Extract email body and attachment data
How to extract email and attachment data automatically
Email is still one of the most common channels for operational documents—especially invoices and shipping docs from 3PLs, vendors, and freight forwarders. But this data usually arrives in messy formats like PDFs, spreadsheets, or unstructured text in the email body, requiring manual copy-paste work to extract and organize key details. Parsing these emails manually leads to delays, inconsistent data, and costly downstream mistakes.
Parabola transforms your inbox into a reliable data source. Automatically forward emails into Parabola, extract data from the email body and any attachments, and use AI to pull out and standardize the exact data you need—from invoice IDs and due dates to SKU-level packing list info. Go further and automate the entire end-to-end process, with custom rules to transform your data and update systems.
Video overview
Why Parabola
The ops team has become so dependent on Parabola—it has helped our workflow a lot.
Extracting email and attachment data is the process of pulling structured information from emails—like the email body, subject line, or attached documents PDFs, spreadsheets, etc.—to use in downstream operational workflows. It’s a common need for teams handling invoices, freight docs, or vendor communication sent via email.
- Set up an auto-forwarding rule from your inbox to your unique Parabola email address in the Extract from email step.
- Use the Extract from email step to access both the email body and attached files.
- Use the Auto-detect with AI feature to find values to extract, then fine tune the columns, example values, and instructions.
- Standardize, clean, and validate your data using steps like Edit columns, Add Math Column, or Add If/Else Column.
- Send the structured output to systems like NetSuite, Slack, Google Sheets, or your internal dashboard.
- Set up different forwarding rules based on email sender or subject to filter incoming data sources.
- Use the email metadata (like sender or subject) as filters or logic triggers in your flow.
- When working with attachments, take advantage of Parabola’s AI steps to extract data even when document formats vary.
- Create fallback logic to flag emails or attachments that don’t meet formatting expectations for manual review.
- Combine extracted email and attachment data with other sources (like PO or delivery data) to enable automated three-way matching.
- To learn more, check out the Parabola University lesson on pulling data from email attachments
