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Creating Invoices as Attachments to Emails from Quickbase - Is it Possible?

  • March 29, 2017
  • 0 replies
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We are interested in sending invoices to our customers from Quickbase.  Our thought is to attach an already created invoice to an individual QB record.   We would use a Quickbase notification to send an email to the customer and attach the invoice to the Email?  Is that possible for Quickbase to do?  If so, how?  If not, any other suggestions welcome.  Thanks
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      • MCFNeil
      • Registered
      • March 29, 2017
      You can do all of this, with one caveat.  QuickBase does not allow you to send the actual file attachment.
      But, you can send a link in the email that once clicked it will automatically download said attachment.

      Do you already have the table set up?  
      Do you already have a way to create the invoice file? or are you using an outside system, then just attaching?

      I can help walk you through this, but I need to know where you are so far so I don't duplicate details. 
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      • LauraThacker
      • Registered
      • March 29, 2017
      Or... you can do it all with Add Ons.

      Juiced Technologies offers the ExactFormsPlus! tool which you can create Invoices with and store them either in QuickBase or in Amazon S3 and they also have the QBCourier tool which is great for sending out professional emails (fully customized) with attachments from files stored in QuickBase or from Amazon S3.

      If you go the route of creating Invoices within QuickBase from data stored there, they also have a Batch Processing tool to generate them all at once.

      Highly recommend talking to them about your situation to see what's right for you.

      Neil's option is valid - but you can't send a physical file attachment from QuickBase and the email notification is limited in its formatting, depending on what you want your email to do.
      Laura Thacker (IDS) laura@intelligentdbs.com (626) 771 0454
      • LeeNoble
      • Author
      • Registered
      • March 30, 2017

      Hi Matthew, thanks for the response.  Your idea sounds interesting.  Yes, we already have a whole quickbase aging set up for our specific customers.  Each record has a unique bill# transaction on it.  A few of our team members are responsible for creating and attaching the unique invoice pdf to each record.  We�d create a quickbase report that filters only the customers we�d send to daily, one criteria being maybe �days past due�, and create a checkbox for email sent, etc...

      Our idea, if a unique link could be created for each invoice...would be to set up a daily automated job to run and email out these invoices to customers.  The invoice link would be part of a collections reminder notification, per se.  We would likely set up automation using the Quickbase Desktop application which we use regularly.  Would that be possible? 

      One other question about the link for the invoice � would clicking on that �invoice link� require the recipient to register with Quickbase, or would they be able to view the invoice straight from the email?

      Thanks much for your time, and help

        • LeeNoble
        • Author
        • Registered
        • March 30, 2017

        Hi QuickBasePros...thank you for your response and idea. We don�t really want to have this go through a third party. We actually have a third party we probably could use for this, but we wanted to try and manage this effort ourselves if possible. �If� we can�t find a solution ourselves, we�ll likely go with them. But greatly appreciate the feedback about the ExactFormsPlus option! :o)

        Lee,,

        There is another option for you to consider which has not been raised so far on this discussion three.

         There's a checkbox to click on he field properties your file attachment field. If you check the box it will enable that file attachment to be downloaded without the user logging in  to  QuickBase  

        Then there is a way to format an attractive link which you can include in your automated email which says  "Click here to download your invoice".
        • MCFNeil
        • Registered
        • March 30, 2017
        Looks like the direction you are going is going to be staying native, and sending the file attachment as a link.  (and yes as Mark stated, you can make the attachment available without a login)

        If so, let me know and I can provide some screen shots to help direct the process.

        ***One Warning:  If you make that file attachment field available without signing in.  People could easily manipulate the url and access other invoices.  ****  If there is confidential information going out in those files, you will want to consider the use of an add-on from a 3rd party.
        Are we suppose to see the button on the notification or only the link? I was under the impression that I will be seeying the button on the notification but can only see the link.

        It will appear as a link with the words of the label as the link text.  If you want to have a button appearance then the code is much more complicated.
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