# Raise QuickBooks invoices from Podio projects marked ready

> When a project in Podio is marked ready to invoice, the bill goes out in QuickBooks and the project record updates itself.

- Workflow type: code
- Services: Podio, QuickBooks Online, Slack Bot
- Categories: Finance, Operations
- Published: 2026-08-09

## What it does

- Watches your Podio projects app and only acts when a project is marked ready to invoice, so ordinary edits are ignored
- Pulls the client name, the billable lines, the amounts and the payment terms straight off the project record
- Finds the client in QuickBooks Online or adds them, then raises the invoice with a due date that matches the agreed terms
- Writes the invoice number and total back onto the Podio project and posts a short confirmation to your finance channel

## What you'll need

- A Podio account with a projects app that has a status field, billable line items with amounts, and payment terms
- Two spare fields on that projects app to hold the invoice number and the invoice total
- A QuickBooks Online company you can connect
- A Slack workspace and the channel your finance team watches

## Prompt

Start this workflow from a Podio webhook on my Projects app so it fires whenever an item in that app is updated. Every step here is a fixed field mapping with no judgement required, so build it as a deterministic code workflow.

The first job is to guard the run. A Podio item update webhook fires on every single edit, so before doing any work, check the project's status field. If the status is anything other than Ready to invoice, exit quietly: no error, no message, no records created. Then check the invoice number field on the same item. If it is already populated, this project has been billed before, so exit quietly as well and do not raise a second invoice. Only continue when the status is Ready to invoice and the invoice number field is still empty.

Read the project record with the Podio Get item action, using the item id from the webhook payload. From that item, pick up the client name, the billable line items with their descriptions and amounts, and the payment terms field.

Look the client up in QuickBooks Online with the Query Entities action. QuickBooks has no dedicated customer search operation, so query the Customer entity with a filter on the display name matching the client name from the Podio record. If the query returns a match, use that customer id. If it returns nothing, create the client first with the Create Customer action using the client name from the project record, and use the id that comes back.

Raise the bill with the QuickBooks Create Invoice action against that customer. Map each billable line item from the Podio project to an invoice line with its description and amount. Derive the due date from the payment terms on the project record: Net 15 is the invoice date plus 15 days, Net 30 plus 30 days, Net 60 plus 60 days, and Due on receipt is the invoice date itself. If the payment terms field is empty, fall back to Net 30.

Write the billing state back onto the Podio project so the record never drifts out of sync with QuickBooks. Use Update item field values to set the invoice number field to the document number QuickBooks returned and the invoice total field to the invoiced amount.

Finally, post a short confirmation to my finance channel with the Slack Bot Send a Message action: the client name, the project name, the invoice number, the total, and the due date, in one or two lines. Keep it brief, since this is a receipt rather than a report.

If the QuickBooks invoice fails to create, do not write anything back to the Podio item, and post a short failure notice to the same finance channel naming the project so someone can pick it up manually.

## How to customize

- Change the status value that starts billing if your team words it differently, for example Approved for billing
- Adjust how payment terms turn into due dates, or change the fallback used when the terms field is left blank
- Point the confirmation at a different Slack channel, or send it to one person instead of a team

## FAQ

### Will this fire every time someone edits a project in Podio?

It listens to every edit, but it stops immediately unless the status has just been set to ready to invoice. Any other change ends the run quietly, with nothing created and no message posted.

### Can it invoice the same project twice?

No. Before doing anything it checks whether the invoice number field on the project is already filled in. If it is, the project has already been billed and the run stops there.

### What happens if the client is not in QuickBooks yet?

It adds them. The workflow looks for a matching customer first and only creates a new one when there is no match, so you do not end up with duplicate clients.

### How is the due date worked out?

From the payment terms on the project record. Net 30 becomes thirty days from the invoice date, due on receipt becomes the same day, and so on. If terms are blank it falls back to Net 30, which you can change.

### Do I need to change how my team works in Podio?

No. Keep running projects the way you do now and set the status to ready to invoice when the work is billable. The invoice, the write back and the finance notification all happen on their own.

Use this prompt in General Input: https://www.generalinput.com/prompts/raise-quickbooks-invoices-from-podio-projects-marked-ready