Validate Shipping Document Data After OCR

No. The AI reads the document; deterministic code performs the checksum, arithmetic, date and reference checks. That separation is deliberate — it means every finding has a reproducible reason, the same input always produces the same result, and a finding can be explained in a sentence rather than justified by a confidence score.

No. It detects internal inconsistencies and invalid references — arithmetic that fails, check digits that do not match, dates in an impossible order. It cannot authenticate an issuer, and it does not replace verification with the carrier, customs authority or bank. A perfectly fabricated document can pass every check.

The affected field is flagged with a plain-language explanation and, where one can be calculated, the expected value — so a failed container check digit shows the number the arithmetic implies. Findings are ordered by severity and grouped so the review queue reflects what blocks a shipment rather than the layout of the page.

A failure means something on the document cannot be true — net weight above gross, a total that does not equal its lines, a check digit that does not compute. A warning means something could not be confirmed, most often a reference the bundled dataset does not contain. Failures are almost never false positives; warnings frequently resolve as legitimate.

Under ISO 6346: each of the first ten characters is converted to its numeric value, multiplied by 2 raised to its position, summed, and reduced modulo 11 — with a remainder of 10 written as 0. The result is compared against the printed check digit and the expected full number is shown when they disagree.

A bundled UN/LOCODE snapshot for port and location codes, the ISO 6346 algorithm for container numbers, IMO checksum rules for vessels, the IATA modulus-7 scheme for master air waybill numbers, and the published Incoterms rule set. Datasets are snapshots rather than live queries, which is why a miss warns rather than fails.

Workflow rules let you express the checks your operation cares about — required document sets, tolerances, and which findings should block a handoff. The built-in deterministic checks cover the structural and arithmetic layer that applies to every shipment regardless of who is running it.

Negligibly. The checks are arithmetic and lookups against bundled data, measured in milliseconds against extraction measured in seconds. The time cost is in reviewing findings, which is the point — and why grading them by severity matters more than the compute.

A small percentage band, because printed totals are routinely rounded differently from their component lines and flagging every rounding difference would bury the real findings. Differences beyond the band are reported with both figures shown so the size of the gap is visible, not just the fact of it.

Field-level validation checks a document against itself. Cross-document comparison — parties, references, quantities and weights across the Bill of Lading, invoice, packing list and purchase order — is a separate layer that runs when documents are grouped as one shipment.

Because many failures are in the source document rather than in the reading, and the correct response is usually to fix the source or query the issuer rather than to discard the record. Rejecting also removes the evidence you need to raise the query. Findings surface for a decision; they do not delete data.

Yes. PDF review reports show the findings alongside the extracted values, and structured exports carry the validation state so a downstream system can see which fields were confirmed and which were flagged. That trail is what makes a later dispute answerable.