Last week was a whirlwind of invoices, data wrangling, and frustration. As an app founder in the ridesharing and food delivery industry, I found myself knee-deep in invoice reports from companies like Bolt, Uber, Glovo, and Bolt Food. My mission? To process these invoices and sync them seamlessly through our partner, Manager Flota’s, e-invoice system. Little did I know that this seemingly straightforward task would lead me down a rabbit hole of perplexing export formats, unresponsive customer service, and a dash of sheer madness.
The Invoice Export Odyssey
Bolt Ridesharing: The Gold Standard
Bolt Ridesharing set the gold standard for invoice exports. Their reports were clean, concise, and easy to work with. Kudos to them for making my life a tad less chaotic.
Uber: PDF Overload
Uber, on the other hand, decided to export all their invoices as PDFs. Yes, you read that right—PDFs! While I appreciate the nostalgia of a digital paper trail, it’s hardly efficient when dealing with hundreds of invoices.
Glovo: XLSX in a Zip
Glovo took a different route. They bundled their invoices in an XLSX file within a zip folder. It’s like they wanted to add an extra layer of complexity just for fun. Unzipping files became my new hobby.
Bolt Food: The Wild Card
And then there’s Bolt Food. Brace yourselves. Their CSV exports were missing crucial data. But wait, there’s more! They included a column with URLs to PDF invoices hosted on their server. Oh, and did I mention the rate limit on those URLs? It’s like a game of hide-and-seek with critical information.
The Silence of the Companies
But the real kicker? The silence. No one answered my emails. Not Bolt, not Uber, not Glovo, and definitely not Bolt Food. It’s as if my messages vanished into the digital abyss. I get it, I’m not their direct client.
But even their partners, fleet managers, and drivers faced the same silence. Is anyone out there?
Taking Matters into Our Own Hands
Enough was enough. Instead of banging my head against the wall, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I reached out directly to the businesses, explaining our needs. Some rejected my requests, others politely declined, but at least they acknowledged my existence. Communication, people—it’s not rocket science.
The B2B Invoice Quest
Our recent solution? We meticulously searched through the invoices, identifying only the B2B ones, these were issued by the platforms in the name of the fleets. Our partner, Oblio, then synced these B2B invoices to the e-invoice system.
Automation for the win!
Manager Flota: Our Lifesaver
Our app, Manager Flota, became the hero. Fleet managers rejoiced as we reduced their workload. No more manual duplication of invoices using invoicing programs. Just smooth sailing through the e-invoice universe.
Conclusion
So, here’s to surviving a week in the life of an invoice wrangler. May the data gods smile upon us, and may the silence be broken. And to all the ridesharing and food delivery companies out there: a simple reply goes a long way.
Let’s keep the wheels turning and the invoices flowing. 🚗💨📄
