Does it handle sea waybills and air waybills too?

Yes. Because the columns are inferred from your own documents rather than fixed in advance, a waybill simply produces a different confirmed design from a bill of lading.

Can I match shipments to purchase orders?

Where an order reference is printed on the document it is captured, so the two exports join on that field in your own spreadsheet or database.

What about poor quality scans?

They are read through optical character recognition. Anything the model cannot read confidently is left empty and flagged for review rather than guessed at.

Turn bills of lading into shipment data.

Upload a bill of lading and see the header and every described line in seconds.

Drop your file here.

Upload PDFs, images or documents.

No account needed to try it. No card. Your file is stored in the EU, and never used to train anything.

A bill of lading goes in. Shipment rows come out.

Bill of lading · scan

Meridian Line Services

B/L: MLSU-4417832
Vessel: MV Corsair / 26W
Loading: Felixstowe

MLSU2298417 · 40HC · 18 pallets21,480 kg
MLSU3310772 · 20GP · 9 pallets10,120 kg

B/L no.	Container	Type	Packages	Gross weight
MLSU-4417832	MLSU2298417	40HC	18 pallets	21,480 kg
MLSU-4417832	MLSU3310772	20GP	9 pallets	10,120 kg

Both containers on this bill, each carrying the B/L number. Invented carrier, invented container numbers.

How it works

1. Upload
Add PDFs, scans, images or documents.
2. Structure
Datanem works out the columns from the page itself and turns the useful information into clean rows.
3. Use it
Download the data as a spreadsheet, or carry on working with it in Datanem.

Create an account to customise the columns and save the design for future batches.

That worked. Now make it yours.

A free account is where you choose what gets extracted, instead of taking what the first read gave you.

Choose the exact fields
Rename, remove or add columns until the table is the one you wanted, then extract against it.
Save the design and reuse it
Next month's pile goes through the same columns without designing anything again.
Process whole batches
Up to 250 files in one go, and one row per document at the end of it.
Export the finished dataset
Excel and CSV, plus SQL, JSON, JSONL and Python for anything that has to load it automatically.

Start free

20 documents to start. No card.

For freight and logistics

Bills of lading as structured shipment data

A bill of lading is dense, legally significant and formatted differently by every carrier and forwarder that issues one. The container numbers, the marks, the gross weight and the described packages all matter, and all of it gets retyped into a freight system by somebody reading a fax-quality scan.

Datanem reads the batch and gives you the header and every described line as data, so the shipment can be checked against the booking rather than against a squint.

Columns you can expect

There is no fixed template for this document type. Datanem reads your own documents and proposes columns like these; inside an account you can rename, remove or add any of them and save the design for future batches.

Bill of lading number
Carrier
Shipper
Consignee
Notify party
Vessel and voyage
Port of loading
Port of discharge
Container number
Seal number
Marks and numbers
Package count and description
Gross weight

Reference numbers are where accuracy actually matters

A container number or a bill of lading number that is one character out is worse than a blank, because it looks right. Every extracted value is checked against the text of the document itself, and anything that does not appear there verbatim is flagged.

Optical character recognition tends to space out short codes, so a container number can come back with gaps in it. Datanem accounts for that when checking, which means a genuine match is not flagged as a suspect one.

The design comes from your carriers

There is no built-in bill of lading design. Datanem samples a few of yours, proposes the columns it can see, and in an account waits for you to confirm them before extracting the rest of the batch. Once confirmed the design is saved and reused.

Weights and package counts are read as printed rather than converted, because a unit conversion applied silently is a claim waiting to happen.

Formats and limits

PDF, DOCX, DOC, TXT, PNG, JPEG and WebP, up to 10 MB per file and up to 250 files in one batch. Scans and photographs go through optical character recognition first.

Export as Excel, CSV or SQL. Files and extracted data are stored in the EU and deleted on your plan's retention schedule.

Your structured data isn't locked inside Datanem

Once it's structured, the data is yours. Take it to a spreadsheet, a database or a script.

Excel— one sheet per table, ready to open.

CSV
SQL
JSON
JSONL
Python

Where your document goes

It is stored in the EU
Uploads sit in an EU-only bucket and the database is EU-constrained. Neither leaves. Reading the document is done by a French provider whose standard endpoint does not commit to an inference location, so that step may run outside the EEA: the detail is on the security page.
It is deleted
Uploads and the data drawn from them are removed automatically after 30 days on the free plan, longer on paid plans. You can delete a job yourself at any point before that, and the file leaves storage immediately when you do.
It never trains a model
We have no training pipeline. Our extraction provider offers training as an opt-out and we have opted out, so your content is excluded.
Nothing here is a certification
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office and the measures above are the ones actually in place. We hold no security certification and do not claim one.

Security & privacy · Privacy notice · Sub-processors · Data processing

What it costs

What can I do for free?: One document with no account at all, which is the trial at the top of this page. Create a free account and you get 20 documents to start with, then 10 a month after that, for ever. No card either way.
What uses it up?: Documents, not pages and not fields. A file of up to 10 pages counts as one document; a longer one counts as another document per 10 pages, so a 30-page statement counts as three.
What happens when the free documents run out?: Nothing is deleted and nothing is charged. Extraction stops until the monthly allowance resets, you buy credit, or you take a plan.
What is the first paid option?: Starter, at £9 a month for 150 documents. Monthly, no contract.
Is there pay as you go?: Yes. £0.20 per document with no subscription, bought from 25 upwards. Bought documents do not expire.
What are the limits on a file?: Up to 10 MB per file and up to 250 files in one batch. PDFs, Word documents, plain text and photographs; scans go through optical character recognition first.

Full pricing, including what each plan keeps and how long files are held.

Questions

Does it handle sea waybills and air waybills too?: Yes. Because the columns are inferred from your own documents rather than fixed in advance, a waybill simply produces a different confirmed design from a bill of lading.
Can I match shipments to purchase orders?: Where an order reference is printed on the document it is captured, so the two exports join on that field in your own spreadsheet or database.
What about poor quality scans?: They are read through optical character recognition. Anything the model cannot read confidently is left empty and flagged for review rather than guessed at.