Scan Workflow and Document Management on an Office Printer
Scanned client files that wait for someone to file them by hand can end up lost, late or in the wrong place.
Last updated: September 2026
Scan workflow means sending a scanned document straight to the place it belongs.
That may be a network folder, an email address or a document system, rather than a desktop for someone to file by hand.
Enquired on Monday and had a printer installed by Friday. Fast, easy, and exactly what we needed.
We have been using Global Document Solutions for about eight years now and would not go anywhere else.
Tell us what you print and we will size the machine
Quick formThree destinations cover most offices
- Scan to folder, where the document lands directly in a shared network location the team already uses.
- Scan to email, which suits sending a document out rather than filing it internally.
- Scan to a document system, where the file goes into whatever the business already uses to store records.
- The right choice is whichever matches where the document already needs to end up. Adding a destination nobody uses creates work rather than saving it.
One setting people forget
Text scanning, known as OCR or optical character recognition, is the step that reads the words off the page so the file can be searched.
Without it a scan is only a picture. The words are visible to a person and invisible to a search, so a folder of scanned invoices cannot be found by supplier name.
With it, staff find a document by typing a word from inside it rather than opening files one at a time.
It is normally a setting on the scan profile rather than an extra product, and turning it on changes how usable a scanning setup is.
Setting it up properly at installation
- Decide the two or three destinations people will genuinely use, and put them on the front screen of the device.
- Name them the way the business talks, not the way the folder tree is structured.
- Turn text scanning on by default rather than leaving it as an option someone has to remember.
- Set a sensible resolution. Higher is not better past a point, and it makes files slow to open and expensive to store.
Common questions
What is scan to folder?
It sends a scanned document straight into a shared network location from the device itself, rather than to someone’s desktop to be filed by hand.
It removes the step where documents go missing.
Why should text scanning be turned on?
Text scanning, known as OCR, reads the words off the page so the resulting file can be searched.
Without it a scan is only an image, and a folder of scanned documents cannot be searched by what is inside them.
Does scanning cost extra on a leased device?
Scanning is a function of the multifunction device rather than a separate consumable, and on a bundled agreement service and support are already inside the monthly figure.
Higher end workflow software may be a separate product.
What resolution should I scan documents at?
A moderate setting suits most office documents.
Higher resolution stops improving readability past a point while making files slow to open and expensive to store, so set a sensible default at installation.
Related reading
Once you know roughly what the office prints each month, the next step is to get a printer lease quote sized to that volume.