Workflows · Document and invoice data

Get the data off the document without rekeying it

The workflow reads a document class you receive over and over, pulls the fields into the shape your system expects, and runs the checks before anything gets written. Every value keeps a pointer back to where it came from. Internally we call it document-to-system.

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The document arrived. The work is moving what it says.

An invoice, an intake packet, a carrier confirmation, a renewal form, or a production brief arrives by email or upload. Somebody opens it, finds the fields that matter, checks them against another record, types the same facts into a second system, and chases whatever is missing. The backlog grows one attachment at a time.

This fits professional-services matters, logistics and 3PL loads, B2B and SaaS accounts, ecommerce operations, and media production. It needs a field map and a system of record. A person resolves ambiguous fields and document exceptions.

Neither of the builds we’ve published is a document-extraction build, so we are not going to point you at a match that isn’t one. See what we’ve built and judge the control path and the handoff, because those are the parts that carry over.

What counts as a document class

A class is not a file type. It’s a group of documents that arrive for the same reason, carry the same fields, and land in the same place.

What makes a classFour tests
One purpose

Every document in the class exists to do the same job, so the fields you need off it are the same fields every time.

One destination

The extracted values go to the same record type in the same system, under the same rules about who may change it.

Predictable structure

The layout varies by sender, not by meaning. A vendor’s invoice template can look nothing like another vendor’s and still be one class.

Enough volume

It shows up often enough that defining it, testing it, and maintaining it costs less than the rekeying does.

Classes we’d take, and ones we wouldn’tScope boundary
Good candidates

Vendor invoices and bills, purchase orders, intake and onboarding packets, carrier and delivery confirmations, renewal and insurance forms, signed agreements where you need a handful of named fields, production briefs and spec sheets.

Poor candidates

One-off correspondence, anything where the same field means something different depending on the deal, and anything whose fields nobody can write down without arguing.

How we start

One class, the one with the most volume and the clearest destination. A second class may reuse some checks and the exception path. Scope it against its own examples.

The checks that run before anything gets written

Writing to your system of record is the last step, not the first. These run in order, and any one of them can stop the document.

Before the writeIn order, every document
1. Is it readable

File type, version, page count, and whether the text can actually be read. A scan nobody can read gets rejected as unreadable, not guessed at.

2. Is it a known class

If the document doesn’t match a defined class, it stops. An unrecognized document is an exception, not a best-effort extraction.

3. Have we seen it

Duplicate and near-duplicate check against what’s already been processed, including a resend of the same invoice number.

4. Are the fields there

Every required field present, in the right format, each one carrying the page and location it was read from so a reviewer can check it in one click.

5. Does the math hold

Line items against the total, tax and discounts against the subtotal, quantities against units. Arithmetic that doesn’t close stops the document.

6. Does it match the record

Vendor on file, purchase order, contract, or job number cross-checked against your existing record. A value that disagrees with the system gets shown beside it, not written over it.

7. Is it allowed

Your policy checks last: who may be paid, what may be changed without a second approver, and which fields always require review regardless of how clean the document looks.

A short-paid invoice, a price that doesn’t match the purchase order, a vendor who isn’t on file, a line item nobody recognizes. The workflow can catch those, put the two records side by side, and say what disagrees. It can’t decide them. Someone who knows the arrangement still has to, and on the classes we’ve worked with that’s a standing share of the volume rather than a rounding error. Plan staff time for it.

What stays yoursYour judgment
Interpretation

Your team decides what ambiguous language, unusual terms, and conflicting records mean.

Commitments

People approve legal, financial, customer-facing, and policy-sensitive changes.

Release

A named owner lists which fields may update from the agreed checks alone and which get reviewed every time. That list is this workflow’s rule. Anything leaving for a vendor or a customer waits for an approval. The four categories behind that are the same on every workflow we build.

What we need from youClient inputs
Examples

Good, incomplete, duplicate, conflicting, and strange documents, with sensitive details redacted where you need them redacted.

Field map

The destination fields, the validation rules, the evidence a reviewer needs to see, and the exception path you already use.

Systems

The intake source, the system of record, test access, and one person on your side who can approve the rules.

Test the record against the source

We haven’t published a measured client result for this workflow. For a real one, start with the current document volume, handling time, corrections, and unresolved exceptions, then measure the same fields after launch.

What would count as proofSame definitions before and after
Coverage

Documents received, processed, rejected, duplicated, and stopped for missing information.

Quality

Sampled field agreement with the source document, corrections after approval, wrong-record updates, and human overrides.

Work

Hands-on minutes per document, rework, queue age, and what the tools cost to run over the measurement window.

An illustrative scenario, not a client result

These assumptions show the arithmetic. They are not a client result and not a forecast for your documents.

Assumptions

1,200 documents arrive each month. Handling takes 8 minutes each today. 70% follow a stable pattern that could remove 5 minutes of reading and rekeying.

Arithmetic

1,200 × 8 minutes = 160 current hours. 1,200 × 70% × 5 minutes = 4,200 minutes, or 70 hours of modeled monthly capacity.

Meaning

The other 30% still take their full 8 minutes, and reviewing the flagged ones costs more than reviewing a clean one. What it’s worth depends on your volume, how clean your sources are, how often a value gets corrected after approval, and what the tools cost to run.

How this gets bought, scoped, and priced is on the services and pricing page. Name the document people keep rekeying in the free written assessment, tell us where it has to land, and we’ll reply by email with whether it’s one class or three.

Show us the document people keep rekeying.

Start with one class, its destination, the checks, and the exceptions you already live with.

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