The real cost of manual data entry
Manual data entry costs more than the hours it takes: it adds errors, delays and a staffing problem that grows with volume. The document usually arrives digitally — a PDF, a scan, a fax — and then a person types it into the ERP or claims system, field by field. A transposed digit becomes a wrong shipment, a payment exception or a rejected claim that someone traces later.
- Every new customer, supplier or product line adds documents to key
- Keying errors travel into shipping, billing and reporting, where they cost more to find
- Experienced clerks are hard to hire, slow to train, and take system knowledge with them
- Peaks, month-end and absences turn into backlogs, late orders and late payments
Why most data entry automation stops short
Most data entry automation tools solve half the job: they read the document, but leave the entry to someone else. OCR tools turn a page into text, often with a template per layout. Intelligent document processing produces structured data — but it still ends as a file that a person or an integration project must get into the system of record. That is where projects stall: the system has no modern API and nobody has time to build one. Compare document AI that stops at extracted data.
RPA can type into screens, but a bot is a script a developer records and maintains; when a screen changes, it breaks. See AI agents compared with traditional RPA.
legacy bridge automates the whole document data entry job as one finished product: intake, reading, checking, keying into your existing screens and confirming the record — with people approving what it prepares.
How automated data entry works
Automated data entry with legacy bridge follows the path a trained clerk does, in four recorded steps.
Documents arrive
By email (a forwarding address, IMAP or Gmail), an SFTP or FTP folder, or API upload: PDFs, scans, photos, faxes, Word and Excel files.
AI reads and checks
AI vision extracts the fields with no OCR templates, and splits a multi-record file into one record each. Values are checked against the document, your plain-English process rules and what the system already holds.
Keyed into your screens
The agent signs on, navigates the menus, fills the right fields, handles lookups and function keys, and reads the system's own messages.
Approved and confirmed
An employee approves each prepared transaction in the web console or from an email link. After submission, legacy bridge reads the record back and logs the result.
AI data entry vs OCR data entry, outsourcing and RPA
AI data entry with legacy bridge is the only one of these approaches that reads the document, keys it into your system and proves the record landed, with no developer maintaining the connection.
| Criterion | legacy bridge | OCR tool | Offshore keying | RPA bot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reads the document | AI vision, any layout | Template per layout | A person re-reads it | Needs a separate OCR tool |
| Enters it into your system | Yes, through your existing screens | No — exports a file | Yes, by hand | Yes, by recorded script |
| Setup | Your document and screens, no developer | Templates plus an integration | Training and system access | A developer builds each bot |
| A screen or layout changes | Reads by meaning, keeps going | Template rework | Retraining | Script breaks |
| An unclear value | Held with the field and image | A confidence score, passed on | Up to the operator | Typed as read |
| Confirms the record landed | Reads it back from the system | No | Spot checks | Only if scripted |
| Audit trail | Every keystroke and screen, hash-chained | Extraction log | The vendor's records | Bot logs |
Outsourcing moves the keying elsewhere, along with your documents and system access. OCR data entry helps when all you need is text. RPA suits stable screens with a team to maintain the bots. Document entry automation needs reading, checking, entry and confirmation in one place.
Accuracy and control: flags, not guesses
A wrong value never reaches your system quietly: legacy bridge holds what it is unsure of, waits for approval, and proves what it entered.
Flags, not guesses
An unclear, missing or hand-corrected value is never guessed. The record is held with the exact field and the document image, for a person to decide.
An approval gate
By default every prepared transaction waits for an employee's approval. Once trusted, a workflow can run on its own, with people handling only exceptions.
Read-back confirmation
After submission the record is read back from the system. If the system rejects a value, the employee sees the error and the screen; nothing is submitted.
Duplicates caught
A document your team has already keyed is caught and set aside instead of being entered a second time.
A full audit trail
Every keystroke and screen is recorded in a tamper-evident, SHA-256 hash-chained trail. Sessions can be replayed.
Corrections teach it
A person's fix is remembered for the next document.
legacy bridge is part of scandiweb, which serves 500+ clients including Fortune 500 companies and is certified ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27017 on PCI DSS-compliant infrastructure.
Which systems and which documents
legacy bridge runs in production on IBM i (AS/400), and the same engine reaches other legacy systems. It is built for operations, finance and IT managers whose teams key documents into a system with no easy integration path.
ERP data entry on IBM i
In production on IBM i (AS/400, iSeries), including custom RPG and COBOL applications and packaged ERPs. Nothing is installed on the host: no program changes, no new APIs, no database access. It connects over TN5250, or through a secure SSH tunnel.
Other legacy systems
The same engine speaks TN3270 (IBM Z), VT (OpenVMS, Unix, Pick) and HP 6530 (HP NonStop), and drives legacy web portals and Citrix or RDP desktops — each scoped per workflow with the same controlled proof.
Document data entry for everyday paperwork
Invoices, purchase orders, sales orders, insurance and medical or dental claims, work orders, repair orders, bills of lading, delivery notes, remittances and policy changes.
Automate data entry from PDF, scans and email
PDFs, scans and photos, faxes, Word and Excel files, arriving by email, SFTP or FTP folder, or API. A multi-record file becomes one record each.
See the workflows: invoice processing automation, purchase order automation, sales order entry automation and insurance claims processing. On an AS/400, start with IBM i data entry automation; for the wider picture, see legacy system automation and mainframe automation.
Data entry automation software pricing
legacy bridge is priced per confirmed record: $99 a month plus usage per document, about $1.00 at first and falling with volume toward $0.20. Only records filed and confirmed on your system are billed — never retries, failures or documents waiting for a person. Details are on the pricing page.
You start with one real document: a controlled proof on your own document and screens, in a setup you approve, that stops before final submission. Your employee approves or rejects it, nothing changes in live data without approval, and current work does not stop. Then you decide on the evidence.
