Digitise your documents instead of searching folders
We turn paper filing and scattered PDF folders into searchable documents attached to the right case: capture, text recognition, indexing, access rights, retention periods and a deletion policy that fits the legal requirements.
since 2013
experience with business IT
50+
completed projects (project experience)
8 years
retention for accounting vouchers (German Fiscal Code)
2-6 weeks
typical duration per stage (project experience)
Entry point and implementation · net plus VAT
- First survey how documents actually move, then build
- Fixed price per stage instead of an open-ended estimate
- Retention periods, access rights and deletion policy are part of the scope
- Operation, adjustments and a named contact well beyond the rollout
The process analysis starts at 1,900 € net and covers a survey of how documents move through your business, a written report and a prioritised list of measures. Implementation per stage starts at 4,900 € net as a fixed price set after the analysis. Ongoing support starts at 190 € net per month. All prices are net plus VAT; third-party licences and fees are shown separately. The full breakdown is on the pricing overview.
Prices as of September 2026. Ongoing services are booked individually and can be cancelled monthly; there is no minimum term.
In many mid-sized businesses, documents live in three worlds at once: as paper in a binder, as a file on a network drive and as an attachment in an individual mailbox. Anyone looking for a delivery note, a test report or an order confirmation therefore looks in three places — and often finds a version nobody can confirm is the current one. To us, digitising documents does not mean replacing paper with PDF. It means making every document part of the case it belongs to, and expressing the rules for access, retention and deletion in the system rather than in a written work instruction. The starting point for that is the process analysis.
One document as it is filed after digitisation
How to tell that your filing is slowing you down
The cost of disorganised filing rarely shows up as one large item. It is spread across many small searches, follow-up questions and reprints that nobody records during the working day. It becomes visible where documents leave or enter the business: at handover to accounting, during a complaint, during an external audit. That is where we begin the survey, because there you can measure how often a document is searched for, copied or requested again. The following points come up in virtually every project.
- Documents are searched for rather than opened from within the case
- The same file sits in several folders, sometimes in different versions
- Scanned PDFs are images without text and therefore not searchable
- File names carry the structure instead of the system — and everyone names differently
- Access rights depend on folder structures that have grown over years
- Nobody can say which records may or must be deleted, and when
What makes a document genuinely digitised
Capture
Paper is captured at a defined point: via the existing network scanner, via a multifunction device with a feeder, or via a collection folder where files from mailboxes and specialist software are dropped. Digitally arriving documents take the same route.
Text recognition
The image becomes searchable text. The recognised text sits as an invisible layer over the original, so the appearance stays unchanged while every word can still be found in a full-text search.
Indexing
Document date, document type, number, sender and amount are read out and stored as structured fields. Anything that cannot be read with confidence is flagged for review instead of quietly guessed.
Linked to the case
The document belongs to the order, the project, the customer or the asset — not to a folder beside it. Whoever opens the case sees every related record without needing to know where it is stored.
Access rights
Who may view, change or export which records follows from their role in the business. Personnel files and commercial records live in the same system but not in the same visible area.
Retention and deletion
Every document carries its retention period and the point from which deletion becomes possible or required. The system proposes; the decision stays with your team.
From capture to finding it again
Survey of document routes
We follow the route of your most important document types: where does the document originate, who receives it, where is it filed, who looks for it later? Along the way we record volumes, existing devices and the systems in which the related cases are managed. The result is a list of document types, ranked by effort and benefit.
Agreeing the structure
Together we define document types, mandatory fields and the link to the case. This definition is the real core of the project: it decides whether a document can be found in two clicks later on. We keep it as lean as possible so that capture does not turn into a second set of books.
Setting up capture and text recognition
Scan routes, collection folders and the path for digitally arriving documents are set up. Text recognition runs automatically over every item. For the most frequent document types we store extraction templates so that date, number and amount land in the field without retyping.
Linking to your specialist systems
Using interfaces we connect the filing system to the software in which the cases are managed. Order numbers, customer numbers and project names come from the leading system instead of being entered again. Where no interface exists, we work with file import or an intermediate layer.
Taking over the existing stock
Existing records are prioritised by benefit: live cases and records subject to retention first, historical archives later or not at all. It is often more economical to leave old binders where they are and simply document how to reach them than to capture everything retrospectively.
Rollout, training and operation
Staff learn the new route on their own documents, not on examples. After that we support day-to-day operation: refining extraction templates, adjusting rights, adding new document types. Details are under training and rollout and operations and maintenance.
We follow the route of your most important document types: where does the document originate, who receives it, where is it filed, who looks for it later? Along the way we record volumes, existing devices and the systems in which the related cases are managed. The result is a list of document types, ranked by effort and benefit.
Together we define document types, mandatory fields and the link to the case. This definition is the real core of the project: it decides whether a document can be found in two clicks later on. We keep it as lean as possible so that capture does not turn into a second set of books.
Scan routes, collection folders and the path for digitally arriving documents are set up. Text recognition runs automatically over every item. For the most frequent document types we store extraction templates so that date, number and amount land in the field without retyping.
Using interfaces we connect the filing system to the software in which the cases are managed. Order numbers, customer numbers and project names come from the leading system instead of being entered again. Where no interface exists, we work with file import or an intermediate layer.
Existing records are prioritised by benefit: live cases and records subject to retention first, historical archives later or not at all. It is often more economical to leave old binders where they are and simply document how to reach them than to capture everything retrospectively.
Staff learn the new route on their own documents, not on examples. After that we support day-to-day operation: refining extraction templates, adjusting rights, adding new document types. Details are under training and rollout and operations and maintenance.
The difference: storage location or case context
Most failed document projects fail not on the technology but on folder logic. Copying a paper archive one to one into directories leaves you with the same structure as before — just without the shelving. The benefit only appears when the document is reachable from within the case and the storage location becomes a side issue.
- Search by content and attributes instead of directory paths
- One document, several contexts: order, customer, asset, period
- New staff find records without knowing the structure that grew over years
- Folder structures may change without breaking references
| Search entry point | Matches |
|---|---|
| Order 4711 | 9 documents |
| Asset 12 · maintenance 2026 | 4 documents |
Retention periods and GoBD requirements
As soon as records are kept digitally, the same regulatory requirements apply as for paper — only implemented differently. The German Fiscal Code sets retention at ten years (German Fiscal Code) for books, records and annual financial statements, eight years (German Fiscal Code) for accounting vouchers and invoices, and six years (German Fiscal Code) for received commercial and business letters. The GoBD, the German principles for the proper keeping and retention of books in electronic form, additionally describe how these records must be handled: traceable, complete, timely, orderly and unalterable. For implementation this mainly means that the requirements have to be held in the system, not in the memory of individual people. We express the four central points technically and record them in the process documentation, which is part of the project scope.
Unalterability
A record that has been filed is not overwritten. Corrections are created as a new version linked to the original, so the earlier state is preserved and the change stays visible.
Traceability
The system logs who filed, changed, exported or marked a document as deletable, and when. That log can be evaluated without needing database access.
Procedural documentation
Capture route, review steps, responsibilities and the technology in use are recorded in writing. During an audit, this documentation is the evidence that the process runs the way it is described.
Retention on the document
The retention period follows from the document type and is set when the record is created. That makes it possible to evaluate which records are still subject to retention and which are due for deletion.
Technical implementation, not legal or tax advice
Access rights and the deletion policy
Digital filing makes records easier to find — for everyone with access. That is why assigning rights belongs in the same project and not in a later stage. We work with roles rather than personal permissions: a role describes what a function in the business may see and do, and people are assigned to roles. When a responsibility changes, one assignment changes instead of a long list of individual folder permissions. The deletion policy is the counterpart: the General Data Protection Regulation requires that personal data is not kept longer than necessary, while the German Fiscal Code prescribes a minimum retention for certain records. Meeting both at once only works if document types are cleanly distinguished.
- Roles instead of individual personal permissions, documented and traceable
- Separate visible areas for personnel files and commercial records
- Retention counted per document type, not applied flatly across everything
- Deletion proposals with an approval step instead of automatic final deletion
- A log of completed deletions as evidence
- Export and disclosure capability for data subject requests
Not sure where your filing costs the most time?
In the process analysis we walk through your most important document types, measure the actual search effort and name the stage with the greatest leverage. You receive a written report and a fixed price for the implementation.
Three ways to handle paper
Paper filing, plain scanning or linked documents
Not every business needs the same depth. What changes day to day depends less on the device than on whether the document is attached to the case.
Paper stays paper
- Included: No changeover, no rollout cost
- Included: A familiar routine for long-serving staff
- Not included: Searching takes time, especially during queries and complaints
- Not included: Records are only available where the binder physically sits
- Not included: Retention and deletion are tracked by hand
Scanning without a structure
- Included: Quick to set up, often with existing devices
- Included: Records are available outside the archive room as well
- Not included: Without text recognition the PDF stays an unsearchable image
- Not included: The folder structure simply repeats the old filing digitally
- Not included: Rights and retention remain tied to directories that grew over years
Linked documents
- Included: Full-text search across the whole stock instead of path knowledge
- Included: The document is attached to the order, customer, project or asset
- Included: Rights via roles, retention and deletion rules per document type
- Included: Fixed price per stage after the process analysis
- Not included: Requires agreeing document types and mandatory fields up front
Text recognition and the limits of automation
Text recognition converts the image of a document into machine-readable text. On cleanly printed records this works reliably; on poor copies, stamps across figures, handwritten notes or faxed originals the hit rate drops. We therefore do not assume that every field is filled correctly by itself. Instead we build the process so that uncertain values stand out: whatever the system could not read unambiguously lands in a short review list rather than going unchecked into a data field.
For recurring document types from the same sender, an extraction template pays off. It describes which detail sits where on the document and therefore delivers more stable results than general recognition. In practice a handful of templates covers most of the incoming volume, because senders and forms rarely change. Where invoices already arrive as a machine-readable data set, extraction becomes unnecessary and the data flows onward via data integration. The real time saving appears where the recognised document becomes a work step: an incoming record creates a review task, a signed delivery note closes an order step, a test report sets the next due date. We describe that part under process automation, and the evaluation of the resulting data under metrics and reporting.
Involving existing systems instead of replacing them
Many businesses already run software in which documents could be filed — in the inventory system, in industry-specific software or in project administration. Before we introduce an additional archive, we check what those systems provide. Often the function is not missing, only the configuration: document types are not maintained, text recognition is not switched on, or the link to the case was never established. Configuring an existing solution properly is usually faster and cheaper than operating an additional system. Where a legacy system cannot meet the requirements, we plan its replacement in steps rather than as a single cut-over date — described under legacy replacement. In both cases the data stays exportable, and the structure of the archive is documented so that a later change remains possible. Operation and data storage take place on servers in Germany.
What digitising your documents costs
Pricing for digitising your documents
The effort depends on the number of document types, the volume of incoming items and how deeply the existing stock is taken over. That is why the analysis comes before the quote. All prices are net plus VAT.
Process analysis
A survey of how documents move through your business as the basis for any implementation.
- Survey of the main document types and their routes
- Volumes, existing devices and the software involved
- Assessment of retention periods and access rights
- Written report with a prioritised list of measures
- Fixed-price quote for the recommended stages
Implementation per stage
One completed stage, for example the entire incoming document flow.
- Capture routes and text recognition set up
- Document types, mandatory fields and extraction templates defined
- Link to the leading specialist system via interface or import
- Roles, rights and retention periods stored per document type
- Procedural documentation and staff briefing
Ongoing support
Operation and further development after the rollout.
- Monitoring of the capture and processing chain
- Refining extraction templates when new forms appear
- Adding further document types and adjusting rights
- Support for the annual retention and deletion runs
- A named contact for questions from your team
All prices net plus VAT. Third-party licence and fee elements are shown separately from the fixed price. The binding price for implementation is set after the process analysis.
Typical starting points from projects
Illustrative scenarios from typical project runs (project experience), anonymised and without client details.