Make your bank data smart, without code: 5 scenarios for your business with Zapier & Ponto
We are so accustomed to using our bank account in the most basic way, you would almost think there is nothing more creative we can do with it. But that’s not the case. On the contrary, the options to ‘activate’ your bank data for your business are endless. And what’s even better, there is no need to be a full-on developer.
The no-code platform Zapier lets you create custom applications to automate specific tasks, for example approving invoices, by a simple drag and drop of pre-built components such as forms, workflows, and approval processes. Combine Zapier with Open Banking APIs and you will enter a whole new world. And lucky for you, there is Ponto to help you out on the Open Banking part.
Ponto, our professional payment platform, allows you to connect your bank accounts to over 5,000 apps in Zapier in a straightforward way. But where do you even start? Below you can find 5 domains in which you could experiment:
- Reporting
- Tracking and tracing of your payments
- Creating custom alerts
- Invoicing
- Data synchronization
Five scenarios to make your bank data smart
Ready to get inspired? Here are a few possibilities, divided into five categories:
1. Reporting: gain insights into your income & spendings.
Automatically record or categorize transactions in a spreadsheet or budgeting tool to track your spending and create financial reports for your business, based on Ponto’s Account Information (AI) API. Shift from data to information you can use:
- Generate reports on financial data: set up a Zap that automatically generates reports on financial data, such as spending by category, net income, or cash flow. These reports can be automatically sent to you via email or stored in a cloud storage service.
- Track your spending: set up a Zap that automatically tracks your spending and sends you a daily or weekly summary.
- Automate tax filing: set up a Zap that automatically gathers the necessary information for tax purposes, such as your annual transaction information and your end-of-year balance.
2. Track and trace your payments
Particularly useful is the ability to keep track of your payments and automatically update the status of bookings or invoices based on the transactions on your bank account:
- Track the status of payments: set up a Zap that automatically updates the status of payments in an invoice management system. This way you know when payments have been made or when they are due.
3. Create custom alerts
By connecting Zapier to Ponto and subsequently to a messaging platform, you can enable alerts to be sent based on events (such as incoming transactions) on your bank account, keeping you pro-actively informed of important transactions:
- Spending limit alert: set up a Zap that sends an alert when your spending reaches a certain limit, helping you to stay within your budget.
- Specific transaction alert: set up a Zap to notify you via email, SMS, or a messaging app when a specific type of transaction occurs, such as a deposit or a withdrawal.
- Low balance alert: set up a Zap that sends you an alert when your balance falls below a certain threshold.
4. Invoicing
Typically an invoice precedes a payment, but in some specific cases, you may need to create a document after a payment has been credited. That’s the case for charities as they receive donations and create an invoice afterwards. Or maybe you just want to automatically send a thank-you message to your customer.
- Create recurring invoices: set up a Zap that automatically creates recurring invoices based on the transactions in your bank account.
5. Data synchronization
Finally is the possibility to sync your transaction data with other applications:
- Synchronize financial data between platforms: by connecting Zapier to multiple financial platforms, you can set up a Zap that automatically synchronizes financial data between them, such as transactions, invoices, and customer information.
- Automatically update your CRM: set up a Zap that automatically updates your CRM with customer information from your bank account, such as new customer information or changes to existing customer information, based on the information in a transaction.
The list of use cases of connecting Ponto’s Open Banking APIs to Zapier goes on and on. They vary depending on your needs, the financial institution, and the type of service you want to automate.