I must receive 100+ email confirmations a month. Amazon purchases, utility auto-billings, software subscriptions.
Each week I have a recurring to-do to clear these emails out. The result is a flurry of notifying other people, wondering why an amount went up, trying to remember what something even is... and that's on the good weeks where I actually do it!
Email parsing is a way to extract useful information from the body of an email. Once you have that information, you can send it to where it needs to go, and archive the email automatically. It's all made simple by a tool called Email Parser By Zapier.
Particularly one that you want to pay attention to. Once we parse the relevant information out of the email, we can send it anywhere. To a colleague, to your partner, to your accounting file, to a spreadsheet, etc.
I want to keep an eye on a utility bill that's been fluctuating more than I'd like:
This parser will be specific to emails of this type. For example, it will work with this type of utility payment confirmation, and pull the specific details you set up in your parser.
Create An Email ParserThis is where the magic happens. We'll create a zap to take the extracted information to its final destination.
Send Parsed Info Via SMSSend Parsed Info Via EmailPost Parsed Info to QuickBooksSlack Me If Parsed Info Over AmountHow else could the info you've parsed be useful?
Notify a customer
Notify your partner
Post the amount to a budgeting spreadsheet
Log the amount in Airtable to build a transaction log
My best advice: start small. You receive a lot of confirmation emails! You don't need to automate them all, but start with those can't-miss emails that come up on a recurring basis.
Other ideas? @ me on Twitter!