Automate Invoice Processing & Stock Management with AI, Gmail, Sheets & Slack

Description

✅ What problem does this workflow solve?

Order processing often involves manual invoice reading, stock checking, and back-and-forth communication between procurement and operations teams. This workflow automates the entire procurement decision flow — from reading incoming order emails to extracting structured data, checking stock, and creating either a purchase requisition or a work order automatically.

💡 Main Use Cases

📥 Auto-extract order and invoice details from incoming emails
📦 Validate stock availability before processing orders
📝 Auto-create Purchase Requisitions when stock is insufficient
🛠 Auto-create Work Orders when stock is available
📧 Notify procurement or operations via email & Slack
📊 Log every action in Google Sheets for tracking and audit

🧠 How It Works – Step-by-Step

1. 📧 Gmail Trigger
The workflow begins when a new email arrives at a specific email address.
The invoice file is automatically downloaded for processing.

2. 📑 Extract Invoice Record
The attached invoice is processed using OCR or a document extraction tool.
Raw details such as:
Order ID
Item code
Quantity
Customer information

are extracted for further processing.

3. 🤖 AI-Powered Data Structuring
OpenAI structures the extracted fields into a clean and consistent format:
order_id
item_code
quantity
customer_name

This ensures all data is normalised before stock validation.

4. 📦 Stock Check
The workflow checks inventory data stored in Google Sheets.
It compares:
Required quantity
Current stock

If stock is insufficient, it triggers the purchase requisition path.
If stock is available, it initiates the work order path.

5. 🔀 Conditional Flow

If stock is insufficient:
Creates a Purchase Requisition record in Google Sheets
Sends an email notification to the procurement team for approval

If stock is sufficient:
Creates a Work Order entry in Google Sheets
Sends a Slack summary message to the operations team

This ensures teams are notified instantly, and work continues without delays.

📊 Logging & Reporting
Every step — extracted data, PR created, WO created, notifications sent — is logged in Google Sheets.
This provides a full audit trail for procurement and operations teams.

👤 Who can use this?

Ideal for:
Procurement teams
Operations departments
Manufacturing & warehouse units
Businesses processing high-volume emailed orders
Any team needing structured, automated order workflows

🚀 Benefits

⏱ Faster order processing
🧠 Fewer manual errors from invoice reading
📦 Smarter procurement decisions based on real stock
🔁 Automated communication loops
📊 Transparent audit logs for every order