Adding Business Expenses to Our CRM Automation

TL;DR.

Maven X created a Business Expenses automation to streamline expense tracking. The automation captures expense notifications from Slack, filters for relevant information, and creates records in Airtable, ensuring accurate and up-to-date financial records. This automation saves time, reduces errors, and provides near real-time insights into company spending.

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Script Content

Introduction.

Hi, I’m Noah from Maven X. In this video we’ll see how Maven X uses automation to process the capturing of expense notifications from our bank via Slack and recording them in our custom Airtable CRM, ensuring our financial records are always up-to-date.

This is part of our business automation series, where we showcase how automation has helped Maven X streamline operations, drive growth, and ensure precision. As you watch, consider how automation can save your business time, eliminate repetitive tasks, and enhance accuracy, ultimately boosting your productivity.

Problem Statement.

One common challenge businesses face is efficiently tracking expenses and keeping financial records current. Manually creating these records can be tedious and prone to errors, risk of oversight, and more leading to inconsistencies and potential tax issues.

High Level Explanation.

That’s why we created our Business Expenses automation. This solution ensures that each expense reported in Slack is automatically processed and recorded in Airtable without requiring manual intervention. You might be asking, ‘Why Slack?’ Our bank doesn’t currently have a direct API, like most banks. However, they do support Slack messages. With this automation, we can capture these Slack messages and turn them into actionable data.

Demonstration.

Now let’s see how the automation works:

1. Slack Message Watcher: The automation starts by monitoring messages in a designated Slack channel for expense notifications daily at 9AM. Unfortunately, Slack doesn’t have an immediate trigger.
2. Expense Identification: It filters messages containing expense details, specifically those that mention account debits from our bank. We use this Slack channel for various financial notifications and it needs to find and pull the exact messages applicable for this automation.
3. Create Record in Airtable: For each identified expense, a new record is created in our custom Airtable CRM, capturing details such as the description, amount, date, and vendor.
4. Send Slack Notification: A notification is then sent to another Slack channel, informing the team that a new expense has been recorded in Airtable and prompting further action to complete remaining information. As the data cannot be pulled directly from our bank, and because we track specific data points in our expenses, there is a manual effort to attach this last information in the record.

Benefits Recap.

By automating this process, we gain a few benefits like:

• Efficiency: The automation eliminates the need for manual data entry, freeing up team members to focus on higher-value tasks.
• Accuracy: Automated data capture reduces the risk of errors, ensuring that all expenses are recorded correctly and consistently. Not only this, all business expenses are funneled into this Slack channel ensuring that no expenses are overlooked and our accounting ledger is accurate.
• Near Real-Time Updates: Financial records are updated in near real-time, providing immediate insights into company spending and deal-related expenses.
• Improved Financial Oversight: Slack notifications keep the leadership team informed about new expenses, enhancing transparency and accountability.
• Streamlined Financial Management: Automation ensures a smooth flow of expense data into Airtable, facilitating organized and reliable financial management.

Maven X Services & AI Automation Assessment.

At Maven X, we specialize in crafting custom automations to meet your business needs. If you’re interested in automating your business, check out our free Client Automation Assessment tool. This tool allows you to input your specific challenges and goals, and our AI generates tailored automation solutions for your business. It’s the perfect starting point to explore how automation can enhance your efficiency and success.

If any of the suggested automations are what you’re looking for, or if your automation is more complex, reach out to us at [email protected] to speak with our automation experts.

Closing.

Thank you for watching! We hope this video has inspired you to consider the benefits of automation for your business. Be sure to check out our other videos for more automation solutions and success stories.

Ready to take the next step? Visit our website in the description to try the Client Automation Assessment tool and discover the perfect automation for your needs and to contact us.

Until next time, happy automating!