Whenever PDFs pile up
Every week I open each PDF invoice our suppliers send and type the supplier, number, date, and total into an Excel sheet.
How it goes now
Open the folder.Open the next PDF.Find the invoice number.Copy it.Switch to Excel.Paste.Back for the date, then the total.Drag the PDF to Done.Next PDF.
Every PDF, one field at a time.
Tell Kitewell once
Read every PDF in my Invoices/New folder, add its supplier, invoice number, date, and total as a row in Invoices.xlsx, and move the PDF to Invoices/Done.
That's the whole setup. Kitewell lays out every step for you to check, and nothing is saved until you apply it.
Then it runs on its own
PDF invoicesRunning on this computer
- Read each PDFOpens each new PDF on the screen, and a model reads the supplier, invoice number, date, and total.Done
- Add it to the workbookOne row per invoice, under the last row of Invoices.xlsx. Excel never opens.Done
- Move it to DoneOnly after its row is written, so a PDF that failed stays in New for the next run.Done
What you get instead
PDF invoices
12 PDFs read. 12 rows added to Invoices.xlsx.
Invoices.xlsx
| Supplier | Invoice No | Date | Total | File |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harbor Supply Co. | HS-20418 | 2026-10-01 | 1240.00 | HS-20418.pdf |
| Bright Paper Ltd | BP-3391 | 2026-10-02 | 86.40 | BP-3391.pdf |
| Northwind Freight | NF-77812 | 2026-10-05 | 412.75 | northwind-oct.pdf |
Good to know
- A PDF moves to Done only after its row is in the workbook. One that fails stays in New, and the next run tries it again.
- Each PDF is opened on this computer's screen, and a screenshot of the whole screen goes to the model you choose for every invoice. Close anything private before it runs.
- Kitewell writes the workbook itself, not through Excel. If the file is open in Excel, the step waits up to five minutes for you to close it.
What it needs
- An Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini model that can use a computer
- Screen Recording and Accessibility allowed on macOS, or Kitewell running in your session on Windows
- The workbook as .xlsx (not .xls or Google Sheets)
More chores
- Every few daysEvery few days I open each emailed invoice, copy the supplier and the total into a spreadsheet, and file the email away.
- Every month-endEvery month-end I type eighty rows of an Excel sheet into our sales system from 2005, because it has no import and no API.
- Every weekday morningEvery morning I log in to our supplier's portal, download the new invoices, and type each one into an accounting app from 2009.