Client 1. Invoice automation. Built it perfectly. Tested it thoroughly. Went live.
Day 3 it broke. Client furious. I panicked.
Fixed in 15 minutes. Learned the most important lesson about automation.
THE BUILD:
Email trigger → PDF parsing → Data extraction → Post to QuickBooks → Done
Tested with 10 sample invoices. All worked perfectly. Deployed confidently.
DAY 3 DISASTER:
Client calls: “The automation isn’t working. Nothing posted to QuickBooks today.”
Checked workflow. Processing fine. Data extracting fine. Then I saw it.
QuickBooks authentication expired.
THE MISTAKE:
I built workflow assuming perfect conditions. Never planned for failure modes.
API tokens expire. Internet disconnects. Services go down. Formats change.
My automation had zero error handling.
THE 15-MINUTE FIX:
Added error catching:
If QuickBooks post fails → retry 3 times with 5-minute delays
If still fails → send me Slack alert with details
Quarantine failed invoices in separate sheet for manual review
15 minutes of setup. Never broke again.
THE LESSON:
Perfect automation doesn’t exist. Resilient automation does.
Build for failure modes, not just success paths.
ERROR HANDLING CHECKLIST:
API AUTHENTICATION:
– Check before processing
– Graceful reconnection
– Alert when auth expires
RETRY LOGIC:
– 3 attempts with delays
– Different error types
– Exponential backoff
ALERT SYSTEM:
– Slack or email when fails
– Include error details
– Link to failed item
MANUAL REVIEW QUEUE:
– Separate location for failures
– Easy to reprocess
– Track resolution
My workflows now include all four. Takes 20 extra minutes building. Saves hours troubleshooting.
WHAT ACTUALLY BREAKS:
APIs rate limit or go down temporarily
Authentication tokens expire
Document formats change slightly
Internet hiccups during processing
Services update and break integrations
Plan for all of it.
THE MONITORING SETUP:
Daily health check email showing:
– Successful processing count
– Failed items count
– Error types encountered
– API credit usage
Takes 2 minutes reviewing. Catches issues before clients notice.
CLIENT CONFIDENCE:
Now when things break (rarely), client gets: “Workflow detected an issue and alerted me. Fixed within 30 minutes. All invoices processed correctly.”
Instead of: “Why isn’t anything working?!”
Resilient automation = happy clients = longer retention.
IMPLEMENT THIS TODAY:
Pick one workflow. Add basic error handling:
– Try/catch blocks
– Retry logic
– Slack alert when fails
– Manual review queue
20 minutes now. Hours saved later.
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