Tyler Diogo first discovered a love of automation while managing an online community for a video game in his free time. He saw how much time he saved using Zapier to send Discord messages and update calendars. So, he thought, why not try some of the same Zaps in his work life?
Soon after, he began implementing Zapier to streamline his work as the Operations Manager at Arden Insurance Services LLC, a managing general agency specializing in insurance coverage for property owners' associations.
From there, he created an automation waterfall effect—one Zap spawned another. Tyler automated his own to-do list and also helped his Arden colleagues do the same, which increased efficiency company-wide.
What began as a way to reduce annoying emails for a hobby soon changed the way an entire company approached operations.
Automation to keep Arden running—all without coding
The first process Tyler tackled was past-due notices for customers. Manually sending notices took up precious time and, because they required careful attention to detail, were prone to errors. But it's a vital step in their payment collection process that contributes over $150 million in billing and collections each year. Tyler knew he could find a way to improve it.
To accomplish this, Tyler needed to send reminder emails with the original email and invoice attached. This turned out to be trickier than he originally expected. None of the software vendors he contacted could attach the original email.
So, he tried building it himself with Zapier.
Tyler named this automated workflow the "Invoice Archive," and here's how it works:
Save the original invoice email. When a new invoice email is sent from a specific email address in Microsoft Outlook (the one Arden uses to send invoices), the email is saved in OneDrive.
Identify invoices that need follow-up. When an invoice is past due, a new row is created in a Google Sheet. This triggers a filter based on specific rules. In Arden's case, this filter double-checks whether an invoice should receive a follow-up.
Send a follow-up email with the original invoice email attached. If the invoice requires a follow-up, Zapier finds the original invoice email file in OneDrive and attaches it to the reminder email in Microsoft Outlook before sending it to the client. Using multiple custom fields, the reminder email can be personalized with the client's name, policy number, effective date, and other important info related to the payment.
Now, this process happens automatically at the beginning of each day.
"This Zap sent out a couple hundred invoices today alone," Tyler said.
With Zapier, this entire process takes only a couple of seconds. Before, it would take up to five hours per day.
"Our customer service representatives have said in company-wide meetings that our customers now chase after us to pay their invoices, rather than us chasing after them."
Tyler Diogo, Operations Manager at Arden Insurance
The age of automation begins
The Invoice Archive automation sparked excitement throughout the company and started what Tyler called "the age of automation" at Arden Insurance.
Since then, Tyler has continued to find ways to automate the company's most critical processes. Their most recent automated workflow facilitates all of the company's mailing requirements for legal notices and other necessary snail mail. The 12-Zap workflow completes the process from beginning to end with only one manual step required.
Beginning when a user sends an invoice listing report via email, the automated process handles formatting the data, sending the letter to print, and collecting proof of delivery. This one workflow saves the Arden team more than three hours per day.
17,000+ hours of work to be reallocated
Using Zapier, Arden has seen its outstanding invoices drop to unprecedented levels. Because of the automated workflows they're using company-wide, they have fewer past-due invoices than ever.
"The Invoice Archive and collecting past-due bills are all Zapier," said Tyler.
Because the Arden team regained so much time with automation, they've doubled the amount of business they do every year and have the capacity to continue that growth.
"As the Operations Manager, my favorite part is that I can build custom, quick solutions that get implemented immediately," Tyler said. "The team at Zapier has only made my job easier by releasing new and exciting products and enhancements that have brought advanced concepts of software engineering and development into a bite-sized piece that lets me use it to the fullest extent."
In 2023, Tyler calculated the workforce lift of these automations to equal around 17,000 hours of work, and in 2024, they're projecting that to grow to 34,000 hours. This is tens of thousands of hours of work they can reallocate to other priorities to help the company thrive.
"Zapier contributes to an overhead savings of around $500,000+ on an annual basis, and it's growing every day!"
