Create and Manage Invoice DOCX for Facilities Effortlessly

Invoice docx for Facilities

in today's walkthrough we will learn how to fill a Word document invoice template using the cloud mive convert API in powered automate while there are a few different ways we can work with invoice templates in powered automate using this option fills all the placeholder values in a template document in one single action that limits the size and complexity of our flow considerably in this demonstration we will use the cloud mive convert API as a custom connector in powered automate rather than use the cloud mive document conversion connector which is available in the power automated catalog using the convert API as a custom connector gives us access to more API iterations than the publish connectors do and it also gives existing Enterprise customers the option to make API calls against managed or private Cloud endpoints instead of cloud M's default public Cloud endpoint this means we can create fast and highly scalable flows to fit an Enterprise volume use case we've created other videos on this channel that walk through the custom connector upload process using the open API URL method we will start by creating a manually triggered instant Cloud flow on the one hand going with a manually triggered flow allows us to create so-called flow buttons that we can share with members of our organization but more importantly it serves a relevant testing purpose before building automated flows manual triggers allow us to simulate how data might enter our flow in an automated Cloud flow scenario if we were to parse that data from any external Source like an HTTP response for example after all one of the primary reasons to build a flow like this is to take as much manual intervention out of the invoicing process as possible we will find customizable manual trigger inputs by opening our initial flow action in here we will enter some manual inputs that match the fields on our invoice template and that correspond to the data type each field expects the template I'm using has placeholders for the invoice number the due date and current date information about our client and the organization they represent and three different rows of invoice items this part of our process is a bit repetitive since all we're doing is mirroring information from another document I'll be skipping ahead to where I've created relevant inputs for almost every placeholder in the example document after we finished setting our manual inputs we'll bring the template Word document into our flow using a get file content action I'll be getting my file from a one drive folder but we can use the same action with SharePoint if need be at this point we will incorporate our Cloud mive API action from the custom convert API connector we uploaded after we add a new action we will find our custom connector by clicking on the runtime drop down and selecting the custom option from this list once we've reached the actions list we will search for an action titled replace multiple strings in Word docx document and return result we will notice there are a few other apis on this list we could also use to fill an invoice template but this particular action will condense the entire template filling process into one single action in our flow on top of that it will return the word document bite array directly rather than return a temporary editing URL as some of these other actions do with our replace strings action open we will click show all to view the request parameters first we will add our Word document file bytes to the input file bytes field after that we will move down to the replace string array and click add a new item in this array we can enter an unlimited number of strings in our document to match against and replace with new content using bracketed placeholder text like I've used in my template document makes this process very easy filling in each individual field takes some time but don't forget we can replace every placeholder string in our document in one go this makes using a template document extremely efficient in the long run for certain placeholder strings in our invoice such as the total and subtotal values we won't want to use data from user supplied inputs in instead we will use some of power automates mathematical Expressions to combine values from other columns for example in an invoice total column we will want to create an expression that multiplies the quantity value in that row against the price value in much the same way our eventual subtotal value will use an expression that takes the sum of our totals once we finished setting replacements for our placeholder strings we can do whatever we want with our new document the string replacement action will return file byes directly which we can save or send anywhere in our Network in this case we'll go ahead and do both we will first add a create file action to generate our file from the bite array and save it to a specific folder this will allow us to name our document and we can use that name in the subsequent step after that we will add an approval action specifically we will add an approval that waits for the invoice to be checked by some relevant stakeholder before the invoice goes anywhere we might imagine adding one or two more steps after this approval takes place such as a step that converts our document to PDF or even an email step that automatically sends the approved invoice to our client we can add our bite array directly into the ad attachment field in our approval and use the file name from our create file step once we're done creating our approval we will save our flow and run a test that means adding information into each one of our manual trigger inputs to make sure data enters our invoice document correctly when our flow finish is running we will first notice how fast this step was thanks to my manage instance endpoint next we will find our filled invoice in the folder be specified and we can review the contents to make sure they were entered correctly it's very easy to make initial errors when we first build a flow like this because there are lots of moving Parts but once we smooth those out we will have a minimalistic flow in place that generates and approves invoices from a reusable template if we don't end up using certain placeholders in this template we can also Implement steps that replace those with Whit space so they don't show up in the final document and with that we've reached the end of our walkthrough if you have any questions about using custom Cloud mive connectors in your flow or about any other relevant use cases for cloud mive apis and power automate feel free to check out the rest of our Channel and also feel free to contact any member of our team directly