Workspace agents · 9 min

Create a Workspace Agent That Writes Email Bills to a Dataset

Use a Bills dataset when you want recurring vendor payment details pulled out of email and kept in a structured table. The agent reads mailbox messages, identifies payees and payment intervals, then upserts rows in the dataset.

Walkthrough

Step by step

Create the Bills dataset

Open Datasets, create a dataset named Bills, and rename the first columns to Payee, Interval, and Interval Number.

VZFLO / Bills Dataset

Record

APayee

BInterval

CInterval Number

54b2...8f91

Pepco

Monthly

9a84...c311

Guardian Fire Protection

Quarterly

Create a Bills dataset and use exact column names for the extracted values.

Keep these column names exact so the agent can write to the right fields without creating duplicates or extra columns.

Create a workspace agent

Open Agents, choose Create workspace agent, and name it Bills Email Scanner or another narrow operational name.

VZFLO / Agents

Workspace agents

Automation agents

Read workspace data and write controlled updates.

Create workspace agent

Create a dedicated workspace agent for the bill-scanning job.

Use one agent for this job so the run logs, permissions, and dataset updates are easy to audit.

Paste the bill-scanning instructions

In Instructions, tell the agent to search the last 90 days of email, identify bills and invoices, infer payment interval timing, and write the values to the Bills dataset.

VZFLO / Create Workspace Agent

Name Bills Email Scanner Instructions

Look through the last 90 days of emails to find bills and invoices. Identify the Payee and the interval of payment as well as the numeric value of the payment date. For example, monthly and 3 (third day of the month). Or quarterly and 2 (2nd month of quarter). Or Yearly and 11 (11th month of the year).

Write these values to the Bills dataset in the respective columns:
- Payee
- Interval
- Interval Number

Use Payee as the match column so repeat runs update the same payee row instead of creating duplicates.

Use precise instructions so the agent knows the lookback window, target dataset, and matching rule.

The prompt should tell the agent exactly which dataset and columns to maintain: Bills, Payee, Interval, and Interval Number.

Allow email and dataset reads

In Read access, enable Mailbox messages and Datasets. The agent needs mailbox access to find invoices and dataset access to inspect existing rows before updating them.

VZFLO / Read access

Mailbox messagesSearch invoice and bill emails from the workspace mailbox. DatasetsRead dataset names, columns, rows, and existing values.

The agent needs both email history and existing dataset rows before it writes.

Reading existing rows lets the agent update a matching Payee instead of creating duplicates every run.

Allow dataset writes

In Write access, enable Dataset records. Save the agent after setting permissions.

VZFLO / Write access

Read access

DatasetsInspect existing Bills rows first.

Write access

Dataset recordsAdd or update rows in the Bills dataset.

Dataset records is the only write permission this workflow needs.

Do not enable broader write permissions unless this agent has another job. Dataset records is the only write permission needed for this workflow.

Run a 90-day backfill and review the results

Run the agent once after setup. Open the run log to confirm it searched mailbox messages, read the Bills dataset, and called upsert_dataset_row for the rows it found.

VZFLO / Workspace Agent Run

search_mailbox_messages query: invoice bill payment payable statement due · 90 days 18 messages returned

read_dataset_rows dataset_name: Bills · limit: 100 12 rows returned

upsert_dataset_row match: Payee = Pepco · values: Interval = Monthly, Interval Number = 3 Updated: Bills - Pepco

Use the run log to confirm the agent searched email and wrote rows to the dataset.

After the run, open the Bills dataset. Populated rows should show Payee, Interval, and Interval Number near the top of the grid.

Before you finish

Launch checklist

The Bills dataset exists.
The dataset has columns named Payee, Interval, and Interval Number.
Mailbox messages read access is enabled.
Datasets read access is enabled.
Dataset records write access is enabled.
The prompt asks for a 90-day email search and names the exact dataset and columns.
The first run log shows upsert_dataset_row calls.

Fix common issues

Troubleshooting

The agent reports that it cannot read email.

Enable Mailbox messages under Read access, then rerun the agent.

The agent finds invoices but does not write rows.

Enable Dataset records under Write access and confirm the agent instructions name the Bills dataset.

The agent creates extra columns.

Rename the dataset columns to the exact expected names: Payee, Interval, and Interval Number. Then update the prompt to use those names.

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Workspace agents · 10 min

Run a Workspace Agent When Email Arrives

Create an event-triggered workspace agent that reads incoming email and maintains a payroll calendar event.