Parsing Table Items and Adding as Line Items using PDF.co and Make

Parsing is the process of breaking down a complex piece of data or text into smaller more manageable pieces for further analysis. In the context of data entry, parsing can be used to extract specific pieces of information from large tables and add them to a spreadsheet.

With the combination of PDF.co and Make, this process can be made even easier. PDF.co is a powerful platform for PDF processing, while Make is a workflow automation tool. Together, these tools can be used to parse table items from a PDF document and automatically add them as line items to a Google Sheet.

In this tutorial. we’ll walk you through the steps of using PDF.co and Make to parse table items and add them as line items to a Google Sheet. So let’s get started!

1. Create a New Scenario
2. Add PDF.co Module
3. Configure PDF.co App
4. PDF.co Run Result
5. Add Iterator Tools
6. Setup Iterator Tools
7. Add Google Sheets Module
8. Google Sheets Configuration
9. Run Scenario Result
10. Google Sheets Output

We’ll use a sample PDF invoice to demonstrate how to parse table data and add it as a line item to a Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Step 1: Create a New Scenario

• Let’s begin by logging into your Make account and clicking on the Create a New Scenario button. This will allow you to create a new workflow to automate the process of parsing table items and adding them to a Google Sheet.

Step 2: Add PDF.co Module

• After creating a new scenario, the next step is to search and select the PDF.co app and within Make. Once you’ve found PDF.co, select the Parse a Document option. This module will enable you to parse data from table terms within a PDF document and add them as line items to a Google Sheet.

Step 3: Configure PDF.co App

Let’s set up the PDF.co configuration within Make.

• To get started, you’ll need to connect your PDF.co account to Make by adding your API key. You can find your API key within your PDF.co dashboard or by signing up at this link.
• Next, within the Parse a Document module in Make, select the Import a file from URL option. This will allow you to directly add the URL of your source file. If you’re using a file instead of a URL, you can use PDF.co File Storage to convert your file to a URL. The converted URL will be used for PDF.co processing.
• Once you’ve added the source file, input the template ID that contains the parsed data of the table items. You can create a template ID within PDF.co using this link. If you need help creating a template, check out this tutorial on how to quickly create one.

After setting up the configuration, run the scenario to see the result.

Step 4: PDF.co Run Result

• Great! The scenario ran successfully and returned the extracted value from table items. We will add another module to collect the list of extracted data and generate a sequence of values.

Step 5: Add Iterator Tools

• In this step, we’ll add the Iterator tools to our workflow. These tools will allow us to loop and iterate over a collection of elements, without exposing the underlying data structure. With these tools, we’ll be able to perform operations on each element of the collection, such as parsing the data from the table items within our PDF document.

Step 6: Setup Iterator Tools

• Under the Flow Control, let’s select the Body Objects Value: Table[] to collect the parser data from the table items.

Now that we’re done setting up the Iterator and collecting the parsed data from the table items, it’s time to add another app to our workflow. We’ll use this app to add the extracted data to Google Sheets as line items.

Step 7: Add Google Sheets Module

• In this step, we will integrate the Google Sheets app and select the Add a Row option to insert the extracted data from the table as individual line items.

Step 8: Google Sheets Configuration

Let’s configure Google Sheets to enable data transfer.

• First, connect your Google Sheets account to Make to authorize access to your spreadsheet.
• Next, choose the Select by Path method and select My Drive as the source drive.
• Enter the Spreadsheet ID for the target spreadsheet where you want to add the extracted table items.
• Specify the name of the sheet where the data will be inserted.
• Indicate whether the table contains headers by selecting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
• If necessary, add a specific column range within the spreadsheet or table.
• Finally, input the extracted values that have been collected with the iterator.

Step 9: Run Scenario Result

• Congratulations! The scenario has run successfully and the extracted table items have been added to Google Sheets as line items. You can now open your Google Sheets account to view the output.

Step 10: Google Sheets Output

• Here are the table items that were successfully extracted and added to Google Sheets as line items.

In this tutorial, you learned how to parse table items and add them as line items to Google Sheets using PDF.co and Make. You also learned how to create a new template using the PDF.co Document Parser Template Editor.