[Web Wednesday] Digitise your work with OCR – Part 2

Last week we looked at how to scan your documents and digitise them, providing you with handy, editable copies to email or backup.  This week we’re going to look at ditching the paper entirely.

While the end result of OCR is wonderful, the process to get there often isn’t.  You have to scan each document individually, format the document from the OCR software, then save, backup or send them all.  Thankfully there is a solution at hand – in fact, there are plenty of solutions!

Whatever your needs, large or small, there is a document scanning service out there to suit you.  If you need to get your entire filing cabinet scanned and digitised, you’re probably better off looking at large corporate solutions, however, if you generate enough paperwork to annoy you, but not enough to bury you, these services are for you.  Obviously, you have control over the paperwork you produce, but paperwork coming from external sources is beyond your control – the main two types being receipts and post.  Today we’ll look at services to deal with both of these annoyances.

Receipts

If you claim back business expenses then you most likely spend a healthy amount of time sorting through receipts.  We have two favourite receipt-handling services, both of which are UK-based and offer great customer service as well as competitive prices.

Keebo.com – Keebo are a new company who offer packages ranging from free right up to £300 per year.  For free you get 10 receipts scanned per month – not a great amount, but a very good (and free!) way to test their service before you dive into the paid packages.  Keebo will send you a couple of envelopes, which you then fill with your receipts, pop in your unique barcode (so they can tie the receipts to your account), send them back – freepost, of course – and the details will show up in your account a few days later.  Keebo also provide a really handy “Send a receipt” feature, where you can email details of a receipt to the recipient of your choosing – very handy for claiming expenses while you’re on the road!  We are in the process of reviewing Keebo and will have a full rundown – including some cheeky extras for Freelance Advisor readers – very soon.

Receiptfarm.com – Receipt Farm offer a similar deal to Keebo, except they don’t provide a completely free option (the cheapest option is a “Pay As You Go” affair, with pricing per scanned item) – in fact overall their service is slightly more expensive, but for that extra cost you are getting a buttery smooth interface, and more advanced bill and invoice processing.

Post

Post can be a fickle mistress – you excitedly run to the door only to see a pile of junk mail from car insurance companies and fliers from local takeaways.  Luckily there is a service that can filter the junk, and keep much of the unwanted paperwork from darkening your doorstep.

UKPostBox.com – There are many services offering this in the US, but it would seem only UKPostBox offer it in the UK.  You are provided with a unique mailing address in a major UK city of your choosing, which you then give out as “your” address.  When post arrives the envelopes are scanned and you are sent an alert.  You can then choose to have the envelope opened and it’s contents scanned, have the whole thing shredded or recycled, archive it for later, or forward it on to your real address.  This is a quick and easy way to deal with excess post, and with only minimal input insures you only get the letters that you want.  Monthly packages are offered from £9.95 a month, or a Pay As You Go option charging per item received.

By now you’ll be a dab hand at OCR – but what about those instances when you’re on the go and need to scan something (a contract, an invoice, a business card, or making a record of the whiteboard at the end of a meeting)?

Next week we’ll explore how you can take a complete scanning solution with you wherever you go – believe it or not the whole thing will fit in your pocket!