Document Capture: 3 Ways to Collect Receipts & Invoices for Processing (API Portal Ed.)

June 30, 2021

3 mins read

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Related Knowledge

Document capture is an important and essential part of any data extraction. A frictionless way to collect documents that enables the user to capture, extract and reap value instantly is paramount to getting things done right. Here are the top 3 methods of document capture we recommend you start with to start extracting data from receipts and invoices today.

TLDR

Features	Drag & Drop	Email It	Direct API
Setup time	0 (ready to go)	0 (ready to go)	Hours to days
Requires API Portal Login	Yes	No	No
Requires Development	No	No	Yes
Multi-File Processing	30 at a time	1 at a time	Unlimited using ZIP Support
Real-time/Instant Processing	Yes	3 Minutes	Yes
Image Support (JPEG/JPG, PNG)	Yes	Yes	Yes
PDF Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
ZIP Support for Multi-File Processing	No	No	Yes
Email Body Support	No	Yes	No
Where to Find It inside the API Portal	Inbox	Settings > Email Collector	API Docs > Invoices & Receipts > Process

Capture Options

Drag & Drop

The good ol’drag & drop method for document capture. You grab the image of your receipt or invoice and drag it into a predefined area of your web browser. This predefined area is the Veryfi API Portal. If you do not have an account yet you can grab one and be up and running in 60 seconds.

In your browser of choice, head over to the Veryfi API Portal > Inbox (https://hub.veryfi.com/documents/)
Press the COLLECT button in the header to open the drag & drop zone
Drag & drop the document into the predefined area for real-time data extraction. You can view the results of this processing in under 3 seconds from the Inbox by clicking on the VIEW button next to the extracted document.

Note: You can process up to 30 Receipts & Invoices at a time using this method and the supported files include: jpeg, jpg, png, and pdf

Email It

This is a frictionless way to collect and extract structured data from unstructured or semi-structured documents from any digital or POS (point of sale) system issuing receipts and bills. When the POS asks you whether to print or email the receipt, simply enter your assigned acme@veryfi.cc email address and let Veryfi handle the rest.

Only 1 email address is assigned per account but if you’d like to generate more unique email addresses using your own domain eg. bob@cat.cc then please reach out to sales@veryfi.com

In your browser of choice, head over to the Veryfi API Portal > Settings > Email Collector (https://hub.veryfi.com/cc/)
At the top is your assigned email address that can be used for collection. Try it. Send a receipt or invoice to this address and see the results inside the Inbox for yourself. Allow few minutes for the process since SMTP (mail) sometimes can be slower than usual.

PS. Don’t send emails to the address above. It’s only for demo purposes and is not real.

Direct API

The Veryfi API is a modern RESTful JSON API. Document capture directly into this API using a POST CALL to turn unstructured receipts or invoices into structured data. To expedite the integration of Veryfi API into your workflow/product, take advantage of our;

Sample code library (Python, PHP, Java etc)
SDKs in Python, Go and NodeJS
Postman file

We recommend you get familiar with the API by visiting the API Docs inside the Veryfi API Portal and exploring all the choices that are available to you.

Veryfi API supports both synchronous and asynchronous processing. With synchronous processing, data is extracted in real-time and the results are included in the response to the processing API request. Asynchronous processing requests receive an immediate response, however, the data extraction runs in a background process. Once data extraction completes, Veryfi makes a request to your configured webhook URL.

Few things to note:

Accepted file types are: JPEG/JPG, PNG and PDF
To process multiple files as a single document, submit a ZIP containing all the related files
When submitting PDF documents containing more than 10 pages, only the first 10 pages will be read
For PDF documents, 300 DPI is optimal
Optimal image resolution is dependent on the size of print in the image. Generally, 1000px on the smaller dimension is recommended for images
Avoid blur in images. Accuracy of extraction is largely dependent on the quality and clarity of the image

Process your docs in less time than it takes to read this.

See for yourself.