Blast Audit has two ways to pull the same fields out of many documents into an Excel table, one row per document.
| AI Extraction | Form Extraction | |
|---|---|---|
| Open it with | Extraction in the AI group | Form Extraction in the Automation group |
| Works on | Documents with different layouts, values that move from one document to the next, several pages | Documents that share one fixed layout |
| You define the fields by | Describing them in plain words | Snipping them on a sample document |
AI Extraction
AI Extraction reads every page of each document, so a field on page 3 of one payslip and on page 1 of another is still found. It keeps each record separate: if several documents were merged into one PDF, you get one result per document it contains.
- What to extract: describe what you need, for example "employee name, period, gross salary, net pay", and click Generate fields. Check the fields it proposes. Each field has a name, a description and a type: Text, Number, Yes / No, Date, List or Table. You can also start from a template saved by you or a colleague.
- Filter rules (optional): set conditions to accept or exclude documents automatically, for example to exclude documents that are not invoices.
- Select documents: pick the documents to process.
- Extract to Excel: run the extraction. When the results are ready, check each value against its highlighted source on the document. Press V to approve and X to reject. Then write the table to Excel.
Excel receives one row per document, with a Document column and a Status column. Click any result cell to open the source document.
Limits and costs:
- Up to 100 documents and 50 fields per run.
- Each run uses AI credits based on the number of pages read.
- Results are deleted automatically at most 24 hours after the document was uploaded. Write them to Excel before then.
To find which documents mention a word or a topic, add a Yes / No field such as "Mentions a guarantee" and a Text field that quotes the passage.
Form Extraction
Use Form Extraction when every document has the same layout, such as the same bank's statements or a standard form.
- Click Start new form extraction and choose the documents.
- On a sample document, snip each field with the usual snip tools: text, sum or table. Each snip becomes a field. Click a field name to rename it.
- Check the preview: Blast Audit applies the same zones to every selected document.
- Click Export to Excel.
Documents with a different layout show a No match marker. Create one template per layout. Save the template, and check Share with my organization to let colleagues reuse it.
Which one to choose
- Payslips, invoices or contracts from many issuers: AI Extraction.
- Values that move between documents, or span several pages: AI Extraction.
- Many copies of the same form: Form Extraction.