Bulk-rename invoice and receipt PDFs on a Mac — what Finder's Rename can and cannot do
To follow Japan's Electronic Books Preservation Act, invoice and receipt PDFs are given names such as date_counterparty_amount. Finder on a Mac has a Rename command that changes the names of several files at once. But it can only add text and numbers that are common to all the selected files. To put a different transaction date, counterparty and amount into each PDF, you need another method. This page covers the methods and steps that work on a Mac.
Updated 2026-10-08. The screen labels and behavior of Finder and Safari were checked against Apple's help pages up to this date.
Summary
- Finder's Rename can do three things: replace text, add text, and add a number or date. It cannot read what is inside a PDF and put it in the name.
- Some software made for naming files under the Electronic Books Preservation Act is for Windows and does not run on a Mac (comparing the methods).
- Put the transaction date, counterparty and amount in the file name, in the same order for every file. Example:
20260930_SampleCo_11000.pdf - Dencho Rename runs inside the browser, so it works on a Mac with nothing to install. Drop the PDFs in together, and it reads the date, amount and counterparty and gives every file a name in the same order. Free for up to 5 files at a time.
What Finder's Rename can do
Select several files in Finder, Control-click one of them and choose Rename, and the Rename Finder Items dialog appears. There are three ways to change the names (Apple's help).
| Way | What it does | Use for invoices and receipts |
|---|---|---|
| Replace Text | Replaces given text in the names with other text | Change "scan" to "invoice". Make a counterparty's name consistent |
| Add Text | Adds the same text before or after the names | Add "_receipt" to the end of every selected file |
| Format | Sets the names to the text you enter and puts a number (index or counter) or a date before or after it | Number the files in sequence |
Each way applies the same rule to all the selected files. Apple's help lists these three ways, and none of them reads the date, counterparty or amount written inside a PDF and puts it in the name. The date added by Format is not read from the document's transaction date either. To put a different value into each file, you open the PDFs one by one, read them and type the names.
For up to about 10 files a month, that is enough. With more files, opening, reading and typing takes time, and separators and date formats tend to drift.
Methods that work on a Mac
| Method | Works on a Mac? | How the date, counterparty and amount get in |
|---|---|---|
| By hand (rename one by one in Finder, or add common text with Rename) | Yes | You open the PDF, read it and type |
| Windows software (for example, I-O DATA's "Meimei-kun") | No (for Windows 10 and 11) | The software reads the file contents |
| A browser tool that renames in bulk from a CSV list | Yes | From a list you prepare (date, counterparty, amount) |
| A browser tool that reads the PDF contents (Dencho Rename) | Yes | The tool reads the text inside the PDF, and you check and fix it in a table |
What each method does and how to choose are covered in comparing the methods. Details of other products were checked on each company's official page on 2026-09-27.
Bulk-rename PDFs on a Mac with Dencho Rename
- Open the tool page in Safari or Chrome
- Select the PDFs in Finder and drag them onto the browser window
- The date, counterparty and amount appear in a table. Check them against the PDF preview on screen, and fix any that are wrong
- Choose the order of the name and the date format (the default is date_counterparty_amount)
- Press download to save the renamed PDFs as a ZIP in the browser's downloads folder (a single file is saved as a PDF)
Safari unzips the ZIP when the download finishes. If the ZIP is still there, or you use Chrome, double-click the ZIP and a folder with the same name as the ZIP appears in the same place, with the PDFs inside (Apple's help). We checked that file names containing Japanese counterparty names are not garbled when unzipped with the Mac's built-in Archive Utility (macOS 15).
The PDFs are processed only inside your browser and are never sent to a server. There is nothing to install and no sign-up. Reading has been checked in Safari and Chrome on a Mac.
Find files by the names you gave
Type a counterparty name or a date such as 202609 in Finder's search field and press Return, click the Add button (+) below the search field, and choose Name in the far-left menu to find files whose names contain that text. You can add criteria, so you can narrow the results to files whose names contain both a counterparty name and 202609 (Apple's help).
Searching by a range of dates or amounts cannot be done with a file name search alone. Putting the three items in the file name assumes that you will respond to a tax official's request to download the data, which stands in for range and combined searches (National Tax Agency Q&A, Q50). If you want to be able to filter by range, make an index book (how to make an index book, the search requirement explained).
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to install anything on my Mac?
No. Just open the page in Safari or Chrome. No sign-up is needed either.
How many files can I process at once?
On the free plan, up to 5 files can be in the table. After saving, clear them from the table and process the next 5. The paid plan (480 yen a month or 3,980 yen a year) has no limit, and you can line up a few hundred files at once.
Can I use photos of receipts taken with an iPhone?
Yes. The iPhone photo format (HEIC) can be loaded only when the page is open in Safari. On the free plan, you type the date, counterparty and amount into the table to name the file. The paid plan reads text from the image, but accuracy is lower than for PDFs with text, so check the table.
Can I combine it with Finder's Rename?
Yes. As long as the order and format of the names are the same for every file, it does not matter which tool gave them. For example, after naming files with Dencho Rename, you can fix how a counterparty is written in all of them with Finder's Replace Text.
Is there anything to watch for when I hand files to someone on Windows, such as a tax accountant?
When a ZIP is unzipped with the Mac's built-in unzip, the voiced-sound marks on Japanese kana (dakuten and handakuten) in file names are stored split into a base character and a mark (checked on macOS 15). On a Mac they look like the same characters, but on Windows and other systems they can be treated as different names, so a search by counterparty name may not find the file. The names inside the ZIP made by Dencho Rename are in the unsplit form. If you hand over this ZIP as it is, instead of the unzipped files, the names arrive unsplit.
Is anything needed besides the file name?
The file name covers the search requirement. Keeping electronic transaction data also requires measures against tampering, such as setting internal rules and following them (the search requirement explained, file naming rules).
Try Dencho Rename
No sign-up and nothing to install. Open it in Safari or Chrome on your Mac, and for PDFs with embedded text you can read and rename up to 5 files at a time for free.
Sources
- Apple Support, Rename files, folders, and disks on Mac
- Apple Support, Zip and unzip files and folders on Mac
- Apple Support, Download items from the web using Safari on Mac
- Apple Support, Narrow your search results in Finder on Mac
- iret.media (iret, Inc.), on Mac file names that look the same but are stored differently (in Japanese)
- National Tax Agency, Electronic Books Preservation Act Q&A [Electronic transactions] (July 2026, in Japanese)