Method and apparatus for instant scanning and processing of a document

A scanning device for automatically scanning and processing a document, comprising:

• a port for communicating with a portable memory device having a file system having a folder of a designated name;
• an image sensor;
• a processing device communicatively coupled to the port and the image sensor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing program instructions that are configured to, when executed, cause the processing device to:
• detect a trigger event, wherein detecting the trigger event comprises detecting that the portable memory device is communicatively connected to the port,
• upon detecting the trigger event, automatically retrieve a scan instruction from the folder of the designated name on the portable memory device, the scan instruction comprising at least one scan setting,
• automatically cause the image sensor to scan a physical document and generate a digital document file corresponding to the scanned document based on at least the retrieved scan instruction, and
• perform a processing action on the digital document file based on at least the retrieved scan instruction.