Hi Can I use Coda for invoicing and accounts? Do I need an existing account software ?
Hi @Dawn_Wormell ,
and welcome to Coda Community! 
Short answer: yes.
A bit more articulated: it really depends.
Coda has the ability to cover a wide spectrum of productivity tools (CRM, ERP, Task management, …), as long as you “build” it yourself (or make someone else do it for you) and you don’t have specific needs that professional, single purpose, tailor made services are made for.
Could you please outline a bit more your specific use case so that it’s easier to understand if Coda might be a viable solution?
Thank you!
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Hello @Dawn_Wormell ,
Federico has much more experience with Coda than me and he has pointed me quite a few times in the right direction. His answer to your question is, in my opinion, correct, but might leave you with some questions.
My short anser is: it might not be your best solution.
Given the fact that you can get complete online accounting packages for relatively little money, I would recommend an accounting package for doing your bookkeeping. Unless your invoicing needs are limited to just a couple of invoices per year, it is just not worth the effort to re-invent the wheel.
Almost any programming environment, whether it is no-code, low code or otherwise, can be used to make invoices or store CRM type data, but you would be surprised to see how fast it becomes complicated. Connecting customer data to an invoice can be a small challenge, reporting sales tax is already a bit more daunting and tracking and following up on unpaid invoices is a whole new ballgame.
So, unless, your requirements are really very limited, you should get a (basic) accounting package for your financial administration.
Coda can do a lot of things very well and I use Coda for CRM, financial planning, depreciation calculations, scheduling, to do lists and many more things. It has replaced many other software tools for many tasks and as your experience and skills grow, you will find that you can do many things with Coda a lot quicker than with more traditional tools. The key to success is using the right tool for the job. I use Coda every day, but I still use spreadsheets, word processors, databases and many other programs when they are better suited for the job.
Back to your original question: I would not recommend to try to make Coda into an invoicing program, but I would use it for CRM if your needs are not met by your bookkeeping software - that is what I do, because I can not adept my standard software to fit my business just right.
Happy no-code-programming,
Greetings,
Joost
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Quoted - literally - and fully agree with what @joost_mineur wisely said.
Said that, I do use Coda for my invoicing.
However, my context is extremely simple and I accept the trade-off of doing/checking something manually.
Anyway: happy to hear your use-case, @Dawn_Wormell