Many companies invest in digital transformation: they implement ERP systems, automate procurement, warehouse operations, and approval workflows. Yet even with high levels of automation, a large share of document work is still done manually. Scanned invoices, acceptance certificates, contracts, and archived documents are processed by employees and entered into accounting systems by hand.

This creates a common bottleneck: despite significant ERP investment, manual document processing remains a weak link. On paper the workflow is automated, but in reality up to 20% of processes may still require manual effort—the most expensive and time-consuming part of the chain.

This is typical for many organizations. Paper documents and PDFs are still heavily used in accounting, finance, and adjacent functions, directly affecting cost and speed.

How Much Manual Document Processing Costs

Let’s take a simple example.

On average, an accountant spends about 5 minutes to process a single document:

• opening a PDF

• finding required data

• manual entry

• reconciliation

• uploading data into the ERP

Assuming an average salary level of ~$1,111 per month, the implied cost is ~$6.94 per hour. Every 5 minutes of manual work costs the company about $0.58.

And it’s never just one person. In mid-sized and large companies, 200–500 to several thousand documents pass through accounting and related departments every day: invoices, e-invoices, delivery notes, acts, contracts, and addenda.

Take a conservative example — 500 documents per day:

• 500 × $0.58 = $288.89 per day

• $288.89 × 20 workdays = $5,777.78 per month

• $5,777.78 × 12 = $69,333.33 per year

So routine manual document processing drives direct, measurable costs of ~$70K per year — often not tracked as a separate expense line.

What Manual Document Work Leads To

Manual processing creates systemic problems:

• typos and inaccuracies in data entry

• slower processing and longer period close

• no centralized access to information

• difficulties syncing data between systems

• high workload for employees

These issues may seem “background,” but day to day they cause lost time, wasted effort, and lower efficiency.

TerraLink OCR Module

TerraLink’s OCR module (OCR — optical character recognition) automates document processing as part of the company’s end-to-end solution ecosystem—from ERP to document workflows.

The module:

• recognizes and classifies documents (JPG, PNG, PDF, scans)

• automatically detects document type

• extracts required attributes

• provides a verification interface

• generates metadata and transfers it to ERP for automated postings and updates

As a result, a document stops being an image and becomes a structured data set ready for enterprise systems.

Average processing time per document with OCR is ~3 seconds, compared to ~5 minutes manually.

The Economic Impact of OCR

3 seconds is about 0.000833 hours.

At ~$6.94/hour, processing one document costs about $0.006.

Consider a company processing 20,000 documents per month:

Without OCR

• 20,000 × $0.58 = $11,555.56 per month

With OCR

• 20,000 × $0.0058 = $115.56 per month

Savings

• over $11,000 per month

• over $137,000 per year

And that’s before accounting for indirect losses from errors, payment delays, reporting issues, overtime, and staff turnover.

Why Move Away from Manual Document Processing

The OCR module:

• handles large document volumes without delays

• reduces manual labor cost and error risk

• integrates easily into existing IT infrastructure

• uses AI for accurate recognition

• automatically reconciles data with corporate systems

TerraLink’s OCR module takes over the most labor-intensive part of the process — fast, precise digitization — so teams can focus on analysis and control instead of routine data entry.