Closed a $2,200 Deal By Solving "We Hate Manual Invoice Entry" 🔥

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Found a client drowning in 80 invoices monthly. Different vendors. Different formats. Digital PDFs, scanned documents, even phone photos of paper invoices.

Their bookkeeper spending 12 hours monthly just typing invoice data into QuickBooks.

Built them an automation that extracts everything automatically. $2,200 setup + $180 monthly. They signed in 3 days.

THE PAIN POINT:

Local construction company gets invoices from 15+ different suppliers. Every format imaginable.

Home Depot emails PDF. Local lumber yard faxes (yes, still faxing in 2025). Subcontractors text photos of handwritten invoices.

Bookkeeper manually typing: Invoice numbers, dates, vendor info, line items, totals. Every. Single. One.

12 hours monthly of pure data entry. At $35/hour = $420 monthly waste.

Plus errors. Typos in amounts. Wrong dates. Missing invoice numbers.

MY SOLUTION:

Built n8n workflow that watches their invoice folder in Google Drive. When new invoice arrives - any format - automatically extracts all the data and saves it structured.

THE FLOW:

Invoice arrives in Drive → Gets parsed automatically → Data validated → Saved to database → Ready for accounting system

Works with typed PDFs, scanned documents, even terrible phone photos.

THE DEMO THAT CLOSED IT:

Took their worst invoice - blurry photo of handwritten subcontractor invoice. Uploaded it. Watched data extract in real-time.

Vendor name, date, line items, total - all captured perfectly.

"Wait, it can read handwriting?"

"Yeah, even messy handwriting."

Signed the contract right there.

THE RESULTS 3 MONTHS IN:

80 invoices monthly processed automatically. Bookkeeper reviews extracted data instead of typing. 12 hours → 2 hours monthly. Error rate dropped to basically zero. Client referred me to another contractor.

THE SETUP:

This workflow took me about 90 minutes to build initially. Now I can deploy it for new clients in 20 minutes.

Full template in my classroom here

Includes the complete n8n workflow (import-ready JSON), step-by-step setup guide, database schema, and industry-specific customizations for construction, healthcare, legal, and e-commerce.

THE PRICING:

Calculated their savings: 10 hours saved × $35/hour = $350 monthly value. Charged $2,200 setup + $180 monthly monitoring. ROI is obvious. They didn't negotiate.

THE OPPORTUNITY:

Every business with 50+ monthly invoices has this pain. Construction, medical practices, restaurants, law firms, e-commerce.

They all hate manual invoice entry. Most don't know automation exists.

This is probably the easiest client conversation I've ever had.

What industry are you targeting that processes lots of invoices?

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