Photograph receipts from the Lock Screen, Control Center and Camera Control

The best moment to capture a receipt is the second the cashier hands it to you. The worst moment is three weeks later, when the thermal print has faded and you can't remember what the lunch was for. ReceiptBook shortens the gap by putting a receipt camera one press away from the Lock Screen, so you don't have to unlock, find the app and tap through to the scanner while someone waits behind you at the till.

Where you can start it

The feature is one system camera extension called Scan receipt, with several doors into it:

The control's description in the gallery sums it up: it photographs receipts, also from the Lock Screen, and nothing in ReceiptBook can be seen from there. If you prefer a Home Screen shortcut, the Spend and scan widget has its own scan button; the widget and Shortcuts post covers it.

What the Lock Screen camera can and can't do

The camera extension is deliberately small. It shows the camera, a shutter, a counter that says Photos taken with the number so far, and a button to open ReceiptBook. The note at the top reads that photos stay on this iPhone and go to your Inbox when you open ReceiptBook.

It cannot show your receipts, your totals or even the photos you just took. That is a privacy choice: anyone can press a Lock Screen control, so the extension never touches your book. The photos sit in a holding folder that only the system and ReceiptBook can reach, and they move into the app when you open it. Opening the app needs your iPhone unlocked, and Face ID as well if you turned on Lock with Face ID.

One go holds up to 60 photos. At the limit the camera says that's as many as one go can hold and asks you to open ReceiptBook to file them. Sixty is plenty for a work trip or a market day; if you have a bigger stack at your desk, the folder import or the in-app scanner is the better tool.

What happens when you open the app

When ReceiptBook opens, it collects the waiting photos, oldest first, and adds them to the Inbox. A short notice tells you how many were added. Each photo is kept unchanged as the original and read on the device: vendor, date, total, VAT or sales tax, currency, payment method and the rest.

From there it is the normal flow. Photos that read cleanly land in Looks right, ready to confirm. Anything uncertain goes to Needs a look with an amber Check badge. The Inbox post explains the sections, and Check badges and field sources explains what each mark means.

Lock Screen photo or in-app scan?

The Lock Screen camera takes plain photos. The in-app Scan a receipt option uses the iPhone document scanner, which finds the edges, straightens the page and can join several pages into one PDF. On iOS 26 the scanner also checks for a smudged lens and asks Clean the lens? before it saves, with Scan again or Save anyway. That check belongs to the in-app scanner; Lock Screen photos are saved as you take them.

So use the Lock Screen for speed (one receipt at the counter, a taxi receipt on the way out) and the scanner for long invoices, crumpled paper or anything you want straightened. The multi-page post covers the scanner's page and receipt prompts.

FAQ

Download ReceiptBook and put a receipt camera on your Lock Screen.