Zapier Action - Create an invoice in Reckon One
As mentioned in our receipt or invoice article, invoices can be tricky. However if you absolutely must create an invoice, here are the steps to successfully create one .
There are several nuances to take into account when connecting another app + Zapier + Reckon One, many of which can leave you with unexplained errors. We've listed the most common mistakes our customers make to hopefully guide you through to success.
- List items (customers, bank accounts, tax codes, chart of accounts, payment methods etc...) must all exist in Reckon One before they are sent from another app. Incorrect spelling, double spaces, whitespace is an extremely common error.
- Zapier + Reckon can only accept one transaction line. We therefore recommend:
- only posting the TOTAL invoice amount in the transaction line.
- not using items in Reckon One, and post to the general ledger account instead eg Sales.
- leaving the tax code blank (NULL) if you sell mixed goods eg GST and FRE.
- looking at apps like Code by Zapier to manage the nuances of the app inputting the data. Unfortunately we cannot support advanced options, however you can hire a Zapier expert.
- Do not try and include discounts or freight. Simply take the total including freight less discounts.
- The more data you can hard code in the Zapier template, the better. This means less chance of a field in the connecting app not quite matching what's in Reckon One, and hence causing a failure.
- Errors aren't always what they seem. For example, Zapier will often through a 501 error when the issue is incorrect mapping or spelling, which isn't a 501.
- Start with simple data to try and get the connection working, then expand.
- Required fields in Zapier aren't always what's required in Reckon One. Here is what we know works:
Required | Comment |
Book | The name of the Reckon One book in your account you wish to connect to. |
Customer | Must exist in Reckon One (display name). |
Transaction date | You may need to use the Zapier date formatter as some apps present dates in unusable formats. Trying hard coding the date in your tests. |
Amount tax status | Is the connecting app presenting you with the gross (amount incl tax) or the net (net + tax = total amount). |
Total amount | The total amount of the invoice including freight and tax. |
Printing template | The invoice template to use in Reckon One. |
Total tax | The total amount of tax for the invoice. Include 0.00 if the total tax is zero. |
Line items: Account | Hard code your preferred ledger account for sales. |
Line items: Tax code | Hard code your default tax code, or leave blank (null) if your sales include taxed and non-taxed goods. You'll need to edit the invoice manually and add the correct allocation of tax if that's the case. |
Line items: Tax modified | Should be OK setting to |
Line items: Has data to post | Set to |
Line items: Is subtotal | Set to |
Line items: Print group as a single line | Set to |
Line items: Is hidden | Set to |
Line items: Automatically calculate tax | Should be OK setting to |
Hopefully this will see you through to a successful integration. We acknowledge it's not as easy as it should be, and we hope to add functionality in the second half of 2022 that will overcome some of the issues that different apps present, as well as the way Zapier does things.
Need more help?
Ask the Reckon Community at: https://community.reckon.com/
