A receipt scanner for bookkeepers

Every bookkeeper knows the routine: chasing clients for receipts all month, then getting them all at once, in a bag, a folder or a shoebox. A shoebox of receipts is not a filing system, but it's what arrives, and typing it in is the least valuable hour of your week.

Bulk Receipt Scanner reads several receipts in one photo and gives each back as its own record: up to 8 receipts in a photo and up to 15 photos in a batch, so up to 120 receipts at a time. You review them, then download a clean CSV or send them into QuickBooks Online as expenses with the receipt image attached.

From a client's pile to clean data

1. Lay out and photograph. Spread the receipts on a plain, dark surface with a little space between them, and take one photo of the group. Each receipt is found and turned upright on its own, even sideways or upside down.
2. Review the batch. Each receipt comes back with its own cut-out image beside its details, so you check the figures against the paper without hunting through the whole photo.
3. Export or send. Download a CSV for any client, or send to the QuickBooks Online company you've connected.

What you get for each receipt

• The header: vendor, date, subtotal, tax, total, payment method and receipt number.
• Every line item, with its description, quantity, unit price and line total, and the amount tendered and change due when the receipt prints them.
• A suggested expense category, which you can change.

Line items matter when one receipt covers two kinds of spending. The detailed CSV gives one row per line item, and with QuickBooks connected you can give individual lines their own category, so one receipt goes in as one expense with a line per category and the total exact.

Caught before it hits the ledger

The point of a review is to catch a problem before it's in the books, not at month end. Every receipt gets these checks:

• The arithmetic. Line items against the subtotal, subtotal plus tax against the total, and the amount tendered against the total plus any change. A receipt that doesn't add up is flagged; no figure is ever quietly changed to make the sums work.
• Doubtful fields. Fields read with less confidence are marked. In your account, a second, independent check looks again at the date and money fields and highlights the spot on the receipt image when a figure may be wrong.
• Possible duplicates. A receipt that matches one already saved in the same account, with the same vendor, date, total and currency, is flagged, and you can compare the two side by side. A flagged receipt isn't sent to QuickBooks until you decide it's not a duplicate.
• Already sent. A receipt that was already sent to the connected QuickBooks company is skipped, so a second send doesn't enter it twice.

You still check every receipt; any reader can misread one. The flags tell you where to look first. When a receipt is wrong, correct it by hand or reread just that one receipt, up to 3 times.

QuickBooks Online: one company at a time

Be clear on this before you plan around it. Today, one account connects to one QuickBooks Online company at a time. To send to a different company, you disconnect and connect the other one. Each company's payment account and category setup is remembered for when you reconnect it, so you don't redo the setup, but there is no quick switch between client files, and every receipt you scan sits in the same receipts list whichever company is connected. Check which company is connected before you send.

For one client's QuickBooks file, that's simple: connect it once, and each receipt goes in as an expense, dated, with the vendor matched to the client's vendors or added, the category set, and the image attached. If the client's card charges already come in from a bank feed, the Match card charges page pairs receipts with those charges and attaches the image instead of adding a second expense.

Every other client: the CSV route

For the clients you don't connect, use the CSV exports, on any plan:

• QuickBooks-ready: the three-column layout (date, description, amount) QuickBooks Online accepts when you upload transactions from a file, with the vendor as the description and the amount negative for a purchase, because a receipt is money going out.
• General: one row per receipt with date, vendor, subtotal, tax, total, category, payment method and receipt number, for a spreadsheet or any software that imports one.
• Line items: one row per line item.

You can export the whole receipts list or a filtered view. A CSV carries the figures, not the receipt images; only the direct QuickBooks send attaches the image.

When the client does the scanning

A client can open their own account and scan their own receipts on their phone or computer; their own account connects their own QuickBooks company. If the client has staff, the Team plan lets up to 10 people scan into one shared workspace for $99/month, and the team's admin reviews everyone's receipts, exports them with a column showing who scanned each one, or sends them to QuickBooks. The client's account, exports and QuickBooks connection stay theirs.

The partner program

If your clients would use this, you can earn on it. Bookkeepers and CPAs can apply to the partner program and get a referral link. You earn 25% of every payment we collect from the clients you refer, for as long as they keep paying, and your clients pay less, not more: $190 a year instead of $209.

Each commission is held 35 days so refunds can settle, and we pay by PayPal or Zelle once your balance reaches $25. Every application is reviewed; commission starts once you're approved.

The honest limits

• One QuickBooks Online company connected at a time, as above.
• Sending is for QuickBooks Online; QuickBooks Desktop users work from the CSV.
• A receipt with no date or no total, a refund with a negative total, or a receipt in a currency other than US dollars isn't sent to QuickBooks; each still exports to CSV.
• A free account scans 20 photos a month; Individual, at $19/month, has no monthly photo limit.

Questions about plans? See pricing .