Document recognition: what software do you need?

You’ve surely heard the term “document recognition” mentioned before. Many people think this refers to a process where you scan an image that you then put into your records. This is not incorrect, but in practice there is more to it. OCR software automatically converts the scanned image into data, which you then see in your ERP package. For this reason, we also speak of ‘scan and recognize software‘. It is precisely this recognition process, in which the software interprets data and delivers it to your financial system as data, that makes document recognition so interesting.

OCR software: more time for more enjoyable tasks

OCR software converts the data on a document into digital characters, giving you an interpretable text. (If you want to know all about OCR, read our blogs “What is OCR?” and “How Does OCR Work?”) An OCR system brings several benefits. You no longer need to retype data – a tedious and error-prone task. Moreover, you process a document at lightning speed. Automatically reading and interpreting all data on an invoice (from invoice date and address to VAT and Chamber of Commerce number) takes a good OCR system only seconds. You are not involved in this processing at all. You only have to check afterwards whether the document recognition went well. This leaves you more time for work that really makes you happy and adds a lot of value to the organization. Moreover, you can separate the place where you receive a document from the place where you recognize it. For example, it is possible to have the mail sorter scan a document so that it ends up in the financial system. And someone working from home can scan a document and then have it approved by a colleague in the office – possibly using workflow software.

Document scanning and recognition: how does it work?

Let’s take a look at how to process a purchase invoice with OCR software to better understand document recognition. The first step is to bring all incoming invoices (paper versions, XML variants and invoices received by email) together in one place. From there, you can present them uniformly to the OCR system for recognition. The more luxurious software versions allow you to check, enrich and differentiate the documents after scanning and recognition. Then you shoot them into the financial package. Good OCR software has very useful features that ensure that all invoice data is then directly in your ERP system. In addition, the original pdf (the image) is imported into the same stream, so your records are complete.

You can also apply this process to other types of documents, such as HR records, identity documents, receipts of all kinds (including packing slips), service orders and customs documents. You can also get these into your system without user intervention, as long as you use OCR software suitable for this purpose.

What OCR software do you need for the best document recognition?

OCR software comes in all shapes and sizes. But one variety is not the other. Free OCR software, for example, sounds enticing, but often you don’t get much use out of it. It may extract the text from a document, but you have to search the textual “mess” for all the data yourself (such as an invoice amount, VAT number and IBAN number). This task is as error-prone and time-consuming as overtyping. So basically, free OCR software does nothing for you. A paid version usually pays off, though. You can stop retyping data and upload PDF documents into your financial system. You also reduce the error rate in the processing process and optimize your administrative processes. But which OCR software offers the document recognition you are looking for? With regular OCR software you certainly save time, but often you have to create and maintain templates manually. This will still cost you a lot of work, especially if you receive many different types of documents. With smart OCR software, you can skip this step. For example, when you receive an invoice, the system automatically recognizes the supplier. The recognition is immediately very high, but if the system does not recognize a certain element right away, you can indicate this with a simple action. The OCR software remembers this, so that recognition can be fully automatic all subsequent times. This self-learning capability of the OCR software makes document recognition very smooth and fast.

Recognizing other documents: can OCR software do that too?

As digitization has taken off, it has become increasingly important for an OCR system to offer advanced technology that allows you to recognize all kinds of documents. While regular OCR software allows you to process only purchase invoices, smart OCR software offers the ability to recognize other types of documents as well.

An example: you create an order in your system and place this order with a supplier, who sends your order. At the warehouse, your colleague receives the order and, using a packing slip, checks that the delivery is complete. Meanwhile, the supplier has sent the invoice for the delivery to the administration. But before you pay it, you want to know if the delivery was complete and in order. So in the end, the signed packing slip, the order and the invoice must be reviewed together. And preferably, you keep everything together in your ERP system. Smart OCR software can take a lot of work off your hands in this case by automatically linking the receipt to the order and comparing the invoice information with the order. This way, the process is quickly made transparent and you can refer to the documents very easily afterwards!

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