Free template · Finance · Documents

Send invoices on time. Get paid on time.

Generates invoices on milestone or schedule. Sends them. Follows up on overdue invoices automatically. Stops chasing as soon as they pay. The AR you used to lose to forgotten invoices comes back.

Setup time ~35 minutes
Run cost ~$0.20/mo
Validation Tested + ready to run
License Free, yours forever

Bill, send, chase, close.

  1. 1
    Daily 8am Schedule
    Runs every morning. Easy to flip to weekly Mondays or twice a month if your billing cycle is different.
  2. 2
    Fetch Ready Milestones
    Hits your PM tool API for milestones tagged 'ready to invoice'. Works with Asana custom fields, ClickUp statuses, Monday columns, or Notion properties.
  3. 3
    Split Milestones
    Iterates per milestone so the rest of the workflow runs once per invoice.
  4. 4
    Create Invoice in QuickBooks
    Builds the invoice with line items, customer ref, due date. Stripe Invoicing, Xero, FreshBooks all use the same shape. swap URL and field names.
  5. 5
    Send Invoice Email — Gmail
    Emails the client with the invoice description, amount, and a 14-day due note.
  6. 6
    Wait 7 Days
    Pauses the workflow. n8n persists state. no cron juggling needed.
  7. 7
    Check Invoice Status
    Re-fetches the invoice to see if the balance is still owed. If the client paid, the workflow ends and Slack gets a 'paid' notification.
  8. 8
    AR Follow-Up Email
    If still unpaid, sends a friendly nudge. Extend with additional Wait + Email nodes for 14-day, 30-day, then a final escalation Slack alert to the owner.

Vertical-specific framing

Marketing or design agency
Bills phase milestones in QuickBooks the morning after they're marked complete in Asana. Cuts DSO by 7-14 days for most agencies that automate.
Software consultancy
Bills sprint completion or hourly rollups from Harvest. Stripe Invoicing handles ACH for clients who hate writing checks.
Coaching or course business
Bills retainers or program milestones. The 7-day nudge alone resolves 30-50% of late invoices without anyone writing a follow-up.
Trades or home services
Bills completed jobs from your scheduling tool the day after sign-off. Cuts the 'finance Friday' weekly bookkeeping ritual to ~10 minutes.
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Four accounts. Most you already have.

n8n Free self-hosted, or n8n Cloud starting $20/mo
Accounting tool QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, or Stripe Invoicing
PM tool Asana, ClickUp, Monday, Notion — anything with an API
Gmail or Outlook For invoice send and AR nudges

What this is worth, conservatively

Average DSO before automation (services) 45-55 days (Atradius industry data)
Average DSO with auto-invoice + 7/14-day nudge 30-38 days
Agency billing $40K/mo, ~10-day DSO improvement ~$13,000 working capital recovered
Time saved on monthly billing + chase ritual 4-8 hours/mo
Cost to run this template forever ~$2/year

DSO benchmarks from Atradius Payment Practices Barometer and QuickBooks small business reports. Working capital impact varies with monthly billing volume and current DSO.

Related

Want this wired into your stack?

If you'd rather have us connect this to your QuickBooks, your PM tool, your billing terms, your collections cadence, and your escalation rules. that's our $4,500-8,500 finance ops build. 1 to 3 weeks.

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