How To Improve The Reliability Of Counting Processes With Barcodes

In many companies and administrations, paper documents are still essential. Digitizing, sorting, and classifying this mass of paper documents is problematic. The processing of these documents is compulsory for the constitution and progress of the files. How to improve the processing of paper documents? Can the use of barcodes help and improve paper document processing processes? We will discuss these topics in this article, and we will try to explain the principles.

What Is A Barcode

Companies and administrations are gradually converting to the digitization of documents. The management of all forms and procedures requiring paper has not yet completely disappeared, and there is still a lot of work to be done on this subject. In the meantime, large volumes of writing still have to be processed manually. Also, information must be extracted reliably and quickly so that cases and procedures are handled properly.

These problems can be solved using bar codes. There are several types of barcodes. Of 1D barcodes (represented by vertical bars) and 2D barcodes(two dimensions). Each has these peculiarities, but the common point is their reliability of reading. Thanks to the bar codes’ coding, it is either read and recognized at 100%, or there is an inconsistency, for example, due to a deterioration of the bar code, which makes it unrecognizable. There are different types of barcodes depending on the use:

Automatically Scan And Separate Documents, Easy With Barcodes!

The primary reason for using barcodes is batch separation. Take the example of an operator who has to scan hundreds of documents. Regardless of the type of paper, we know that there are documents of one page or more. The most important point is that there is a barcode on the first page of every form. Using scanning software with a barcode analysis function, it can automatically separate each distinct document.

If the page being processed has a barcode, it is a new document. If the page being processed does not have a barcode, then the page is quite simply the continuation of the document being created. By this simple rule, an operator can place a bundle of 150-200 pages on a scanner to easily and quickly obtain separate documents. In the separation barcode, it is possible to give it precise characteristics so that it is not confused with another barcode that may also be present in the document.

Extract Information Using Barcodes

There are many types of barcodes with different characteristics. To the human eye, that doesn’t mean much, other than vertical bars or squares. But, for the scanning software, there is no risk of “getting it wrong.” Regardless of its type, a bar code contains one or more information, and this information can be read without difficulty by the software. Thus, when creating and adding these barcodes on a document, it is possible to include data that will be automatically retrieved when reading. It suffices to retain information, such as the date, the type of document, a reference number, so that this information is associated with the form during the automatic processing of these documents.

This information can be used in various ways:

• Information contained in the barcode of the document can be used as a destination, for example. The form will be sent directly to the department concerned or placed in a processing queue, depending on the document type.
• Other information could be a customer reference. This will identify the person who sent this document.
• Etc.

If the paper must be imported into a specific application, the data contained in the barcode of the form can be automatically extracted and sent directly to the application.  If a barcode is unreadable because the received document is damaged, the record cannot be misclassified, but it will be redirected to a manual processing process. 

Thanks to the automation of processing large quantities of paper documents, operators are no longer dedicated to thankless and tedious tasks. This improves the efficiency and processing time of cases and procedures requiring paper documents. As we have seen, the benefits of using barcodes are significant. Reading a barcode is very fast for scanning software compared to manual processing by a human. Also, there is no risk of error. Barcodes can surely improve the handling of your paper documents and your processes.

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