Student file completeness audits
ConfigurationDefine what a complete admissions or enrollment file looks like (transcript, immunization record, FAFSA, signed enrollment agreement), and every batch gets checked as it's captured.
One digital file, admission to graduation
Transcripts, financial aid forms, and testing: captured once and searchable from the registrar's office to the financial aid window. FERPA · Title IV · On-premise.
A student's file grows for years before anyone reads it end to end (admissions documents, financial aid forms, transcripts, immunization records, testing results), usually kept by whichever office touched them last. Schools carry the same student-record-privacy obligations as any regulated industry, with fewer resources to manage them than most.
What SimpleIndex does here
Six setups cover most of what a school or university needs from document capture. Each is the same software, aimed at a different part of the student file.
Financial aid forms
ConfigurationRead applicant, award amount and aid type off institutional and FAFSA-derived aid forms. Forms that never change are read by zones at no cost per page; the ones that vary are read by the labels printed on them.
Transcripts from other schools
ConfigurationEvery school lays its transcript out differently. A language model reads the student, school, dates and GPA by their labels, and can translate a foreign-language transcript into English with the original kept beside it.
Transcript and record archive
ConfigurationEvery transcript and record gets a searchable text layer as it's captured, so retrieving one is a search, not a trip to a records room.
Surveys and answer sheets
ConfigurationTicked boxes and filled bubbles on surveys and simple answer sheets come back as values, on the scanner you already own, ready for a database or a report. For grading large bubble-sheet tests, SimpleOCR forms processing is the better fit.
Student information system integration
ConfigurationLook a student up by ID, confirm the match, and file the record where your SIS already expects it.
Compliance & records fit
The rules that shape a student record today, and where this software sits against each one.
FERPA
Recognition and filing run on hardware your institution controls by default. Cloud engines are optional; if you use one, check your agreement with the provider first. A model on your own server keeps the AI in-house too.
Title IV / financial aid recordkeeping
Financial aid documents are captured, checked and filed by the same rules every time, and the index log records what was read from which file.
Copies that leave the office
Pattern redaction blacks out values such as Social Security numbers or student IDs in exported PDFs, for copies that go to someone who doesn't need them.
Retention schedules
A structured digital file survives a staff turnover better than a folder that lived in one registrar's filing cabinet.
None of these is quite your workflow?
That's the normal case. Everything above is the same software, set up for a particular kind of document.
Send us a few admissions or financial aid forms, with student details blacked out if you like, and we'll build a working job from them, before the call, on your own documents.
We ask what you're processing because the answer changes what we'd show you.
How it goes
You tell us what you're processing
A short form. Document types, volume, where it needs to end up
We get in touch
Email or a call, whichever you prefer
We talk it through
What you need, and whether SimpleIndex is the right tool. Sometimes it isn't, and we'll say so
You send sample documents
A batch of admissions or financial aid documents, real ones
We build a working job
On your files, and run it with you
What it costs
Nothing unless you buy. If you do, the setup is billed at the consulting rate
Before you scan the student files
Is SimpleIndex FERPA compliant?
FERPA compliance is about how your institution handles student records, so no software is compliant on its own. SimpleIndex helps by keeping recognition and filing on your own hardware by default, so no outside service reads the pages unless you choose one.
Do student records leave our network?
No, unless you choose a cloud engine. SimpleOCR, Tesseract and ABBYY FineReader run on your own computer, and AI can run on a model on your own server. Textract and cloud models such as ChatGPT are optional; if you use one, check your agreement with the provider first.
Can it read transcripts from other schools?
Yes. A language model reads fields by their labels, whatever the layout, so one job handles transcripts from many schools. It can also translate a foreign-language transcript into English and keep the original text beside it.
Can it grade tests?
It reads the marks on each form, so surveys and simple answer sheets work. For grading large bubble-sheet tests, SimpleOCR forms processing is the better fit.
Can it read handwritten applications?
Neat hand print, yes, and how well depends on the writing and the engine. Cloud engines and language models read free handwriting best, but no method reads flowing cursive reliably. See handwriting recognition.
Does it work with our student information system?
It files records where your SIS picks them up: a watched folder, a database through ODBC, or an import module such as OnBase or Laserfiche. It doesn't need an API from the SIS.
Which edition do we need?
Professional covers everything on this page, including the AI engines, mark recognition, handwriting and redaction. Searchable PDFs also work in Standard.
Try it on your own documents
The free trial runs the full software on your own files, and our team in Knoxville can help you set up the first job.
