Bookings and header sheets

Bookings is the goods-in desk of a scanning bureau. Every delivery that arrives (a courier, the post, a client dropping boxes off) and every collection run your own driver makes is booked in with its boxes, pallets, parcels and envelopes. Each item gets its own code and header sheet. When the header sheet is scanned as the first page of a batch, the batch is linked to the box automatically, named after it, and the sheet is removed. From then on you can see, for every box, which batches were made from it and where they are.

Open it from Bookings in the left-hand menu.

Who can use it

See Users, roles and permissions.

Before you start: clients and couriers

1. Open Bookings › Clients and click New client. A name and a code are filled in for you; type the real name, check the code (for example ACME; it goes into batch names and onto header sheets) and add the contact, address and notes.

2. Tick the Batch Setups the client's documents are scanned with and choose the default. New boxes of this client get the default; header sheets of this client are refused in batches of other Batch Setups.

3. Open Bookings › Couriers and add the couriers that deliver to you. A new installation already has the well-known UK, USA and European couriers (Royal Mail, Parcelforce, DPD, DHL, Evri, Yodel, UPS, FedEx, USPS, GLS, PostNL, La Poste and others) with their tracking pages, and a sample client, Sample Client Ltd: switch off the ones you do not use and add your account numbers. With a tracking page address such as https://www.example.com/track?number={tracking}, every tracking number opens the courier's tracking page.

4. Under Booking fields, add what you must record for this client's deliveries: a purchase order, a job number, a cost centre. Each field is text, number, date or a list of choices, and optional or required. The fields are asked when a delivery for the client is received, printed on its delivery label, and copied to every batch from it: as batch data (booking.<name>) and into the batch field of the same name, if the Batch Setup has one.

A client or courier that was ever used cannot be deleted; untick Active to hide it from new bookings.

Book in a delivery

The booking screen is built for a busy desk: you can do everything from the keyboard.

1. Click New booking. It starts as a Delivery, Received now by you, with the time filled in.
2. Choose the Courier and scan or type the Tracking number. Press Enter to jump to the items.
3. In the Items bar, type How many, choose the Kind (box, pallet, parcel, envelope, other), the Client and the Batch Setup, then press Enter or Add. Five boxes for the same client are one line: type 5. The client you used last is chosen for you next time.
4. Each item is a row of its own. Add the client's reference (their box or job number), the shelf Location, its Condition ("lid torn", "damp") or a description. The copy button adds another item like it.
5. Click Save and print sheets (or press Ctrl+Enter to save). Save and new goes straight to the next booking.

Every booking gets a reference such as BK-2026-000123, and its items BK-2026-000123-001, -002 and so on. A code is never given twice, not even after an item was removed.

Tip: Booking something that has not arrived yet? Choose Expected (book in advance) and the date. When it arrives, open it and choose Change status › Received.

Receive a delivery by scanning

The quickest way to book in a delivery at the desk, with a hand-held scanner:

1. On Bookings, click Receive a delivery.
2. Choose the courier and the client (and the vehicle and driver if you like), then Start receiving. The booking is made at once, as received.
3. Tracked items: keep Tracked: scan each selected, choose the kind (parcel, box…) and scan the barcode or QR code of every item. Each scan adds one item with its tracking number; the scan box flashes green, or red with the reason (for example, a code already scanned in this delivery). A code that also arrived in another booking is added with a warning.
4. Untracked items: click Untracked: by count, choose the kind (envelope, box…), and type or scan the count, for example 25. That adds one line of 25 envelopes.
5. Items for another client in the same delivery: change the Client before scanning them.
6. Click Done to open the booking, or Labels and sheets to print the item labels.

The list shows every line, newest first, with its own item code, and the totals at the top (tracked items, untracked pieces, pieces in all, by kind and by client) update with each scan. Undo removes a line scanned by mistake. Tracking numbers can be searched in Find a booking.

Book in a collection run

A collection is your own driver fetching documents from clients. One run often brings boxes of several clients: that is one booking with items of several clients.

1. Click New booking and choose Collection.
2. Fill in the Driver and Vehicle. Collected now records the time; Schedule a collection books it for later.
3. Add the items client by client. Each client's address is on its client page.

Header sheets and labels

A header sheet goes on top of the documents of a box (or of each part of a box). It carries the item code in large letters and as a Code 128 barcode, the client, booking, Batch Setup, client reference and date, and the words "Scan this sheet first. It is removed from the batch automatically."

On a booking, the Header sheets and labels panel prints:

and Print on:

Printing is recorded on the booking's timeline. The item page has the same panel for just that item.

Scanning a box

There are two ways to tie a batch to its box. Both link the batch, name it from the box (by default item code + client code, for example BK-2026-000123-003 ACME) and put the box and booking In scanning.

A delivery label works the same way: its barcode is the delivery's reference, so a batch that starts with it is linked to the whole delivery (useful for bags and envelopes prepared together before they are sorted into boxes). A box sheet or batch header sheet links the batch to the box and to its delivery.

The batch is renamed by the Batch Setup's own batch name rule when that rule uses {box}, {delivery}, {client} or {n} (see Batch Setups); otherwise by the Batch name in Booking Settings.

Header sheet first (recommended). Scan the header sheet as the first page of the batch. As soon as it arrives on the Scan screen, DocView Capture reads its barcode, links the batch to the box, renames it (the new name shows straight away) and does not keep the sheet, so it never becomes a document. The Batch Setup does not need any barcode settings for this. If the sheet was imported as a file or slipped through, the recognition step checks the first page again and removes it then.

Choose the box before scanning. On Scan, scan the box label (or type its code) in Booking item. The client's Batch Setup is chosen and the batch name shown. Click Create batch and scan. See Scan documents.

When a header sheet cannot be used, the page is kept and the batch shows a warning (also in its history and on the booking's timeline):

Note: Header sheets are read when they are scanned and again by the recognition step, so they work with every Batch Setup. A batch that is already linked to its box is not linked again.

Several batches in one scan (continuous scanning)

When a Batch Setup has Continuous scanning switched on (General tab, under Scanning and bookings), one stack of paper can hold several batches. Put a sheet in front of each batch and scan the whole stack in one go:

• A box's header sheet starts a batch for that box.
• A batch separator sheet starts the next batch from the same box as the batch before it, for a box split into several batches. Print separator sheets from Separator sheets on the Scan ribbon; they are not tied to a box, so you can reuse them.

Each time such a sheet arrives after the first page, DocView Capture releases the batch scanned so far to its next step, starts a new batch of the same Batch Setup for you, links it to the box and names it (… ACME 2, …). The Scan screen follows on into the new batch and says so. The sheets themselves are not kept.

A batch that still needs a box (see below) is not released; it waits in your Scan list so you can link it.

Batches that must come from a box

When a Batch Setup has Every batch comes from a booked box switched on, a batch cannot leave Scan without a box. If no header sheet linked it and no box was chosen at the start, Release batch asks Which box?:

1. Scan the box label, or type its code. The last box you used is already filled in.
2. Or click one of the suggested boxes: the boxes received or in scanning for clients of this Batch Setup.
3. Click Link box. The batch is linked and renamed, then released.

You can also link or change the box at any time with Box on the Scan ribbon. The box shows on the ribbon, and on the booking the batch shows as chosen at release.

Follow a booking

The booking page shows:

• the booking: received or collected, by whom, courier and tracking link, or driver and vehicle;
• every item with its client, Batch Setup, location and status, and under it the batches made from it: Batch Setup, where the batch is now (step and state), pages, documents and when it was exported. A batch that was deleted later (for example after archiving) stays listed by name;
• the Timeline: booked in, items added, header sheets printed, batches made, status changes, warnings, batches exported.

Click an item code to open the item page with only that box. The batch page shows the box and client it came from, with a link back.

Linked batches carry booking.reference, booking.item, booking.client and booking.clientReference in their batch metadata, so export folder and file names can use them.

Statuses

Change a booking with Change status; items that are behind move along with it. Each item can also be changed on its own (Mark), for example one box returned while the others are still being scanned. Returned, destroyed and cancelled are final and ask first.

Find a booking

• The list shows the bookings still in the building. Filter by date, client, courier, status and type, or search for a reference, tracking number, item code, client reference or client.
• Scan a box label into Scan or type a label at the top to open that box straight away.
• The main Search also finds bookings and boxes: by booking reference, courier tracking number, box code, client or client reference.

Booking settings

Bookings › Booking settings (administrators):

Related pages

• Preparation station
• Scan documents
• Image cleanup and separation
• Batch Manager
• Users, roles and permissions