In this tutorial, we will show you how to automatically extract some invoice information from certain fields and save them in Google Sheets.
Step 1 – Source Files
To begin, let’s add our PDF Invoices to a Google Drive folder and change it’s Share setting to Anyone with link.
We also want to prepare the Google Sheets where we will save all the extracted invoice information and set its file share setting to Anyone with link.
Step 2 – Add Google Drive
Now, let’s create a Zap. Let’s choose Google Drive as the App and the New File in Folder as the Trigger Event.
Step 3 – Setup Trigger
Select the Drive name and the Folder name where the PDF invoices are stored.
Step 4 – Test Trigger
Let’s test the trigger.
Step 5 – Trigger Test Result
Great! Google Drive returned the file that we want to use for this demo. Let’s now proceed to step 2.
Step 6 – Add PDF.co
Let’s choose PDF.co as the App and the Document Parser as the Action Event.
Step 7 – Setup PDF.co
Let’s configure the Document Parser action.
- In the Input field, choose the Web Content Link from Google Drive.
- In the Template Id field, enter the Id of the template you created using the Online Template Editor.
Please note: You can create new templates and get the Template Id in the Document Parser page. We have guides and video tutorials on how to create new templates here.
Step 8 – Test PDF.co
Let’s send a test request to PDF.co to parse the invoice using the system-built template.
Step 9 – Document Parser Result
Great! We successfully extracted text from the PDF invoice. Let’s now save them to Google Sheet.
Step 10 – Add Google Sheets
Finally, let’s add Google Sheets as the App and the Create Spreadsheet Row as the Action Event.
Step 11 – Setup Google Sheets
Let’s configure this action and map values from the PDF.co Document Parser output.
- In the Drive field, select My Google Drive.
- In the Spreadsheet field, enter the Google Sheets name.
- In the Worksheet field, select the Sheet name.
Notice that the Invoice Number, Invoice Date, and Total fields are the column headers in our Google Sheets.
- In the Invoice Number field, select the Invoice Number value from PDF.co.
- In the Invoice Date field, select the Date value from PDF.co.
- In the Total field, select the Total value from PDF.co.
Step 12 – Test Google Sheets
Let’s test our setup to make sure that we configured it correctly.
Step 13 – Google Sheets Result
Excellent! Our invoice information has been added as a new row in Google Sheet.
Step 14 – Google Sheets Output
Here’s the populated Google Sheets. Every time a new PDF invoice triggers the Zap, the Google Sheets is updated and a new row is added.
In this tutorial, you learned how to automatically extract some invoice information from certain fields and save them in Google Sheets. You learned how to set up Google Drive to trigger the Zap every time a new PDF invoice is added in the folder. You learned how to configure the PDF.co Document Parser to extract specific data from invoices. You also learned how to save all the extracted data from different PDFs to a single Google Sheets.
