Hello everyone,
I’m working on my first Make.com project and suggested this internally to improve efficiency. The goal is to automate the documentation of our property owner meeting protocols by extracting data from PDF files and updating it in Excel. Ultimately, I’d like to digitalize the whole process, from data capture to management, and organize the protocols centrally in a database.
Project Goal:
In our property management company, we want to capture and manage data from owner meetings more efficiently, giving property owners clear documentation. The plan is to eventually create a centralized management system using a database. Since the company hasn’t used APIs or automated processes before, this is a first step towards digitalization.
Steps Taken in Make.com So Far:
1. PDF to Text Conversion: I’m using PDF.co to extract the protocol content and provide it as JSON.
2. OpenAI Module for Data Structuring: I’m using OpenAI to structure the extracted data (meeting date, property address, agenda items, voting results).
3. JSON Parser: The JSON Parser in Make.com makes the data available for the next modules.
4. Iterator for Agenda Items (TOP): Each protocol has multiple agenda items, so I’m using the Iterator to go through each one and insert them into Excel.
5. Excel “Add a Row” Module: I configured Excel to add each agenda item as a new row, with general info (like date and address) set in variables.
Challenges and Questions:
1. Iterator or JSON Parser Issue: I’m running into a problem where the JSON parser or Iterator isn’t working as expected. When I run the scenario, I get blank fields in Excel instead of the data from the Iterator. If anyone can help a beginner understand why this might be happening, I’d be super grateful!
2. Updating Excel Automatically: I’d like the Excel file to automatically append new protocols so all data remains intact and updates continuously. Is there a simple way to make sure old data in Excel is preserved and new entries are added?
3. Recommended Database for Long-Term Use: Since I’m still in the test phase and haven’t connected a database yet, I’d love recommendations on which database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery, etc.) would work best for long-term use. I’d need it to act as a central repository for all protocols and later connect with reporting tools.
4. Structuring and Automation for the Future: As this is my first project, and the company has no API automations in place, I’d like to ensure it’s set up to be future-proof, especially for integrating a database later on.
Any advice or suggestions would be amazing. Thanks for helping out!
