Automate client invoicing, from the form to the approved PDF
A five minute film: one sentence to an agent, and the invoice writes itself. Then it stops and asks you, with the real figures, before anything reaches the client.
The problem
The work shipped three weeks ago and it still is not paid, because the invoice is not written. Each one is the same twelve minutes: copy the client details, number it, compute the tax, export a PDF, write the email. Forty a month is a full working day billed to nobody.
Worse, none of it moves without you. The person who knows what was delivered is not always the person allowed to send the invoice, so every one of them waits on a single inbox.
How LiveContext solves it
The typing is the part that should be automated. The approval is not. In this film the workflow collects four answers on a public form, writes the number, the dates, the tax and the total, and renders a real A4 PDF. Then it stops and asks a person.
That question arrives on your phone with the invoice attached as a picture, so you can check it before deciding. Approve, and the client gets the email and a link to the file. Nobody with an account, nobody with the keys.
- One sentence in chat builds the whole thing: six steps, a form, a document, an approval and an email
- The same thing built by hand, step by step, so you can see exactly what will run
- A real A4 PDF per run, not a screen, with the number, dates and tax computed once and correctly
- The run halts at a human approval and sends nothing until someone says yes
- The form has its own public address, so whoever raises the invoices can start the run without an account
Chapters
Transcript
Everything the film says, in order, grouped by chapter. Click a timecode to jump there.
The problem: twelve minutes an invoice, forty a month
You finished the work three weeks ago. It still isn't paid, because the invoice isn't written. Twelve minutes each. Forty a month. A full working day, billed to nobody. And none of it moves, because nothing goes out without you. There are three ways out of this. Two of them don't really work. Three ways to build it. Stay for the third: thirty seconds, and you build nothing at all.
Method one: describe it in one sentence
Method one: you describe it. One sentence: a client, an amount, a PDF, an approval, an email. The agent reads it and starts building. The first step appears: the form that collects the four answers. Then the one that turns them into an invoice. The document, the approval, the link, the email. One by one. This is the same workflow we are about to build by hand. Thirty-nine seconds of thinking. And it is ready to run.
Method two: build it yourself, step by step
Method two: you build it yourself. Slower, and you decide everything. Empty canvas. Let's fill it. It starts with a form. Someone fills it in, and it all begins. Even the button is yours. Four questions, no more. Who are we billing? Their email. Choosing the Email type catches a wrong address right here. The work. That line becomes the invoice line. How much. Number, so it stays a real amount. Four answers are not an invoice yet. This step turns them into one. It writes the number, the dates, the tax and the total. Once, correctly, every time. Now the document. Pages are reusable, so we take a ready-made A4 invoice. Ask for a PDF and every run produces a real file, not just a screen. A page you can reuse: same layout, different numbers. Your own details are typed once. The rest is pulled from the step above: number, dates, client, amounts. And here is the point of it all. The workflow stops and waits for a person. Three outcomes: approved, rejected, or no answer in time. The question they get, with the real figures. The file stays inside the platform, so we make a link the client can open. Anyone with the link opens it. No account. It points at the document. Last step: the email. Address and subject come straight from the invoice. And the message carries the download link. Save. Six steps, and it is ready. That is the whole thing, top to bottom. Now let's run it. The run opens on the form, because that is where it starts. Acme Corporation, a website redesign, four thousand eight hundred dollars. Four answers. That is everything a person has to give. Send. It writes the invoice, lays out the page and turns it into a PDF. Then it stops. The question goes to my phone. I get the invoice as a picture, so I can check it before deciding. I approve. Back in the app, it is still waiting. And it turns green: approved. The rest runs on its own. The run is finished, and the invoice is right there in the app. Full screen: your details, theirs, the line, the totals. And this is what the client receives. Number, amount, due date, and the PDF behind one button.
Who else can start it: a public form, a webhook, a schedule
One more thing on this workflow: who else can start it? The form step has its own address. Copy the link. No sign-in. The page is simply public. Whoever raises the invoices fills it in. A webhook or a schedule can start the same run.
Method three: install it from the marketplace
Method three: you install it. A marketplace, full of apps other people built. Scroll, and there is always more. Workflows, agents, pages. All published by someone. So you do not build the invoice app. You look for it. Type what you need, and the list narrows to it. It lists what you get: an app, a workflow, an interface. One click, and it copies into your workspace. With its own ids, and none of the publisher's keys. Installed. Thirty seconds, and you built nothing.
Free on LiveContext
Browse the marketplace, or build your own.
