Create A New Finalized Invoice To FreeFinance From A New Order In Shopify

For growing e-commerce businesses, the disconnect between sales platforms and accounting systems can create significant operational bottlenecks. This case study examines how one e-commerce agency eliminated 15-20 hours of weekly manual data entry by implementing an automated connection between Shopify and FreeFinance.

The Challenge: Manual Data Entry Consuming Finance Resources

Before automation, the company's accounting team faced multiple challenges:

• Manual entry of all Shopify orders into FreeFinance
• Time-consuming customer information entry for new customers
• Tedious product details, tax calculations, and payment tracking
• High error rates requiring additional time for corrections
• Delayed financial reporting due to invoice backlogs
• Limited real-time visibility into business performance

With finance professionals spending 15-20 hours weekly on basic data entry, valuable strategic work was neglected. This situation was particularly problematic for a growing business where scalability was essential.

The Solution: Custom Makes.com Automation Workflow

The implemented automation solution created a seamless connection between Shopify and FreeFinance through a sophisticated multi-branch, logic-based workflow in Make. The automation:

1. Monitors Shopify for new orders in real-time or at scheduled intervals
2. Extracts complete order information including customer data, products, taxes, and payment status
3. Check if the customer already exists in FreeFinance
4. Creates new customer profiles when needed
5. Generates finalized invoices in FreeFinance with all order details
6. Flags special cases where payment terms differ from standard procedures
7. Alerts team members via email if errors occur at any stage

The workflow includes intelligent routing that handles different scenarios based on customer status and payment conditions, ensuring appropriate processing for each order type.

Key Benefits of the Automation Integration

Immediate Time Savings

The most obvious benefit was the immediate recovery of 15-20 hours per week previously dedicated to manual data entry. This time, it was redirected to higher-value financial activities.

Error Elimination

By removing manual data entry, the company eliminated a major source of errors that previously required additional time to identify and correct.

Real-Time Financial Visibility

With orders flowing automatically into the accounting system, management gained access to up-to-date financial information, enabling better decision-making.

Scalable Growth Solution

The automation scales effortlessly with business growth—whether processing 10 orders or 10,000, the system handles the volume without requiring additional staff resources.

Enhanced Financial Team Focus

The finance team was able to shift their attention from data entry to financial analysis, forecasting, and strategic planning.

Technical Implementation Details

The automation was built in Make (formerly Integromat) and features:

• Shopify webhook integration for real-time order monitoring
• Custom data mapping between platforms to ensure accurate information transfer
• Conditional logic paths for handling various order scenarios
• Error notification system to alert staff when manual intervention is needed
• Automated customer creation in FreeFinance when new shoppers make purchases

The solution demonstrates how relatively simple automation can dramatically transform business operations by connecting systems that weren't designed to work together natively.

Business Impact and Future Scalability

Since implementing this automation, the e-commerce agency has continued to grow without needing to expand its finance team proportionally. The solution provides complete flexibility to handle seasonal spikes in order volume and supports ongoing business expansion.

For businesses struggling with similar manual processes between e-commerce platforms and accounting systems, this case study demonstrates the significant ROI potential of targeted automation solutions.