Preparation station

Before paper can be scanned it is prepared: staples and clips come out, pages are sorted and repaired, separator sheets go in. This is often a large share of the work in a scanning bureau. The Preparation station records who prepared which box and for how long, with breaks left out, so you can see preparation time per operator, per client and per 100 pages scanned.

Preparation is recorded per booked box (Bookings), using the box label.

Switch it on

An administrator switches it on under Bookings › Booking settings › Preparation:

Track preparation turns the station on. The Preparation entry then appears in the left-hand menu for people who may use it.
Counts asked when preparation finishes: tick the counts the operator is asked for when they finish a box. The choices are documents prepared, staples and clips removed, repairs, separator sheets added, and exceptions with a note. All of them are optional for the operator.

Preparation is optional. A box can still go straight from Received to scanning.

Who can use it

The permission is Module.Preparation. When upgrading, it was given once to the roles that can see bookings. Correcting a session needs Bookings.Manage. See Users, roles and permissions.

Prepare a box

Open Preparation.
Scan the box label (or type the box code, for example BK-2026-000123-001) and press Enter. The box shows with its client, booking, description, Batch Setup and any preparation done before.
Click Start preparing. The box becomes In preparation and the timer starts.
For a break or a question, click Pause and choose the reason: break, query to the client, damaged documents, waiting for a supervisor, or other. The timer stops. Click Resume to carry on.
When the box is ready, click Finish, fill in the counts if you want, and click Box prepared. The box becomes Prepared.

Found something in the box

When you come across something while preparing, click Found something on the box (or press F2). A panel opens beside the box: the box, its timer and your place stay as they are, and the timer keeps running.

Choose what you found (or press its number):
- Original to return: a document that goes back to its owner. See Returning original documents.
- Payment: a cheque, postal order, cash or a card slip. See Payments and items found.
- Found item or enclosure: cards, ID, keys, USB sticks, CDs.
- Large format: a document too large for the scanner. See Large format documents.
- Damaged or fragile, Cannot be scanned, Photographs or colour, Wrong box or another client's, Sensitive or confidential, Not to be scanned, Incomplete or pages missing, Legal hold: do not destroy, and any kinds your administrator added.
Type After sheet (or document) no. if you want to record where it was, then the details.
Click Log it. The panel closes and the cursor is back in the scan box.

Client, booking, box, you and the time are filled in for you.

Items taken out of the box (large format, cannot be scanned, another client's): DocView prints a replacement sheet and an item label, both with the same reference as a QR code and barcode (for example PX-2026-000012, or DVR-… for large format). Put the replacement sheet where the item was, so the batch shows what was taken out and where it went, and stick the label on the item. Large format scans later take the slip sheet's place by its reference.

Logged in this box under the timer lists everything logged in the box, by anyone, in box order. Print a sheet and label again with the printer button, or take back something logged by mistake with the cross while it has not moved on.

When you Finish, the list is shown again. Kinds that must be dealt with first (another client's document, by default) stop the box being finished: click Dealt with… and say what you did. Everything else goes on to its desk: returns, payments, large format, and Box exceptions (at the top of the Preparation pages) for the rest.

Payment and Large format show the types that apply to the box's client: for example Cheque, Cash, A0 plan or drawing, Map or roll. Choose one; its hint says what to do, and it is recorded with the item. Administrators keep the types on Booking Settings › Payment and large format types (each for every client, or one), and tick on a client's page which document types, payment types and large format types that client has (nothing ticked: the whole list), with whether its documents of a type go back and how fast.

Each desk (Returns, Payments, Large format, Box exceptions) can be switched off on Labels and preparation: it disappears from the top of the Preparation pages and its kinds from Found something. The Returns, Payments and Large format desks show their work as numbered steps; Next takes you to the next step with something to do.

Administrators choose the kinds on Booking Settings › Labels and preparation (name, on or off, taken out, must be dealt with first, note needed, and kinds of your own), and which a client uses on the client's page.

The keyboard works too: Enter finds the scanned label, F2 opens Found something, F8 pauses or resumes, and F9 finishes.

The right-hand list shows what you prepared today, with the working time of each box.

Work for a client without a box

Some work belongs to a client but not to one box: sorting a delivery before it is boxed, a query, loose envelopes. Choose the client under No box? Work for a client and click Start work for …. The timer, Pause and Finish work as for a box; the time counts for the client in the reports, without a box or pages.

How long it usually takes

Before you start, the station shows how long preparation took over the last 12 months, so you know what to expect:

per box for the client, and per 100 pages scanned from their boxes;
per session without a box for the client;
per box of the same Batch Setup.

While the timer runs it says Usually about …, or Longer than usual once you go past the average.

Rules

One box at a time. Starting another box ends your session on the first one. That box stays In preparation, so you can come back to it later.
Working together. Several people can prepare the same box, or work for the same client, at the same time: the station shows who else is working on it, Join and start adds you, and everyone's time counts. A DocView batch is different: only one person can work on a batch at a time.
Scanning finishes preparation. When scanning of a box starts (header sheet, or the box chosen on the Scan page), any open preparation of that box ends.
Carrying on. A box that was prepared before can be prepared again (Carry on preparing). The sessions add up.

On the box page

Every box page (Bookings › booking › box) has a Preparation section. It shows:

each session, with who did it, start and end, working time, pauses, counts and how it ended;
the total working time;
the pages scanned from the box and the minutes per 100 pages.

Each start, pause, resume and finish is also on the booking's timeline.

Correct (needs Bookings.Manage) changes a session's times, paused minutes and counts, for example when someone forgot to pause for lunch. A reason is required. The correction is shown on the session, on the timeline and in the audit log.

Reports

Under Reports › People:

Preparation: per operator and client, the boxes, sessions, working and paused hours, the pages scanned from those boxes, minutes per 100 pages, documents per hour, documents prepared and exceptions. When several people prepared one box, its pages are shared by their working time.
Boxes in preparation now: who is preparing which box, since when, and whether they are paused.