File subcontractor invoices into the right job folder automatically

Who did it: Morgan Sterling, Beach Cities Builder (Hermosa Beach, CA)

Several subcontractor invoices a day across ~30 job folders used to be entered into Zoho Books and filed by hand. He asked ChatGPT to help build a script hooked to his email that collects invoices, reads them, identifies the job and files them.

⏱ Time saved: About 5-6 hours per week (per source)

Steps

1. Describe your current manual invoice process to ChatGPT step by step (where invoices arrive, what you type, where you file them).
2. Ask it to help you build a small script that collects invoice emails into one folder and reads the key fields.
3. Have it match each invoice to a job and move it to the right Google Drive folder.
4. Test on a week of real invoices and check every result before trusting it.

The prompt

Example prompt written by FirstAIWin to match the documented task — not the original user's words. Replace the [brackets].

I'm a general contractor. Every day I get subcontractor invoices by email for about 30 active jobs. For each one I record: subcontractor, invoice number, amount due, job name, and payment details, then file the PDF in that job's Google Drive folder. Walk me step by step, as a non-programmer, through building a simple script that does this automatically. Ask me questions first about the tools I use.

Source: OpenAI Academy blog (Vendor blog)