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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / PDF to CSV file conver...
Power Automate
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PDF to CSV file conversion

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Posted on by DM-17060836-0 27
Hello. I have an email that gets sent automatically from a MS access database after a colleague has inputted relevant information for other employees to see efficiency. the email contains a PDF attachment that MS access creates based off the information inputted. I was wondering if it is possible to have power automate get the attachment and create a CSV file based on the PDF, so the CSV can be sent to PowerBI to be manipulated into reports, which will then be shown on the screen in the directors office? I am trying to use free connectors so avoid Encodian and the like for this flow, only ones that come free with power automate.
Please let me know if this would be easier on PAD or web version, if it is at all possible.
TIA for help.
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Building flows
I have the same question (0)
  • stampcoin Profile Picture
    stampcoin 5,146 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    May I ask why not figure out to fetch data from MS Access directly ?
  • DM-17060836-0 Profile Picture
    DM-17060836-0 27 on at
    I am currently in the process of seeing if MS Access will do this but I can't mess with the database too much as it is being used by people all day every day, if I break it some business tasks come to a halt.
    Basically covering all bases to see if there is a solution I can take that won't affect the database.
  • Suggested answer
    Riyaz_riz11 Profile Picture
    Riyaz_riz11 4,048 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hi,
     

    Power Automate Cloud Solution

    Step 1: Email Processing

     
    Trigger: "When a new email arrives (V3)"
- Set folder monitoring
- Filter for emails from your Access database
- Check for attachments

    Step 2: Extract PDF Attachment

    Action: "Get attachments (V2)"
- Use dynamic content from email trigger
- Filter for .pdf files only

    Step 3: PDF Text Extraction (Free Options)

    Option A: Using HTTP Request to Free API

       
    Action: "HTTP" 
- Method: POST
- URI: https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text
- Headers: x-api-key: [Free API key from pdf.co]
- Body: Base64 content of PDF

    Option B: Using AI Builder (if available in your license)

    Action: "Extract information from documents"
- Input: PDF attachment
- Extract text content

    Step 4: Parse Text to CSV Structure

       
    Action: "Compose"
- Use regex or split functions to parse extracted text
- Example for structured data:
split(variables('ExtractedText'), '\n')

    Step 5: Create CSV Content

       
    Action: "Create CSV table"
- Input: Parsed array from previous step
- Or manually format with concat():
concat('Header1,Header2,Header3\n', 
       variables('Row1'), ',', variables('Row2'), '\n')

    Step 6: Send to Power BI

      Action: "Add rows to a dataset" 
    - Workspace: Your workspace
- Dataset: Your dataset
- Table: Your table
- Rows: Formatted data array

    Power Automate Desktop (PAD) Solution

    Advantages of PAD:


    • Better PDF handling with built-in actions

    • More reliable text extraction

    • Can handle complex PDF structures

    • Free with Windows 11 or Office 365

    PAD Flow Steps: 

    Step 1: Email Monitoring

      
    Action: "Retrieve email messages"
- Server: Outlook/Exchange
- Folder: Inbox
- Filter by subject/sender

    Step 2: Save PDF Attachment

    Action: "Save email attachments"
- Email message: From previous step
- Attachment filter: *.pdf
- Save to: Local folder

    Step 3: Extract Text from PDF

    Action: "Extract text from PDF"
- PDF file: Saved attachment path
- Extract all text: Yes
- Store into: %ExtractedText% 

    Step 4: Parse and Structure Data

    Action: "Text processing" actions
- Split text by lines
- Use regex to extract specific data patterns
- Create structured arrays

    Step 5: Create CSV File

    Action: "Write text to file"
- File path: C:\temp\data.csv
- Text to write: Formatted CSV content
- Encoding: UTF-8 

    Step 6: Upload to Power BI 

    Action: "Run Power Automate cloud flow"
- Trigger cloud flow that reads the CSV file
- Use "When a file is created" trigger in SharePoint/OneDrive
     
    If I have answered your question, please mark it as the preferred solution ✅ . If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up 👍.
    Regards,
    Riyaz
     

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