A method for specifying, executing and analyzing method sequences for the recognition of dispatch labels and form entries. In the specification phase, the method sequences are input in graphical form into a computer system as flowcharts with attributes and function details which define the influence of individual variables on the method sequence. Codes are then automatically generated from the flowcharts as an internal representation which is converted by a compiler into a loadable, executable module which is called for each processing step in the handling phase for recognizing the respective dispatch label or form entry. In the handling phase for recognition, information for describing the particular current sequence and the current values of the attributes is written to an attribute file for each processing step. In the analysis phase, the course of processing for each dispatch or each form is displayed in the flowcharts with the attributes together with the associated images of the dispatch labels or form entries.