The moment it happens

Announce new FreshBooks clients in Slack

Each time someone adds a client, the team gets the name and company in a channel so onboarding can start.

Runs: The moment it happens
Apps: FreshBooks
AI: Not needed
Access: user:clients:read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a new client is created in FreshBooks, post their name, company and email to #new-clients in Slack.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

In a small accounting firm, agency or consultancy, a new FreshBooks client is a sign that work is about to begin, and several people need to act: the account manager schedules a kickoff, someone sets up a project folder, finance checks payment terms. The client record gets created by one person, often the bookkeeper, and the others find out in a meeting, an email chain or when an invoice lands on their desk. Work starts late, or twice.

When a client is added, FreshBooks sends a callback to ClickRuntime, which verifies it, fetches the full client record, and posts a message in the Slack channel you choose with the client's name, organization and contact details. It happens within moments of the record being created.

It works for teams where the person who enters clients is not the person who starts the work.

What you get out of it

Start onboarding the same day
A channel message the moment a client is added gives the account manager a trigger to send a welcome email. Clients notice teams who react quickly after signing. That first impression often decides how the relationship goes.
Stop depending on word of mouth
Without an alert, new clients are announced informally and unevenly. A consistent post means every person who needs to know learns at the same time from the same source. Everyone ends up working from the same information.
Give finance and delivery the same facts
The post carries the contact details and organization as stored in FreshBooks. Teams use the same spelling and email address, which reduces typos on later invoices. Clean data keeps invoices and reminders going to the right place.
Celebrate new business visibly
Seeing new clients arrive in a shared channel boosts morale and reminds everyone that sales work is paying off. It also helps new staff learn the client list. Small wins like that keep a sales team motivated.
Catch duplicate or mistaken entries
If the same client is added twice, someone in the channel is likely to spot it right away. Merging early is much easier than cleaning up invoices later. Cleaner client lists also mean fewer billing mistakes.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When someone adds a client in FreshBooks, FreshBooks tells ClickRuntime straight away.
ClickRuntime confirms the notice is genuine and looks up the client's details.
It posts the client's name, company and email to your Slack channel so onboarding can start.

Before it runs live

Connect FreshBooks
Paste your automation's link into the other app's webhook settings

What you get

RunsThe moment it happens

Announce new FreshBooks clients in Slackjust nowSucceeded

Slack · #new-clientsNew client: Jordan Lee, Northwind Traders (jordan@northwind.example)

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other FreshBooks steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

new_client_to_slack.pyexample

from clickruntime import on_event, credentials, http, notify

FB = "https://api.freshbooks.com"

def fb():
    token = credentials.connection("freshbooks", "work")
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"}
    me = http.get(f"{FB}/auth/api/v1/users/me", headers=headers).json()["response"]
    return headers, me["business_memberships"][0]["business"]["account_id"]

@on_event
def handle(event):
    data = event.json or {}
    headers, account = fb()
    if "verifier" in data:  # one-time callback verification
        http.put(f"{FB}/events/account/{account}/events/callbacks/{data['callback_id']}", headers=headers,
                 json={"callback": {"verifier": data["verifier"]}})
        return {"verified": True}
    if data.get("name") != "client.create":
        return {"skipped": data.get("name")}
    client = http.get(f"{FB}/accounting/account/{account}/users/clients/{data['object_id']}",
                      headers=headers).json()["response"]["result"]["client"]
    name = f"{client['fname']} {client['lname']}".strip()
    notify.slack(f"New client: {name}, {client['organization']} ({client['email']})", channel="#new-clients")
    return {"client_id": data["object_id"]}

FAQ

Common questions

Does FreshBooks send this as a real-time event?

Yes. FreshBooks supports webhook callbacks for events such as client creation. ClickRuntime registers the callback and confirms it by answering FreshBooks' verification request, so events begin arriving once that handshake is complete. Setup takes one authorization.

What details appear in the Slack post?

Typically the client's name, organization, email and phone number, as stored in FreshBooks. Fields you consider private, such as notes or addresses, can be left out so the channel only sees what the team needs.

Can it alert only for certain clients?

Yes. After fetching the client, the flow can check a field, such as the country or a tag in the notes, and post only when it matches. Other new clients are ignored without any message.

What permissions does it need?

user:clients:read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run for each event the app sends.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

The moment it happens