Guide

How to turn scans into structured data.

A scan is easy to store but hard to use. Structured data is what your office actually needs: names, dates, totals, rows, IDs, notes, and raw text separated enough to review.

  1. Start with a narrow question. “Extract vendor, date, total, and line items” is better than “read this.”
  2. Upload the original scan or photo. Clear images help. Crooked, blurry, or tiny text increases review time.
  3. Ask for visible information only. Good extraction should not guess fields that are missing or unclear.
  4. Review before using. AI can make mistakes. Verification is part of the workflow, not an afterthought.
  5. Export the format that matches the next step. A readable text report is often enough. JSON is useful when another system consumes the result.

What makes a good first batch?

Same kind of document

Ten similar receipts or forms prove value faster than ten unrelated documents.

Fields you can verify

Choose data your staff already checks manually: dates, totals, names, IDs, and rows.

Real pain

The best candidates are tasks that consume staff time every week.

Why simple offices should avoid overbuilding

Large teams can justify APIs, queues, custom OCR servers, data labeling, and integrations. A local CPA, dealership, or law office often needs the 80% solution first: get the data out of the scan, make it reviewable, and reduce typing.

Try a scan