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AI Workforce & Assistance

Document intelligence system: paperwork in, records out, people on the exceptions

Invoices, permits, warranty forms and delivery notes arrive all day, and someone opens each one and retypes it. This system reads every document as it arrives, checks what it says against your records, and posts it where it belongs. People only see the documents that need them, with the reason already written down. We build it around your document types, checks and the people who review the exceptions.
Talk through your paperworkFollow one invoice ↓
emailuploadscannerreadcheckNeeds a personPO mismatchtotal unsure · 0.62new supplierPosted8 straight through · 3 reviewed by a person

Every document passes through someone's hands

Most of the paperwork a business receives is routine: the same suppliers, the same forms, the same handful of fields that belong in accounting or the job system. It still waits for a person to open it, work out what it is and type it in.

The work is slow, but the bigger cost is what it hides. A total that doesn't match the purchase order is found when the supplier chases payment. A permit sits in an inbox while the job waits. Nobody can say what's still unprocessed.

Today, and with the system

Today

  1. 01Invoices, permits and forms arrive by email, upload and scanner.
  2. 02Someone opens each one, works out what it is and retypes the important fields.
  3. 03Totals and purchase orders are checked by eye, when there's time.
  4. 04Documents wait in an inbox until that person is free.

Errors are found when a supplier chases a payment, and nobody can say what's still waiting.

With the system

  1. 01Every document is read and recognised as it arrives.
  2. 02Fields are extracted with their place on the page.
  3. 03Totals, purchase orders and suppliers are checked against your records.
  4. 04Most documents go straight through; uncertain ones go to a person with the reason.
  5. 05Every document has a status, from received to posted.

People still decide. They just stop retyping.

One supplier invoice, end to end

The same invoice as on the document intelligence page, now through the whole system, including the check that stopped it.

Events

Document · inv_4471.pdf

Status
received
Type
—
Supplier
—
Invoice
—
Total
—
PO
—
Match
—
Reviewer
—
Posted
—

Event 1 of 7: document.received

What it does on its own, and what it doesn't

On its own

  • Reads, recognises and extracts every document
  • Checks totals, purchase orders and suppliers against your records
  • Posts documents that pass every check
  • Files the original with the record

Asks a person

  • Fields it isn't sure about
  • Documents that fail a check
  • New suppliers and unknown document types
  • Anything over your approval limit

Never

  • ✕ Pays a supplier
  • ✕ Changes a purchase order
  • ✕ Deletes an original
  • ✕ Guesses a missing field

The parts it's built from

Each part is built and tested on its own, so you can start with one and add the rest.

  1. Read

    Document Intelligence

    Every document read and recognised.

  2. Extract

    Structured Information Extraction

    Fields with their place on the page.

  3. Check

    AI Evaluation & Guardrails · Human-in-the-Loop AI

    • fields
    • purchase orders and suppliers
    • your limits

    fails a check or unsure → a person, with the reason

  4. Act

    Document Automation

    Posted, filed and handed to the next workflow.

Underneath every stepAPI IntegrationPosts to accounting, scheduling and records through written contracts.

What changes from one business to the next

Document typesWhich types you handle, and the fields each one needs
Where they arriveInboxes, upload forms, scanners, shared folders
ChecksWhich records each type is matched against, and your tolerances
Who reviewsWho sees which exceptions, and your approval limits
Where they goAccounting, scheduling, a records system, a shared drive

A common starting point is Docling for parsing, OCR where documents need it, a hosted language model for classification and extraction, PostgreSQL for the system's own state, n8n or Trigger.dev for the workflows, and your existing accounting and records systems. These are starting candidates, not requirements.

Is a document intelligence system the right fit?

Good fit

  • The same document types arrive every day.
  • Someone retypes them into another system now.
  • The fields can be checked against records you already have.

Avoid when

  • Every document is unique and needs expert reading.
  • Volume is a handful a week.
  • There's no system the fields should land in yet.

How we'd approach it

Most of the early work is listing the document types, where they arrive, the checks each needs and who reviews the exceptions.

  1. 01

    Understand

    As much as the problem needs

    We map how the work runs today: who does what, which systems hold the records, and where it breaks.

  2. 02

    Design

    Decided before it's built

    Ownership, rules, integrations and exceptions, agreed with you and written down with acceptance criteria.

  3. 03

    Build

    Connected to what you use

    We build the scoped system, connect it to the tools you already run, and test it on the cases that matter.

Related systems

The capabilities underneath

For your industry

Questions about document intelligence systems

What happens to a document it can't read?

It goes to a person with the original and the reason. Nothing is discarded and nothing is posted half-read.

Does it replace our accounts team?

No. It removes the retyping and the first check. People handle the exceptions and the decisions, with the context already in front of them.

Which documents should we start with?

The type that arrives most often and has the clearest fields, often supplier invoices. Add the next type once the first runs reliably.

How do we know it's accurate?

It's measured on a sample of your own documents that a person has checked. A type goes straight through only once it's proven, and every reviewed exception improves the tests.

Stop retyping your paperwork

Tell us which documents your team retypes today. We'll show you which could be read, checked and posted, and which need a person.

Start a project