Finance automation for an agency with six payment accounts
Alerts for failed payments and invoices, a billing view from Xero, and a monthly sweep of receipts into Drive.
We built Fame finance automations: alerts when a client payment fails or an invoice is due, a billing view pulled from Xero, and a monthly sweep that files receipts and invoices from email into Drive, so finance spends less time chasing. Main result so far: 169 overdue and unbilled invoice alerts sent since September 2026.
Who we built it for
Fame is a B2B podcast agency that has been running for six years. Its team finds and books guests, produces episodes and promotes each show for around 100 clients, and Fame Crew finds local videographers for shoots and handles the editing. Team size: about 97 people (estimate), most of them freelancers and contractors. Fame is Forge's own sister company, so we built these tools for ourselves first and still run every one of them.
Who uses it: finance, the founder.
Six payment accounts, and nobody watching all of them
Fame takes payments through six Stripe accounts plus GoCardless and invoices through Xero. A failed payment or overdue invoice was found when someone happened to look, and receipts had to be dug out of email each month for the books.
Finance spent around 50 hours a month on payment checks and receipt filing (estimate).
Finance that tells you when something needs a person
Failed payment alerts
A failed payment on any account posts to the finance channel straight away.
Invoice alerts
Due and overdue invoices are flagged before they become awkward conversations.
Billing view
Each client's billing, pulled from Xero, next to the rest of their account.
Monthly receipt sweep
Receipts and invoices are found in email and filed into the right Drive folder each month.
What the finance team used before
Checking six payment dashboards and Xero by hand, and searching email for receipts at month end.
Monthly cost of what came before: £0 a month (estimate)
What changed for the finance team
How we look after the finance automations
Forge built this for Fame and looks after it: errors are reported automatically to an error tracker, and anything that stops someone doing their job is fixed the same day.
What it's built with
- Next.js
- Supabase
- Vercel
- Xero API
- Stripe API
- GoCardless API
- Gmail API
- Google Drive API
Connects to: Xero, Stripe, GoCardless, Gmail, Google Drive, Slack.
What it would cost a client today
Start with the 2-week ops audit ($2,500 / £2,000, credited to your first month). A tool like this then fits the growth plan at $3,500 / £2,800 a month, with this as the first build included. Finance automations connect several money apps at once, so they usually fit growth.
Plans have a 3-month minimum. AI usage is passed on at cost, and the tool runs on your own accounts, so you own it. See pricing for the full breakdown.
Would this work for your firm?
If you take payments in more than one place, these automations give your finance team the checking time back. They suit accounting firms, agencies and any firm on Xero.
See what we build for accounting firms, or read about our business automation work.
Questions about building a finance automations
Can we get alerts for failed Stripe and GoCardless payments in one place?
Yes. Fame's alerts cover six Stripe accounts and GoCardless and post to one finance channel.
How does the receipt sweep work?
Each month it searches the finance mailbox with set rules for receipts and invoices and files them into the right Drive folder.
Does this need access to our bank?
No. Fame's automations read from Xero, Stripe and GoCardless, not the bank directly.
Who owns the tool once it's built?
You do. It runs on your own accounts and you pay those tool costs directly; we monitor it, fix it and keep improving it on the monthly plan.
Want a finance automations shaped to your firm?
Start with a 2-week ops audit - $2,500 / £2,000, credited to your first month.