If you're a freelancer or run a small business, odds are, you didn't get into it for the admin work. If you're a painter, for example, you probably didn't start a painting business just to send estimates and track down invoices. You started it so you could paint!

Well, there's good news and bad news. The bad news: Unfortunately, there's no way around these boring, burdensome business activities.

The good news: It doesn't have to be as time-consuming as you think! Especially with the help of Zoho Invoice.

Made for freelancers and small businesses, Zoho Invoice helps you seamlessly manage your contacts, provide estimates, generate invoices, and accept payments online. In short, it does the things that get in the way of the work you actually like to do.

Add automation into the mix with Zapier, and things become even easier. For example, when someone fills out an estimate request form, their information may land in a database like Airtable. Instead of manually entering their information to generate the estimate, Zapier can create it in Zoho Invoice automatically, pulling their info directly from Airtable.

The problem: You want to be able to send estimates to prospective customers quickly, but there's a tradeoff. Keeping a constant eye out for new inquiries draws your attention away from more important work, but waiting until later to send estimates risks losing an actively engaged prospect. 

The solution: Stay focused on your work and generate estimates quickly by using automation to create them as soon as inquiries arrive. Zapier can generate a new estimate immediately when new information is added to Airtable, allowing you to get your most important work done.

Ready to try it yourself? Get started with our pre-made workflows called Zap templates. Just click on the template below and we'll guide you through the setup process. It only takes a few minutes.

Zap rating: Beginner

Pro tip: Don't use Airtable to gather your customer inquiries? No problem! Zoho Invoice connects with other database tools through Zapier, so you can seamlessly send inquiries to Zoho Invoice, no matter which tool you're using.

This is the start of all you can do with Zoho Invoice and Zapier. Zapier supports thousands of apps so you can automate almost any task at work. Start building your Zap now with Zoho Invoice, and see what you can create.

And just think of all the time you'll have for painting.