Archive for June, 2015

Awesome Apps for Accounting: IF by IFTTT

IF by IFTTT (“If This Then That”) has been an extremely useful tool in my web automation efforts. Through this website and app, I create “recipes” so that when a certain event happens in one app, an action is automatically triggered in another app. I use it for some social media activities, for example, posting Instagrams as Twitter photos.  Here’s another one: by sending a text to my phone number, I can turn the volume up.  Since I mute my phone often, this one is a life saver when it decides to play hide-and-seek between the couch cushions. Business owners and accountants could use IF to create custom alerts and make accounting easier.  Here are a few I found:
  1. A business owner using Square point of sale software to accept credit card payments might want to be alerted when large refunds are issued.IFTTT Recipe: Refunds over $____ send an email to any address you choose  connects square to gmail
  2. A company using Stripe to process online payments can add each sale automatically to Google Sheets.IFTTT Recipe: If New Stripe Payment to Add Row to Google Sheets connects stripe to google-drive
  3. Do you ever forget to pay your phone bill?  If you get the bill via e-mail, this recipe will put an appointment on your calendar to pay it.IFTTT Recipe: When I get an email about my phone/internet bill, my calendar reminds me to pay it within 5 days connects gmail to google-calendar
  4. It’s not easy to keep a manual mileage log, but IF pairs Automatic (a device you plug into your car) with Google Drive to document your miles.IFTTT Recipe: Automatic - Milage for Tax Deduction connects automatic to google-drive
  5. Based on your iOS location, this recipe will log your work hours.IFTTT Recipe: Log work hours to a google spreadsheet connects ios-location to google-drive
It’s disappointing that there isn’t any accounting software listed in the IFTTT channels.  There could be many useful accounting recipes. It would be cool if an e-mail were automatically sent to a bookkeeper if a bank account hasn’t been reconciled for two months, or if an income statement could automatically be posted to Dropbox every month. Could this be something we see in the near future? If you use IF in your business and have great tips to share, please leave a comment below.