The €50 that never reached month-end

BrandHub
Finance
2025 to 2026
4 min

This one is about invoices. Stay with me, it gets good.

READ IN 8 SECONDS

PROBLEM: BrandHub made the invoices, then 7 in 10 needed fixing again in Exact Online.
DECISION: Catch mistakes while finance is typing, and never block them.
RESULT: 3 in 10. About 80 hours of manual finance work gone every month.

THAT'S IT. OR KEEP SCROLLING ↓

11 slides · ← → to move · swipe on phones

FILE 01 · BRANDHUB FINANCE

READ IN 8 SECONDS

PROBLEM

BrandHub made the invoices, then 7 in 10 needed fixing again in Exact Online.

DECISION

Catch mistakes while finance is typing, and never block them.

RESULT

3 in 10. About 80 hours of manual finance work gone every month.

THAT'S IT. OR KEEP SCROLLING ↓

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This is BrandHub (opens in a new tab). 120 resellers run their branded-goods business on it: napkins, coasters, cups, uniforms. Every order ends up as an invoice.

the revenue list. every row is an invoice.
BrandHub (opens in a new tab) made the invoices. Then finance fixed them again in Exact Online. Anything unusual got typed up in Teamleader or Moneybird, with no sync and one more subscription.

Made in BrandHubFixed in ExactExtras in Teamleader

"I check every invoice twice." said Finance (composite character)
7 in 10

invoices needed someone to fix them by hand in Exact Online.

yes, 7.
FILE 01 · BRANDHUB FINANCE 04 / 11
So I followed one invoice from first draft to last reminder.
1. Draft
2. Review
3. Booked
4. Unpaid
5. Partial
6. Paid
7. Credit note
Every state got its own rules, buttons and emails. The spec ran to 74 pages.
Your turn

An invoice line comes in €50 over its order line. What should the system do?

Pick one before you scroll.
A. Block the save
B. Warn, show the maths, let finance decide my pick
C. Fix it at month-end

B. Finance often knows something the system doesn't. Blocking them only moves the work into email. Backdated invoices get the same deal: a warning, not a wall.

Principle 01

Catch it where it's typed

Warn while the person still remembers why the number is odd.
Nothing gets booked until finance has seen it the way the customer will. Booking gives it an official number, locks it and sends it to Exact. If Exact says no, it tries again.

Principle 02

Show the real thing before it's final

The review screen is the invoice the customer gets, not a form about it.
Then the getting-paid part: a QR code on every invoice, direct debit for customers who want it, and reminders on a schedule finance can read at a glance.

5 of 8 reminders sent, all on one line
Guess the number
Out of 10 invoices, how many needed a manual fix after this shipped?
your guess: 5

Go on, guess. Nobody's watching.
RECEIPT · BRANDHUB FINANCE
INVOICES + CREDIT NOTES / MO
3,000+
MANUAL FIXES
7/10 → 3/10
FINANCE HOURS / MO
~80 BACK
TOOLS RETIRED
2
SPLIT + PARTIAL INVOICES
YES
SAVES BLOCKED
0
THANK YOU, FINANCE

3 in 10. Keep the receipt.
That's the file. One thing to steal: warn people at the moment they can still fix it.

What I'd do next

Partial invoicing is still the hardest screen to read. I'd sit with three finance people and watch them use it before adding anything new.

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