Scanners and multiple documents?

[jjfcpa]

I am considering using DocuBin for an A/P document management system, but have a couple questions.

 

Here is the way the workflow would proceed.

 

The client receives an invoice ( this could be multiple pages ) and it would be scanned into a PDF file that would then be imported (drag and dropped) into DocuBin - perhaps to an Open Items folder.

 

The invoice then has to be reviewed and approved for payment and then moved to an archive folder where it will permanently reside for future reference.

 

My question is... are there some multi-page scanners that are better suited for this type of solution than others?  I know this is unrelated to your solution, but just thought I would ask for the benefit of all.

 

I recently sat in on a discussion with a client of mine and a company that sells a document management system and we are currently waiting for a quote on the cost.  What kind of caught us off guard was the cost to another company that the sales rep mentioned.  It was way more than they really want to spend.

 

 

[Ocean West]

Excellent discussion topic!

 

I always liked Fujitsu scanners - for these type of things the consumer versions (ScanSnap 1500 < $500 ) don't use TWAIN but their own proprietary drivers.

and offer a low cost of entry. in addition you can use http://fullcityconsulting.com/snap2fm-scanning-directly-into-filemaker-with-scansnap-scanners

this method with FMP12 to scan directly to an FMP 12 Container Field.

 

the other option is their higher end version 6140 ( < $2000 ) this is much higher quality scanner much faster but windows only, but it does have a twain driver.

the benefit of this version of the scanner is that it supports simple barcode reading - so in your case if your invoices or documents had a simple 1D barcode on them

when you produced them the scanner could read the barcode and use that as the filename when it saves the PDF to the computer or network volume.

 

Then back in FileMaker you can click a button to scan the scans folder and then match up the files with the record by matching the filename derived from the barcode.

 

If they don't have a barcode but there is "SPACE somewhere on the document the user can create a record in the database and print a barcode label from a dymo and affix 

it to the document - then scan the document.

 

If the client in your case already has a network printer/coper/fax/scanner ( i am talking a floor standing model like a Ricoh ) these have ability to operate as a network scanner the users

workflow can scan documents to a mapped drive.

 

Then with some software and a spare PC or PC Server you could run Simple Index to post process the scans and deliver the results to a csv file or ODBC connection to your database  http://www.simpleindex.com

the beauty of this is that the resulted PDF can be indexed where it becomes a searchable document (OCR) and pull out key data points and these be inserted in to a column for database searches.

 

DocBin is a nice product puts a OS metaphor of a file structure with in FileMaker, for operation (drag & drop, folders etc) Much of this can also be done using ScriptMaster and or SuperContianer

or even native Containers ( RemoteContainers ) - although I am more biased towards SuperContainer.

 

Not only can the PDFs be stored accessible thru the Database but the your process can also move files around on a network sharepoint and auto create folder structures to match

your business logic and move copies of these documents into this location such as Client/Project/Phase/Invoices/ and slap on a few IDs or timestamps to any of the directories or documents.

 

Examine your clients workflow and staff requirements it may be more cost effective (soft costs) to batch process things in stead of doing things one at a time. before lunch scan all documents

received since X after lunch review documents that now are logged in to the system, process them for the next step.

 

Hope this helps.