IDP FAQ: Intelligent Document Processing for Italian Businesses

An IDP software like Data Alchemy automatically reads DDT shipping documents in any format — PDF, scan, email — and extracts supplier, items, quantities, and order references. The data is then entered directly into the warehouse management system, eliminating manual data entry and cutting the operational time of goods receiving by 60%.

Data Alchemy captures supplier invoices (PDF, XML, email) and automatically extracts data such as company name, P.IVA (VAT number), amounts, due dates, and line item details. It then performs 3-way matching by comparing the invoice against the purchase order and DDT, flagging discrepancies before they reach the accounting books. The entire process cuts the operational time of the accounts payable cycle by 60%.

Data Alchemy's intelligent validation cross-references extracted data against the master records in your ERP/CRM system in real time. It checks supplier matches, item codes, prices, and terms. After 3 matches confirmed by the same operator, the system learns and automatically suggests future correspondences, progressively reducing the need for human intervention.

Yes. Data Alchemy connects to SAP Business One/S4HANA, Zucchetti Ad Hoc, TeamSystem Enterprise, AS400 (IBM i) and many other management systems in two ways: with the AI agent, installed at your premises, which connects to Data Alchemy over websocket and APIs and writes into the ERP on the destination configured from a graphical interface — a database, CSV, JSON or TXT files, or APIs — (an option on the Business licence, included in Enterprise), or with an integration your team builds on Data Alchemy's REST APIs and webhooks, included in every licence. The connection works in both directions: it reads master data from the ERP to check the data that has been read, and posts the extracted documents into it, including orders with header and lines. Your ERP credentials stay in the AI agent, at your premises: Data Alchemy does not store them.

Traditional OCR merely converts an image into text, without understanding what the data means: it cannot tell an invoice number from an amount, and it validates nothing. IDP software like Data Alchemy adds artificial intelligence and machine learning on top of advanced OCR: it interprets the document's context, automatically recognises variable fields such as VAT number, line items, quantities and due dates, and validates every value against your ERP master data before posting it. The result is 99.8% accuracy (measured with Claude) even across different layouts or low-quality scans, against the frequent errors and manual re-keying that classic OCR requires.

Manual data entry errors cost businesses 15-25% of revenue in inefficiencies. An IDP like Data Alchemy eliminates manual transcription, reads documents with 99.8% accuracy (measured with Claude), validates every data point in real time against your management system, and flags inconsistencies before they become accounting or logistics problems.

Data Alchemy processes DDT shipping documents, incoming and outgoing invoices, customer orders, packing lists, delivery notes, CMR waybills, credit notes, bank statements, F24 tax forms, quotes, contracts, and supplier price lists. It accepts PDF, Excel, Word, email, scanned images, and XML formats (including Italy's electronic invoicing standard).

Data Alchemy monitors configured email inboxes (or specific folders), automatically identifies emails containing document attachments (orders, DDT, invoices), extracts data from both the email body and PDF/Excel attachments, and enters it into your management system. The process is fully automatic and starts as soon as the document arrives. The Business and Enterprise licences also include the Mail service, installed on-premise on your company's own mailbox: emails matching a model (invoices, orders, delivery notes) are sent or forwarded to Data Alchemy for processing.

Absolutely. Data Alchemy is designed specifically for Italian SMEs, with native support for electronic invoicing, Italian DDT documents, national tax regulations, and the most widely used management software in Italy. You start from the Demo (a trial Basic licence) and then choose the licence that fits your needs — Basic, Business or Enterprise — with pay-as-you-go credits: even a company processing just a few hundred documents a month can start with the Basic licence.

Sales departments receive orders via email, PDF, and phone in countless different formats. Data Alchemy automatically reads each order, extracts items, quantities, delivery dates, and commercial terms, and creates the order line in your management system. This reduces the risk of incorrectly transcribed orders and cuts operational time by 60%.

With the AI agent, the technical integration with your management system takes 2–5 working days without custom integrations (customisations beyond the standard configuration require an estimate): in this phase we connect Data Alchemy to your ERP (SAP Business One or S/4HANA, Zucchetti Ad Hoc, Infinity or Mago, TeamSystem Enterprise, Gamma or Alyante, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite) through the AI agent or Data Alchemy's REST APIs and webhooks, and we sync your customer, supplier and item master data. No templates are required: the system reads your real documents from day one, with 99.8% accuracy (measured with Claude) from the start. Over the following 2-3 weeks we complete the validation rules setup, enable automatic email capture and train your operators. No downtime on your management system and no data migration required.

Yes. Data Alchemy is fully compliant with GDPR and Italian data protection regulations. The platform is hosted in Europe on Scaleway, an ISO/IEC 27001 certified provider, with its primary site in Milan and a secondary site in another European region. With Data Alchemy AI and the European providers, processing stays in Europe too; with Claude and GPT, documents are processed by the respective providers under a DPA. Access is through Microsoft Entra ID or Google Workspace SSO via LoginMaster, with roles and permissions, and user actions (upload, edit, download, deletion) are logged. Uploaded documents are kept for 7 days on the Basic licence and for up to 60 days on Business and Enterprise.

Data Alchemy states 99.8% data extraction accuracy measured with Anthropic's Claude AI, the engine we recommend by default; no accuracy figure is published for the other engines. For each document model you choose one AI engine: Claude (recommended), GPT, Data Alchemy AI or a compatible model through the European providers Scaleway and Regolo.ai. Each value is validated against ERP master data, ensuring maximum precision even on complex layouts or low-quality scans.

Data Alchemy ingests supplier price lists in any format (PDF, Excel, email), automatically extracts item codes, descriptions, prices, discounts, and commercial terms, and updates the master records in your management system. When a supplier sends an updated price list, the system automatically compares price changes and flags significant differences.

Data Alchemy works on a licence model plus pay-as-you-go credits, with a quote on request. You start from the Demo, a free trial Basic licence (10 days, 10 documents and 1 model chosen from the predefined ones, with the storage it needs, no AI agent); the Basic licence includes 1 model and 500 MB of storage, with a mandatory 7-day retention (documents are deleted automatically 7 days after upload), credits bought online, the REST API and webhooks included (as on every licence) and no AI agent; the Business licence adds the Mail service, external fields and remote validation, plus file retention of up to 60 days from upload, configurable per model, with the AI agent available as a separately quoted add-on; the Enterprise licence adds native Salesforce integration, Order Dispatcher and the AI agent included. On every licence, 1 credit = 1 document, whatever the number of pages. On Business and Enterprise, credits are bought in annual quantities, with annual expiry, payment terms agreed with you and lower unit prices depending on quantity; up to 20% of unused credits carry over to the following year if you renew with an equal or higher volume. The full comparison is on the Pricing page.

No. Data Alchemy does not eliminate jobs — it transforms how people work. It frees staff from repetitive data entry tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities such as analysis, quality control, and client and supplier relationship management. Companies that adopt it typically reallocate resources toward strategic initiatives.

Yes. Data Alchemy is an Intelligent Document Processing software developed in Italy and built for the specifics of the Italian market: electronic invoicing via SdI, DDT shipping documents, F24 tax forms, national tax regulations, and native integration with the most widely used management systems such as SAP, Zucchetti, and TeamSystem. Support is available in Italian and English, and the platform is hosted in Europe, in full GDPR compliance. With Data Alchemy AI and the European providers, processing stays in Europe too; with Claude and GPT, documents are processed by the respective providers under a DPA.

Data Alchemy is an Italian Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) platform that assigns a dedicated LLM to each document model to automatically capture, extract, and validate data from business documents — invoices, delivery notes (DDT), orders, contracts, and price lists. Data Alchemy reads each document, classifies it, extracts every field, validates the values against your ERP master data, and writes the result directly into systems like SAP, Zucchetti, or TeamSystem with 99.8% accuracy (measured with Claude). With Claude Sonnet or higher, reading takes on average around 12 seconds for a one-page document and around 18 seconds for two pages. The name reflects what the platform does: it transforms raw, unstructured documents into clean, structured business data — removing manual data entry for finance, logistics, and sales teams.

Software to automate customer orders from email like Data Alchemy, with the Mail service installed at the customer's premises on the sales inbox (Business and Enterprise licences), receives orders sent as PDF, Excel or in the email body. The LLM dedicated to the order model extracts items, quantities, prices and delivery dates, validates the data against your ERP customer and product master data (SAP, Zucchetti, TeamSystem), and automatically writes it as order lines, with 99.8% accuracy (measured with Claude) and no manual typing. With Claude Sonnet or higher, reading takes on average around 12 seconds for a one-page document and around 18 seconds for two pages. Sales staff only step in when an order needs review, for example for items missing from the master data.

Data extraction from orders and price lists for the sales department with Data Alchemy starts with automatic acquisition of documents via email, PDF or Excel. The LLM dedicated to the order and price list models recognises items, quantities, prices, discounts and quantity tiers, validates the values against your ERP customer and item master data (SAP, Zucchetti, TeamSystem), and updates order lines and price lists, with 99.8% accuracy (measured with Claude). With Claude Sonnet or higher, reading takes on average around 12 seconds for a one-page document and around 18 seconds for two pages. The sales department always works with aligned data and price lists, stepping in only for exceptions such as an item not on the price list or an anomalous price change.

They are two Data Alchemy capabilities, included in the Business and Enterprise licences, that verify AI-read data against external sources. With external fields the platform queries external services, for example your ERP through the AI agent or via API: when reading a delivery note that references a purchase order, Data Alchemy queries the customer's ERP, retrieves the order contents and checks item code, quantity and the other fields line by line, so the data read by the AI is consistent with the data in the management system. Remote validation connects a third-party source such as your ERP to check item codes and retrieve the customer code from the company name or VAT number.

The Mail service is installed on-premise, on your company's own mailbox: emails matching a model — invoices, orders, delivery notes — are sent or forwarded to Data Alchemy for processing, that is extraction, validation and posting into your management system. It is included in the Business and Enterprise licences.

No: with Data Alchemy, 1 document = 1 credit, whatever the number of pages. Data Alchemy's AI works with an extremely large context and reads every document in full, so a one-page invoice and a forty-page order use the same credit. No per-page calculations: you always know what you are using.

On the Business and Enterprise licences, up to 20% of unused credits carry over to the following year if you renew with an equal or higher volume; the rest follow the annual expiry. On the Basic licence, credits are bought online as you need them.

In Europe. The Data Alchemy platform is hosted on Scaleway, the European cloud of the iliad group, with its primary site in Milan and a secondary site in another European region for service continuity; Scaleway is an ISO/IEC 27001 certified provider. Uploaded documents, extracted data, backups and application logs stay on this infrastructure, with no transfers to third countries lacking adequate safeguards under the GDPR. For AI processing: with Data Alchemy AI and the European providers, it stays in Europe; with Claude and GPT, documents are processed by the respective providers under a DPA.

It depends on the licence. On Basic the retention period is 7 days and mandatory: documents are deleted automatically 7 days after upload. On Business and Enterprise files can be kept for up to 60 days from the upload date, with the period configurable for each document model.

You choose, model by model. For each document model you choose one AI engine: Claude (Anthropic), the engine we recommend by default; GPT (OpenAI); Data Alchemy AI, Data Alchemy's proprietary model, running on Data Alchemy's own servers and GPUs in Italy; or a compatible LLM through the European inference providers Scaleway (Generative APIs) and Seeweb Regolo.ai, on a subscription taken out directly by your company. For example you can process the invoice model on Claude, the delivery note (DDT) model on GPT and the order model on Data Alchemy AI, or enable several models on the same engine. Each document is processed by a single engine, the one paired with its model.

The AI agent is installed at your premises, in your infrastructure. It connects to Data Alchemy's websocket and APIs and integrates your software through a graphical interface where you configure the data destination: a database, CSV, JSON or TXT files, or APIs. Your ERP credentials stay in the AI agent, at your premises: Data Alchemy does not store them in its cloud. The agent posts the extracted data into your ERP, including orders with header and lines. It is included in the Enterprise licence and available as a separately quoted add-on on Business.

Yes. The REST API and signed webhooks are included in every licence: Basic, Business and Enterprise. On the Basic licence they are how you integrate with your ERP, since the AI agent is available from Business (as a separately quoted add-on) and included in Enterprise. You request your API key from the contact page.