The scenario
This series follows an NYC contractor working HPD (a city agency) jobs. You build a workspace that ingests an Invitation to Bid, catches the award, tracks invoices, and assembles a batch transmittal.
You need an account with one workspace. Every account gets one automatically. Across these five tutorials, you build one pipeline. The pipeline runs the same way every time.
How the pipeline works
You start by building an extraction template. It reads an incoming Invitation to Bid PDF. This file arrives via email from HPD. The template pulls the E-Number, address, bid amount, due date, and scope into a case.
The E-Number acts as the case identifier. It attaches every later document to this same case. You build this capture step in Process an Invitation to Bid.
Next, you fill and submit the bid response. You set up an automation to ingest the incoming Confirmation of Award. You build this flow in Send a bid confirmation.
When the job closes, you generate an outgoing invoice and affidavit. This branches based on the work outcome. You choose a Work Performed or No Work Performed template. The no-work template computes a trip-fee credit.
These cases roll up into an at-a-glance view on the dashboard. You track these cases in Track the invoices.
Finally, you run a batch template across multiple cases. It uses a Batch field to build one transmittal document. This document covers all selected jobs. You assemble this packet in Assemble the transmittal.
Core concepts
Two ideas support this workflow. A template is a reusable blueprint. It defines what data to read, where it lands, and how the app names the output.
A case is one unit of work. It holds extracted data, files, and history. Core concepts & glossary defines these terms. Automating document intake walks through how files move, end to end.
See the finished workspace
You can skip building this from scratch. The app provides a ready-made version of this scenario. You navigate to /admin and select Dev Tools > Sample Packs to load it.
This gives you a workspace with mailboxes, categories, templates, and automations. It includes sample PDF files you can use to follow along. Alternatively, keep your own sample Invitation to Bid PDF handy.
Next: build the capture template in Process an Invitation to Bid.