Auto-Fill Payee and Memo From Check Images, Docs

When a bank statement includes images of cleared checks (common on Bank of America small-business statements, TD Bank, and a handful of community banks), DocuClipper now reads those check images during the normal statement extraction and uses them to auto-fill the payee and memo on the matching Check #1234 rows. No extra upload, no second job, no manual lookup.

This page explains what enrichment does, how to spot it in the project view, and what to do when a row you expected to be enriched comes back blank.

What gets enriched automatically

During a bank-statement conversion, DocuClipper:

Scans every page for MICR text (the magnetic line at the bottom of a check). This is a cheap pass and runs on every job.
If MICR is found, runs the check-image extractor on just those pages.
Matches each extracted check to a transaction row using check number + amount. The match window is ±90 days from the statement period.
Writes the parsed payee into the row's description and the memo into the memo field.
Tags the row with a From check image badge so you can tell auto-filled rows apart from the original OCR.

The match is account-aware: when both the check's MICR account number and the bank statement's account header carry digits, the last 4 digits must match. DocuClipper will never copy a payee from one account onto a transaction belonging to another, even within the same upload.

Seeing enrichment in the project view

Open any project that has a converted statement with check images. In the transactions table:

A blue From check image badge appears on every enriched row.
Click the badge to open a popover with the parsed payee, memo, and the source check image reference.
The popover has a Remove enrichment button. Clicking it reverts the row to its original OCR description and memo. It does not delete the check image or the transaction itself; it only unlinks the two.

Screenshot 1: TreeView project view with the Transactions table open, showing several Check #1234, Check #1235, Check #1236 rows. The first two have a "From check image" badge; the last one does not. Description column reads "Smith & Co" for the enriched rows.

Screenshot 2: Same view with the badge popover open on Check #1234. Popover shows: payee "Smith & Co", memo "March rent", a small thumbnail of the check image, and a "Remove enrichment" button.

Uploading check images separately

You don't have to upload check images on the same statement. If you scan a stack of paper checks and upload them as a separate Check Images job (Add Documents → Check Images), DocuClipper will still link them to bank-statement rows in the same login or team account. The matcher uses the same (check number, amount, ±90 day window, account last 4) rule across documents.

This is useful when:

Your bank stopped printing check images on statements but you keep paper copies.
You're reconstructing several months of history and want to enrich older statements after the fact.
You're working on behalf of a client and you have the statement and the checks as separate scans.

For details on the standalone flow, see Converting Check Images.

When a row stays blank

Most large banks no longer print cleared check images on statements. Chase, for example, points users to chase.com to view check images. On those statements DocuClipper finds nothing to enrich, and that's expected behavior — not a missed extraction. The Check #1234 row will keep whatever description came from the OCR pass on the statement itself.

A row can also stay blank when:

The check number on the statement and the check number on the image disagree (rare, usually an OCR slip).
The amount was edited on either side after extraction. The matcher uses the current value, so editing breaks the link.
The check is older than 90 days from the statement period. This bound exists so we don't pair a $250 check from last year with a $250 check from this year.
The statement covers one account but the check images are from another. Cross-account pairings are deliberately blocked.

If you think a row should have been enriched and wasn't, check the check images themselves first — open the source PDF and confirm the check number and amount match the row exactly.

Removing or replacing enrichment

Click the From check image badge → Remove enrichment. The row goes back to its OCR description and the badge disappears. The check image record stays in the project; you can re-enrich later by re-running the match (re-uploading the same files works), or by editing the row's check number or amount to fix whatever broke the original match.

FAQ

Does enrichment cost extra credits? No. The MICR detection pass runs on every bank statement at no extra cost. The check-image extractor only runs on pages that already passed the MICR check, so you're not paying for a second job.

My Chase statement didn't get any payees auto-filled. Is this broken? No. Chase statements no longer include check images; they direct customers to view checks online instead. There's nothing for DocuClipper to extract. Most large U.S. banks behave the same way. Banks that still print cleared check thumbnails on the statement (Bank of America small-business, TD Bank, several regional banks) get auto-fill out of the box.

Auto-fill didn't run on a statement that I know has check images. Why? Auto-detection looks for either a "Check images" header in the OCR or 2-3+ similarly-sized check thumbnails on the same page. If a statement has only one check on a page, or scanned the check section badly, the detector may miss it. Scan or photograph the check pages and upload them as a separate Check Images job (see "Uploading check images separately"); the matcher will link them to the corresponding statement rows automatically.

What if I edit the amount on a transaction row after enrichment? The link is exact on amount, so editing either side breaks the match. The badge will be removed automatically the next time the project is reprocessed. If you need the link back, restore the original amount or use the standalone Check Images flow.

Can I disable enrichment? There's no project-wide toggle today. If you want a row's original OCR description back, click Remove enrichment on that row. We may add a per-project setting if there's demand — let us know via support.

Does this work for personal checks I'm scanning myself? Yes — upload them as a Check Images job (see above). As long as the check number and amount match a transaction row in another job in the same account, within ±90 days, DocuClipper will link them.