The moment it happens

Hear in Slack when a client pays

As soon as a FreshBooks payment is recorded, your team sees the client, invoice and amount in Slack.

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

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a client pays a FreshBooks invoice, post the client name, invoice number and amount paid to #finance 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

For a small business, a payment arriving is the moment work turns into cash. But FreshBooks records payments quietly, and unless someone is watching the dashboard, the owner and the team do not know that a client paid. Work on hold for an unpaid invoice stays on hold, the follow-up reminder still goes out to a client who already paid, and the team misses the small win of a large invoice settling.

When a payment is recorded, FreshBooks calls ClickRuntime, which verifies the callback, fetches the payment details, and posts a message in Slack with the client, the invoice and the amount. The message arrives within moments of the payment being recorded. No one has to ask finance whether it arrived.

It works well when sales, delivery and finance are different people who all care about that moment.

What you get out of it

Release held work promptly
If a project was paused until the deposit arrived, the team learns that it can start. Waiting a day for someone to notice a payment is a day of lost delivery time.
Avoid awkward reminders
Clients who have paid and still receive a chaser feel the business is disorganized. An immediate alert helps you cancel a follow-up before it goes out. It also keeps the business looking professional.
Share good news with the team
A large payment appearing in the channel is a morale boost. It shows the link between daily work and the business's revenue. Wins like that are easy to share and remember.
Keep sales and finance aligned
Salespeople want to know when a deal turns into cash. A channel post answers that without asking finance each time. No one needs to message finance and wait for an answer.
Reconcile faster
A message with the amount and invoice makes it easy to match the payment against the bank deposit. Differences between the two are spotted while the details are fresh. Fixing an error is simpler while the payment is fresh.

How it works

What happens, step by step

When a payment is recorded in FreshBooks, FreshBooks tells ClickRuntime straight away.
ClickRuntime confirms the notice came from your FreshBooks account and looks up the payment.
It posts the client, the invoice number and the amount paid to your Slack channel.

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

Hear in Slack when a client paysjust nowSucceeded

Slack · #financeNorthwind Traders paid invoice #0000221: 1850.00 USD

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.

payment_received_alert.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") != "payment.create":
        return {"skipped": data.get("name")}
    base = f"{FB}/accounting/account/{account}"
    pay = http.get(f"{base}/payments/payments/{data['object_id']}", headers=headers).json()["response"]["result"]["payment"]
    inv = http.get(f"{base}/invoices/invoices/{pay['invoiceid']}", headers=headers).json()["response"]["result"]["invoice"]
    notify.slack(f"{inv['organization']} paid invoice #{inv['invoice_number']}: "
                 f"{pay['amount']['amount']} {pay['amount']['code']}", channel="#finance")
    return {"payment_id": data["object_id"]}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it alert for partial payments?

Yes. FreshBooks records each payment, including partial ones, so each triggers a message with the amount received. The message shows the invoice so you can see whether a balance remains. Amounts are shown as recorded.

What does the Slack message include?

The client name, invoice number, payment amount, date and payment method where FreshBooks provides it. Details can be left out of the post if the channel is read by people who should not see amounts.

Can I get alerts only for large payments?

Yes. Set a minimum amount and smaller payments are ignored, while anything above it is posted. You can also use a separate channel for large payments so they stand out. The amount threshold is easy to change.

What permissions does it need?

user:payments: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