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Every 15 minutes

Read invoices saved to Dropbox and post the details

Each invoice PDF in the folder is read and its vendor, date, total and due date are posted for finance.

Runs
Every 15 minutes
Apps
Dropbox
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
files.content.read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a PDF lands in my Dropbox /Invoices folder, pull out the vendor, invoice date, total and due date and post them to #finance in Slack.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A bookkeeper or office manager receives vendor invoices as PDFs dropped into a shared Dropbox folder, and someone has to open each one, find the vendor, invoice number, due date and total, and retype them into a tracker or tell the team. With thirty invoices a week, that is hours of typing, and a transposed digit in an amount or a missed due date turns into a late fee or an overpayment that is noticed only at reconciliation.

Every 15 minutes the automation detects new PDFs in the folder, downloads each one and uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI to extract the key fields, such as vendor, invoice number, due date and amount. It then posts those fields to Slack, so the person who approves payment can see the numbers without opening the file.

Small finance teams, agencies paying many suppliers and freelancers who handle their own bookkeeping benefit most.

What you get out of it

  • Due dates are seen the day invoices arrive

    When the due date and amount appear in Slack within about fifteen minutes of upload, payment gets scheduled early. That avoids late fees and the awkward emails from suppliers asking why an invoice from last month is still open.

  • Less retyping, fewer typos

    The fields are read straight from the document, so nobody types an invoice number or total by hand. A transposed digit in an amount can mean a wrong payment that takes weeks to untangle with the supplier.

  • Approvers do not need Dropbox access

    The Slack post carries the facts an approver needs, so a manager can sign off from their phone without opening a folder. Decisions that used to wait for the bookkeeper to be at a desk happen the same afternoon.

  • Duplicate and unusual invoices stand out

    Seeing every invoice in a stream makes it easier to notice the same number twice, an unexpected vendor or an amount far above normal. Those are the invoices that deserve a second look before any money leaves the account.

  • A running list of what has been received

    The channel doubles as a log of incoming invoices with their key figures, so when a supplier asks whether you got their bill, the answer is a quick search rather than a hunt through the folder.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 15 minutes, ClickRuntime checks your Dropbox folder for new invoice PDFs.

  2. It downloads each new invoice.

  3. AI reads it and pulls out the vendor, invoice date, total and due date.

  4. Those details are posted to your Slack channel.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Dropbox

What you get

RunsEvery 15 minutes
Read invoices saved to Dropbox and post the detailstoday, 9:00Succeeded
Slack · #financeInvoice northwind-oct.pdf Vendor: Northwind Supplies · Date: 2026-10-14 · Total: $2,480.00 · Due: 2026-11-13

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Dropbox steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
extract_fields_from_uploaded_invoices_docs.pyexample
import io, json
from pypdf import PdfReader
from clickruntime import on_trigger, report_fetched, state, notify, http, credentials, ai

SCHEMA = {"type": "object", "properties": {k: {"type": "string"} for k in ("vendor", "invoice_date", "total", "due_date")},
          "required": ["vendor", "invoice_date", "total", "due_date"]}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    auth = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + credentials.connection("dropbox", "main")}
    cursor = state.get("cursor") or http.post("https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder/get_latest_cursor", headers=auth, json={"path": "/Invoices"}).json()["cursor"]
    page = http.post("https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/list_folder/continue", headers=auth, json={"cursor": cursor}).json()
    pdfs = [e for e in page["entries"] if e[".tag"] == "file" and e["name"].lower().endswith(".pdf")]
    report_fetched(len(pdfs))
    if not pdfs:
        return {"summary": "No new invoices"}
    for f in pdfs:
        raw = http.post("https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/download", headers={**auth, "Dropbox-API-Arg": json.dumps({"path": f["path_lower"]})}).content
        text = "\n".join(p.extract_text() or "" for p in PdfReader(io.BytesIO(raw)).pages)[:8000]
        x = ai.generate(f"Extract vendor, invoice date, total (with currency) and due date from this invoice.\n\n{text}", json_schema=SCHEMA, max_output_tokens=120).json
        notify.slack(f"Invoice {f['name']}\nVendor: {x['vendor']} · Date: {x['invoice_date']} · Total: {x['total']} · Due: {x['due_date']}", channel="#finance")
    state.set("cursor", page["cursor"])
    return {"invoices": len(pdfs)}

FAQ

Common questions

Which documents work best?
Invoices and similar documents with selectable text, such as PDFs generated by accounting software, work best. Scanned paper copies and photographs are harder to read, so fields may be missing or less accurate. Always check the posted figures against the original before paying anything.
Which fields can be extracted?
Typical fields are vendor name, invoice number, issue date, due date, currency and total. You can name other fields you care about, such as a purchase order number or tax amount, and the extraction is set up to look for those as well.
What happens if a field cannot be found?
The post shows the field as missing instead of guessing, so you notice that something needs a manual look. Because the original file stays in the Dropbox folder, you can always open it to find what the automation could not read.
What permissions does it need?
files.content.read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Read invoices saved to Dropbox and post the details” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.