How to Use AI Builder and Power Automate to Extract Data from Bills & Receipts
- Sivakumar K
- Sep 25, 2025
- 3 min read
Scenario: Automating Bills & Receipts Entry
Think of a customer who has stacks of physical bills and receipts. Normally, someone from their team would have to sit down and manually enter each detail into a SharePoint list—an error-prone and time-consuming job.
This is where Microsoft Power Platform makes a big difference. By combining AI Builder, Power Automate (cloud flows), and SharePoint, we can completely automate this process.
Here’s how it works:
Scan or Upload Receipts
The physical documents are scanned or uploaded as images in the OneDrive folder.
The Trigger will detect the new file created in the /bills folder
AI Builder Form Processing Model
AI Builder automatically extracts key information such as invoice number, date, vendor, and total amount.
Power Automate Cloud Flow
The extracted data is passed into a Power Automate flow.
The flow maps each data field to the right columns in a SharePoint list.
Data Stored in SharePoint
All the details are securely stored and searchable in SharePoint without any manual typing.
5. Move Scanned File to Another Folder
After each file is scanned and stored in SharePoint, it will be automatically moved to the "Scanned" folder.
Step 1: Create an Automated Flow
Start by creating a new Automated cloud flow in Power Automate.
Choose the trigger OneDrive – When a file is created.
Point it to the folder where you’ll be uploading scanned receipt files.
This ensures every time a new receipt is added, the flow is triggered automatically.
Step 2: Add a Process AI Builder Action
Next, add the AI Builder – Process receipts action.
Select the Process receipts prebuilt model.
From the trigger step, map the File Content of the uploaded receipt.
This allows AI Builder to extract key details like merchant name, date, and total amount.
Step 3: Save Receipt Data to SharePoint
Now, let’s store the extracted information in SharePoint for easy access and reporting.
Add the SharePoint – Create item action.
Select your Site Address and the List Name where receipt details should be saved.
Map the extracted fields (e.g., Merchant, Date, Total) from the AI Builder output to the corresponding SharePoint list columns.
Step 4: Store the Original File as an Attachment
To keep the scanned file along with the extracted data, add the SharePoint – Add attachment action.
Select your Site Address and List Name (the same list where you stored the receipt data in Step 3).
For the ID, map the ID from the output of the previous Create item action.
For File Name and File Content, use the values from the first trigger step (When a file is created).
This ensures that each SharePoint list item not only contains the extracted receipt details but also the original scanned file as an attachment for reference.
Step 5: Move the File to the Scanned Folder
Finally, let’s move the processed file to a different folder so your main upload folder stays clean.
Add the OneDrive – Move or rename a file action.
For the File Identifier, map the value from the first trigger step (When a file is created).
For the Destination Folder Path, select your “Scanned” folder (and include the file name ).
This way, every receipt that gets processed will automatically be moved out of the upload folder and into the “Scanned” folder for proper organization.
Now that the flow is ready, it’s time to test it:
Take any receipt photo and upload it to the Bills folder in OneDrive.
The flow will automatically trigger and run through each step.
You should see the extracted data stored in the SharePoint list, the original file attached to the list item, and the file moved to the Scanned folder.
With this, your end-to-end automation is complete — from uploading receipts to storing structured data and attachments, all handled seamlessly by Power Automate and AI Builder. 🚀
I hope you found this guide helpful! If you have any questions or need support, feel free to leave a comment or reach out — I’ll be happy to help.
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