Patent ID: 7706914

Claim:
A method for processing documents to archive documents in containers, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of containers; assigning a unique identification code to each container, wherein the identification codes are assigned so that each container has a unique identification code that is different from the other identification codes assigned to the containers; reading the identification code on a container; inputting the identification code into a document processing apparatus; scanning a plurality of documents using the document processing apparatus to obtain image data for the documents; tagging the documents with data relating to the identification code to create a correlation between the tagged documents and the identification code to facilitate identification of the container so that the document can be retrieved from the container after the documents have been placed into the container; conveying the scanned documents to one or more output bins; removing the documents from the output bins and placing the documents into the container; archiving the container with the tagged documents within the container; creating a database that correlates the identification code for a container with the image data for the documents that are placed into the container; identifying a document to be retrieved from a container that has been archived; using the database to identify which of the containers contains the document; and retrieving the identified document from the identified container.