How I turn a pile of invoice PDFs into an AR sheet

Client work often leaves you with a folder of invoice PDFs and no single place to see who owes what.

Here is the workflow I use when someone dumps invoice files and wants an accounts-receivable sheet back in about a day.

What "good enough" looks like

• One row per invoice
• Invoice number, client, issue date, due date, amount, status
• Open vs paid vs partial clearly marked
• A total open balance a human can trust

Intake checklist

1. The invoice PDFs (or scans/photos if that is all they have)
2. Which clients or date range matter
3. Whether partial payments should split into paid + remaining
4. Preferred status labels (open, sent, overdue, paid, void)
5. Currency and tax/VAT handling if amounts include tax

The pass order that saves time

1. Inventory the files — rename or note invoice # from filename when present.
2. Extract core fields — invoice #, client, issue date, due date, total.
3. Normalize clients — "Acme LLC", "ACME", "Acme" become one client name.
4. Add status — paid/open from payment notes or bank matches if provided.
5. Reconcile — sum of open rows vs what they think is outstanding; spot-check three invoices.

Spreadsheet columns that work

Invoice #	Client	Issue date	Due date	Amount	Currency	Status	Notes
Optional: Paid date, Amount paid, Amount open, Aging bucket (0–30 / 31–60 / 61+).

Aging without fancy software

• Compute days past due from today vs due date
• Bucket open invoices: current, 1–30, 31–60, 61+
• Sort open balance descending so the biggest risk is at the top

Common traps

• Credit memos mixed into the same folder (treat as negative or separate rows)
• Duplicate PDFs of the same invoice (dedupe on invoice # + amount)
• Proposals or estimates that look like invoices (exclude unless marked billed)
• Currency mixes without a column (always keep currency visible)

Soft handoff

If you want this done for you instead of building the sheet yourself, I sell a done-for-you pass that turns invoice PDFs into an AR spreadsheet:

https://brittanybonds.gumroad.com/l/arsheet

Code ADMIN12 takes $2 off. Full catalog: https://brittanybonds.gumroad.com/ — also mirrored at https://brittany-bonds.github.io/

Not tax advice, not CPA work — just a clean spreadsheet from the files you send.