Document Intake Triage (Onboarding)

Document Intake Triage (Onboarding)

1. 01

   Inventory every document type the client touches in a normal week

   List invoices, contracts, onboarding forms, ID packets, and any recurring PDF or scan. Group them by who sends them and where they currently land (shared drive, inbox, or a person's desktop).

2. 02

   Score each document type on volume, variability, and downstream consequence

   A high-volume, low-variability form is a fast win; a low-volume contract with legal exposure needs human review baked in from day one. Rank the list before choosing what to automate first.

3. 03

   Map the current manual path and time cost per document type

   Time a sample of 10 to 20 documents from arrival to final entry. This baseline becomes the number you use later to show the client what changed, and it is the only honest way to price the retainer.

4. 04

   Confirm where extracted data must land and who owns it

   Identify the system of record (CRM, ERP, accounting platform) and the named person accountable for exceptions. Automation without a destination and an owner stalls in week two.

5. 05

   Classify each workflow by autonomy level before configuration

   Tag every step as fully automated, human-approved, or human-only. Anything touching client-facing communication or regulated records gets a review checkpoint rather than straight-through processing.

6. 06

   Select the extraction and routing approach per document type

   Template-based extraction suits stable forms; document understanding models suit messy scans and mixed formats. Platforms such as Instabase and Rossum handle the latter, while Anvil and PDFMonkey fit structured generation and fill workflows.

7. 07

   Agree the exception handling path in writing with the client

   Define what happens when confidence is low, a field is missing, or a document arrives in an unexpected format. Name the queue, the reviewer, and the response window.

8. 08

   Publish a phased rollout plan with one document type live in 30 days

   Start with the highest-volume, lowest-risk type so the client sees a working result before the engagement broadens. Reserve the compliance-heavy contract work for phase two.