I’m trying to automate invoice PDF renaming so files like “invoice.pdf” become something searchable like:
YYYY-MM-DD_Vendor_Amount_InvoiceNo.pdf
Workflow I want:
- Trigger when a new PDF lands in Dropbox (Invoices folder)
- Extract fields (date, vendor, total, invoice number) from the PDF (mix of text-based PDFs + scans)
- Build a consistent filename
- Rename the file (or upload renamed copy + delete original)
Questions:
1) What’s the recommended way in Zapier to extract text from PDFs (especially scanned invoices) — built-in options vs OCR tools?
2) For “rename”, is the best practice to upload a new file with the new name and then delete the original?
3) Any pitfalls with date/decimal formats or special characters in filenames?
If helpful I can share the exact filename format + a sample of what the PDFs look like (text vs scan).
