ShardForms reads the values off each supplier’s certificate of analysis, pairs it with its goods receipt by lot number, and adds one row per lot to a table you can chart. Nobody types the values in. A certificate with no matching goods receipt is held until someone checks it.
Watch the 2-minute walkthrough of the real appOr reply to the email you got from us, with the PDF attached. It’s used only for your demo and deleted within 30 days.
Away 22 Oct to 5 Nov. Documents sent in that time get their demo the weekend of 7–8 Nov.
If you receive certificates or inspection reports, at least one of these will be familiar.
| The job | How it goes today | What it costs | With ShardForms |
|---|---|---|---|
| RetypingCertificates of analysis, mill certs, inspection reportsThe one from your email | Someone opens each PDF and types the lot number and every value into a spreadsheet. Tomorrow, the next batch. | Hours of QA time each month, and every typo is a number you will defend at the next audit. | Save the PDF into a folder and its values go into that lot’s row, with nobody typing them. Anything it isn’t sure of is listed for a person to check. |
| The six-month trendAudits, supplier reviews, driftThe one from your email | An auditor asks how one supplier’s moisture has moved since April. You open two hundred PDFs. | Drift stays invisible until a batch fails incoming inspection. | Every certificate is already a row, so the chart exists before anyone asks for it. |
| The broken macroBuilt by someone who has since leftThe one from your email | A supplier changed their template, the macro stopped working, and nobody knows how to fix it. | The process quietly goes back to typing, and the history stops at the day it broke. | Your QA team updates the layout by clicking on the new document, and the history carries on in the same table. |
Click a file to look at it, then drag it into the folder ShardForms watches, in any order, or press Move the next file. Each document is paired with its partner by the number printed on both, and each pair becomes one row. Two of them look like a pair and aren’t.
Drag files from Incoming into CoA_GRN_v1, the folder ShardForms watches. Or:
ShardForms· Reading Supplier certificates
ShardForms· Records
ShardForms· Charts
Two of these six documents look like they belong together. Read them all and see which.
Every supplier, lot number and value here is invented. Your demo is built on your own document and arrives by email as a private link. As in the app, the watched folder is named after its layout.
An FAI cover sheet arrives as a PDF and its CMM results as a spreadsheet. ShardForms pairs each cover sheet with its CMM file by report number, asks a person about the one value it wasn’t sure of, and charts every measurement.
Screen recording of the working app, October 2026, with sample part numbers and suppliers. The app’s look is still being finalised, so it differs from this page.
Your demo works like this: your own layout, with sample copies filled with made-up values, at a private link.
Send us one documentOne layout is one supplier’s certificate template, or one report format from one machine. It’s also what the subscription is priced by.
Open one sample, click a label, then click its value. Tables of readings work the same way. No code.
Files are saved into the folder ShardForms watches. Each FAI cover sheet waits for the CMM file with the same report number. A file whose number has no partner is held, never merged into the wrong row.
A value it isn’t sure of is saved and listed in the Issues inbox. Someone checks it against the document, then confirms it or types the right one.
Every lot or part becomes one row you can filter, export or chart.
Turns your certificates and reports into rows you can chart.
| Lot | Moist. | Ash |
|---|---|---|
| 24-0915 | 0.12 | 0.30 |
| 24-0916 | 0.13 | 0.31 |
| 24-0917 | 0.11 | 0.29 |
Matched by the lot number on both
Nobody retypes, and the trend is drawn as the rows arrive.
On a PC at your site. Documents and records stay there.
Charts and dashboards read from here too
A licence check always goes out. A sample goes out only if you ask AI to draft a layout. The “where it runs” sheet has the detail for IT.
Your QA team, or your IT person. No developer.
Certificate of analysis
Click the label, then the value.
Kinmoor calls it “Batch No.”, you call it Lot no.
Setting up a layout means clicking a label on the document, then its value. When a supplier changes their template, you adjust that one layout. When the person who set it up leaves, the next person opens the same screens. There’s no macro to decode.
Digital PDFs: it reads exactly what’s printed.
If the certificate says 0.11, the row says 0.11. The same document gives the same row every time. A value it can’t read cleanly is listed in the Issues inbox for a person to check.
Scanned pages are the weak spot.
A scan has to be turned into text first, and scanned tables are where mistakes creep in. If most of your paperwork is scanned, send a scan as your sample and see how it does before you commit to anything.
Once a layout is set up, every step runs when a file arrives. Here is what happens at each operation, illustrated step by step.
Certificates and reports are saved into a folder on the PC ShardForms runs on. Each new file starts the process. Nobody uploads anything: someone saves each file there, as they would anywhere else.
Each file is recognised as a known layout: Aldgrove’s certificate, Kinmoor’s certificate, your own goods receipt. A new supplier is one more layout, set up once.
A certificate waits for the goods receipt with the same lot number. An FAI report waits for the CMM results with the same report number. If the numbers don’t agree, nothing is written, and both stay visible until someone looks.
Values are read from the spots someone clicked when the layout was set up: the label, then the value. You can also add a calculation step that uses values from both documents, such as a pass/fail column comparing the CMM reading with the tolerance on the FAI report.
One row per lot goes into ShardForms’ built-in database. Charts read straight from it, so the six-month trend is already drawn. Need it in Excel or Power BI? Export to CSV, or have it keep an Excel workbook up to date.
Paperwork is messy. The same file gets saved twice, a long table pushes a value onto the next page, a cell says “——” where a number belongs. ShardForms doesn’t guess its way past any of it. Every problem goes into one Issues inbox, with the reason and the document beside it.
When someone confirms a value or types a correct one, ShardForms logs who did it, when, and what the document originally said. When an auditor asks where a number came from, the answer is there.
One layout can allow for a label written differently, a value that has moved a little, or a field that’s only sometimes there. Routine variation like that doesn’t need a person.
For your IT personDuplicates are found by file hash. Each value is searched for in up to three passes, each less strict; a value found only in a less strict pass than the one you set (the second, by default) is marked low confidence. Each run’s steps can be inspected one by one.
It doesn’t yet flag results that are out of spec on its own. These checks are about reading the document correctly. To check a result against your tolerance today, add a pass/fail column as a calculation step. Built-in alerts are being built.
For whoever looks after your IT. One thing always goes out: a licence check that carries no documents. One goes out only if you choose: a single sample, if you ask AI to draft a layout.
There are hundreds of them now, and for plenty of paperwork they’re a fine choice. For quality records, three things usually rule them out: where your documents go, how the numbers are produced, and what every page costs.
To read a certificate, most AI document tools upload it to the vendor’s servers, and often on to a model provider’s. Plenty of quality teams aren’t comfortable with that for supplier and customer documents, however good the security is.
ShardForms runs on a PC at your site. Documents and records stay there.
An AI tool reads a page the way a person skims it: it predicts what each value probably is. It’s usually right. When it isn’t, the wrong number looks exactly as sure as the right ones, and nobody can say why it came out that way.
ShardForms reads the text printed at the spot you pointed to when you set up the layout. The same file gives the same row every time, and a value it can’t read cleanly goes to a person instead of being guessed.
An AI tool sends each page to a model, and every call costs money. That cost ends up in the price, usually per page or per document, so the bill grows with your volume.
ShardForms reads without a model, so your bill doesn’t grow with your volume. It’s priced by the number of layouts. No surprises in a busy season.
| Question | Typical AI document tool | ShardForms |
|---|---|---|
| Where your documents are read | Usually uploaded to the vendor’s cloud | On a PC at your site |
| How a value is produced | Predicted by a model from the page | Read from the spot you pointed to at set-up |
| The same file, read twice | Can differ if the model or its settings change | Gives the same row |
| A value it can’t read cleanly | May be filled in with its best guess | Flagged for a person to confirm |
| Two documents that belong together | Usually read one at a time | Paired by the number printed on both. Near-misses are held. |
| What you pay for | Usually per page or per document, since each one is a model call | The number of layouts you run. No per-page charges. |
| Where AI is used | On every value, on every page | Only if you want it: to draft a layout from one sample you choose. A person checks the draft. |
AI tools are improving quickly, and they suit one-off documents with no repeating layout. ShardForms is built for the opposite case: the same layouts, again and again, where every number has to stand up in an audit.
Tick what’s true for you, then read the “Not a fit” list. If that one describes you, better to hear it now than after a pilot.
A document management systemYour files stay in your own folders. It keeps a link to each one, and the values it read.
A search toolYou won’t look documents up in it.
An “ask your data” chatbotIt writes rows and charts. It doesn’t answer questions about documents.
A replacement for your ERPIt sits beside it.
Scans are its weakest case. If most of yours are scanned, send a scan as your sample and judge the result.
Some tools read documents and hand you a file. Some chart data that’s already in a database. ShardForms starts at the paperwork as it arrives and ends at rows and charts you keep, on your own PC.
Our reading of what each kind of tool is built to do, not a benchmark of any product.
Scroll sideways to see every column.
| Kind of tool | Reads paperwork | Pairs documents by a number on both | Ends in rows and charts you keep |
|---|
If your question isn’t here, email it. You’ll get an answer from the person who built the software, by the end of the week at the latest.
I use it to build your demo: your layout, set up in ShardForms, plus copies of the same layout filled with made-up values, so you can watch it read, match and chart a realistic batch.
To build your demo, it’s read by an AI service that drafts the set-up and the sample copies, and I check everything before it’s sent to you. It’s used only for your demo. We keep it on our own machine in Singapore and delete it, with the generated copies, when you ask or 30 days after the demo, whichever comes first.
Choose a document you’re comfortable sharing. Most companies have at least one sample that isn’t sensitive, or you can black out the sensitive values: the layout is what matters.
The pilot is S$1,500 for four weeks on one document layout, credited in full against your first year if you continue.
After that, it’s priced by the number of document layouts you run through it. The subscription price isn’t published; I’ll quote it during the pilot, before you decide.
No. Whoever can install software on your Windows PC sets it up: download the installer, run it, sign in. After that your QA team runs it: setting up a layout is point and click, and nobody edits code.
No. Suppliers keep sending them as they do now. Someone saves each one into the folder ShardForms watches.
Today it runs on one Windows PC, which suits a QA team that shares a machine. A server install, so everyone on your network can use it from their own PC, is being built.
Documents and the records made from them stay on the PC ShardForms is installed on. One thing always goes out: the software checks its licence with our server from time to time. And if you ask AI to draft a new layout, the one sample you choose is read in the cloud. Set layouts up by hand and that never happens.
So it isn’t air-gapped, and it isn’t built to run fully offline. If you need that, tell us early.
It can, but it’s the weakest case. It works best on digital PDFs with selectable text and on spreadsheet files such as CMM exports. If your paperwork is mostly scanned, send a scan as your sample and judge the result before committing.
The reading isn’t. It takes the text printed at the positions you pointed to, so the same file gives the same values every time and nothing is guessed. AI is optional, and only used at set-up: it can draft a layout from one sample you choose, which you then check and edit. You can also set a layout up entirely by hand.
OCR and document-capture tools read a document and hand you the text or a file. ShardForms keeps going: it pairs the documents that belong together, refuses to pair them when the numbers differ, writes one row per lot or part into its database, and charts it.
For a while, yes. Plenty of companies have one. What a script doesn’t come with: support, updates, a way to handle a supplier’s new template without rewriting it, screens your own staff can change after the person who wrote it has left, and a log of who corrected which value, and when.
You adjust that supplier’s layout in the same click-the-label, click-the-value screens. The rest keeps running, and the supplier’s new certificates land in the same table and the same charts as before. Earlier versions of the layout are kept, so you can roll back.
No. Keep using Power BI: export your records to CSV, or have ShardForms keep an Excel workbook up to date, and point Power BI or Tableau at that. The built-in charts are for teams without a BI tool, or for a quick look.
A fair worry. Your records are kept on your own PC, not with us. If your licence ends, for any reason, ShardForms switches to read-only: you can still open everything, export all your records to CSV, and take a full backup of the database. Nothing you’ve built is locked away.
We’d rather tell you now than have you find out in a pilot. These are being built, in no fixed order:
If one of these decides it for you, tell us. It helps us choose what comes first.
Masato Tahir
ShardForms is one person, in Singapore. When you email, I’m the one who replies, by the end of the week at the latest, and I’m the one who builds your demo.
I’m a polytechnic graduate, and I built ShardForms myself: the part that reads documents, the part that matches them by lot or report number, and the charts at the end. There’s no sales team between you and the person who can change how it works.
Away 22 Oct to 5 Nov. Documents sent in that time get their demo the weekend of 7–8 Nov.