Need a scanner to digitise and auto archive our job sheets

[Steve Morgan]

Warren,
I’m in the process of digitising a couple of thousand photographs, I went through a similar process of hunting for a semi automated system and similarly drew a blank.
It would seem that unless you spend a small fortune on a machine or an outside service the only alternative is a rather slow manual process. The Epson scanner I’m using doesn’t even save files with a proper date, every file has the same 2015 date!
I scan in batches and use Adobe Bridge to rename the whole batch with the same name and a consecutive number – it’s mind numbing! Best of luck :smiles:

[Simon Worrall]

This might help…

https://www.abbyy.com/en-gb/

[David Hammond]

Our xerox will scan documents to PDF.

Trouble is you’ll end up with 1 file with 100’s of pages, if your job sheets are more than 1 sheet the next step wont work.

Acrobat will extract the pages to separate files, then do as Steve says, a batch rename, in sequential order.

We only keep physical job sheets now if there are samples, we make a note in clarity of colour references etc.

There’s a company that will do it for you, but I can’t think of their name. They’ll produce searchable PDF’s.

[Unknown Member]

You need the services of an archival scanning company… solicitors use them all the time

[Warren Beard]

Thanks guys

yes we have a large Xerox but as you say just tons of files but we want them in folders with the job number. Our job sheets will have all the details of the job as well as site visit forms, signed proofs and bits and pieces so some would be one page and some might be several pages and each need their own folder numbered using the job number.

It’s not something a skilled computer worker will be doing so needs to be very basic, had hoped there would be a function to enter a name or number and then scan how ever many docs you needed to scan, then press complete and would save all those scans in to a folder using the name/number you first entered and then do the next etc. Seems super simple doesn’t it 😆 :shake:

I’ll keep looking, seems so simple and surprised it’s not a basic function to be honest.

Thanks guys

Warren

[David Hammond]

Not much help with the historical stuff, but if you’re using clarity it will create customer & Job folders, and you can specify names of folders to create inside the job folder. We have it automatically create them on our server. All assuming you use clarity.

Could you get the xerox to e-mail the documents? It might be possible to e-mail the documents to a pc, and have an e-mail rule save the files to a folder, name the folder as the job?

[Warren Beard]

Hi David

Yes we can definitely do all this (and by the way we don’t have clarity) I wouldn’t want to tie up our production Xerox doing all this though and is still quiet laborious doing it this way and if it went wrong then those files would be lost amongst 1000’s of others.

I wish it was as easy as it is in my head 😆

I’ve looked at both Clarity and ShopVox, don’t want to hijack my own thread but wasn’t sold on either when our system is so simple and easy and clear and fast, it’s just the filing that’s a bit crap so if we can digitise and bin the hard copies then it’s all good for us for many more years.

[Phill Fenton]

Why do you need to keep all this anyway? Surely it’s all historical once the job has been invoiced and paid? I’m not quite sure I understand what purpose this serves?

[Steve Morgan]

I have to say I aggree with Phil. When I finally packed up work last year I had a lot of throwing away to get on with and amongst all the work related stuff that was thrown were the better part of 15 years of job files and I think 14 years of those hadn’t been touched from the day they went into the file boxes.
If I were doing it all again I think keeping 2 years of handwritten files would be more than sufficient.

[Warren Beard]

ALL information is stored on our job sheets, colours used for cut vinyl, media and profiles used for print, what laminate, sizes. qty, what fixings we used etc etc. We very often pull previous job sheets to check what was used on the last job they ordered so we can ensure consistency and check for any notes etc pertaining to the job or customer. We could risk it and only keep 2 years historical records but if we can get it digitised then we have the security of retaining our information.

Just this morning it arose that part of a repeat job we do that one of the elements had been discontinued and we had printed it, we make a note on the job sheet so when it gets repeated again we don’t print it again, if we simply delete it from the artwork file it could then cause confusion on the repeat as a file will be missing and we probably won’t know why. The notes on the job sheet will eliminate confusion, and errors saving time and money. We are a team of 9 all working closely together so if information like this isn’t captured then the same mistakes will always happen wether it’s how we print it or what fixings we use it will cost time and money if not done right.

So back to a scanner 😉 I’ll keep looking then 😆

[Robert Lambie]

Missed this post, we use a scanner warren. Scans to PDF and stores in cloud folder automatically.
I think it does about 20 pages per minute, and i am sure it does double sided, though not something i use it for.
Our company is now about 95% paperless. (not in manufacturing of course) :smiles:
I will look out the scanner details and let you know.

[Warren Beard]

Thanks Rob, that would be great :thumbsup: