OCR+AI — scanned documents into AutoCount

Current version: 2.2.0.9 (17 October 2026). Existing installs receive it through OCR+AI → Check for Updates; new sites install the .app through Plug-In Manager.

OCR+AI watches one pipeline folder. Drop a PDF, a photo or a scan of an invoice, a receipt, a bank transfer slip or an expense-claim bundle into its Inbox, and the plug-in reads it, proposes an AutoCount document, and either posts it or waits for you in Review Centre.

What it creates

A/R Payment from a customer's transfer slip or receipt (knocked off against the invoice it quotes).
A/P Payment from a payment slip you made to a supplier.
Purchase Invoice from a supplier's invoice, with detail lines, tax code and the supplier's item codes.
Expense Claim (journal) from a file whose name contains the word claim: one debit line per receipt.

Free OCR, licensed AI

	Free (every AutoCount user)	Licensed
Reading	Local OCR on your PC, no internet needed	Your own AI model reads every page
Posting	You confirm and post in Review Centre	Complete documents post automatically
Online updates	Install the `.app` yourself	Included (see licensing)
Cost per page	None	Billed by your AI provider to you

With a licence you enter your AI provider, model and API key in Settings → AI (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint). The key is encrypted inside the Account Book. Settings shows an estimated cost for the model you chose — per page, per 500 pages, and what this month's reads have cost so far — and a PDF that already has a text layer is sent as text rather than page images, which is cheaper.

First-time setup

Install the .app through Tools → Plug-In → Plug-In Manager and restart AutoCount.
Open OCR+AI → Settings and click Install prerequisites (Python, MarkItDown, Docling with RapidOCR). Click Re-check until every line is green.
Set the pipeline folder — one per Account Book. The default is Desktop\<book short name>; a network share such as \\server\OCRSCAN\CSB works too. The plug-in checks that your Windows login can write there, refuses a folder another Account Book already uses, and creates Inbox, Processing, Processed and KIV inside it. Map Network Drive gives a share a drive letter (O: or the next free one) for drag-and-drop and creates the four folders at once. A share that asks for a login gets a Share login (user name and password) here: every PC that opens the book and the 5-minute task connect with it, and Create login on this server makes that Windows user when the share is on the AutoCount server itself (on a NAS, create the same user in its settings).
Optional: Install 5-minute task so the Inbox is processed in the background even when AutoCount is closed.
Drop a document into the Inbox, or click Upload Files in Review Centre to pick PDFs or images; they are copied into the Inbox and processed at once.

Review Centre

The header counts what is awaiting action, checked, posted this month, the AI tokens used this month with an estimated cost in RM, and the total posted. Each document shows the AutoCount fields on the left and the page on the right.

OCR evidence: select a value, right-click and Assign selected value to… to teach a field; the plug-in remembers where it sits for next time.
AI suggestions (licensed): every posting field of the detected document type is listed — the ones the model filled and, greyed, the ones it left blank. Values are editable; tick what to keep and Apply selected suggestions. Applying also teaches the printed wording that decides the document type.
Document Type Matching: the phrases that decide a type, one per line. The direction a bank slip shows (your own account under a payer or payee label) always outranks a phrase.
Document lines (purchase invoice): the supplier's item code is shown beside your item code and matched automatically when it is also an AutoCount item code. Tick Add New on a line to create the item in Item Maintenance (UOM UNIT, cost = unit price) when the invoice is posted. Save as Draft keeps half-finished lines without the total check.
Document lines (expense claim): a line in red was found only in the OCR text and not on any page — confirm or remove it before posting.

Save as ready confirms the document; Post to AutoCount posts it. Posted documents are filed under Processed by type and month, and attached to the AutoCount document as an External Link.

The OCRAI user

Every document and item the plug-in creates or edits is stamped with the AutoCount user OCRAI, which the plug-in creates on first login with a random password. It is not for logging in; do not delete or rename it. Books that ran an earlier version had this user as AISCAN; the first login after updating merges it into OCRAI.

Updates

OCR+AI → Check for Updates downloads a signed update and installs it after AutoCount closes (close AutoCount for a few seconds, then reopen). Online updates need a licence with maintenance; without one, install the newer .app by hand.

What's new in 2.2.0

One pipeline folder per book, network shares with an access check, Map Network Drive.
Estimated AI cost per model in Settings; AI tokens and RM estimate in the Review Centre header.
Text-layer PDFs sent to the AI as text (fewer tokens).
Supplier item code column and Add New items on purchase invoice lines.
Every posting field listed on the AI suggestions tab, with editable values.
Save as Draft in the document line editor.
OCRAI replaces the AISCAN user.
Better payment-direction reading on bank notifications (masked names, "to your account", CIMB layouts), a date check against the page text, and fewer phantom claim receipts.

2.2.0.1 – 2.2.0.9 (16–17 October 2026)

Upload Files in Review Centre: pick PDFs or images, they are copied into the Inbox and processed straight away.
Share login for a pipeline folder on a share that needs one, used by every PC and by the 5-minute task; Create login on this server when the share is hosted on the AutoCount server.
Map Network Drive creates Inbox, Processing, Processed and KIV straight away.
Install prerequisites works on a PC that has no Python (the Microsoft Store shortcut no longer fools it), installs Python for all users, and refuses a Python that only one Windows login can see.
The OCR engines are pinned to the versions OCR+AI is measured against (MarkItDown 0.1.6, Docling 2.113.0, RapidOCR 3.9.2); the 5-minute task keeps every PC on them, so an update never needs the installer run again.
Settings no longer scrolls into an empty page; a stalled package download can no longer stop the 5-minute task.
The scheduled task is named CHANTCH OCR+AI - Process Inbox; Install 5-minute task replaces the old AI Scan task.