It can be automated, and it's one of the jobs that lend themselves best
Logging into a portal, looking for the documents for the period, downloading them, renaming them the way the company wants and putting them in the right folder is work an automation does from start to finish, because every step is decided in advance and there is nothing to judge while you do it
The system opens the portal the way you would, types the credentials, sets the period, takes whatever is new, and already knows what name to give each file and where it has to go, whether that's a network folder or the business software you use
If you want the detail on how an automation works inside a website, it's on the Web portals page
Why it's almost always a good first step
The risk is small, because a file that didn't get downloaded you download by hand as soon as you notice, it isn't a crooked accounting entry you then have to chase
There's another gain that shows up late but counts, the files all arrive written the same way, while when a person in a hurry names them the dash is sometimes there and sometimes not, the date is occasionally the other way round, and an archive written like that is one you end up hunting through, whereas when the names are all alike the document turns up straight away
On the same idea, the rule for the name and the folder dictated by you and carried out always the same way, there's a separate guide, Renaming files according to the practice's rule
The awkward part, portals change
A portal isn't a program installed in the company that stays still for years, whoever runs it updates it whenever they like, moves a button, changes the name of a menu item, adds one more step at login, and from that day on the automation finds a screen that is no longer the one it knew
An automation built properly, when it doesn't recognize what it sees, stops and says so, instead of carrying on at random and downloading the wrong thing, then somebody lines it up again with the new portal
This is why work on portals is kept on a monthly fee and isn't bought once and for all, maintenance isn't an extra to ask for when you need it, it's inside the service, and on a portal you need it sooner or later, it isn't a remote possibility, and how the subscription works explains what it covers
Before we start, the access gets settled too, which credentials the system logs in with, whether a dedicated account is better than a person's own, who can change them and what happens when the relationship ends, these are things that get agreed and written into the project contract, not decided along the way
