Doctor's notes from 900 drivers used to travel by hand, fax, and depot pigeonhole. Now employees snap a photo on WhatsApp; OCR extracts dates and diagnosis codes, books the absence in the HRIS, updates payroll, and archives the original.
Typical results
30 sec
Employee effort
94%
Notes auto-processed
100%
Archived per regulation
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
Nine hundred drivers across five depots handed sick notes to shift supervisors, who forwarded them to HR — eventually. Absences were recorded same-day only 12% of the time, clerks spent twenty hours a week typing and filing, and payroll ran 35 corrections a month for sick days recorded late, wrong, or not at all.
Before and after
Weekly sick-leave admin
−80%Absences recorded same day
7.8×Payroll corrections
−83%The automation
We opened a WhatsApp line where a driver photographs the doctor's note and gets a confirmation. OCR extracts the dates, physician details, and diagnosis code; the flow validates them against the employee record and the shift roster, books the absence in the HRIS, and pushes the adjustment to payroll. Originals are stamped and archived per transport-sector regulation, and blurry or inconsistent notes route to a clerk for a quick look.
How it works
- 01
Snap and send
The driver photographs the doctor's note on WhatsApp and gets an instant receipt.
- 02
OCR extraction
Dates, physician details and diagnosis codes are read and structured automatically.
- 03
Validate and book
Data is checked against the employee record and roster, then booked in the HRIS.
- 04
Payroll and archive
Payroll receives the adjustment; the original is archived to regulation standards.
- 05
Exceptions only
Blurry or inconsistent notes route to a clerk — about one in seventeen.
Starts from
- Photo of doctor's note
- WhatsApp upload
Delivers
- HRIS absence record
- Payroll adjustment
- Regulatory archive
The impact
Sick-leave admin dropped 80% — from twenty clerk-hours a week to four. 94% of notes process without a human touching them, same-day recording jumped from 12% to 94%, and monthly payroll corrections fell from 35 to six. Drivers get confirmation in thirty seconds instead of wondering whether the note arrived.
Questions about this automation
How does an employee submit a sick note?
The employee photographs the doctor's note and sends it to a dedicated WhatsApp number. The automation replies with a receipt right away, reads the image with OCR and sends a final confirmation once the absence is booked. No app download or login is needed, which suits staff who work away from a desk.
What information is extracted and checked?
OCR pulls the absence dates, physician details and diagnosis code from the note. The automation then checks the dates against the employee record and the shift roster, books the absence in the HRIS and sends the matching adjustment to payroll. The original image is archived with the record.
What happens with a blurry or unclear note?
Notes that fail a confidence check, such as a blurry photo, missing dates or a mismatch with the roster, go to an HR clerk's queue with the image and the extracted fields side by side. The employee can be asked for a clearer photo in the same WhatsApp chat. Simple automations like this are usually live within days.