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This guide walks you through the complete RecordEngine workflow from first upload to approved document. It takes about 5 minutes — plus the time the AI needs to process the file. If you haven’t installed RecordEngine yet, start with the Installation guide.

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What You’ll Do

  1. Create a contact to organise the document under
  2. Upload an invoice (or any document you have handy)
  3. Watch the AI extract the data
  4. Review and correct the extracted fields
  5. Approve the document

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Step 1 — Create a Contact

Documents in RecordEngine are always organised under a Contact — a client, vendor, or any entity whose documents you manage.
  1. Click Contacts in the left sidebar
  2. Click + New Contact
  3. Fill in a name — for this walkthrough, use something like “Test Vendor”
  4. Leave the other fields blank for now — you can fill them in later
  5. Click Save
Two folders are created automatically: Documents and Review. Creating a new contact

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Step 2 — Upload a Document

  1. Click Upload in the left sidebar
  2. Drag your file onto the upload zone, or click Browse to select it No invoice handy? Use any PDF — a utility bill, a receipt, even a page from a manual. The AI will extract whatever structured data it can find.
  3. Set Contact to the contact you just created
  4. Set Folder to Documents
  5. Set Extraction Profile to Standard Invoice (if you’re uploading an invoice) or Default for anything else
  6. Click Upload
Upload form with file selected and contact assigned The document appears in the list immediately with New status. Within a few seconds it will move to Processing as the AI gets to work.

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Step 3 — Wait for Processing

The AI is now reading your document. For a single-page invoice this typically takes 15–30 seconds. You can watch the status change in the document list — it will go from New → Processing → Needs Review.
If this is the first document processed since the server started, it may take 2–5 minutes for the AI model to load into GPU memory. Every subsequent document in that session will be much faster.

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Step 4 — Review the Extracted Data

Once the status shows Needs Review, click the document to open the workspace. The workspace has three panels: The three-panel workspace Left panel — Document preview The original file, exactly as it was uploaded. Nothing has been changed or modified. Centre panel — Extracted data This is where the AI’s work appears:
  • AI Summary — a plain-language summary of the document
  • Confidence Score — how confident the AI was (colour-coded: green = high, red = low)
  • Extracted Fields — the specific values pulled from the document (vendor, date, amounts, etc.)
  • Line Items — individual table rows if the document has them
Right panel — Actions Status controls, notes, version history, and CRM links.

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Step 5 — Check the Confidence Score

The confidence score tells you how well the AI understood the document.
ScoreLabelWhat it means
90–100🟢 HighAll fields found, values look correct
70–89🔵 GoodMost fields found, minor gaps
50–69🟡 LowSeveral fields missing or uncertain
0–49🔴 PoorSignificant extraction problems
Below the score, read the Confidence Reasoning — the AI explains exactly what it found and what it wasn’t sure about. This tells you precisely what to check.

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Step 6 — Correct Any Fields

Click on any extracted field value to edit it directly. This is how you handle the cases where the AI got something slightly wrong — correct it here, and the corrected value is what gets used downstream. Common corrections:
  • Date format — AI extracted 15/11/2025 but your system needs 2025-11-15
  • Vendor name — AI extracted a short version; correct it to match your accounting system exactly
  • Missing field — AI left a field blank; type the value in manually
Every edit is recorded in the Audit Log with the before and after values.

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Step 7 — Approve the Document

Once you’re satisfied the extracted data is correct, approve the document:
  1. In the right panel, click Approve
  2. Status changes to Approved ✅
  3. The document is now locked — extracted fields cannot be edited
Document showing Approved status

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What Happens Next

From Approved, you can:
  • Export — click Webhook Export to trigger the outbound webhook and push the extracted data to an external system (QuickBooks, Xero, Salesforce, etc.)
  • Archive — move the document to long-term storage, removing it from the active queue
  • Download — retrieve the original file at any time

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You’re Done

You’ve just completed the full RecordEngine document lifecycle: ✅ Contact created
✅ Document uploaded
✅ AI extracted structured data
✅ Data reviewed and corrected
✅ Document approved

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What to Explore Next

Extraction Profiles

Customise exactly which fields the AI extracts — or use the built-in profiles for Chinese documents, meeting notes, and more.

Rules Engine

Automate repetitive actions — auto-approve high-confidence documents, flag exceptions, and trigger webhooks automatically.

AI Chat

Ask questions about any document in plain language — or query across your entire document archive.

Integrations

Connect RecordEngine to your accounting software or CRM to push extracted data automatically.