How to extract data from hundreds of PDF invoices into one Excel file

Month-end often means a folder of PDF invoices from the same suppliers and a spreadsheet to fill in: invoice number, date, total, VAT, and sometimes every line item. Typing it is slow and error-prone. Here are the options, from simplest to most automated.

The data you usually need

For each invoice:

• Header fields: supplier, invoice number, invoice date, due date, order reference
• Totals: subtotal, VAT, total due
• Line items: code, description, quantity, unit price, line total

Header fields become one row per invoice. Line items become many rows per invoice, each tagged with the invoice number so you can sum and filter them.

Option 1: Type it (works, does not scale)

Fine for ten invoices a month. Above that, the time and the typing mistakes add up, and nobody checks that the line items add up to the total.

Option 2: Excel Power Query

Data → Get Data → From PDF can read tables from one PDF at a time, and with some Power Query work you can point it at a folder. It handles the line-item table reasonably when every invoice has the same layout. It does not reliably pick out single values like the invoice number or due date, and it breaks when a supplier's layout shifts slightly.

Option 3: A template you mark once

The approach that scales: open one invoice, mark where each value sits (invoice number, date, total) and draw a box around the line items, then run that template on every invoice from the same supplier.

The important detail is how the template finds values. Exact positions break as soon as an invoice has one more line or a longer customer name. A good template remembers the label next to each value ("Invoice no:", "Total due") and finds the value relative to that label, so it still works when the layout moves.

Check the totals automatically

Extraction errors are silent. The best safeguard: for every invoice, add up the line totals and compare them with the subtotal on the invoice. If they match, nothing was missed or misread. If they don't, that invoice needs a look.

How Rowvio does it

In Rowvio, drop the month's PDFs into Capture from PDFs:

1. Rowvio suggests the labelled values it finds (invoice no, dates, totals) and detects the line-item table. Accept them, or click and draw your own.
2. Save it as a template named after the supplier. Next month Rowvio recognises that supplier's PDFs and offers the template.
3. Run it on every PDF. Each invoice is checked: line items must add up to the subtotal. You review only the ones flagged, and can fix any value.
4. Download one Excel workbook: a Documents sheet with one row per invoice and a Line items sheet, numbers stored as numbers.

Scanned invoices and phone photos are read with OCR, and password-protected PDFs ask for their password. Everything runs in your browser: invoices are never uploaded. It's free for beta testers, at 10 files a day.