Image-based document processing system providing for priority document shipment

Claim 1

In a transaction processing system, wherein each transaction comprises a plurality of debit and credit documents which should balance, wherein each document contains amount data, wherein at least predetermined documents also contain machine-readable data, wherein the machine-readable data on each of said predetermined documents includes document destination data, and wherein at least some of said predetermined documents are required to be shipped by predetermined deadlines, passing said documents through a document processor; capturing images of said documents during said passing; sorting said predetermined documents into groups based on said document destination data during said passing; storing said images in a storage and retrieval unit; extracting amount data from said documents; said extracting including retrieving images of selected documents from said storage and retrieval unit, displaying the retrieved images, and entering amount data from the displayed images into a data base of a computer; identifying out-of-balance transactions using said computer; selecting at least a portion of a sorted group for shipment in order to meet a deadline; displaying only those particular document images from the selected portion which are part of said out-of-balance transactions without displaying previously entered amount data for these documents; entering into the computer data base amount data from the displayed images of the selected portion, said computer changing previously entered amount data in the computer data base when the newly entered data causes the corresponding transaction to blanace.