Working with PDFs is finally automatable

Parabola already makes it easy to work with tabular data: rows can be filtered, columns can be added, and entire tables can be combined and transformed in sophisticated (and automated) ways. Tables are a natural format for an organization’s data to live in.

But what happens when the data shows up in something other than a table? 

Until now, the answer has typically been that someone has to do the manual work to process that data for your organization. Whether it’s a vendor invoice, a delivery list, or even a monthly bill, you’re often left with a teammate having to handle numbers by hand to keep your internal workflows humming.

At Parabola, we can’t stand that kind of thing! So, per popular request, we’ve released a feature that lets you parse PDFs and automate Flows from them. It’s the first PDF automation capability of its kind, and it will open up new automation opportunities in your organization.

PDF-powered automations

PDF files seem to go hand-in-hand with manual processes. So in making PDF intake compatible with Parabola, we didn’t stop at simply letting you upload them: you can actually automate with data from PDFs in your Flows.

That’s why our first PDF-enabled step is Pull from Email Attachment: you can auto-parse documents — CSV/TSV, XLS, and now PDFs — sent to this step and use their data in Flows. You can even trigger a Flow from this step, so that the Flow will automatically run when a new PDF is sent. With that, you’ll have best-in-class PDF automation integrated into your workflows, all without writing code!

Processing PDFs in the real world

We’ve already seen exciting use cases for PDF automation. Here are just a few:

• Collecting warehouse reports and extracting inventory data
• Standardizing data — like due dates and terms — from vendor invoices and purchase orders
• Intaking bills and preparing them for accounting
• Standardizing PDF data tables to send to a transportation management system (TMS)
• Intaking customer-provided PDFs for regulatory, customs, or reporting purposes
• Digitizing bills of lading (BOLs) and packing lists for freight shipments
• Categorizing and cleaning invoice line items using AI

Try it yourself

Our PDF processing step is ready to try for customers on our Advanced plan. For existing customers: connect with us and we’ll set you up according to your needs. For those new to Parabola, sign up for a demo and tell us you’d like to use PDFs in your Flows.

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