Extracting Info From Emails & PDFs

I shared last week Parsio is my new favorite way to parse data from emails + docs on an automated basis.

Automating the processing of the invoices + receipts you and your clients receive via email is a massive time-saver. While apps like Dext exist for handling this, they’re overkill for simple use-cases, and you end up collecting menial tasks that slip through the cracks.

It also works great for non-financial parsing. Those recurring emails you get that need to trigger an action. Parse it from an email and send it to the proper recipient, to Slack, to a client, save to a file system, etc.

Parsio’s a cheap way to get this done, and supports traditional OCR, AI-based extraction, even build your own models for complex scenarios. It integrates with Zapier, Make, and supports advanced features like webhooks and scripting.

Here’s how easy it is to set up a “Mailbox”:

1. Decide the type of parser - traditional OCR or AI extraction

2. Identify the type of document to help it find the right fields

3. Give it a name

4. Forward an example to the mailbox

It extracts named fields from the docs so you can reference these fields in your automations.

Before passing that data along, you can apply custom formatting to any of the fields, or manipulate the data with a Python script. After that it goes to its final destination. Here I’m posting an invoice + payment to QBO.

I’ve developed this sort of thing as a managed service for clients. It’s a great way to replace a pile of human work somebody’s doing today with a largely passive service you can provide to the client.

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📅 This Week

• I made a ChatGPT beginner’s guide for accountants - share it around! Make your colleagues simultaneously more productive and less afraid of the apocalypse

• The first AI agent in the accounting space was announced - today I did a deep dive on agents, and why they’re the ultimate highest use of AI tech

• Airtable launched their spin on AI

• I re-shared what IMO is the best ChatGPT prompt for accountants right now that has since been built into several accounting products

• Google’s annual I/O conference was yesterday, and it was kind of a bummer:

  • They announced a new PaLM2 language model that still looks to be well behind GPT

  • Generative email replies in Gmail 🎉

  • An $1,800 folding Pixel phone

  • A host of AI releases that make Google look late to the party, and well behind GPT & other state of the art models

• 87% of accountants haven’t been replaced yet

• Raycast Pro is non-negotiable if you’re a MacOS user

• Get CPE for listening to my interview on the Unique CPA Podcast

• I ran through why the future of client communication is something closer to deepfake Tom Cruise

• Entendre Finance raises a $4M seed for automated Web3 accounting

• “Hire Your First AI Executive Assistant”

• Tune into my daily pod tomorrow to hear why the recent article about ChatGPT failing the CPA exam is wildly inaccurate (spoiler alert: I re-ran the test)

😍From The Community

• 05/15 🕸️ Into The Chadiverse with Chad Davis

• 05/16 💘 Swiping Right - Quoting through Engagement with Kellie Parks

• 05/16 💻 Demo Day - Syft with Jason Staats

• 05/17 🏫 Hall Pass - Marketing System with Brandon Hall

• 05/17 💻 Demo Day - FinancialCents with Jason Staats

• 05/19 🤝 Show & Tell - Keeper with Jake Kessenich

• 05/19 💻 Demo Day - LiveFlow with Jason Staats

• 05/24 🎤 Who Runs The World - “This girl is on fire” with Twyla Verhelst

My community Realize is a private space for people to swap ideas & collaborate. At $180/mo it’s also the way I finance everything else I do, pay a full-time creative director, and a part-time developer in an effort to make the accounting industry a slightly better place 💗 The community is currently about 300 members strong.