoice generator

There are many invoice generator tools on the market to help set up invoices that you can implement into your business operations.

Although these can be extremely helpful, creating your own custom invoice generator offers the ability to optimize the invoice generation process to meet your specific objectives.

Why use Sheetgo to automate invoices?

Sheetgo created its very own fully developed invoice generator workflow that you can easily implement and customize into your organization. Sheetgo automatically generates new invoices from a Google spreadsheet, which is connected to other tools to create, convert and send the invoice directly to your clients.

Here are just some benefits of using the Sheetgo invoice generator:

• Automated workflow from start to finish: Sheetgo offers an entire workflow that takes you from entering invoice data, all the way to sharing the final product with recipients. You can complete your entire invoice process in just a few clicks of a button.
• Use Sheetgo Forms to input data automatically into your invoice document: Sheetgo provides useful forms where you can input your invoice data. Sheetgo then automatically inserts this data into an invoice document template, ready to be shared.
• Turn your invoices into a PDF: Using Sheetgo’s document generation feature, you can turn your invoice sheets into invoice PDFs – the perfect file format to send to your clients.
• Automatically send invoices via Gmail: This integration with Gmail means you can automatically send invoices via Gmail to specific recipients with ease.
• Customize and build on your workflow to suit your needs: Workflows are developed with customization in mind. You can easily build on your workflow and adapt it you your business needs, so you get the most out of your invoice generation.
• Easy use with existing tools: The entire workflow runs based on connections between Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Gmail; tools that are well-known and used by users already.

Step-by-step guide on how to create an invoice generator with Sheetgo

The best thing about the Sheetgo invoice generator is that the hard work is already done for you; you simply have to customize the invoicing templates for your business. This is a simple, more effective alternative to learning how to create an invoice in Excel or Google Sheets.

Use the following step-by-step guide on how to use the Sheetgo web app to create and run your online invoice generator.

1. Install the invoice generator within the Sheetgo web app

To access the new invoice generator template for free, simply click on the signup button below. The spreadsheet-based invoice generator template will be installed on your Google Drive.

After that, you enter the invoice generator installation screen.

2. Edit the Google Docs invoice template

Sheetgo provides a ready-made invoice document template with variable placeholders in a Google Doc. Here, the data submitted by the Sheetgo forms will replace these placeholders to create your custom invoices. You can access the Google Docs invoice template in your Google Drive by navigating to Sheetgo templates > Invoice generator > Invoice generator document. In this document, you can edit the various features to reflect your company, such as the logo and your company details.

Please note: If you would like to customize your invoice document further (for example, creating new columns/rows or adding new variable placeholders), you can do so. However, you must make sure that any new variable placeholders must also be added as a new column within the corresponding spreadsheet.

To learn more about how to make an invoice template for your invoice generation solution, check out our support page on how to generate documents.

3. Input your invoicing data using Sheetgo Forms

Open up the Invoice generator template database and delete the mock invoice data. It’s now time to add your own invoicing data. Sheetgo has three ready-made forms for different areas of your operations. These forms are made up of fields which correspond to the columns in your Google Sheets invoicing spreadsheet. This means that when you enter invoicing data into your form and submit it, the data is automatically assigned to the correct column in the spreadsheet, and each form appears as a new row.

Each form is sent to its corresponding tab within the invoice generator dashboard Here are the 3 forms you can add data to:

1. Register client: First, use this form to register any new clients and their information
2. Register item: Register all of the items in your inventory
3. Register invoice: Fill out these forms once your clients and items are registered. These use the client and item data to complete the form.

If you already have an existing billing spreadsheet full of data (for example, a database of client information, or items list), you can copy and paste your data directly into the spreadsheet database.

Make sure that you add the correct data to its corresponding column.

4. Edit your connection

Now that you have inputted your data via the forms, you can now choose to edit your connections to fit them to your needs. Under the Connection tab of your workflow overview, press the More options icon (⋮). Select Edit. This will give you an overview of how each file is connected, and where your documents will be saved.

There are many adaptations you can make, for example, changing the file location for our newly generated invoices and PDFs. For this, navigate to the Destination folder section under the Generate process. Here, you can choose and rename a folder for all of your generated invoices.

5. Add your invoicing client contacts to the Gmail integration

Similar to the step above, you can use the Edit feature of your workflow to add contacts to the Gmail integration. Under the Share process, you can manually add your contacts to the Gmail integration by selecting Use custom recipients.

Otherwise, Sheetgo will automatically send out your invoices through the dynamic data, by using one of the columns from your spreadsheet (in this case, Column D: Client email address). You can also customize other settings as well, such as your sending method and email subject line.

6. Generate your invoices

Now that you have customized the invoice generator workflow to your needs, you can now run the workflow to start the invoice generation process. Sheetgo will now update the entire system with your new data.

As a result, you should now see a spreadsheet with all of your new data, a folder of individual invoices saved as PDFs, and emails with each invoice sent to the corresponding recipients.

7. Automate your workflow

Sheetgo allows you to schedule the frequency of automated transfers in your workflow so that you constantly receive the latest data. You can alter the transfer frequency to match the frequency of your invoices (weekly, monthly, etc.)

To do this, enter the Workflow tab and click on the button labelled Automate near the bottom of the screen. Slide the button Run automatically and select the frequency of your transfers in days and hours. Once you’re happy with the estimated number of transfers per month, press Save.

8. View your metrics

You can also access metrics to monitor how your inventory is affected by your invoices. Simply click the Metrics tab in the menu on the right-hand side of your screen. Here, you will find important information such as the total invoices issued in a month, your top clients, and even your top selling items.

Your workflow is now complete! From now on, every time you enter new data into your spreadsheet via forms, Sheetgo will create, generate and share the custom invoice automatically. You can then monitor your invoices under the metrics tab!

There you have it!

Now you have your very own custom invoice generator workflow that automatically handles the entire invoice generation process! This is a great alternative for those who don’t want to waste time and manual effort on learning how to make invoices in Excel or Google Sheets. With a combination of Sheetgo forms, spreadsheet dashboard, invoice template and Gmail integration, you have a fully automated workflow that creates, generates, sends and tracks all of your invoices for you!

If you would like to access more of Sheetgo’s latest workflow templates, why not take a look at our article on the Sheetgo inventory system with barcode scanner! Alternatively, discover more blog posts on how to solve with Sheetgo below!