Avarni’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) import turns invoices, receipts and other unstructured documents into trackable emissions activities without manual data entry. Upload PDFs or image files, and Avarni extracts the data and creates activities for you. You can then review, correct and map these activities to emission factors. This helps you capture data faster, reduce errors and ensure that information hidden in scanned documents contributes to your carbon footprint calculations.
Finding the OCR Import Option
Go to the Import Data section and open the Methods tab. Methods define how data is processed (if you need to first define a Method before doing an OCR import, follow the guide here). Next to each method is an Import button.
Click the Import button for your chosen method. A drop‑down menu appears with several import options, including PDFs and Images. Selecting this starts an OCR‑based import.
Enter a name for your import. When prompted, give your import a name.
Uploading Your Files
Select your files. Use the upload dialog to choose files or drag and drop them into the area labelled Upload PDF or Image Files. Only PDF and image files (PNG, JPG, JPEG) are accepted. Each file must be under 10 MB, and you can upload up to 200 files per import.
Review the file list. As you add files, they appear in a list. You can remove any file before proceeding. Avarni records the file name and stores the files securely for audit purposes later.
Start the import. Click Confirm to upload your files and begin processing. Avarni will show a message indicating that the import has started. If your files include multiple bills or invoices per file, Avarni will attempt to extract them separately.
Reviewing and Modifying the Results
Once processing completes, the documents are converted into an import that you can review and edit.
Navigating the Review Screen
Open the Import Data page. From the Imports tab, click View on the OCR import you just created.
Use the file explorer. The left-hand pane lists each uploaded file and its extracted activities. You can search by file name or activity and filter by emission status (Confirmed, Flagged, Excluded, Pending or Unmapped).
Select an activity. Clicking an activity opens a detailed view on the right. A preview of the relevant page or image appears so you can compare the extracted data to the original document.
Editing an Extracted Activity
Each activity includes fields such as activity class, description, amount, supplier, input unit and country. You can adjust any of these and update the mapped emission factor.
Update data fields. Simply edit your field on the editing pane. Avarni monitors your edits and warns you if you try to navigate away without saving.
Update emission factor. Use the emission factor dropdown to update the emission factor, if required. In most cases, an emission factor will already be assigned automatically by the Method used for upload. An activity must have a factor before you can save it, or change its status.
Save your changes. After editing, press Save to apply your updates. A message confirms successful saving.
Change the emission status. Use the status bar to mark the activity as Confirmed, Flagged or Excluded. These buttons are colour‑coded and have keyboard shortcuts (C for confirm, F for flag, E for exclude). The status bar is disabled until a factor is selected.
Delete an activity if necessary. Click the delete icon to permanently remove an activity.
Navigating Between Activities
Use the Next and Previous buttons (Chevron icons) in the editing pane to move through activities without returning to the list.
Viewing activities in the Emissions Hub
When you’ve reviewed all activities and assigned factors and statuses, click the View in Emissions Hub button on the top right to view the activities in the emissions hub table view. The activities will also appear in your master emissions hub alongside all your other activities.
OCR-generated activities are stored in the same structure as regular imports, so they integrate seamlessly with your dashboards, analytics and reporting.
