Parseur lets you easily send your data extracted from emails and documents to Google Sheets. Let's see how.
Note: this article assumes you have already created and configured your Parseur mailbox. Check out this page to get started if that is not the case.
Step 1: Go to Export > Google Sheets
Exports to Google Sheets are very straightforward. By default, Parseur gives you 3 links to get your data in 3 different formats: Excel, CSV and JSON.
Fortunately, Google Sheets has a very handy formula named IMPORTDATA() (see documentation) that takes a URL in CSV format and automatically imports it into a sheet. This is the formula we are going to use.
We have already prepared that formula for you.
Go to Export, click on the Google Sheets tab, and copy the formula using the button before the formula.
Step 2: Copy the formula to your Google Spreadsheet
Connect to your Google account
Go to your Google Sheets dashboard
Create a new Sheet (or open an existing one)
Paste the IMPORTDATA() formula we gave you in one of the sheets (typically in cell A1)
Wait for the data to finish loading
That's it! Your data is now in Google Sheets.
Google Sheets will now automatically update every hour or so as Parseur processes new documents.
Step 3 (optional): Refining your data
Filter exports by date
By default, Parseur will export all the data in your mailbox to Google Sheets. If you only want to get a subset of the data, you can use the filters by year, month, and day on the export page.
Export Table Field data
If you use Table Fields, you will see that you have an additional formula to use on the export screen.
The default document formula will create one row per document processed. Table field rows will be added as columns. This is usually not the desired result when having table fields.
The Table Field formulas will create one row per table field row processed. Non-table fields will be repeated on each row. This is usually the preferred option.
Correctly format dates and numbers
Parseur lets you format the Dates and Number fields.
For numbers, it will send number fields using a stop (.) as a decimal separator. If your Google Sheets is set in a locale that uses commas (,) as separators, numbers may not be properly formatted.
For dates, it will send the data according to the format you indicated in your Default format preferences.
If the data doesn't show up correctly in your sheet:
Select the whole column
Click on Format menu > Numbers
Choose the desired format you want to see for your numbers or dates
If that doesn't help, try changing your spreadsheet locale configuration.
To change your Google Sheets locale config:
open your spreadsheet
click on File
then click on Spreadsheet settings
in the drop-down for Locale, choose your own locale (for example, the United States)
Step 4 (optional): Going further with Zapier
The default export is using IMPORTDATA() and has a few limitations:
Data is not added in real time but refreshed every hour or so
You cannot change the order of the columns
You cannot add new columns to the right of the data (they will be overwritten at the next refresh)
A large amount of data can sometimes fail to load
If you find those limitations a problem, you can use Zapier to send your parsed data to Google Sheets. Using the Zapier integration with Google Sheets, you'll get:
Data added to your spreadsheet in real time
You'll be free to decide on the column order
You'll be able to add columns on top of the ones sent by Zapier
You'll be able to post-process your parsed data in Zapier
If you would like to know how to connect Parseur to your Google Spreadsheet with Zapier, check out this article.
Can I reorder fields in the Google Sheets export formula?
You cannot change the order in which the fields appear in the default formula. However, you can create a separate sheet in your Google Sheets spreadsheet where you use formulas or a pivot table to get the fields from the original sheet and reorder them as you need.