Purchase orders and custom billing on one connected workflow
A direct-to-consumer jewelry brand tracks purchase orders down to the line item and automates custom order billing communications in Airtable, using order criteria pulled directly from Shopify.
The problem
Purchase orders arrived with multiple line items that finance and procurement needed to track individually, but the process for logging and reconciling them was manual and time-consuming. Custom orders added another layer: each one needed a billing communication generated based on the specifics of that order.
Before this workflow existed, someone had to manually check Shopify order details and draft an email for each custom order that needed billing, which was slow and left room for inconsistent or delayed communications with customers and vendors alike.
What they built
The team built an Airtable base that tracks purchase orders and their line items in one place, giving finance and operations a shared structure for reconciling procurement against what was actually ordered. Each line item carries its own status so partial fulfillment is easy to see.
For custom orders, the team layered in automation that generates billing emails based on criteria pulled from the connected Shopify order, removing the manual step of drafting a custom communication for every order that needed one.
The outcome
Finance and operations now track purchase orders and line items in a single base rather than reconciling separate documents, giving both teams end-to-end visibility from order placement through invoicing. That structure covers both the procure-to-pay side and the order-to-cash side of the business.
Custom order billing communications are generated automatically from Shopify order criteria, cutting out the manual drafting step and giving customers a more consistent, timely billing experience without adding headcount to the finance team.
Inside the solution
Purchase order and custom order invoicing
Finance & Procurement
Finance & Accounting
- Purchase order and line item tracking
- Custom order invoicing
- Automated email generation for custom orders based on Shopify criteria
- Manual purchase order tracking across disconnected documents
- Time-consuming custom order billing communications drafted by hand
- No shared structure linking procurement records to invoicing status
- Automated billing communications for custom orders
- End-to-end procure-to-pay and order-to-cash visibility
- Reduced manual invoicing effort for the finance team
- Operations
- Procurement
- Finance
- Shopify
Purchase order and custom order invoicing
Track every purchase order down to the individual line item, with per-line fulfillment status, receipt-value rollups and an allocation table that matches each vendor bill back to the lines it actually bills. On the customer side, custom orders carry the billing criteria that drive automatically drafted deposit, balance and confirmation emails, so finance closes both the procure-to-pay and order-to-cash loop in one base.
How the purchase order and invoicing workflow works
Log purchase orders and line items
Track fulfillment status per line item
Connect custom orders to Shopify criteria
Generate billing emails automatically
Reconcile invoicing against purchase orders
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
It tracks purchase orders and their line items, and separately automates billing email generation for custom orders based on Shopify order criteria.
Operations, procurement, and finance teams all work from the same base to track orders and manage invoicing.
An automation pulls order criteria from the connected Shopify order and drafts the billing email, replacing a manual step.
Yes. The base covers the procure-to-pay side through purchase order and line item tracking, and the order-to-cash side through custom order invoicing.
Yes, it is in active use by operations, procurement, and finance teams.