# Process Uploaded Excel/CSV/PDF Files Automatically in Workflows

**URL:** <https://community.noloco.io/t/process-uploaded-excel-csv-pdf-files-automatically-in-workflows/2559>\
**Category:** Feature Requests\
**Tags:** feature-request\
**Created:** [October 27, 2026, 8:31am UTC](https://community.noloco.io/t/process-uploaded-excel-csv-pdf-files-automatically-in-workflows/2559 "2026-10-27T08:31:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@Mary](https://community.noloco.io/u/Mary)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 8:31am UTC](https://community.noloco.io/t/process-uploaded-excel-csv-pdf-files-automatically-in-workflows/2559/1 "2026-10-27T08:31:37Z")

</div>

We need a way for regular app users to upload an Excel/CSV file through a File field and have a Noloco workflow automatically process the full file.

Our use case is daily operational and compliance reporting. A user uploads a report containing 1,000+ rows, and we need the workflow to:

- Read all rows from the uploaded file
- Map selected columns to fields in a Noloco table
- Create/update records from those rows
- Allow additional workflow steps to run on the imported records
- Mark the original upload as Processed or Failed

Currently, Data Import requires admin involvement, which makes it difficult to use as part of a daily operational process. We also don’t want regular users to need access to the Data section or manually import the same file after uploading it.

Ideally, there would be a workflow action such as **“Import/Process File”** , where we select the File field, destination table, column mappings, and whether records should be created or updated.

This would allow the entire experience to remain inside the Noloco app:

**User uploads report → Save → Workflow processes file → Records are created/updated automatically.**

This would be especially useful for recurring financial, compliance, inventory, transaction, and operational reports.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![darragh](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.noloco.io/darragh/32/12_2.png) [@darragh](https://community.noloco.io/u/darragh)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 8:33am UTC](https://community.noloco.io/t/process-uploaded-excel-csv-pdf-files-automatically-in-workflows/2559/2 "2026-10-27T08:33:43Z")

</div>

Hi @Mary

It sounds like you would be better off using our _Import Button_ which is available on any view or list component (outside the data admin tab you mentioned)

> **[Import Data | Noloco](https://guides.noloco.io/data-management/import-data)**
>
> Allow your team or customers to import new or existing data into your Noloco app

You just need to enable it, and configure which fields you want them to be able to import to, and then they can map the fields in their CSV to the fields you enabled.

For any records that are updated or created you can run regular workflows off of them then.