Which process do you automate first?
Answer four questions for each kind of document your team retypes. The checklist ranks them and points to your first process.
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Whatever you pick, Vink sends nothing on without your team's approval.
Tick what is true
Tick the points that are true. Your first process then shows here.
How do you know whether a process is fit to automate?
When it happens often, asks for the same data every time and is done by hand today.
In the Exact SMB Barometer 2026, 39% of Dutch business owners name a lack of time or people as a barrier to automating. That is exactly when it pays to start small, with the process that costs the most typing and shows results fastest.
What do the four questions mean?
Each question stands for one reason a process automates well.
- Arrives often
- A document that arrives every week saves time every week. What comes in once a quarter can wait.
- Always the same data
- Do you always take out the same points, such as customer, date and amount? Then you describe them once as fields.
- Done by hand today
- Does the data go from paper or PDF into a system by hand today? That is where the gain is. When it is already digital, there is little to win.
- Mistakes cost something
- A wrong amount or quantity costs money or a second round. Vink flags the values it is unsure about, so you see those first.
How to choose your first process
In five steps, from a short list to your first approved document.
- 1
Write down what your team retypes
List every kind of document that goes into a system by hand today.
- 2
Count per document
Estimate how many arrive each week and how many minutes one document takes.
- 3
Fill in the checklist
Answer the four questions for each document. The one with the most yes answers goes first.
- 4
Try it on real documents
Make a Form and send in ten real documents. You see straight away what Vink fills in.
- 5
Measure, then pick the next
Once the first process runs, take out your list again. The document with the second score is your next process.
Pick the document your team retypes most often. That is where the gain starts.
What if your first process has to go into another system?
Then you connect Vink to that system, yourself or with the integration service.
Your first process doesn't have to end in your accounting system. A planning tool, a database or a shared sheet works just as well. Pick the process by its score, not by the system it goes to.
Questions about your first process
Because you test one process within a day, while everything at once takes months. With one kind of document you quickly see whether the data is right and whether your team works with it. Then you add the next one the same way.
Then pick the document that arrives most often. It saves the most hours, and you have enough examples to check sooner.
No. The document should hold the same data each time, but the layout may differ per sender. Vink finds your fields in any layout.
After two weeks, look at two things: how many documents Vink filled in and how many values your team had to change. Vink shows per document what was corrected.
Nothing. You start with 200 free credits, no credit card. One page costs 10 credits, enough to test a stack of real documents.
Yes. Vink reads handwriting too. A handwritten document gets flagged more often, so expect a little more checking at the start.
Someone who knows the document and retypes it today. They describe the fields and check the first documents. You only need a developer when you connect your own system yourself.
By Rob van Baaren, founder of Vink. Updated 28 October 2026.
Other first processes
- Start with one processWhy one kind of document is the best start, and how to grow from there.
- Process purchase invoicesSupplier, amounts and invoice lines from every invoice, without retyping.
- Automate order processingOrders by email or PDF become order lines in your system.
- Automate the back officeFor the operations lead: from invoices to work orders, one flow at a time.
Test your first process with 200 free credits.
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200 free credits. No credit card.