🏆 Community Challenge Winner: AI-Powered Telegram bot that simplifies invoicing for farmers

[vendy]

Hey Makers

We are pleased to announce the winner of our community challenge focused on the Make AI Agents!
Drumrolls please, huge round of applause for @Eduardo_Cifre_Sanche with his impressive solution to leverage AI chatbot to simplify invoicing process for farmers!

What specific problem did you aim to solve?

Honestly, the big issue we were trying to solve was that many farmers here in Valencia (Spain) are being forced to switch to electronic invoicing, and this has been super stressful for them. Most of them are over 50 or 60 years old, not tech-savvy, and really don’t feel comfortable using phones or computers for things like this.

To make things worse, invoicing in agriculture is a bit messy here. If a farmer sells to another farmer, the buyer makes the invoice. But if they sell to a business, then the seller does it. So farmers have to understand and deal with two types of invoices, and that just adds confusion and stress. They were getting lost, overwhelmed, and really anxious about the whole thing.

So I wanted to simplify everything just make it super easy for them to say something in Telegram like: “invoice for Pepe, 8kg tomatoes, €1.80/kg,” and boom, invoice created, PDF ready, saved in the respective Google Drive Folder automatically organised in years and months (if they do not exist, they are created automatically), added to a Google Sheet. And their accountant get access to their Google Sheet and Google Drive. Farmers can easily share their invoices via whatsapp (they do not like emails).

Why was this particular solution necessary

It was necessary because this problem is very real and growing fast. Authorities are now forcing farmers to go digital, and the old way of doing everything on paper just doesn’t work anymore not with accountants, not with clients, not with the law. But most of these farmers aren’t ready to jump into using complicated apps or websites.

Telegram (or WhatsApp) is the only tool they actually use regularly. So we built this system around it. They can just talk to the bot, even by voice note, and the AI agent helps them step by step. If they forget something (like the product name, or the total price), the agent asks for it naturally, like a conversation.

This wasn’t just about making a bot. Tt was about making something human, simple, and reliable. With Make and the AI Agent, it was possible to create this assistant-like experience that just “gets it” and that’s been a game changer for them.

Who is the intended user of this solution?

At the beginning, this was 100% built for farmers, especially the older ones who struggle with technology. It started as a personal project to help out my local community because I come from a farming family myself. But now people got noticed and I got asked to do something for other business owners. So we are seeing that it could definitely be super helpful for small businesses too.

So we’re working on extending it to anyone who needs quick, mobile-friendly invoicing. The whole idea is: no logins, no apps, no complicated setup just talk to the AI assistant and it handles everything. The farmers love it, and now we want small business owners to love it too.

Provide a brief overview of your solution and how it tackles the problem.

Our solution is basically a Telegram bot that acts like a personal assistant for farmers. They just send a message, even a voice note if they prefer, and it creates an invoice for them. The system understands what they mean, asks for anything that might be missing, and then generates a proper invoice in PDF format. It uploads that file to their Google Drive and also saves the details in a Google Sheet that their accountant can access easily. It also handles the two types of invoices we use here in Spain, depending on if the invoice is for a normal client or another farmer. That was super important because many farmers had no idea how to deal with this and it made things more complicated. What I think really works is that the tool feels super human and easy. You don’t have to fill in any forms or log into anything. It’s just a conversation. That’s why farmers here love it, and now I’m starting to build a version for small businesses too.

What were the biggest challenges you faced while building your solution?

One of the main challenges for me was that I’m not really a technical person. I’ve been playing around with Make for about a year now, but this was the first time I was trying to build something so complete. So I had to learn everything from scratch like iterators, loops, aggregators so literally everything was new. I had no coding background, so it was definitely a challenge to understand how all the pieces work together.

Another big challenge was making sure everything ran on free tools. Farmers in Spain don’t have big margins and definitely don’t want to spend money on software. So I had to find a way to build something that felt professional but used only tools that were free. That’s why I went for Telegram, since many of them already use it, and Google Sheets for templates and data, since it’s free and somewhat familiar to those who used Excel years ago.

Things got more complex when I started working with invoices that included multiple products. A farmer could send a message saying they bought 10 different items from another farmer, and each one has different prices, weights, and units. So I had to find a way to dynamically add rows in the right place in the invoice, depending on the number of products. That part took me a while to figure out.

Also, managing folders was a challenge. I needed to find the correct folder to save the invoice into, and if the folder didn’t exist yet, I had to create it automatically. That meant learning how to use queries in Make, which again, was totally new for me and not super beginner-friendly.

Finally, the farmers wanted a way to easily check if invoices were paid or still pending. They needed something they could open once a week on their computer, look at it, and just update things. That’s where the Google Sheet became super useful again. I built a system that not only tracks every invoice and the total amount, but also links directly to the PDF in their Drive and lets them filter by month, status, or whatever they need.

Looking back now it feels a bit easier, but at the time it was a lot to figure out. Especially because I wanted to make it as simple and useful as possible for people who don’t really use tech.

What are the key modules and functionalities used in your solution?

The main modules I used were mostly Google-based tools so Google Drive and Google Sheets were essential. I also used Telegram, since most farmers are already familiar with it and it’s easy for them to use. Those are basically the three key platforms I worked with: Telegram to send and receive prompts, Google Drive to save the PDF invoices, and Google Sheets to log all the data and help the farmers and accounting firms track everything.

Besides that, I had to use a lot of formulas and functions inside Make to keep things working smoothly. For example, the invoice number system was a bit complex because it changes depending on whether the invoice is for a client or another farmer. Each type has its own numbering, and it had to increase correctly depending on the last invoice for that category. So I had to use a mix of get, split, and parseNumber functions to separate the parts of the invoice number and increase them properly.

I also used some query functions to check if the correct folders existed in Google Drive (by year and month) and create them if they didn’t. That way everything stays super organized, and the farmers don’t have to worry about it. And when they get the invoice back, they also get a direct link to the file, and they can even see which folder it’s saved in thanks to a small hyperlink I added in the workflow.

So yeah, even though the tools were simple and free, I used them in a way that made the whole thing really dynamic and automated.

What are you most proud of about this solution?

What I’m most proud of is that I was able to take something like AI, which most people just see as a chatbot you play around with, and actually turn it into something useful and something that solves a real problem for real people. Farmers in Spain aren’t having the easiest time right now, and being able to build something simple and cheap that actually helps them feels like a big win.

I also love that it’s all done using free or super affordable tools with mostly Google products and still feels professional. It shows that you don’t need a massive budget or a team of developers to build something that works well.

To be honest, what really makes me happy as well is how people have reacted. Farmers talk to each other, so word of mouth spread fast, and I’ve ended up meeting a lot of amazing people through this.

It was definitely a challenge to build (especially as someone who’s not technical), but looking back, I’m proud I stuck with it. What started as a small idea has already made an impact, and that’s something that means a lot to me.

What feedback have you received from the users of your solution?

The feedback has honestly been really positive. Most of the farmers were quite nervous at the start because invoicing is something that stresses them out. But once they saw how simple the system was, they were very relieved. What made the biggest difference was adding the voice prompt. Many of them aren’t comfortable typing, so being able to just speak and still get their invoice done has saved them a lot of time.

They also appreciate that they don’t have to log in anywhere or learn anything complicated. It all happens through Telegram, which they already use, so it feels familiar. A few even mentioned that they finally feel like they have a bit more control, which I didn’t expect but was really nice to hear. I’m just happy that it’s genuinely helping them.

What measurable improvements has your solution achieved?

We haven’t really measured things in percentages or anything like that, especially since most of the people using it are older farmers, many of them over 60. But from the conversations I’ve had with them, the difference is clear. Before, they found the whole invoicing process stressful and overwhelming. Now, they feel much more relaxed about it.

Some of them have even told me they’re excited to see what else the system can do, which honestly says a lot. It’s gone from being something they were dreading to something they actually enjoy using. That shift alone feels like a big improvement.

What makes your solution unique?

Our solution is unique for a few reasons. First, it runs almost entirely on free tools. We only really have to pay for the Make.com operations. Telegram is free, Google Sheets and Google Drive are free, so it keeps costs super low, which is really important for the people using it.

But what I think really makes it stand out is how fast and easy it is. You can create an invoice on the fly, without wasting time logging into a system, opening programs, selecting clients, entering everything manually. That whole process used to take a while and cause a lot of stress. Now they just send a quick message and the invoice comes back ready, with all the correct details, even the VAT calculated properly.

I focused a lot on making sure it was really accurate, so the farmer doesn’t need to double-check anything. They just use it, and it works. I think that simplicity and reliability is what makes it different.

How could this solution be improved?

That’s a very good question. One of the biggest improvements would be to allow users to pay invoices directly from the same Google Sheet where the data is tracked. So for example, if a farmer sees a pending invoice, they could just click a “Pay now” button and process the payment instantly. That would really take the admin work to the next level and save even more time.

The problem is that in Spain, most banks don’t offer open APIs for things like this, or if they do, it’s either very limited or too expensive. I’ve looked into options like Stripe, Wise, and PayPal, but the reality is that most farmers only use their traditional banks and they’re not used to digital payment platforms. So right now, we’re in early talks with some banks to explore whether this kind of integration could be possible in the future.

Another area for improvement would be how we onboard users. Right now, to set everything up, we need access to their Google Drive, Sheets, and Telegram, which takes some time and manual work. I’m thinking about building a small platform where a farmer could just log in once and give access to everything in a few clicks. I’m not sure yet how it would work technically, but it’s something I’d love to solve because it would make it much easier to scale this for more people.

Here’s a snippet of the solution.