Organize Flow Examples
Eleven ready-to-copy automation recipes — each a complete When / If / Then rule you can rebuild in under a minute.
What It Is
Ready-to-copy automation recipes for FilesDesk’s Organize Flow. Each is three choices — When it runs, If which files match, Then what happens. Destination folders are created automatically, including nested date paths.
How It Helps You
- Skip the blank-canvas problem — start from a proven recipe and change the folder.
- Understand the pattern — every recipe shows its exact conditions, actions, and outcome.
- Build trust in automation — each example notes what is auto-created, what syncs, and what is undoable.
Industries That Benefit
| Industry | Start with |
|---|---|
| Accounting & finance | Invoice filing, monthly receipts, red-flagged tax documents |
| Medical & dental offices | Scanner output routing, dated inbox flows |
| Agencies & client services | Per-client shared-folder sorting with color coding |
| Photographers | Photo import by capture year |
| Every desk worker | Downloads auto-sort and Desktop screenshot cleanup |
Finance & Paperwork
File invoices by year
Every invoice the AI renames lands in the right year folder, already tagged.
| When | After AI renames |
| If | Name contains any of: invoice, credit, debit |
| Then | Move into ~/Documents/Finance/Billing/{year} · Add Finder tag Finance |
| Result | 2026-08-03_Invoice_Acme_Corp_INV-2026-042.pdf is filed into Finance/Billing/2026, tagged, and Spotlight-searchable. |
Receipts into monthly folders
A phone photo of a receipt dropped into a synced folder files itself by month.
| When | After AI renames |
| If | Name contains any of: receipt, purchase |
| Then | Move into ~/Documents/Finance/Receipts/{year}/{month} |
| Result | Receipts pile up in tidy 2026/08 folders — expense reports write themselves. |
Flag anything tax-related in red
Tax season triage: every tax document is instantly visible in Finder.
| When | After AI renames |
| If | Name contains any of: tax, W-2, 1099 |
| Then | Move into ~/Documents/Finance/Tax/{year} · Set color Red · Add comment Filed by FilesDesk on {date} |
| Result | Red-dotted files in one folder, each carrying a searchable audit comment. |
Desktop & Downloads Hygiene
Auto-sort a messy Downloads folder
The classic. New PDFs get renamed by AI and filed; junk stays out of the way.
| When | When a file appears in ~/Downloads |
| If | File extension is one of: pdf |
| Then | Move into ~/Documents/Inbox/{year}-{month} |
| Result | Downloads stays empty; every PDF waits in a dated inbox for review. FilesDesk watches the folder automatically — no separate setup. |
Screenshots off the Desktop
Screenshots stop burying your Desktop within the hour they were taken.
| When | When a file appears in ~/Desktop |
| If | Name contains screenshot · File type is image (match ALL) |
| Then | Move into ~/Pictures/Screenshots/{year}/{month} · Set color Gray |
| Result | A clean Desktop, and every screenshot findable by month. |
Quarantine huge video files
Keep a shared drop folder lean by parking big videos on an external volume.
| When | When a file appears |
| If | File type is video · File size over 500 MB (match ALL) |
| Then | Move into /Volumes/Archive/RawFootage/{date} · Add comment Auto-archived from drop folder |
| Result | Big files stop clogging the sync; each day’s footage gets its own folder. |
Scanner & Shared Folders
Scanner output → named and filed
A network scanner dumps SCAN0001.pdf files; they leave named and sorted.
| When | When a file appears in the scanner’s output folder |
| If | Name matches pattern SCAN* |
| Then | (The watcher renames with your template first) · Move into ~/Documents/Scans/{year} · Add Finder tag Scanned |
| Result | Every scan becomes e.g. 2026-08-20_Contract_Globex_Lease.pdf in the right year folder. |
Route by client from a shared folder
A team drop folder self-sorts into per-client folders.
| When | After AI renames |
| If | Name contains Acme |
| Then | Copy into ~/Clients/Acme/{year} · Set color Blue |
| Result | One flow per client; the original stays in the drop folder, a copy lands in the client archive. Duplicate the flow and change the keyword and destination per client. |
Photos
Photo import by capture year
Photos from any camera or phone import into year/month albums automatically.
| When | When a file appears in ~/Pictures/Import |
| If | File type is image |
| Then | (The watcher renames with the Photo Archive template) · Move into ~/Pictures/Library/{year}/{month} |
| Result | DSC01542.jpg becomes 2026-07-19-Lisbon-Trip-001.jpg inside 2026/07. |
Cleanup & Guardrails
Skip drafts and temp files
Automation that knows what to leave alone.
| When | When a file appears |
| If | Name contains none of: draft, temp, ~$ (uses the filename NOT condition) |
| Then | Move into ~/Documents/Inbox |
| Result | Work-in-progress files stay put; only finished documents get filed. |
Timestamp everything from one device
Add a received-date stamp to files from a specific source folder without renaming them.
| When | When a file appears in ~/Dropbox/FromPhone |
| If | Always |
| Then | Add timestamp %Y%m%d as prefix · Add Finder tag Phone |
| Result | note.pdf becomes 20260820_note.pdf, tagged — no AI call, no credits used. |
Good to Know
- Folders are created for you — nested paths like
~/Documents/Finance/{year}/{month}spring into existence on first use. - Every move is undoable — History shows a
MOVEDbadge with one-click undo and redo. - Flows auto-arm watchers — a flow scoped to a folder watches that folder by itself; disabling the flow disarms it.
- All/Any matching — combine conditions strictly (ALL) or loosely (ANY) per flow.
- Order matters — actions run top to bottom: rename actions first, then the move, then tags and comments.
- Cloud folders work — point flows at iCloud Drive, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox folders; changes sync everywhere.
Related
Last updated: 20 August 2026