File Client Receipts by Client and Month as They Arrive
Month close is not hard because the ledger is hard. It is hard because the source documents for it are in an inbox, a phone camera roll, a Slack channel and a folder of scans called IMG_4829.jpg.
The short answer
Give every client one intake folder, and let the filing happen on arrival rather than at close. The Read Details from File step reads the vendor, the document date and the total off each receipt, the Rename step names it date-first, and the Move step files it under that client and that month. Above a threshold you set, the Ask a Person to Approve step puts it in front of you before it moves, so the amounts worth a second look get one and the other ninety percent do not wait for you.
Steps this uses
Before and after
What actually changes
As they arrive
- IMG_4829.jpg
- receipt(1).pdf
- scan_final2.pdf
- Screenshot 2026-09-14.png
After the workflow
- Acme Corp/2026-09/2026-09-02-staples-receipt.jpg
- Acme Corp/2026-09/2026-09-14-northwind-invoice.pdf
- Harbor Dental/2026-09/2026-09-09-shell-receipt.pdf
- Harbor Dental/2026-09/2026-09-14-dataflow-receipt.png
Four files named by the camera and the scanner, filed under the client and month printed on them.
Setting it up
Described once, then it runs
This is the sentence. Send it to the builder and the steps below appear on a canvas, wired and named, for you to change before anything runs.
When a file is added to my Client Inbox folder, read the vendor, document date and total, rename it with the date and vendor, move it into that client's folder for the month, and if the total is over $1,000 ask me to approve it first.
One intake folder per client
Everything a client sends lands there first, whatever channel it came through. One front door per client is what makes the rest of this possible — a workflow can watch a folder, and it cannot watch a habit.
Name it date-first
The Rename step writes the date, the vendor and the document type from what the receipt says, so the month folder sorts chronologically without anybody sorting it.
Branch on the amount
The total is a number inside the document, so the Ask AI About the File step is what reads it and picks the branch. Set the threshold where a wrong filing would actually cost you something.
Review above the threshold
The Ask a Person to Approve step shows the receipt and where it is about to go. It waits three days by default, and an unanswered one takes the expired exit instead of filing itself.
Why the month folder, and not a category folder
Bookkeeping questions arrive as a client and a period: what did Acme spend in September, where is the receipt behind this September line. Categories are the ledger's job, and deciding one at filing time means a judgement call on every document, made by whoever is least interested in making it. Client, then month, then a consistent filename covers the questions that are actually asked, and leaves categorisation where it belongs.
A threshold is cheaper than a review queue
Reviewing everything means reviewing nothing by week three. Picking one number — the amount above which a misfiling would matter — sends a handful of receipts a month to a person and files the rest immediately. The threshold is also the honest answer to how much you trust automated reading: set it low at first, watch what comes through, and raise it once you have seen the approvals you were asked for turn out to be routine.
What it does not do
It names and files source documents. It does not total them, code them to an account, reconcile them against a bank feed or post anything to a ledger — that is what your bookkeeping software is for, and it generally works from transactions rather than from PDFs. This is the document half: the receipt behind the transaction, findable in the month it belongs to.
Limits
What to know before you build it
It runs on new files, not your backlog
This workflow fires when a file arrives. It will not go back over the documents already sitting in the folder, so switching it on leaves the existing pile exactly where it is. Working through what is already there is a scheduled run instead, which is a different workflow.
Organize the files you already haveWhat you need to run it
Pointed at a folder in The Drive AI, this works on every plan including the free one, because the files are already here. Pointing it at a Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint or Dropbox folder instead means connecting that account, which is on the Max plan or any team workspace.
FAQ
Common questions
How should a bookkeeper organize client documents?
One intake folder per client, one filename format applied at arrival, and a monthly move of the closed month into an archive. The structure is client, then month, and the filename carries the date, the vendor and the document type so the folder sorts itself.
Can it read a receipt photographed on a phone?
Yes. Photos and scans are read from the page, so a phone snapshot of a receipt is filed by its vendor and date like any PDF. The limit is legibility — if a person cannot read the total, that receipt should go to review rather than be filed on a guess.
What happens to receipts over the approval threshold?
They wait. The Ask a Person to Approve step shows the receipt and the folder it is headed for, and nothing moves until somebody answers. The wait is three days by default, and an unanswered one takes the expired exit rather than filing itself quietly.
Does this work on files already sitting in Google Drive?
A workflow can watch a folder in a connected Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint or Dropbox and file what arrives there. For the backlog already in that drive, the browser extension reorganizes it in place, and a scheduled workflow set to every file can sweep it.
Month close starts with the documents already filed.
Every receipt under its client and its month, named the day it arrived.
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