Patent Publication Number: US-2018032496-A1

Title: Server device with error finder module for form document submission system

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     In some office environments, people such as employees may have to submit a document in the same format multiple times for different events. For example, after each business trip, a travel expense report may be required to be submitted. This type of document requires an employee (user) to fill in user identification information and some items related to each trip, which is the same each time for the employee. Other items are specific for each trip, but in most cases, the other items can be expected to be a few values which fall within respective ranges according to company travel policy. It is very easy to make an error by not filling in a required value or to fill in a value which is outside of the acceptable range for that employee. Therefore, a workflow with an error finder module which can enable people to be notified of these small errors before submitting has been demanded. This improved workflow can improve efficiency of processing, rather than wasting the time of the employee to submit an error containing form and that of a supervisor or administrator who has to approve the form. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     JP 2012-063993 discloses an image forming system which checks an original document and reports the checked result using a scan ticket including highlighted fields necessary to be checked. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for processing a form document with one or more fields to be filled out, comprising: registering, at a server device, the form document, a form document identifier associated with the form document, and a form data rule applicable to the form document, so as to be associated with a user; receiving, at a user accessible device, the form document and the form document identifier; filling out each field with a corresponding input, at the user accessible device; sending the filled out form, from the user accessible device to the server device; validating the filled out form document for each field, based upon the form data rule, at the server device; if an error is found in any of the fields, highlighting the field with the error, and sending the highlighted form, from the server device to the user accessible device, for changes to the corresponding input to comply with the form data rule; and if no error is found in any of the fields, sending the highlighted form, from the server device to the user accessible device, as confirmation that no error is found. 
     According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a form document submission system for processing a form document with one or more fields to be filled out, comprising: a server device to register the form document, a form document identifier associated with the form document, and a form data rule applicable to the form document, so as to be associated with a user; a user accessible device to receive the form document and the form document identifier from the server device, fill out each field with a corresponding input, and send the filled out form, from the user accessible device to the server device; wherein the server device validates the filled out form document for each field, based upon the form data rule, and if an error is found in any of the fields, highlights the field with the error, and sends the highlighted form to the user accessible device, for changes to the corresponding input to comply with the form data rule, and if no error is found in any of the fields, sending the highlighted form to the user accessible device, as confirmation that no error is found. 
     According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method, comprising: registering, at a server device, a form document with one or more fields, a form document identifier associated with the form document, and a form data rule applicable to the form document, so as to be associated with a user; retrieving, at a client computing device of the respective user, the form document and the form document identifier; filling, at the client computing device, data into the one or more fields of the form document; sending, from the client computing device to the server device, the form document with the filled fields and the form document identifier; validating, at the server device, the form document, based on the form data rule corresponding to the form document identifier; sending, from the server device to the client computing device, the validation result; displaying, at the client computing device, the validation result; and submitting, from the mobile computing device to the server device, the filled form document, upon determining no error is found. 
     According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method, comprising: registering, at a server device, a form document with one or more fields, a form document identifier associated with the form document, and a form data rule applicable to the form document, so as to be associated with a user; authorizing, at an image forming device, the respective user; retrieving, at the image forming device, the form document and the form document identifier; printing, at the image forming device, the retrieved form document with the form document identifier; scanning, at the image forming device, the form document with fields filled by the user, and transmitting the scanned form document to the client computing device; sending, from the client computing device to the server device, the form document with the filled fields and the form document identifier to the server device; validating, at the server device, the form document, based on the rule corresponding to the form document identifier; sending, from the server device to the image forming device, the validation result; printing, at the image forming device, the validation result; and submitting, from the image forming device to the server device, the filled form document, upon determining no error is found. 
     According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a server device for a form submission workflow device for processing a form document with one or more fields to be filled out, for use with a user accessible device, comprising: a registration device to register the form document, a form document identifier associated with the form document, and a form data rule applicable to the form document, so as to be associated with a user; a transmission device to send the form document and the form document identifier to the user accessible device, and receive a filled out form document with each field having a corresponding input from the user accessible device; an error finder module to validate the filled out form document for each field, based upon the form data rule, and if an error is found in any of the fields, highlights the field with the error wherein the transmission device sends the highlighted form to the user accessible device, for changes to the corresponding input to comply with the form data rule, and if no error is found in any of the fields, sends the highlighted form to the user accessible device, as confirmation that no error is found. 
     Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: 
         FIG. 1  is a view of an image forming system to provide a form document submission workflow according to an embodiment; 
         FIG. 2  is an example of an employee education form according to the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an example of an employee travel request form according to the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is an example of an employee travel request form according to the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of an administrator computing device according to the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram of a server device shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram of an image forming device shown  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 8  is a block diagram of a client computing device shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 9  is an example of an employee form list on a display unit of a client computing device of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 10  is an example of verification shown on the client computing device of  FIG. 1  after an error finder module is executed; 
         FIG. 11  is an example of a highlighted form showing errors of a filled out form on a display unit according to various embodiments; 
         FIG. 12  is a form document submission flow process flowchart according to various embodiments; 
         FIG. 13  is a form document submission flow process flowchart according to other various embodiments; 
         FIG. 14  is a form document submission flow process flowchart according to still other various embodiments; 
         FIG. 15  is a form document submission flow process flowchart according to still yet other various embodiments; and 
         FIG. 16  is a form document submission flow process flowchart according to still yet further various embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures. 
     When an employee or other user needs to fill out a form, particularly one that is commonly used throughout the organization, it is helpful to have some of the fields of the form auto-filled, such as name, title, position and/or whatever other identifiers are used to identify the employee. Plus, it would save both the employee&#39;s time and that of a supervisor or administrator if the employee turned in a form that was free of errors, whether the error be a missing field or an input value that is out of an acceptable range for that field. 
     Therefore, it would be helpful to have an image forming system which can take an image of the filled out form or document, using a mobile device like a cell phone or tablet, or using a multi-function peripheral (MFP) or scanner, or other image forming device, and notify the user of the field(s) of the form which contain an error. The notification may be by highlighting at least a portion of the field with the error or some other method of notification. In this way, the user can make changes to the field(s) with an error, check again, and if the image forming system indicates no error in the form, the user can then submit the form to the supervisor or administrator. 
     According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in  FIG. 1 , there is a form document submission system  100  including an image forming device  110 , a client computing device  120 , an administrator computing device  130 , and a server device  140 , such as a cloud server or an external server. One or more forms are generated and stored on the server device  140 . The image forming device  110  may be a multi-function peripheral (MFP) with a scanning function, a printer/scanner or other image forming device with scanner functionality. Examples of such forms are an employee education form  200 , a travel request form  210  and a travel request form  220 , as shown in  FIGS. 2-4 . Of course, many other types of forms requiring different types of information could be used in the form document submitting system  100 . Prior to a user printing out a blank form  200  (or  210  or  220 ), the user accesses the server device  140  and selects the form the user wants to print, and prints the form using the image forming device  110 . The user then fills in some fields. The user may be asked to sign the user&#39;s signature by hand. 
     The user scans the form document  200  using the image forming device  110 , and sends the scanned form  200  to the server device  140 . The server device  140  executes an error finding operation, to be described later. If any error is found, the erred fields of the scanned document are highlighted (the server device  140  renders a page with the highlighted errors and sends the print job to the image forming device  110  to print out the form with highlighted errors) and then printed out by the image forming device  110 . The user corrects the error on the reprinted form and prints a corrected form. The user signs and scans again using the image forming device  110  and submits the corrected form back to the server device  140  to check if there are any more errors. When the server device  140  determines that there are no more errors, the server device  140  submits the form document to the workflow system which can be like a Sharepoint site storing all of the completed forms for further processing, for example. 
     A brief description of a form document submission workflow according an embodiment of the present invention is provided, for example, in the case of submitting an employee education form  200 , a travel expense report form  210 , or a travel request form  220  to an administrator of a financial department for the purpose of reimbursement of expenses during a business trip. This kind of form document requires information to specify (identify) an employee and a handwritten signature. The identification information could be the name, employee number, department name, any combination thereof, or whatever other information which is useful to the company to identify the employee. And this form is required to be submitted to a supervisor of the employee. Information to specify the employee is the same regardless of the form selected by the employee to be filled out, but of course various fields require different specific information depending on the selected form. The information in each of the form specific fields could be different in each submission, and should be checked to ensure that the form is accurately filled out. For example, some fields to claim meal expenses may be determined appropriate or not since such fields can be checked to determine if the value inserted therein is within a predetermined range, such as for example, a company travel expense policy. And this field also may be determined whether it should be filled or not depending on when the user leaves the office and comes back. The error finder module may be implemented by having a database or list of form data rules set according to this kind of company policy information. 
     For example, for breakfast, the meal expense cap may be $12 for an employee who is not management, but $15 for an employee who is part of management. If an employee who is not management tries to enter $13 for breakfast, this will violate the form data rules and an error will be indicated on the reprinted form. As another example, if the company policy is that breakfast is reimbursed only if the employee gets in before 8:00 am, but another field indicates that the employee got in at 8:45 am while seeking reimbursement for breakfast, another error message will be provided, such as highlighting the amount filled in for the breakfast reimbursement. It is also possible for an explanatory error message be provided somewhere on the form to indicate the reason for the error indication. 
     In the form document submission system  100 , the client computing device  120 , which may be a mobile device, and the image forming device  110  are communicatively connected via a network. The image forming device  110  and the server device  140  are also connected via a network (the same or different one), and the mobile terminal device  120  and the server device  140  are connected via a network (the same or different one). The client computing device  120  and the image forming device  110  are communicatively connected via any network, or NFC (Near Field Communication) system. 
     The network, assuming the same one throughout, may be any type of network through which devices may communicate. In some embodiments, the network is a local area network, and in other embodiments, the network is a wide area network, such as the Internet. In some instances, the network includes a combination of local area network and wide area network. For example, the server device  140  may be remote and accessible over a wide area network. The network represents a communicative link through which devices can send data through and/or receive data from. 
     The client computing device  120  and the image forming device  110  can be connected via Bluetooth or Wi Fi Direct, for example. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 5 , the administrator computing device  130  may include a display unit  131 , a memory  132 , one or more applications  133 , a central processing unit (CPU)  134 , and an interface  135 . In some embodiments, an administrator may open the application  133  and generate or edit a form document. And the administrator may send the form document to the server device  140  and store the form document in a database  150  on the server device  140 . 
     The administrator may register some fields, which require the user to fill in with an input. And the administrator may also register some information (such as numbers, words, or characters) for the necessary fields to be associated with the stored form documents. There, numbers/characters may be extracted from a policy document to be used to fill in the form document. The numbers and characters specify the data type that can be entered in the field. For example, a DOB (date of birth) field can be specified as a number and will not allow characters to be entered. So, the number/character data type is used for data validation purposes. Or in some example embodiments, some typical example errors may also be registered. In some example embodiments, position information such as coordinate information may be registered as necessary field information. 
     The administrator may further register user identification information, such as user name and/or an employee number on the server device  140 . The user identification information may be registered for all users who might have a chance to submit the form document. In some example embodiments, the user identification information stored on the server device  140  may include a manager/administrator/supervisor&#39;s information to whom the form document may be submitted. These types of destination addresses may include one or more people/destinations. And these destinations may be in a form of an e-mail address, or some accessible folder or document box associated with the destination user. 
     The administrator computing device  130  may be any computing device capable of generating a form document. The administrator computing device  130  may be a desktop computer, or other computing device, such as a laptop, tablet, or other computing devices which may act as an administrator computing device  130  for the purposes of generating the form document. 
     In some example embodiments, the client computing device  120  is owned by the company of the Administrator in an office, the Administrator managing the form document for people in the office. In this example embodiment, the administrator computing device  130  may act as a destination which receives the form documents submitted from the employees. 
     The server device  140  may be any computing device capable of storing the form document and user information. The server device  140  may store thereon the database  150  containing entries of the stored form documents and those of the user information. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 6 , the server device  140  has a storage unit  142 , a registration device  144 , a transmission device  146 , an error finder module  148  and a communication unit  149 . The storage unit  142  provides memory space for the server device  140 , including storing program instructions for the server device  140 . The registration device  144  registers (stores, adds new entry and/or renews existing entry) registration information regarding the form documents received from the administrator computing device  130 , including the fields to be filled in with and an input, and the information (such as numbers, words, or characters for the necessary fields to be associated with the form documents. The registration device  144  also registers the form document identifier for each document, and form data rules applicable to the form document, so as to be associated with each employee. The transmission device  146  sends the form document and the form document rule to the image forming device  110  and/or the client computing device  120  through the communication unit  149 . 
     The error finder module  148  compares inputs received in the fields from the image forming device  110  and/or the client computing device  120 , applies the form data rule to each field of the form document associated with the user, and highlights each field in which the input is not acceptable, as being either an inappropriate entry (such as a number where letters should be and vice versa, or values which are outside the acceptable range for that particular field). Thus, the error finder module  148  validates the filled out form document with each field having a corresponding input. 
     The communication unit  149  enables communication between the registration device  144  and the error finder module  148 , through the transmission device  146 , all of the server device  140 , and the other devices of the form document submission system  100 , including the image forming device  110 , the client computing device  120 , the administrator computing device  130 , and the database  150 . 
     In an embodiment, code having a set of instructions for performing the operations of the server device  140  (and more particularly the storage unit  142 , the registration device  144 , the transmission device  146 , the error finder module  148  and the communication unit  149 ) may be stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium usable with any compatible hardware element. 
     In some example embodiments, the server device  140  may be a destination to submit the form document. In this embodiment, the server device  140  may store the submitted form document in the storage unit  142  so that the document can be associated with the stored user information. 
     In another embodiment, the user information may include information of a supervisor to whom the user submitting the form document reports. When the image forming device  110  submits the form document to the destination, the image forming device  110  submits the same to the supervisor of the user who initiates the form document submission workflow. The information associated with the supervisor may include, for example, name, e-mail address, and/or an address for a folder managed by the supervisor. In some other embodiments, information on an administrator of an office can be registered as the destination to submit the form. The destination information may vary depending on the form document to be submitted. 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 7 , the image forming device  110  may include a CPU  111 , an image forming unit  112 , a memory unit  113 , an operation panel  114 , and a network interface  115 . The image forming device  110  may be, for example, a printing device or a multi-function peripheral (MFP) including a scanner and one or more of functions of a copier, a facsimile device, and a printer. The image forming device  110  may further include a finisher, and one or more paper cassettes. 
     The memory unit  113  may store thereon instructions  116 , which are executable by the CPU  111  and/or any other processor(s). The memory unit  113  may also store information for various programs and applications, as well as data storage specific to the image forming device  110 . For example, the data storage may include data for running an operating system (OS). The memory unit  113  may include both volatile memory and non-volatile memory. Volatile memory may include random-access memory (RAM). Some examples of non-volatile memory include read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), digital tape, a hard disk drive (HDD), and a solid-state drive (SSD), although other types of non-volatile memory are usable. The memory unit  113  may include any combination of readable and/or writable volatile memories and/or non-volatile memories, along with other possible memory devices. Processor(s) including the CPU  111  may include one or more processors capable of executing instructions, such as instructions which cause the image forming device  110  to perform various operations. The processor(s) may also incorporate processing units for specific purposes, such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Other processors may also be included for executing operations particular to the image forming device  110 . 
     The operation panel  114  may include a display unit  117  and an input unit  118  for facilitating human interaction with the image forming device  110 . The display unit  117  may be any electronic video display, such as a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or another type of display. The input unit  118  may include any combination of devices that allow users to input information into the operation panel  114 , such as buttons, a keyboard, switches, and/or dials. In addition, the input unit  118  may include a touch-screen digitizer overlaid onto the display unit  117  that can sense touch and interact with the display unit  117 . 
     The image forming device  110  may include a network communication processing unit  119 . In some example embodiments, the image forming device  110  may further include a near field communication processing unit whose maximum communication distance is less than that for the network communication. These communication units can establish a network communication, such as wireless or wired with the administrator computing device  130  and the server device  140 . In some example embodiments, the image forming device  110  may establish a near field communication with the client computing device  120 , in the image forming system according to aspects of the present invention. 
     A USB keyboard, which can be a soft keyboard which is displayed and connected to a front panel of the image forming device  110 , may enable a user to edit/fill out some fields easily. This can be effective in a case where the user edits/corrects the erred fields on the image forming device  110 . 
     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 8 , the client computing device  120  may be, for example, a mobile computing device and may include a display unit  121 , a memory unit  122 , an application  123 , an image capturing unit  124 , and a CPU  125 . The mobile computing device  120  may include a network communication processing unit  126  and a network communication interface. In some example embodiments, where the client computing device  120  is the mobile computing device, a near field communication processing unit may be implemented as well to communicate with the image forming device  110 . 
     The client computing device  120  may be connected to the network via a wireless connection. The client computing device  120  may include a touch screen through which information can be displayed and user input can be received. In some other example embodiments, the client computing device  120  may include a display and separate input devices. In some embodiments, the mobile computing device  120  may be configured to perform the same or similar operations as that of the administrator computing device  130 . For example, the mobile computing device  120  may generate and/or edit the form document. The client computing device  120  may be, for example, a mobile phone, a smart phone, or a tablet. 
     As noted previously, the error finder module  148  may be on the server device  140 . The error finder module may be configured to use an OCR (optical character recognition) reader and figure out errors by comparing recognized characters and stored example characters&#39; information. 
     The error finder module  148  works as follows. The error finder module may contain a Table 1 such as below: 
     
       
         
           
               
             
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
             
            
               
                   
               
               
                 Form Name = Employee Education form [FRM 13231] 
               
            
           
           
               
               
               
            
               
                   
                 Name 
                 Value 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Employee Name 
                 Cannot be Empty 
               
               
                   
                 Date of Hire 
                 Cannot be Empty 
               
               
                   
                 Position 
                 Cannot be Empty 
               
               
                   
                 . . . 
                 Cannot be Empty 
               
               
                   
                 . . . 
                 Cannot be Empty 
               
               
                   
                 Approved cost of Course 
                 Cannot be Empty 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     When the document form is scanned, the error finder module  148  does an OCR and creates such a Table 1 for all the fields on the form. For example, a comparison of the values will indicate that “Approved Cost of Course” should not/cannot be empty, but in the actual form it is empty. So a red box (or highlighted box or otherwise indicated as being a different box) will be drawn around the field indicating the error. This form with the red box will be printed out by the MFP  110  so that the user will immediately see the validation error. 
     The error finder module  148  may be configured to execute an image comparison tool to figure out errors. In some other example embodiments, the error finder module  148  may be configured to user augmented reality. In this instance, augmented reality is the part which superimposes an image over the actual document. It can fill in the missing fields on the document and show in color over the actual form. 
     TABLE 2 below illustrates a display listing form documents available to the user on the front panel of the image forming device (MFP)  110  instead of using a separate computer. 
     
       
         
           
               
               
               
               
             
               
                   
                 TABLE 2 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 Index 
                 Document Name 
                 Form # 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
            
               
                   
                 1 
                 Employee Education reimbursement 
                 FRM 13231 
               
               
                   
                 2 
                 Travel expense 
                 FRM 2233 
               
               
                   
                 3 
                 Check request form 
                 FRM 3311 
               
               
                   
                 . . . 
                 . . . 
                 . . . 
               
               
                   
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
       FIG. 9  shows an example form document list which would appear on the client computing (mobile display) device  120  of the employee so that the employee is able to select the form document desired using the client computing device  120   FIG. 9  shows another interface from which the forms can be accessed. As the actual location of the form is in the service device  140  as shown in  FIG. 1 , the client computing device  120 . or the MFP  110  front panel can display the same list of forms. 
     After the employee chooses one desired form, the screen of the client computing device  120  will appear as shown in  FIG. 10 . A button can be displayed to prompt the employee to choose auto-fill. In some example embodiments, the user may choose to fill in some fields manually, or automatically, or both. The “verify” button displayed initiates some operations in the error finding process, such as printing, scanning. 
     After the operation of the error finder module  148  is executed, the form document with erred fields highlighted is transmitted by the transmission device  146 , through to the communication unit  149  and may be displayed on the client computing device  120  as shown in  FIG. 11 . 
       FIG. 12  shows a sequence of operations for the form document submission workflow process for finding errors, correcting them and sending an error free form to a supervisor or administrator, according to one embodiment. 
     Initially, the sequence starts by the administrator generating a form document in operation  302  using the administrator computing device  130 . The form document is sent to the server device  140  and stored in operation  304 . For example, an administrator creates, using the administrator computing device  130  the form document, sends, and stores the document on the server device  140 , in some typical example embodiments, on a cloud server, to be ready for future use. The administrator may register information for some fields necessary to be filled out by an employee and also information for the registered fields to be used for the error finder module  148  on the server device  140 . The client computing device  120  then requests initiation of the form submission workflow process, the server device  140  requests log in information from the client computing device  120 , and the employee logs in to the server device  140  using the client computing device  120 . The server device  140  performs an authentication process in operation  306 , and if successful, the server device  140  sends an associated (available to) form list to the client computing device  120  as shown in Table 2 and  FIG. 9 , and the employee selects one of the forms using the client computing device  120 . The server device  140  then sends the selected form to the client computing device  120 , where the employee fills in the required fields in operation  308 . Once completed, the client computing device  120  sends a print request to the image forming device  110 . The image forming device  110  prints out the completed form in operation  310 , the employee signs the printed out form in operation  312  and scans the signed filled out form using the scanner feature of the image forming device  110  in operation  314 . 
     The image forming device  110  sends the executed scanned form to the server device  140  for execution using the error finder module  148  in operation  316 . If there are no errors, the scanned form is then submitted to the administrator computing device  130 . 
     In some example embodiments, a special workflow application can be added to the client computing device  120 . 
     A list of form documents currently available is displayed on, for example, a display unit of the client computing device  120 . In some embodiments, the list may be a list of names of the form with associated information, such as an author, a requester, a date on which the form is created, a due date to submit, an expiration date, etc. In some other example embodiments, the list may display thumbnail images of the available forms. 
     In some example embodiments, one single form document is available and only one form is displayed, or this operation of displaying the list can be skipped. 
     The employee selects one or more form documents to submit via the display unit of the client computing device  120 . If the employee sees the list on the client computing device  120 , the employee may select the form document on the mobile terminal device  120 . 
     The server device  140  sends back the selected form document. In some example embodiments, some information associated with the employee may be sent automatically (see fill fields) (operation  308 ). In some other example embodiments, the employee information may be filled in the selected form document before the form document is sent to the employee. 
     The employee information may include, an employee name, a certain employee number to identify the employee, the employee location, the employee office, an organization identification to which the employee belongs, an identification of a manager/administrator/supervisor for the employee, etc. 
     In some example embodiments, the server device  140  may let the client computing device  120  display the retrieved user information and request the employee to check and edit, if necessary. 
     In some example embodiments, the employee may request the image forming device  110  to generate a print preview of the form document on the display unit  117 . The employee may check the print preview and change the setting configuration to print out the form document (operation  310 ), if necessary. 
     In some other example embodiments, the user may edit the filled out texts/numerals after checking the print preview. 
     These changes may be performed on the employee&#39;s client computing device  120  or display unit  117  of the operation panel  114  of the image forming device  110 . 
     In some example embodiments, the user may check the revised document according to the changed configuration setting and/or edition, if necessary. 
     After printing in operation  310 , in some example embodiments, the image forming device  110  may request the employee to fill in his/her signature in operation  312  by hand writing. In other embodiments, the signature can be done electronically. In parallel, the employee may be requested to fill some other fields in operation  308  for customized items. 
     After filling the signature out, the employee may request the image forming device  110  to scan the signed form in operation  314  and to send the form to the server device  140 . 
     This process of filling the signature in operation  312  can be performed after the error finder module  148  is executed in  316  operation and before submitting the form document to the administrator computing device  130 . 
     The server device  140 , which may be the cloud, or a server on site, may execute the error finder module  148  in operation  316  on the sent form document. 
     In some example embodiments, the cloud server device  140  may notify the image forming device  110  that no error is found. The image forming device  110  may submit the form document to, for example the administrator at the administrator computing device  130 . 
     In some example embodiments, the server device  140  may store respective destination information to submit the form document, associated with the employee and the server device  140  may be configured to submit the form document to the appropriate destination according to the destination information. Once the server device  140  finishes the validation, it can send the success message to the image forming device  110  with the destination address of the form. The image forming device  110  will then email it to that location. 
     In some other example embodiments, the form document may be submitted to the cloud server device  140 . Every form can have a field associated with it called the destination. When the form is stored in the database  150 , the destination entry is also filled out. When the server device  140  receives a completed form, it identifies the form number from a barcode on the form, and after validation, if no errors were found, the server device  140  (and not the MFP  110 ) will email the form to its destination email address. The destination may be a folder, e-mail address, and so on associated with the administrator/manager/supervisor for the employee, which may be retrieved from the employee information from the server device. 
     In some example embodiments, the destination device may send a notice to the employee to notify the employee of safe receipt of the submitted form. The notice may be sent to the image forming device  110  and/or the client computing device  120 . The receipt notice may include information of the destination, or information on the database  150  to store a copy of the submitted form document. This enables the employee to check the submitted form afterward. 
       FIG. 13  shows the workflow process according to a situation when an error is found in the scanned form, in contrast to  FIG. 12  where no error was found in the scanned form. The operations  302 - 316  as described above with reference to  FIG. 12  are the same. However, in this situation the error finder module  148  in the server device  140  may find one or more errors, such as an empty required field, or a value or input that is not within the range allowed by company policy or other set of rules, in operation  318 . The employee is notified of the errors, by, for example, printing the form with highlighting of the erred fields in operation  320  using the image forming device  110 . The employee then corrects the errors, in operation  322  by filling in empty fields or changing values/characters to be in acceptable ranges or using acceptable language. The employee is provided with an option to print out another copy of the form which has everything filled out except for the fields which have an error, so that the employee can fill them out again and scan for validation and repeat the process. The employee generates a print request, by having the scanner function of the image forming device  110  or the client computing device  120  take a scanned image of the revised form and prints out the scanned revised form using the image forming device  110 , signs the revised form, and rescans the revised form in operation  324 . In operation  326 , the server device re-executes the error finding module to check for errors. If no more errors are found, the scanned revised form is sent from the server device  140  to the administrator computing device  130 . 
       FIG. 14  shows the workflow process according to another embodiment, where instead of the administrator computing device  130  generating the form document in operation  302 , the employee generates the form document in the client computing device  120  in operation  402 , sends the form document to the server device  140  and the server device  140  stores the form document in operation  304 . The employee registers the fields necessary to be filled in, registers information to be used by the error finder module  148  and fills in the fields of the form document in operation  406 . The employee generates a print request and sends the same to the image forming device  110 . The image forming device  110  prints out the filled in form in operation  310 , the employee signs the filled in form in operation  312  and scans the same using the image forming device  110  in operation  314 , and sends the scanned form to the server device  140  which executes the error finder module  148  on the scanned form in operation  316 , and if there are no errors, the server device  140  submits the scanned form to the administrator computing device  130 . 
       FIG. 15  shows the workflow process according to still another embodiment, where the mobile computing device of the employee is used as the client computing device  120 . In this instance, the employee initiates the form document submission workflow from the client computing device  120 . In this embodiment, the employee captures the form document after filling in some fields using an embedded camera in the client computing device  120 , and sends the captured image to the server device  140 . The user may extract some employee information to be filled out in the form document from the employee information stored on the client computing device  120 , instead of extracting the employee information from the cloud server  140 . More specifically, the client computing device  120  accesses the server device  140  and the server device  140  performs authentication in operation  502 . If the authentication is successful, the client computing device  120  sends a request form to the server device  140 , and the server device  140  sends the associated form list as shown in  FIG. 9 . The employee selects one of the forms, and the selected form is sent by the server device  140  to the client computing device  120 . The server device  140  sends the selected form to the client computing device  120 , where the employee fills in the required fields without printing out the form. After the fields are filled in, the client computing device  120  sends a print request to the image forming device  110 , which prints out the filled in form in operation  310 ( a ). 
     The client computing device  120  captures the printed form, and sends the captured form to the server device  140  which executes the error finder module  148  in operation  316 . If an error is found in operation  318 , the form is returned to the client computing device  120  with the erred fields highlighted and the employee corrects the erred fields directly using the mobile computing device in operation  322  and sends the corrected form to the server device  140  for the error finder module  148  to be applied again in operation  350 . The server device  140  sends a notice of no error to the mobile computing device  120 , and the client computing device  120  sends a print request to the image forming device  110 . Then, the image forming device  110  prints out the revised form, the employee signs the form in operation  312  and scans the signed form in operation  314 . The scanned form is sent to the client computing device  120 , and the employee then submits the scanned form using the client computing device  120  to the administrator computing device  130 , which sends back a receipt notice to the client computing device  120 . 
       FIG. 16  shows still yet another embodiment where the form submission workflow may be performed without ever actually printing the form. The client computing device  120  and the server device  140  communicate in the same way they did as in the form submission workflow shown in  FIG. 15  through operation  308 . Then, the client computing device  120  sends the filled in form to the server device  140  to execute the operation of the error finder module  148  (operation  316 ) and if the server device  140  finds errors in the form in operation  318 , The server device  140  returns the form with the erred fields highlighted and the employee corrects the erred fields using the mobile computing device  120  in operation  322 . The mobile computing device sends the corrected form back to the server device  140  for re-execution of the operation of the error finder module  148  in operation  350 . If no error is found, the server device  140  sends the mobile computing  120  device a notice of no error with a print preview of the form. The employee then is able to electronically/directly sign his/her name in operation  380 , submits the corrected form to the administrator computing device  130  and the administrator computing device  130  sends back a receipt notice to the mobile computing device  120 . The employee may send the signed form back to the image forming device  110  via the NFC as well. 
     The electronic signature may be performed by using a signed image stored on the mobile terminal device  120  or the server device  140  and be retrieved from these devices. This signing operation also may be performed on the operation panel on the image forming device  110 . 
     This example embodiment may skip, at least, the printing operation for printing the form and the scanning step for scanning the signed form. Although the above diagram shows the example embodiment where the form is submitted to the server device  140 , the destination to submit the form may be any other devices. 
     As shown above, in some embodiments use the image forming device  110 , some use the client computing device  120  and some embodiments use both the image forming device and the client computing device. Therefore, the image forming device  110 , the client computing device  120  or a combination of both of these devices may be referred to as a user accessible device, which the employee may use to implement the various embodiments of the form document system described above. 
     Additional Features 
     In some of the example embodiments noted above, the user information such as user name, identification information, such as employee number, may be filled in the form document before being printed out. 
     In some of the example embodiments noted above, the destination to submit the scanned form document may be placed in the form document automatically when it is scanned. This may be implemented, for example, by specifying the employee and associated information with the employee after the employee logs in to the image forming device  110 . Or this information may be extracted from the server device  140 . 
     In some other of the example embodiments noted above, the printed form document may include a graphical code image, such as a bar code or a QR code, and the code image may have information on the destination associated with the user. Then, after the form document is scanned, the image forming device  110  may decode the graphical code image and know the destination information automatically. 
     Not only the destination to submit the form document to execute the error finder module, but also the destination to finally submit the form document may be specified automatically as above. 
     The receipt notice sent from the destination to notify the client mobile terminal device  120  of the receipt of the submitted form document may include address information to check the actually submitted form document. 
     In some of the example embodiments noted above, the employee may store the used form document in order to reuse later. Or the employee may store the form document on a cloud server associated with the employee. In other embodiments, the employee may set or automatically set a finite lifetime to store the form document. This can be automatically set based on the due date, or on certain days, for example, 10 days, from the due date. 
     Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.