As with any repetitive task, a few seconds saved scanning and filing a single document quickly adds up to dozens or hundreds of hours over the course of a long project or daily routine. The most import part of planning your document capture project is to find the most efficient way to file them correctly. Creating an efficient workflow will save you countless hours of labor over the life of your project.

SimpleIndex is faster and easier because it is designed to perform all of the steps necessary to scan or import documents, process, verify and export them in one continuous workflow rather than requiring the user to click extra buttons each time to initiate the next step. When taken to the extreme, SimpleIndex is capable of performing all of these tasks automatically with just a single mouse click.

SimpleIndex does this by saving all of the settings for a document capture workflow to a file that can be opened just like an Office document. This file is configured by the administrator so the user doesn’t have to see any of the technical details. Very rarely does the operator need to be able to change, for instance, the export file format and file naming scheme. So why do some applications show you a complicated export settings screen every time you try to save a batch? It is this attention to detail that allows SimpleIndex to process the same batch 35-75% faster than its competitors.

SimpleIndex also has the ability to pre-set index values and run jobs using the Command Line Interface. More on this design feature can be found on our Getting Started page.

Index Automation Features

The two main methods for automating indexing are Barcode Recognition and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Barcode recognition is faster and more accurate, but your documents must contain a barcode on the document or a cover page for this to work.

OCR is able to read printed data directly from the page, which means most documents can be processed as-is. However it is not 100% accurate and usually requires some human review. Handwriting can be recognized as well, using the Cloud OCR option.

If your index data already exists in another database, SimpleIndex has features that can make use of this data to automate processing. The Index Autofill feature matches data read from barcodes or OCR to data in your database, verifying the correct value is read and populating additional search fields automatically.

Paper and Electronic Documents

Traditional document capture is focused on digitizing paper documents with a document scanner. However, more and more documents are living their best lives as native PDF and Word files, never once having to enter our physical realm.

SimpleIndex is designed to handle both scanned physical documents and electronic files in their native format seamlessly. The OCR function will use existing text from any PDF file or Office document when it is available, or automatically OCR scanned images when it isn’t.

Use the built-in SimpleView viewer to view most common file types, or use the PDF editor and word processor of your choice to provide full editing capabilities embedded right within the SimpleIndex application.

It can also simultaneously scan and import documents from a hotfolder into a single batch. So if, for example, you receive both paper and email invoices, you can process your day’s work all at once with just one click!

Using Pre-Indexed Batches

The Pre-Index Batch feature of SimpleIndex is what enables 1-click scanning and indexing, as well as command line and unattended processing.

Pre-indexing lets you set fixed values for index fields and apply them to a whole batch. These can be combined with automatic values from barcode recognition, OCR and Autofill to create fully automated batch processes that can be launched from your custom application, a desktop shortcut, scheduled server task or even linked to the scan button on your scanner.