Trade Account and Invoice Questions Answered on WhatsApp
This recipe answers the account questions trade buyers send: “can you send the invoice for last week’s delivery?”, “what is our outstanding balance?”, “we need a statement for September”. It checks the contact is authorised for the account, sends the copy or the balance from your accounting system, and passes disputes to your finance team. Part of the B2B supplier workflows.
What happens today
A buyer’s accounts clerk messages “please resend INV-20931, we can’t find it”. Your finance person finds it, exports the PDF and sends it by email the next day. The invoice is paid a week later than it could have been. Multiply that by every account at month end, and your finance team spends days resending documents that already exist.
The flow that works
- AeroChat matches the contact to the customer record and checks they are authorised to see invoices and balances.
- For an invoice copy, it finds the invoice by number, PO or date in your accounting system and sends the PDF.
- For a balance or statement, it gives the outstanding amount, what is overdue and the due dates.
- For a prepaid account with an unpaid invoice, it can send a payment link.
- Any dispute about an amount, a credit note or a missing payment goes to finance with the details.
Account balances are shared only with contacts you have authorised. A buyer at the account is not always the person who should see what it owes.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a contact asks for an invoice, a statement or their account balance, follow these steps.
- Check their phone number or email against the contacts on our customer records in our accounting system, and that they are marked as a billing or accounts contact. If not, do not share anything. Tell them we will send it to the account’s billing contact, and notify finance.
- For an invoice copy, ask for the invoice number, PO number or delivery date. Find the invoice for their account in our accounting system and send the PDF.
- For a balance, give the total outstanding, the amount overdue and the due date of each open invoice, from our accounting system.
- For a statement, tell them finance will send it to the billing email on the account by the next working day (example), and notify finance.
- If the account is prepaid and has an unpaid invoice, offer a payment link for the amount. Never send a payment link to an account on credit terms unless they ask to pay that way.
- If they dispute an amount, ask for a credit note, say they have paid, or ask for different terms, collect the invoice number and what they say, and hand over to finance.
Never change an amount, agree to a credit or extend a due date. Reply in the buyer’s language.
Change the example response time to your own before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your accounting or ERP system. Xero, QuickBooks Online or Oracle NetSuite connect through their APIs. For Xero or QuickBooks Online, approve AeroChat’s access to your company when AeroChat asks. For NetSuite, your administrator creates an access token for AeroChat and pastes it in when AeroChat asks. AeroChat reads invoices, PDFs, balances, due dates and payment terms from there.
- Your billing contacts. Mark which contacts on each customer record can see invoices and balances, so AeroChat knows who to answer.
- Payments for prepaid accounts. Airwallex is built in. HitPay and Stripe connect through their APIs if you already use them. Payment links are included from the Growth plan.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- Which contacts at each account can see invoices and balances.
- Whether statements are sent in the chat or only to the billing email.
- Who in finance takes disputes, and how fast they reply.
- Whether to send payment reminders, through your accounting system, or a WhatsApp broadcast on the Growth plan and above.
The result to expect
Invoice copies go out in minutes instead of the next day, so they can be paid sooner. Your finance team stops resending documents and works on the disputes and collections that need a person. Balances only reach the contacts you have authorised.
Measure it with your own numbers: invoice copy requests handled in the chat, and days from invoice to payment, for a month before and after you start.
Next: sales rep handover and order status and delivery.
Send your first invoice copy
Connect your accounting system, mark which contacts can see invoices, paste the recipe and ask your own number for a recent invoice.
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