Scan receipts with your iPhone: how ReceiptBook reads and files them

A shoebox of receipts turns into a problem at the end of the quarter, when your accountant asks for everything at once. ReceiptBook moves that work to the moment you get the receipt: scan it, glance at what was read, confirm it. When the period ends, the documents are already sorted and ready to export. Scanning and reading are free.

Four ways to add a document

Everything starts from the round + button on the Inbox (its accessibility label is Add a document). The menu offers:

You can also share a PDF from Mail or Files straight to ReceiptBook, or photograph receipts from the Lock Screen. Those routes are covered in sharing PDFs and importing folders and Lock Screen capture.

What ReceiptBook reads

For each document the app looks for the vendor, the date, the total, the net amount, the VAT or sales tax (several rates on one receipt are supported), the currency, the invoice number, the vendor's tax ID and the payment method (Card, Cash, Bank transfer or Other). It also decides whether the document is a Receipt, an Invoice or a Credit note, and whether it is an expense or income.

It uses the best source it has. An XML e-invoice is read exactly. A PDF with a text layer is read from that text. A photo or scan is read with Apple's on-device text recognition. Each field then shows where its value came from, such as Read from scan, Read from PDF or From e-invoice, and tapping a field shows Where it was read on the original.

Nothing is guessed silently

Receipts fade, crumple and get printed on thermal paper. ReceiptBook doesn't hide that. When a value falls below the confidence it trusts, the field gets an amber Check badge and the document stays out of Looks right. If the vendor, date or total was hard to read, you'll see Hard to read with the advice to check them against the original.

Some issues keep a document out of Looks right until you look at it: No total found, No date found, VAT doesn't add up and Date is in the future. A missing total is the only one that stops filing altogether; for the others you can compare with the original and use Confirm anyway. Warnings such as Looks like a duplicate appear when another document has the same vendor, date and total. The Check badges post explains each one.

Filing and what comes next

Confirmed documents move to the Book tab, sorted into the period you chose (monthly, quarterly or yearly) with totals and a breakdown of Where it went by category. When the period is done, the Export tab builds the files for your accountant: an accountant package ZIP with a CSV, a PDF report, every original and a SHA-256 manifest. That export needs ReceiptBook Pro; the accountant package post shows what is inside.

FAQ

Download ReceiptBook and file today's receipts before they fade.