How to parse PDFs with Parabola

In Parabola, you can pull data from pretty much anywhere — Google Sheets, APIs, FTP folders, databases, and more. But sometimes the data you’re handling are less structured, like third-party invoices or digital documents.

Now you can parse data directly from PDFs (and other unstructured data sources) and make that data usable in your existing workflows. Extract whatever information you want from a PDF, whether it’s line-item data that exists in tables, or it’s document-level data, (like date or invoice number).

Our customers use these steps for a bunch of different use cases, like:

• Invoice automation: Invoice number, date, items purchased, and payment amounts can be extracted to automate invoice processing and payments.
• Purchase order and receipt processing: Refunds and reimbursements can be automated by parsing items, dollar amounts, dates, etc.
• Legal, medical, governmental records analysis: Any in-depth analysis that requires the identification and/or extraction of names, dates, citations, dollar amounts, medications, and more, all make great use of parsing.
• Financial and insurance processing: Similar to analysis, PDF parsing is a very commonly used by companies assessing risk and analyzing balance sheets.
• Survey/form analysis: Text extraction is very helpful to pull responses and collect information from forms and surveys.

Doing this in Parabola is easy and intuitive — plus it's powered by AI.

How to parse PDFs with Parabola

‍Parsing PDFs can seem daunting, but with tools like Parabola, the process becomes straightforward and efficient. Here’s a quick summary of the main points to help you get started:

1. Start by importing your PDF file

‍Use Parabola's intuitive interface to upload and prepare your document for parsing. Whether you're converting a PDF to an Excel spreadsheet or tackling complex tables, the first step is always setting up your input.

2. Define your parsing rules

‍Tailor the process to extract the data you need. Parabola lets you break down the details and effectively parse a PDF into manageable pieces, making it easy to structure your data.

3. Convert PDFs to Excel or spreadsheet formats

‍Once your data is parsed, it can seamlessly be transformed into other formats.

4. Automate and repeat the process

‍Save time by setting up reusable workflows. Parabola allows you to automate the conversion and parsing process, so you can quickly and easily convert PDFs whenever requird.

5. Analyze and export your data

‍After parsing and organizing your data, export it to your preferred tools. With Parabola, learning how to parse a PDF file becomes a streamlined experience, helping you move from scattered documents to structured insights in no time.

Learn more about parsing data from PDFs here:

Ready to try it out? Dive in and see how easy it is to parse PDFs to Excel or any other format you need.