This guide will provide you with a walkthrough of the Affinda web app to help you get your account configured and to start processing documents quickly. 

Affinda offers a no-obligation trial for users so that users can see the value that Affinda's document processing solution can deliver in action. 

Create an account

To create an account, navigate to the registration page. We ask for some information to better understand your use case, however, after clicking "Create Account" you will be given instant access to the application.

When you create a new account, we also create a new 'Organisation'. You can add new users to this account as admins or members (see below).

Create a workspace

When you first get access to your account, you will be prompted to create a Workspace. A Workspace is where documents get processed and can contain one or many collections of documents. Workspaces can also have restricted access to only permitted users within your Organisation.  

Once you have clicked "Create Workspace", you will be prompted to select one or more document types you would like to process in this Workspace. Select the document types you would like to process and click Continue. A new Workspace will be created containing separate Collections for each document type that you selected. (See here for more information on Organisations, Workspaces and Collections.)

Start uploading documents

Now that you have created a Workspace and Collections, you can start uploading documents and extracting the data. You can upload a range of different file types, including PDF, DOCX, JPG, PNG, TXT, HTML.

There are 3 options for uploading documents:

1. Manual upload - drag and drop files from your computer
2. API - copy your API key from your user profile and post the documents using the API. More information about the API is available in our API documentation.
3. Email upload - send your documents as attachments in the email address specified in settings of the relevant Workspace or Collection

Users have the option to upload documents to a Workspace or Collection.

• If documents are uploaded to a Workspace, Affinda will classify the document and route it to the appropriate Collection
• If documents are uploaded to a Collection, Affinda will apply the extractor associated with this Collection

Users can configure settings on Workspaces to reject documents that aren't the right type for the Workspace or Collection that the document is sent to. 

Review documents

When documents are first uploaded, they will move to the 'For Review' list. These documents require human validation to confirm the model predictions. Users can start reviewing individual documents by clicking the file name, review multiple documents by selecting the relevant documents and clicking 'Review', or simply click 'Review All' to review all documents in this list.

When you review your first document in a Collection, you will be first prompted to select which fields you would like to review. Our standard models will extract a number of fields, but generally, customers will only need to review and extract a subset of these. Reducing the number of fields visible in the review stage will improve speed and accuracy during this step in the process.

Export data

Once documents have been reviewed, they can be exported to your downstream platform. This can happen in 3 ways:

• Through the web app - users can download files in JSON format (and XML and Excel for some document types)
• Via the API - on upload, users will receive a unique identifier which can be used to get the validated data from that document once reviewed
• Webhooks - can be set up to push data to you when an event occurs, such as when a document has been validated. See here for more information on setting up webhooks.

Add new Users to your Organisation

As an optional additional step, you can choose to add new Users to your Organisation. These Users can either have Admin rights or be Members, whose access can be limited and who will not be able to change any settings.

To add new Users to your Organisation, navigate to your Organisation home page and click 'Members' >'Invite Member'. Enter the email address of the User you would like to add and the type of access you would like to grant and then click "Invite". The individual will receive an email inviting them to accept the invitation, at which point they will be prompted to either login to their existing account or register a new account. 

Configure your account

Affinda has implemented a range of different customisations and configuration options to ensure that your desired workflow and processes can be met to automate as much of the process as possible. For information on the configuration options possible and how to activate these, see here.