Use workflows in QuickBooks Online Advanced to send reminders

Learn how to set up workflows to send reminders to your customers or your team.

In QuickBooks Online Advanced, you can use workflows to send reminders to the right people at the right time. With workflows, you can automate common tasks in QuickBooks like sending payment reminders to customers. You can also send reminders to your team to complete specific tasks, like reviewing open invoices.

You set the conditions to tell QuickBooks when to send reminders and to whom. Whenever the conditions are met, we’ll send out a reminder. Here’s how to create a new workflow for your customers or team. We'll also show you some examples of how you can use workflows.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

• Learn about workflow types
• Create a new workflow
• Review your team's active tasks
• Manage your workflows

Common workflows

Some workflows automatically send reminders to customers so you don't have to. Others send reminders to your team to take action on a task.

You can have multiple workflows of the same type working at once. For example, you can have multiple Payment received workflows for different sets of customers.

Here are some common uses for workflows:

Workflows for customers

• Automatically send unsent invoices: Send your customers invoices that haven't been sent yet.
• Notify customers about payment received: Automatically email customers to let them know you received their payment.
• Sent payment reminder: Automatically email customers to let them know their invoice payment is due soon.
• Overdue invoice memo: Automatically update an invoice message with an overdue or customized stamp.

Workflows for your team

• Invoice approval: Automatically create a task and send a notification to your team when a new invoice needs approval.
• Get unsent invoice reminder: Remind yourself or your team to send unsent invoices to customers.
• Pay supplier bill reminder: Remind yourself or your team when a supplier bill is due.
• Set bank deposit reminder: Remind yourself or your team to record bank deposits.

Step 1: Create a workflow using a template

To create a new workflow, you can use a QuickBooks workflow template. You can also learn how to create your own custom workflow.

To create workflows from QuickBooks templates:

1. Select the Workflows menu. Or, select Settings ⚙ and then Manage workflows.
2. Select the Templates tab.
3. Find and select the template you want to use.
4. Give the workflow a name, or use the default name.
5. In the Conditions section, select the conditions. This determines what activates reminders. Note: You can set multiple conditions for some workflows. To add more, select plus (+) icon or + Add another condition. All conditions need to be met to start the workflow.
6. In the Actions or How would you like this action to happen? section, select the actions QuickBooks will take when the conditions are met. This determines what happens after the template is activated.
7. Select the Send an email or email checkbox to send the reminders as emails. On some workflows, you can also select the Send a push notification checkbox to send a push notification to a user through the QuickBooks Online Mobile App.
8. Edit the message in the Subject and Message body sections as needed.
9. The highlighted fields are variables. The variables populate the reminder message with your company or customer info. To change the variable, enter #, then select the variable you want to use like supplier, name, due date, or amount. Note: Erasing or overwriting the highlighted fields will affect all reminders.
10. When you're done, select Save and Enable or Save and turn on to turn on your workflow.

Here are some examples of workflows you can use for your customers or team and how to set them up:

Create a payment due reminder workflow for customers

Here’s an example workflow to let your customers know their payment is due in three days.

1. Select the Workflows menu. Or, select Settings ⚙ and then Manage workflows.
2. Select the Templates tab.
3. Find the Sent payment reminder template and select it.
4. In the Workflow name field, enter Payment Due in Three Days.
5. Use the When ▼ dropdown to add workflow conditions.
   • Condition #1: The Invoice amount is greater than 0 (dollars).
   • Condition #2: The Customer is within All, or you can select specific customers that get this reminder.
   • Condition #3: Invoice balance due Less than 3 day(s).
6. Use the How would you like this action to happen? ▼ dropdowns to set up the actions for the workflow.
   • In the Create a reminder task in Tasks ▼ dropdown, select the team member you want assigned to the task.
   • Select the Sent a customer email checkbox to send the reminders as emails. You can also select the Send a push notification checkbox to send a push notification to a user through the QuickBooks Online Mobile App
   • Customize the reminder using the Subject and Message fields.
   • The highlighted fields are variables. The variables populate the reminder message with your company or customer info. To change the variable, enter #, then select the variable you want to use like customer name, balance, or amount. Note: Erasing or overwriting the highlighted fields will affect all reminders.
7. If you’re still editing the workflow, select Save. If you’d like to launch the workflow, select Save and turn on.

Create an invoice approval workflow for your team

You can use a template to create a workflow for approving invoices created by your team.

Whenever a non-admin creates a new invoice, QuickBooks checks if it meets the conditions of a template. If it does, the invoice's status becomes Needs approval. Until it's approved, non-admins can't send invoices to customers.

To create a new invoice approval workflow:

1. Go to Workflows. Or, Go to Settings ⚙ and select Manage workflows.
2. Select the Templates tab.
3. Find and select the Invoice Multi-Condition Approval template.
4. Give your workflow a name.
5. In the When this happens section, set the conditions. You can set the amount, customer, location, or a combination. This is what activates the approval process. Select +Add condition if you want to add more than one condition.
6. In the Do this section, select the approver who needs to approve invoices from the Approver ▼ dropdown. Note: If an invoice isn't reviewed after 30 days, it's automatically denied.
   • In the Email your team section, select the Edit ✎ icon.
     • In the Send to ▼ dropdown, select who you want QuickBooks to notify when an invoice needs approval. Note: You can choose more than one person in the Send to field.
   • You can also select the Push notification checkbox to send a push notification to a user through the QuickBooks Online Mobile App.

Now that your invoice approval workflow is set up, whenever non-admins create an invoice, an approval request is sent to the approver automatically.

Note: If an invoice doesn't meet your template's conditions, it doesn't need approval. The creator can send it directly to the customer.

Approve invoices

Here's what happens after a non-admin creates an invoice:

1. When completing the invoice and selecting Save or Save and send, the non-admin will get an approval message.
2. They’ll select Send for approval. This sends the invoice to the specified admin for approval.
3. Then the admin can go to the Tasks menu and review their open tasks to approve the invoice.

The invoice creator can review the status of the approval by opening the invoice:

• Needs approval: The creator has saved the invoice and hasn’t yet sent it for approval. The invoice will be in Needs approval if it meets the templates condition.
• Pending approval: The creator already sent the invoice to the approver, but it hasn't been approved yet.
• Denied approval: The approver denied the invoice. However, if the creator makes edits to the denied invoice, they can request approval again.
• Approved: The approver approved the invoice. It becomes a regular invoice with no restrictions.

If an invoice is edited after it's approved, and it doesn't meet the template's conditions anymore, the status may change. You can just send it through for approval again.

Note: If you downgrade your plan from QuickBooks Advanced, you won't be able to use workflows anymore. You'll need to approve anything pending approvals before you can change your plan.

You can now easily track invoices based on approval status. We introduced an approval status filter on the invoice list page. This is a multi-select dropdown filter that includes approval statuses (Needs Approval, Pending Approval, Approved, or Denied Approval) and is visible only if you have an invoice approval workflow enabled. Follow these steps to track invoices based on approval status.

Step 2: Review your team's active tasks

If a workflow notifies one of your team members to review or approve work, QuickBooks creates a task.

Go to the Tasks menu at any time to see what work still needs to be done. Follow these steps to review open tasks.

Step 3: Manage your workflows

1. Go to Workflows, then select Run history.
2. Review your completed workflows.

If you want to edit, turn off, or delete a workflow:

1. Go to Workflows, then select My workflows.
2. Select the ACTIONS ⋮ option, then select an action.

Disable default reminder workflows

Important: Pay bill reminders and unsent invoice reminders are already set up for all new QuickBooks Online Advanced companies. If you need to change that:

1. Go to Workflows, then select My workflows.
2. From the ON/OFF column, select the workflow you want to turn off. Then, select Disable.