5 Things You Can Automate This Afternoon (No Tech Skills Required)

You've heard about automation. You know it can save time. But every time you look into it, you hit walls: complex APIs, programming languages, technical jargon that makes your eyes glaze over.

Here's the truth: You don't need to be technical to automate your document workflows.

This isn't aspirational—it's practical. By the time you finish your coffee this afternoon, you could have five automations running that will save you hours every single week.

No coding. No IT department. No expensive consultants.

Let's get started.

Why Document Automation is Finally Accessible

For years, automation was locked behind technical barriers. You needed developers, custom integrations, and enterprise-level budgets.

That changed. Modern document automation platforms like Scanny AI use visual interfaces, pre-built templates, and AI-powered OCR that understands documents the way humans do.

Aspect	The Old Way	The Scanny AI Way
Setup Time	Weeks with developers	Under 30 minutes
Technical Skills	Programming required	Point-and-click interface
Cost	$10,000+ implementation	Start free, pay as you grow
Maintenance	Ongoing IT support	Self-service updates
Learning Curve	Months of training	Minutes to first automation
Flexibility	Rigid, hard to modify	Change workflows anytime

The bottom line: If you can upload a file and fill out a form, you can automate your document processing.

Now let's look at five specific automations you can set up before the end of the day.

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1. Invoice Data Extraction to Your Accounting Software

Time to set up: 15-20 minutes Weekly time saved: 3-5 hours

Every business deals with invoices. Vendor invoices, utility bills, service invoices—they pile up. And someone has to manually type that data into QuickBooks, Xero, or your ERP.

Not anymore.

How It Works

1. Upload or connect: Drop invoices into a folder, or connect your email inbox
2. Automatic extraction: Scanny AI reads vendor name, invoice number, date, line items, and totals
3. Validation: Built-in checks catch errors before they become problems
4. Export: Data flows directly to your accounting software

The Schema That Makes It Work

When you create a document type for invoices, you're telling Scanny exactly what to look for. Here's what the extraction schema looks like:

{
  "fields": [
    { "name": "vendor_name", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "invoice_number", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "invoice_date", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "due_date", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "subtotal", "type": "number" },
    { "name": "tax_amount", "type": "number" },
    { "name": "total_amount", "type": "number" },
    {
      "name": "line_items",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "description": "string",
        "quantity": "number",
        "unit_price": "number",
        "amount": "number"
      }
    },
    { "name": "payment_terms", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "vendor_tax_id", "type": "string" }
  ]
}

You don't need to write this from scratch. Scanny provides templates for common document types that you customize by clicking checkboxes.

Real Impact

A 10-person accounting team processing 200 invoices per month spends roughly 50 hours on manual data entry. With automation, that drops to 2-3 hours of exception handling.

That's 47 hours back every month.

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2. Receipt Capture for Expense Reports

Time to set up: 10-15 minutes Weekly time saved: 2-3 hours

You snap photos of receipts. Your team members email them to you. Some people lose them entirely and try to recreate expenses from memory.

The expense report process is broken—and it's costing you money in lost deductions and frustrated employees.

How It Works

1. Capture anywhere: Email receipts, photograph with mobile, or bulk upload
2. Instant extraction: Merchant name, date, amount, payment method, and category
3. Categorization: AI suggests expense categories based on merchant type
4. Export: Push directly to expense management or accounting systems

The Schema for Receipt Processing

{
  "fields": [
    { "name": "merchant_name", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "transaction_date", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "total_amount", "type": "number" },
    { "name": "currency", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "payment_method", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "expense_category", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "tax_amount", "type": "number" },
    { "name": "tip_amount", "type": "number" },
    { "name": "receipt_number", "type": "string" }
  ]
}

Pro Tip: Mobile Workflow

Set up an email forwarding rule. Any email with an attachment sent to receipts@yourcompany.com automatically triggers processing. Your team can forward receipt emails without learning any new tools.

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3. Resume Parsing for Hiring

Time to set up: 15-20 minutes Weekly time saved: 4-6 hours (during hiring periods)

When you post a job opening, resumes flood your inbox. Each one needs to be reviewed, candidate details entered into your ATS, and qualifications assessed.

It's tedious. It's slow. And it creates inconsistent candidate evaluation.

How It Works

1. Receive resumes: From job boards, email, or direct applications
2. Structured extraction: Name, contact info, work history, education, skills
3. Qualification matching: Compare extracted skills against job requirements
4. ATS integration: Push candidate profiles directly to your hiring system

The Schema for Resume Processing

{
  "fields": [
    { "name": "candidate_name", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "email", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "phone", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "location", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "linkedin_url", "type": "string" },
    {
      "name": "work_experience",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "company": "string",
        "title": "string",
        "start_date": "string",
        "end_date": "string",
        "responsibilities": "string"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "education",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "institution": "string",
        "degree": "string",
        "field": "string",
        "graduation_year": "string"
      }
    },
    { "name": "skills", "type": "array" },
    { "name": "certifications", "type": "array" },
    { "name": "years_of_experience", "type": "number" }
  ]
}

Why This Matters

When you're reviewing 50 resumes for a position, automation ensures every candidate gets fair, consistent evaluation. The AI doesn't get tired at resume #47. It doesn't unconsciously favor certain formats. It extracts the same structured data from every application.

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4. Contract Key Term Extraction

Time to set up: 20-25 minutes Weekly time saved: 2-4 hours

Contracts arrive. You need to know the renewal date, payment terms, and key obligations. But reading 30-page legal documents is slow, and important details get missed.

Automate the extraction of critical terms, and never miss a renewal deadline again.

How It Works

1. Upload contracts: PDF, scanned documents, or Word files
2. Intelligent extraction: Key dates, parties, obligations, and terms
3. Deadline alerts: Automatic notifications before renewal or termination windows
4. Searchable archive: Find any term across all your contracts instantly

The Schema for Contract Processing

{
  "fields": [
    { "name": "contract_title", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "party_a", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "party_b", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "effective_date", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "expiration_date", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "renewal_terms", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "notice_period_days", "type": "number" },
    { "name": "contract_value", "type": "number" },
    { "name": "payment_terms", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "governing_law", "type": "string" },
    {
      "name": "key_obligations",
      "type": "array",
      "items": {
        "party": "string",
        "obligation": "string",
        "deadline": "string"
      }
    },
    { "name": "termination_clause", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "auto_renewal", "type": "boolean" }
  ]
}

The Hidden Value

Beyond time savings, contract automation creates an audit trail. When someone asks "What did we agree to with Vendor X?" you have the answer in seconds, not hours of searching through folders.

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5. Form and ID Verification

Time to set up: 15-20 minutes Weekly time saved: 1-3 hours

Customer onboarding, employee verification, compliance checks—all require collecting and validating ID documents and forms. Manually checking each one is tedious and error-prone.

How It Works

1. Collect documents: Driver's licenses, passports, utility bills, application forms
2. Extract and validate: Name, address, ID numbers, expiration dates
3. Cross-reference: Compare extracted data against submitted applications
4. Flag issues: Automatic alerts for expired IDs or data mismatches

The Schema for ID Verification

{
  "fields": [
    { "name": "document_type", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "full_name", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "date_of_birth", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "document_number", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "issue_date", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "expiration_date", "type": "date" },
    { "name": "issuing_authority", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "address", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "nationality", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "is_expired", "type": "boolean" }
  ]
}

Compliance Made Simple

Regulations require you to verify customer identity. Manual verification is slow and creates liability when mistakes happen. Automated extraction with validation rules ensures consistent, auditable compliance.

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Getting Started: Your First Automation in 5 Steps

Ready to automate? Here's exactly what to do:

Step 1: Choose Your Highest-Impact Document

Look at where your team spends the most time on manual data entry. For most businesses, it's invoices or receipts. Start there.

Step 2: Create Your Free Scanny Account

Visit scanny-ai.com/register and create your account. No credit card required to start.

Step 3: Create a Document Type

Click "Add Document Type" and select from templates or build your own. Check the fields you want to extract.

Step 4: Upload a Test Document

Drop in a sample invoice, receipt, or whatever document type you chose. Watch Scanny extract the data in seconds.

Step 5: Connect Your Output

Set up where the extracted data should go—your CRM, accounting software, or a simple CSV export.

Total time: 15-30 minutes.

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What to Expect: Realistic Outcomes

Let's be clear about what automation can and can't do.

What Automation Does Well

• Structured documents: Invoices, receipts, forms with consistent layouts
• High volume: The more documents, the bigger your time savings
• Repetitive extraction: Same fields from similar documents
• Integration: Pushing data to systems you already use

What Still Needs Human Review

• Handwritten documents: Legibility varies, accuracy drops
• Unusual formats: One-off documents may need manual adjustment
• Business judgment: Deciding whether to pay an invoice is still human work
• Exception handling: When extraction confidence is low, review is flagged

The goal isn't to eliminate humans—it's to eliminate busywork so humans can do higher-value work.

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Common Objections (And Why They're Outdated)

"Our documents are too messy"

Modern AI-powered OCR handles messy documents better than traditional OCR. Scanny uses vision models that understand document context, not just individual characters. Crumpled receipts, faded invoices, multi-column layouts—all handled.

"We don't have enough volume to justify it"

If you process more than 20 documents per week, automation pays for itself. At lower volumes, the time savings might not be dramatic, but the error reduction and consistency improvements still matter.

"Our team won't adopt new tools"

Good automation doesn't require your team to change how they work. They email documents to an address. They save files to a folder. The automation happens invisibly. Training time: minutes.

"What about data security?"

Scanny processes documents with enterprise-grade encryption. Your data isn't used to train models. We're SOC 2 compliant. For regulated industries, we offer HIPAA-compliant processing.

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The Compound Effect of Automation

Here's what most people miss: automation benefits compound.

When you automate invoice processing, you also get:

• Faster payment cycles (because data flows faster)
• Better vendor relationships (because you pay on time)
• Cleaner financial data (because there are fewer manual errors)
• More accurate forecasting (because you have real-time visibility)

One automation creates ripple effects across your entire operation.

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Take Action Today

You've made it this far because you're tired of busywork. You know there's a better way.

Here's your challenge: Set up one automation before the end of today.

Just one. Pick the document type that causes the most frustration. Set up extraction. Run a test.

Once you see how fast it is—once you experience the feeling of watching AI do work that used to take you hours—you'll never go back to manual processing.

Ready to automate your document workflows? Start your free Scanny trial today and set up your first automation in minutes. No coding required. No credit card needed.

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Quick Reference: What You Can Automate

Document Type	Setup Time	Weekly Time Saved	Best For
Invoices	15-20 min	3-5 hours	Accounts payable teams
Receipts	10-15 min	2-3 hours	Expense management
Resumes	15-20 min	4-6 hours	HR and recruiting
Contracts	20-25 min	2-4 hours	Legal and procurement
ID Documents	15-20 min	1-3 hours	Onboarding and compliance

The tools are ready. The setup is simple. The only question is: what are you waiting for?

Create your free account now and start automating this afternoon.