1. A process for recognizing a document type and understanding at least a portion of the contents thereof, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a document in electronic form; (b) determining a set of facts, data and information about the document; (c) providing the set of facts, data and information to a reasoning management unit; (d) receiving formatted knowledge from a rule verification, validation and management unit; (e) using the formatted knowledge to prepare an expert system having an inference engine; (f) matching the facts, data and information against formatted knowledge using the inference engine and determining a set of applicable rules; and (g) executing actions of applicable rules.