Invoice Automation for Field Service and Trades
Trades businesses run on parts. Every supply house delivery, every counter pickup, every special order generates an invoice, and each one belongs against a job if you want to know whether the job made money.
The office side is usually one person doing dispatch, invoicing, payroll and AP. Supplier invoices pile up in an inbox, get entered in a burst on Friday, and job costing runs a week behind.
ZapBooks captures those invoices from the inbox, extracts the parts detail line by line, and posts coded bills into QuickBooks Online or Xero so the numbers are current.
What makes AP hard in field service, HVAC, plumbing and electrical
The volume is one problem. The shape of the documents is usually the bigger one.
Parts invoices arrive constantly
Multiple supply house pickups a day across several trucks means a steady stream of small invoices, each needing a job code.
Job profitability is a guess
If parts invoices post a week late, the job is closed and invoiced before its true cost is known.
Counter pickups lack paperwork discipline
Techs pick up parts and the invoice goes to the office by email, sometimes days later, sometimes not at all.
One person, no backup
When the office manager is out, AP stops entirely.
How it works
- 1
Connect the office inbox
Where supply houses, fuel cards and subs already send invoices.
- 2
Parts invoices extracted line by line
Part numbers, descriptions, quantities and prices, so job allocation and margin are based on real detail.
- 3
Duplicate detection on supplier re-sends
Supply houses re-send and send statements; duplicates get caught before they post.
- 4
Per-vendor coding rules
The supply house you use every day codes itself after the first invoice.
- 5
Posted to QuickBooks or Xero
Where your job, project or class structure carries the cost allocation.
Documents it handles
- Parts and supply house invoices
- Equipment and tool purchase invoices
- Fuel card and fleet invoices
- Subcontractor invoices
- Permit and inspection fees
- Uniform, insurance and software invoices
What lands in your ledger
- Line-item detail on parts invoices is what makes real job costing possible instead of a lump-sum guess.
- Vendor matching against your existing supplier list keeps supply house spend consolidated for negotiating volume pricing.
- Duplicate detection matters here because supply houses send both invoices and monthly statements containing the same charges.
- Job allocation happens through QuickBooks projects or Xero tracking categories; ZapBooks gets the bill in there fast and coded.
Questions from field service, HVAC, plumbing and electrical
Ready to stop typing invoices?
Connect your inbox and your accounting software. ZapBooks reads the invoices, extracts the data and posts coded bills to QuickBooks, Xero or Excel.
14-day free trial. No credit card required.