Mixed file types
How do I process spreadsheets, PDFs, and emails in one document workflow?
Direct answer for teams evaluating document automation workflows.
Short answer
Use a workflow that normalizes each input type, classifies the document, extracts the right fields, and exports approved data into one consistent schema.
Direct answer
Many real document workflows include PDFs, scanned files, spreadsheets, XML payloads, emails, and API submissions. The workflow should not assume every input is a single clean PDF.
Instead, it should normalize each source into a common processing queue with metadata, document type, extracted fields, validation status, and downstream destination.
What to design for
Different input types may need different parsing steps, but the output should still be consistent enough for review and downstream import.
The workflow should also handle unsupported file types, duplicate files, missing identifiers, and multi-document submissions.
How Lido helps
Lido helps teams build workflows around the files they actually receive, then structure the extracted results for review, spreadsheets, CSVs, or downstream systems.
That reduces the need for separate manual processes for PDFs, inboxes, and spreadsheet-based submissions.
Example workflow
- Inventory the formats that arrive in the workflow.
- Define how each format should be classified and parsed.
- Normalize the extracted output into consistent review fields.
- Export approved data to the downstream workflow regardless of source format.