How the Review Score checker works

Short answer: The free Review Score checker uses Google's Places API. It finds your Google Business Profile from the name and city you type, asks you to confirm the match, then fetches your rating and review count live from Google along with up to 3 nearby businesses in the same category. It shows those side by side, plus how many more reviews would pass the leader's current count. Results are fetched live: InvoiceStars doesn't store Google ratings, review counts or place IDs, and for emailed reports we keep only your email and the business name (and city) you typed.

Step by step

Find you (1 Google call). We send one text search to Google with the business name and city you typed, asking only for each result's ID, name, address and category. A result is shown only if at least 60% of the distinctive words in the name you typed appear in its Google name (small differences like plurals or a one-letter typo are tolerated) and every word of your city (state names and codes aside) appears in its address. Up to 3 matches are shown, with no ratings yet, and you pick yours (“Is this you?”). If nothing matches, you see “No match found” instead of a guess.
Fetch your details live (1 Google call). For the place you confirm, we fetch its current name, address, Google rating, review count, category and Maps link from Google.
Find nearby competitors (up to 3 Google calls). We search for businesses of the same Google category: within about 5 km first, then 15 km, then 30 km, stopping once 3 are found. If you typed a category, a “category near city” search is used instead. If your profile has no specific category, we search using your matched category or the distinctive words in your business name. Your own listing is never counted as a competitor.
Rank and compare. Competitors found are sorted by review count, and the top 3 are shown with their rating, review count and address. A full check makes at most 5 Google calls: 1 search, 1 details lookup and up to 3 competitor searches.
Reviews to pass the leader. We show the leader's review count minus yours, plus one (zero if you already lead). It's simple arithmetic on today's numbers, not a forecast, and competitors keep collecting reviews too.

What is fetched live and what is saved

Ratings, review counts, names, addresses and place IDs are fetched from Google on every check and are not stored. The checker has no results cache.
To enforce the daily limits, we keep a counter keyed by a one-way hash of your IP address (deleted after about 2 days), plus daily totals such as how many checks ran or hit a limit. These hold no business names or Google data.
If you ask us to email your report, we keep only your email address, the business name (and city) you typed, where you signed up and when. The numbers go into that first email straight from your check and are not saved; later emails contain no Google numbers. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Limits

Daily caps. Every Google call counts. Each visitor gets up to 10 Google calls a day (a full check uses up to 5), and the whole site has a cap of 50 a day, so checks can run out. Try again the next day (UTC).
Google's data. Numbers are whatever Google's Places API returns at that moment, and may differ slightly from what you see in Google Maps.
Matching. Unusual names, recent renames or a different city in your Google address can cause “No match found.” Use your name exactly as it appears on Google and the city in your Google address.
Competitors. “Nearby, same category” is Google's categorization, not ours. Service-area businesses without a public address, or very rural areas, may return fewer than 3 competitors or none.
Not a quality score. It compares review volume and rating only. It doesn't judge review content, response rates or rankings in Google search.

Data from Google. Google is a trademark of Google LLC. InvoiceStars is not affiliated with Google.

Run the free Review Score checker →

InvoiceStars facts

Trigger: a QuickBooks Online invoice paid in full (balance $0) sends that customer a Google review request email. Partial payments do not. A deposit billed as its own invoice can trigger a request once that invoice is paid in full; approval mode (on by default) lets you hold or reject it, and each customer is asked at most once in 90 days.
Send delay: 2 days after payment by default, adjustable from 0 to 30 days.
Cooldown: each customer is asked at most once every 90 days.
B2B: ap@ and billing@ style inboxes are skipped.
Channels: email (SMS coming later).
Price: $25/month per location. No setup fee.
Free tool: the Review Score checker compares your Google rating and review count with the top 3 nearby businesses.