McLeod Software, a provider of dispatch, accounting and enterprise management software for trucking and brokerage firms, offers the new Automated Forms Recognition module for its Document Imaging system. The module has four different ‘engines’ that allow users to capture, validate and classify data easily.

It’s said to transform labor-intensive office operations into an advanced electronic document management system, reducing labor costs, saving time, and eliminating bottlenecks and data entry errors.

The module has the flexibility to quickly capture data on unlimited numbers of forms and index documents, McLeod says, adding that weeks of paperwork can be processed in a few days without the need for manual coding and input. For example, using customized trip sheets replaces the need for sheet separators when scanning large batches of paperwork. Drivers can also import paper documents such as bills of lading, logs and other load-related documents into the imaging system in real time.

The four different engines that manage and control document flow are: the bar code engine used to extract index information and determine document types; OMR (optical mark recognition) engine to read ‘mark sense’ (bubbles) to lift index information; the data validation engine that ensures accuracy of index information against the operations database; and the forms recognition engine that utilizes OCR (optical character recognition) and topography technology to classify documents.