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How could I build this flow

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Posted on 14 Nov 2024 07:58:57 by JB-14110757-0

I have a daily task I want to automate using Power Automate (which is the tool we have access to in our company). Automating it would be beneficial to minimize human errors and because it's not a task anyone wants to perform manually. However, I'm a bit uncertain about setting it up due to the various components it involves. I'm still new to automation, and I find that planning the correct process is the hardest part.

This is how the process currently works:
I receive a PDF file, which is a purchase order containing many items. Each of these items has information that needs to be transferred into another system. This involves creating a new line in the system and then inputting the information. Based on information in the PDF (such as a unique ID number), the price is determined and entered in the relevant field. Then, an Excel file is created with all the information organized in a specific format, as it needs to be printed out.

The challenge is that the PDF isn’t structured in a way that easily allows data extraction. The data is in a consistent place, but not in fields that can be read automatically without some JSON processing. For example, the word "Quantity" appears in one spot, but the actual number (the quantity itself) is located midway down the second line along with other information.

Additionally, the program that needs this data is only available on the PC.

Ideally, I’d like to partially or fully automate this process.

How would you go about achieving this?

My initial thoughts:
1. Upload the file to a specific location.
2. Automatically fill in the information (I’m unsure how to do this).
3. Generate the Excel file and save it as a separate document.

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Business Process Flows

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microsoftee 36 on 04 Dec 2024 at 23:47:26

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How could I build this flow

You can use Power Automate Desktop flow to extract data from PDF file and putting in the desktop program (directly updating in program data source or entering in program UI).

If PDF is text based best approach (100% accuracy) is to extract PDF text using "Extract text from PDF" action and use regular expression to extract the required values.

If PDF is image or contain required data as image(s), only OCR AI model can be used to extract, you can train AI model several set (collection of documents) of different variants of PDF documents to make it work correctly for different place values extraction.
abc 123 784 Super User 2025 Season 1 on 14 Nov 2024 at 21:36:22

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How could I build this flow

I guess if AI was worth it's salt, you could somehow instruct it how to find the value and extract it. I haven't toyed with any of the AI junk yet, so can't give anything specific.

Once you do this magical black box, then step 3 should be straightforward to writing data to an Excel file.

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