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The Docaffair Manual

Everything you need to know about automating your document workflows, from your first upload to deep technical integrations with Airtable, Google Sheets, and custom APIs.

Introduction

Docaffair is an intelligent document processing (IDP) platform. Unlike standard OCR which only "seeds" text, Docaffair uses advanced AI to understand the content. It identifies vendors, dates, line items, and taxes with human-level accuracy.

This manual covers the entire ecosystem: how to use the dashboard, how to configure integrations, and how to build on top of our REST API.

The Start-to-Finish Journey

1. Upload

Securely upload PDFs or Images via Dashboard or API.

2. AI Parse

Our LLM-powered engine extracts structured data instantly.

3. Review

Verify accuracy and mapping in the visual editor.

4. Export

Sync data to Airtable, Sheets, or your custom DB.

Upload & AI Parsing

Supported File Formats

We support high-resolution PDF, PNG, JPEG, and WebP files. For best results, ensure documents are not overly blurred and have a minimum resolution of 150 DPI.

How AI Parsing Works

Once uploaded, the document enters our extraction pipeline. Our AI identifies "anchors" (like "Total", "VAT No", "Date") and extracts the associated values. It also handles complex table structures, mapping line items to individual rows.

Note: Files larger than 10MB should be compressed before upload for optimal processing speed.

Template Management

While our AI is great at auto-detection, Templates allow you to enforce a specific schema for recurring documents.

Pro Tip

Use templates to map custom field names that match your internal database or accounting software.

Review & Validation

After parsing, documents appear in the Review Queue. This is where you can manually adjust any fields or confirm the AI's confidence.

Field Validation: Click any field to see the source area highlighted in the document viewer.
Confidence Scores: Fields with low confidence are highlighted in yellow or red.
Status: Documents remain in "Pending Review" until you click "Verify".

Integration Deep Dives

Step-by-step technical guides to connecting your favorite tools.

Airtable Connection Guide

Advanced Setup

1Generating a Personal Access Token (PAT)

Log in to your Airtable Account.
Navigate to Developer Hub .
Click + Create new token.
Scopes: You MUST add data.records:read and data.records:write.
Access: Select the specific Base you want to use, or "All current and future bases".
Copy the token—this is the only time you will see it!

2Locating your Base ID

Open the Airtable API Directory and select your base. The Base ID is a string starting with app found in the introduction section of that base's documentation.

3Table Name

This is the exact name of the table tab in your Airtable interface (e.g., "Invoices" or "Expenses"). It is case-sensitive.

How it works

When you save a document in Docaffair, we send a POST request to https://api.airtable.com/v0/[BASE_ID]/[TABLE_NAME]. Your Airtable columns must match the field names exported by Docaffair (e.g., a column named "Total" for the total field).

Google Sheets Connection

Required Information

Sheet URL: The full URL from your browser address bar (e.g., https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1abc.../edit).
Sheet Name: The name of the tab at the bottom of the document (default is "Sheet1").

Important: Docaffair will append data to the first empty row. Ensure your header row matches the field names you've mapped in the Export settings.

Zapier Catch Hook Setup

Zapier allows you to connect Docaffair to thousands of other apps without writing code.

1. Create a New Zap

Choose Webhooks by Zapier as the Trigger app and select Catch Hook.

2. Copy the Webhook URL

Zapier will provide a unique URL. Paste this into the Zapier Integration field in the Docaffair Dashboard.

3. Test & Map

Upload a document to Docaffair. In Zapier, click "Test Trigger" to see the real fields (total, date, vendor) and map them to your destination app.

Custom Webhooks (Developer)

Webhooks are the most powerful way to integrate Docaffair directly into your backend.

Payload Security

When you configure a webhook, you can specify a Secret Key. Every request we send will include a X-Docaffair-Signature header. Use this to verify that the request originated from us.

json

{
  "event": "document.parsed",
  "document_id": "doc_882910",
  "data": {
    "vendor": "DigitalOcean",
    "amount": 24.00,
    "currency": "USD",
    "tax_total": 4.00,
    "line_items": [...]
  }
}

Developer Reference

Build custom tools powered by the Docaffair engine.

Authentication

Generate your API keys in the Settings > Developers tab. Treat these like passwords.

Warning: Never commit your API keys to public repositories like GitHub. Use environment variables.

bash

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here" https://api.docaffair.com/v1/me

Core Endpoints

Upload and Parse

Upload a binary file using multipart/form-data.

POST/documents/parse

Retrieve Data

Fetch the JSON result of a processed document by its unique ID.

GET/documents/{id}

Error Handling

Code	Condition	Suggested Action
400	Bad Request	Check file format or missing parameters.
401	Unauthorized	Verify your API key is active.
429	Too Many Requests	Implement exponential backoff logic.

Introduction

This manual covers the entire ecosystem: how to use the dashboard, how to configure integrations, and how to build on top of our REST API.

Upload & AI Parsing

Supported File Formats

We support high-resolution PDF, PNG, JPEG, and WebP files. For best results, ensure documents are not overly blurred and have a minimum resolution of 150 DPI.

How AI Parsing Works

Note: Files larger than 10MB should be compressed before upload for optimal processing speed.

Review & Validation

After parsing, documents appear in the Review Queue. This is where you can manually adjust any fields or confirm the AI's confidence.

Field Validation: Click any field to see the source area highlighted in the document viewer.

Confidence Scores: Fields with low confidence are highlighted in yellow or red.

Status: Documents remain in "Pending Review" until you click "Verify".

Google Sheets Connection

Required Information

Sheet URL: The full URL from your browser address bar (e.g., https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1abc.../edit).
Sheet Name: The name of the tab at the bottom of the document (default is "Sheet1").

Important: Docaffair will append data to the first empty row. Ensure your header row matches the field names you've mapped in the Export settings.

Zapier Catch Hook Setup

Zapier allows you to connect Docaffair to thousands of other apps without writing code.

1. Create a New Zap

Choose Webhooks by Zapier as the Trigger app and select Catch Hook.

2. Copy the Webhook URL

Zapier will provide a unique URL. Paste this into the Zapier Integration field in the Docaffair Dashboard.

3. Test & Map

Upload a document to Docaffair. In Zapier, click "Test Trigger" to see the real fields (total, date, vendor) and map them to your destination app.

Custom Webhooks (Developer)

Webhooks are the most powerful way to integrate Docaffair directly into your backend.

Payload Security

When you configure a webhook, you can specify a Secret Key. Every request we send will include a X-Docaffair-Signature header. Use this to verify that the request originated from us.

json

{
  "event": "document.parsed",
  "document_id": "doc_882910",
  "data": {
    "vendor": "DigitalOcean",
    "amount": 24.00,
    "currency": "USD",
    "tax_total": 4.00,
    "line_items": [...]
  }
}

Code

Condition

Suggested Action

400

Bad Request

Check file format or missing parameters.

401

Unauthorized

Verify your API key is active.

429

Too Many Requests

Implement exponential backoff logic.