Invoice generation and accounts receivable tracking

Purpose

1. Automate digital generation of invoices for sales of African imports, enabling accurate, timely billing to customers, while systematically tracking outstanding payments and receipts for retail businesses.

2. Reduce manual errors, speed up revenue cycles, integrate financial records for accounting, and ensure compliance with local and international invoicing standards.

3. Consolidate sales, inventory, and customer records to maintain up-to-date financial visibility and forecast cash flow.

4. Automate reminders for overdue accounts and sync payment status across sales, finance, and ERP platforms.

Trigger Conditions

1. New sale recorded in POS/cash register system.

2. Online order completed and marked as ready to process.

3. Customer data and payment method provided at checkout.

4. Scheduled monthly/recurring invoice cycle.

5. Import of wholesale or bulk sale data into accounting system.

6. Receipt of payment events (partial, full or failed).

7. Time-based or rule-based triggers (e.g., 24 hours after order shipped, or every Friday).

8. Data sync from inventory depletion events.

Platform Variants

1. QuickBooks Online

• API: Create Invoice endpoint — configure customer, line items, due date, notes.
  

2. Xero

• API: POST /api.xro/2.0/Invoices — set contact, reference, status as AUTHORIZED, and add tracking categories.
  

3. Zoho Books

• Function: Sales Invoice Create — configure customer info, item details and payment terms.
  

4. FreshBooks

• API: Create Invoice endpoint — set client_id, invoice_lines, and send_email flag.
  

5. Wave

• Function: Invoices API — configure manual or automatic invoice generation and send method.
  

6. SAP Business One

• DI Server API: Add Document (oInvoices) — assign BPCode, ItemCode, DueDate.
  

7. Oracle NetSuite

• SOAP/REST API: Invoice.add — map customer, GL lines, terms.
  

8. Microsoft Dynamics 365

• API: SalesInvoice endpoint — tenant-specific configuration for customer, lines, and payment schedules.
  

9. Sage Intacct

• API: create_invoice — input AR customer ID, items, and output unique AR record.
  

10. Odoo

• XML-RPC API: account.move 'create' — configure partner, product, and company fields.
  

11. Square

• Invoices API: CreateInvoice — configure customer_id, fields for due_date, line_items.
  

12. Stripe

• Invoices API: Create — set customer, subscription, automatic charging, send_invoice parameters.
  

13. PayPal Invoicing

• REST API: /v2/invoicing/invoices — configure invoicer, items, and send-to-email.
  

14. Shopify

• Admin API: order_invoice/send — configure fulfillment, billing, and notes for import-heavy SKUs.
  

15. WooCommerce

• REST API: POST /orders — enable invoice generate and set status to “pending” or “on-hold.”
  

16. Salesforce

• REST API: Invoice custom object creation — trigger from opportunity close event, configure fields.
  

17. HubSpot

• Custom Workflow: Enroll contact on deal close, trigger Invoice creation via Accounting/ERP integration.
  

18. Bill.com

• API: Create Invoice — enter customer, amount, memo, attach scanned documents or order reference.
  

19. Trello

• Power-Up: Invoice Generator — auto-create card per invoice event, attach invoice PDF URL.
  

20. Mailgun

• Mail API: Automated Send — configure to email generated PDF invoices as attachment.
  

21. Slack

• Incoming Webhook: Send notification when invoice generated or receivable is overdue.
  

22. Google Sheets

• Apps Script: On row add (new sale), auto-generate invoice template, mark as sent or paid.
  

Benefits

1. Reduces manual data entry errors and prevents lost revenue from missed invoices.

2. Accelerates billing cycles, improving business cash flow.

3. Enhances compliance and traceability of financial records.

4. Saves staff time on routine accounting operations.

5. Enables rapid response to overdue payments with automated reminders.

6. Integrates retail, inventory, and accounting data for unified financial oversight.

7. Facilitates easy reporting and analytics for management review.

8. Supports multi-currency and multi-tax requirements for African imports.

9. Ensures consistent communication with customers regarding outstanding balances.

10. Easily scales with business growth and transaction volume.