Client
EDF Tax is a Polish accounting firm with a growing client base and high-volume document processing operation. With a lean team, operational efficiency directly impacts both service quality and the firm's ability to grow.
Highlights
- ●Automated email-to-document routing with intelligent folder mapping
- ●Self-service sender authorization via Google Sheets
- ●Running continuously since March 2025
The Challenge: A Gap in the Document Flow
Two Systems That Should Talk, But Don't
When EDF Tax migrated to a new document management portal, they expected smoother operations. The portal was clean, structured, efficient: invoices organized by company, ready for processing.
But the migration created an unexpected gap. A significant share of clients kept sending invoices via email instead.
Every email attachment meant manual work: download, navigate to the correct client folder, upload. Multiply by dozens of emails daily, and you have staff spending significant time on pure document shuffling instead of accounting work.
What this looked like in practice:
- ●Attachments scattered across email threads
- ●Manual downloading and uploading for each document
- ●Wrong folders and missed attachments creating processing delays
- ●Staff time consumed by repetitive logistics instead of client service
The Solution: An Automated Bridge
Instead of fighting client habits, we built a system that adapts to them. Clients email invoices the way they always have. The automation handles the rest — monitoring the inbox, extracting attachments from authorized senders, renaming them according to EDF's conventions, and routing them to the correct folders in the document management system.
Staff find documents already organized in the right place.
Understand the Workflow
Mapped the existing email-to-folder process. Documented sender authorization rules, naming conventions, and folder structure.
Build the Integration
Gmail API integration for inbox monitoring. Google Sheets-based sender authorization — editable by the team, no developer needed. Automated extraction, renaming, and folder routing into the document management system.
Pilot and Handoff
Pilot with a subset of clients, edge case refinement, documentation and handoff to the EDF team.
Key Design Decisions
Self-service sender management
Authorization is managed through a Google Sheet — a tool the team already uses daily. Adding a new sender takes seconds, no developer involvement needed.
Fits into existing infrastructure
The automation connects Gmail to the existing document system. Nothing was replaced. Just bridged.
Responsive support
When edge cases surfaced, they were diagnosed and resolved within hours. Over nearly a year of operation, the system required roughly 5 hours of total maintenance.
The Results
Workflow Transformation
Before
Manual download and upload for every email attachment. Staff time spent daily on document shuffling.
After
Invoices arrive in the correct folders automatically. Staff find documents ready for processing.
Operational Impact
The automation fully replaced manual email processing. Invoices are available same-day, automatically. The system has been running continuously since March 2025, with approximately 5 hours of total maintenance in that time.
The Real Value
Time savings are measurable, but the deeper impact is eliminating a daily source of workflow friction. Staff no longer start their day sorting through inbox attachments. The gap in the document flow that was disrupting operations simply ceased to exist.
What Made the Difference
Understanding the Actual Workflow
We mapped exactly how documents flowed through EDF's systems — the naming conventions, the folder logic, the authorization rules. The automation fit seamlessly into existing processes because we understood those processes first.
Adapting to How Clients Actually Behave
Rather than asking clients to change how they work, we built a system that accepts their preferred method and handles the rest. No retraining. No change management. Just a bridge.
Focused Scope, Fast Delivery
EDF had one specific bottleneck causing daily friction. We scoped the solution tightly around that problem and delivered in weeks. Targeted work, tangible result.
Client Perspective
After onboarding the automation, EDF's team stopped thinking about the email-to-document gap entirely. It just wasn't a problem anymore.
"A year in, maybe 5 hours of maintenance total. It just works."
A targeted fix that solved an acute pain — and demonstrated what becomes possible when someone takes the time to understand how your business actually works.
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