[This article is part two of a two-part series.]
In part one, we initiated our Forms Processing model and trained it to grab data from a document. This article will delve into how we act on that data.
Our use case involves uploading a utility bill to a SharePoint Document Library. Our goal is to use Forms Processing to identify data from the uploaded form and append that data as metadata on the Document Library.
To accomplish this, we’ll use Power Automate, but need two things in place first.
1. The Document Library metadata columns in place
2. The Forms Processing model trained and operational
Power Automate Steps
Navigate to Power Automate and create a new Automated flow to get started. The trigger will be When a file is created (properties only), which provides the uploaded file’s properties necessary later. We’ve pointed this to the Site and Library, where it will upload the documents.
Next, we’ll use the Get File Content action to obtain the content we’ll need in the next step to give the Forms Processing model the uploaded document.
Next, we’ll add the Extract information from the forms action. We’ll point to our model trained in the previous article. The bills are always in PDF format, so we’ll select the PDF Document option on the drop-down.
Next, we need to make a slight adjustment. The Forms Processing captures the Bill Amount data as a string but includes the dollar sign ($).
We need to strip that away, so we’re left with just the numerical figures. To do this, we’ll use a Compose action with a substring expression to remove the first digit in the string.
It looks something like this: substring(outputs({field we want to trim},1)
Finally, we can push that data into SharePoint using the Update File Properties action.
As you can see, we’ve set the Title column to be a concatenation of the Company Name and Bill Date fields.
When we upload a document to the SharePoint Document Library, the metadata will automatically append within a few seconds!
This process saves a significant amount of time throughout the year as we no longer have to find and add that data manually. Talk about using automation to our advantage!
Are you interested in something similar but are unsure where to begin? Contact C5 Insight today to get started! We’d be thrilled to connect with you!
