Latex: Producing multiple pdfs

[Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost>]

This is slightly OT, though I think there is a sizable latex user base
here, so thought of seeking suggestion.

I have a requirement of producing a few hundred pdf documents, such as
invoices.

Currently I produce 1 .tex file with all pages together. Compiling it
takes a second or two and then I split it into 1 pagers using ghostscript,
which takes a few seconds.

Above approach is fast, but it has to assume that each invoice contained
in the bigger pdf is a one pager. I want to relax this constraint.

If I produce separate .tex files (1 per invoice) the total time to compile
them into pdf runs into a few minutes. The io required to load the common
packages etc just repeats a few hundred times.

Have been looking for _efficient_ ways to produce multiple pdf files from
1 .tex source - say section-wise where each section doesn't have to have
fixed no of pages.

Even a combination of tools is ok - e.g. can I leave some markers in the
pdf and let some tools sense them and break the pdf on them, including
deriving the name of the pdf to produce.

Any suggestions?

Mayuresh