Automate PDF Generation from Emails Using Pabbly Connect: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to automate PDF generation from emails using Pabbly Connect, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive with this detailed tutorial. Revolutionize your productivity approach with just a few strategic clicks. Uncover professional methods for connecting applications and creating workflows that reclaim hours of your week.

Watch Step By Step Video Tutorial Below

1. Accessing Pabbly Connect for PDF Generation

To automate PDF generation from emails, start by accessing Pabbly Connect. Visit the Pabbly Connect homepage by typing ‘Pabbly.com/connect’ in your browser. If you already have an account, click on ‘Sign In’; otherwise, click on ‘Sign Up for Free’ to create a new account. After signing in, you will be directed to the dashboard where you can create new workflows.

Creating a new workflow is simple. Click on the ‘Create Workflow’ button and name your workflow, such as ‘Generate PDF from Email Automatically’. Select a folder to save this workflow, for instance, ‘Team Productivity Booster’. This setup is crucial as it allows you to manage your automation effectively using Pabbly Connect.

2. Setting Up Email Parser in Pabbly Connect

In this step, we will set up the Email Parser to capture responses from Gmail using Pabbly Connect. The Email Parser is a built-in feature that allows you to capture email responses. To start, select ‘Email Parser’ as your trigger application. Copy the email hook provided by Pabbly Connect to forward emails to this address.

• Go to your Gmail settings and click on ‘See all settings’.
• Navigate to the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab.
• Click on ‘Add a forwarding address’ and paste the email hook you copied.

After confirming the forwarding address in Gmail, return to Pabbly Connect and click on ‘Recapture Email Parser Response’. This step ensures that any new email sent to the specified address will be captured and processed by your workflow.

3. Filtering Emails for Invoice Generation

Once the Email Parser is set up, the next step involves filtering the emails to ensure that only relevant emails trigger the workflow in Pabbly Connect. You will need to add a filter condition based on the subject of the email. By selecting ‘Filter’ as your action application, you can specify conditions that must be met for the workflow to continue.

For instance, you can set the filter to check if the subject contains ‘New Order’. This means that only emails with that specific subject will proceed to the next steps of the workflow.

• Select the subject from the previous response.
• Set the filter type to ‘Contains’ and input ‘New Order’.

By doing this, you ensure that your automation only triggers for relevant emails, making the entire process efficient. This setup is essential for creating invoices accurately based on specific email details.

4. Creating Documents in Google Docs

After filtering the emails, the next step is to create a document in Google Docs using the details captured from the email. In this step, you will select Google Docs as your action application in Pabbly Connect. Choose the action event ‘Create Document from Template’ to utilize a pre-defined template for your invoices.

Connect your Google Docs account by allowing Pabbly Connect the necessary permissions. Once connected, select the invoice template you created earlier. You can dynamically map the details from the email response, such as customer name, order date, and product details into the template fields.

Map the customer’s name, email, and order details into the respective fields in the template. Set the document name dynamically, for example, ‘Order Invoice for [Customer Name]’.

This feature of Pabbly Connect allows for automated document creation, saving time and reducing manual errors in invoice generation.

5. Uploading PDFs to Google Drive

The final step in this automation process is uploading the generated PDF document to Google Drive. After creating the document in Google Docs, you will need to set up another action in Pabbly Connect to share the document and convert it into a PDF format. Select Google Drive as your action application and choose the action event ‘Share File with Anyone’.

Once connected, map the document ID received from the previous step. This allows Pabbly Connect to generate a shareable link for the PDF version of the document. After obtaining the PDF link, you will set up another action to upload the file to your desired folder in Google Drive.

Select the folder in Google Drive where you want to upload the PDF. Map the PDF link and specify the file name for the uploaded document.

By completing this step, you ensure that every new order email results in a PDF invoice being automatically generated and uploaded to Google Drive, streamlining your workflow significantly using Pabbly Connect.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored how to automate the process of generating PDFs from emails using Pabbly Connect, Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive. By following these steps, you can efficiently create invoices from new order emails without manual intervention. This setup enhances productivity and accuracy in your invoicing process.