Grounding is missing
Can't see where a value came from in the source document?
Why grounding may be unavailable
Value was calculated
Grounding only shows for values directly extracted from document text. Calculated values (totals, percentages, derived fields) won't have grounding.
Examples of calculated values:
- Sum of line items
- Tax percentage
- Duration between dates
Poor OCR quality
If the source document is a low-quality scan, OCR may have failed to recognize the text properly.
Signs of OCR issues:
- Extracted value has typos
- Numbers are slightly wrong
- Text appears garbled
Value doesn't appear verbatim
The extracted value may be formatted differently in the document:
| Extracted | Document shows |
|---|---|
1000.00 | 1,000.00 |
January 15, 2024 | 01/15/2024 |
Acme Corporation | ACME CORP |
Multi-page values
If a value spans multiple pages or is assembled from multiple locations, grounding may not be available.
What to do if grounding is missing
Add grounding manually
You can manually draw grounding directly on the document:
- Click on the cell with missing grounding
- In the PDF preview, click Select grounding (or use the selection tool)
- Draw a box around the value in the document
- The grounding is saved automatically
This creates visual proof just like automatic grounding.
Manual verification (if grounding not possible)
If you can't add grounding (e.g., value doesn't appear in document):
- Open the source document
- Verify the value is correct in context
- Add a comment in the cell to document your verification
Improving grounding availability
- Use higher quality scans — 300 DPI, good contrast
- Prefer native PDFs — over scanned images
- Standardize document formats — when possible
Grounding is provided when possible, but some values legitimately can't be grounded. This doesn't mean the extraction is wrong — just that visual proof isn't available.