How receipts are read

After a scan or an import, AceMoney Receipts reads the picture and fills in the receipt for you. Here is what it reads, where that happens, and what to do when a field comes back wrong.

What the app reads

Payee: the merchant name, matched against a built-in list of well-known merchants and against the payees of your own receipts. A close match shows the “Did you mean …?” hint.
Amount ($): the total.
Date: the receipt date; if none is found, today’s date is used.
Subtotal and tax, used only to double-check the total. If they do not add up, a hint under Amount ($) asks you to double-check it.
The card type and last four digits, used to fill in Account once you have saved a receipt with that card and an account.
On Receipts Pro with Extract Item List on: the purchased items, placed in Comment one per line.

Everything is a suggestion. Check the fields on the New Receipt page and tap Save.

Where the reading happens

On the free plan

The receipt is read on your phone. Nothing is sent anywhere to read it unless you tap Sharpen with Cloud on a saved receipt (see Sharpen a misread receipt with Cloud); the picture is uploaded to your account only when you save, so that the receipt is there when you sign in on another device or on the web version.

On Receipts Pro

Every new receipt is sent to the reading service in the cloud, which reads it with higher accuracy and can extract the item list. If the service returns nothing (for example without a connection, or after the monthly allowance is used up), the phone reader runs instead, so a receipt is never left unread.

The picture and what the phone already read are sent through MechCAD’s servers to the reading service. See Privacy and security.

On the web version

The web version has no camera and receipts are typed in, so nothing is read there.

The monthly allowance on Receipts Pro

Automatic reading by the reading service is included with Receipts Pro up to 250 scans a month, a fair-use allowance. More > Settings > Capture & OCR > Automatic cloud reading shows “Used 12 of 250 scans this month”. The count resets at the start of each month. Once it is used up, new receipts are read on the phone until the next month; scanning, editing and saving are not affected. Editing a saved receipt does not use the allowance; only new receipts do.

Turn the item list on or off

More > Settings > Capture & OCR > Extract Item List (“List purchased items in the comment”). It is on by default on Receipts Pro. Turn it off if you prefer an empty Comment field.

Get better results

Lay the receipt flat on a plain, dark surface, and smooth out folds.
Capture the whole receipt: the store name at the top and the total at the bottom. A cut-off total is the most common reason for a blank Amount ($).
Use daylight or room light, not the flash: glossy thermal paper reflects the flash and hides the numbers.
Keep the phone parallel to the paper and hold still until the scanner captures.
Scan a long receipt as several pages rather than shrinking it into one frame (see Scan a receipt).
Scan faded thermal receipts soon; the print disappears within months.
The reader is designed for English-language receipts and amounts in US dollars.

Fix a field the reader got wrong

On New Receipt (or later on Edit Receipt), tap the field and type the right value.
For the payee, accept the “Did you mean” hint with Yes when it is right, or type the name. The app remembers new names and offers them next time.
For the total, compare with the paper; the reader sometimes picks a line item or the subtotal.
Tap Save.

The app learns payee, category and account names from what you save, so corrections make the next receipt better.

Common questions

Does the free plan read receipts at all?

Yes. The free plan reads the payee, total and date on the phone. Receipts Pro adds the reading service, which is more accurate and reads item lists.

Why is Pro more accurate?

The reading service reads the whole receipt in context, which handles unusual layouts, faint print and item lists better than the phone reader.

Does Pro send every receipt to the reading service?

Yes, every new receipt with a picture, within the monthly allowance. Receipts you create with Manual Entry have no picture and are not sent. There is no setting that keeps Pro reading on the phone only.

Does reading work in other languages or currencies?

The app is in English and amounts are in US dollars. Receipts in another language or currency can still be scanned, but expect to fill in the fields and convert the amount yourself.

Where do I see how many scans I have used?

More > Settings > Capture & OCR > Automatic cloud reading.

Troubleshooting

Every field is blank. The picture was unreadable: too dark, blurry, cut off or skewed. Retake with the tips above, or type the fields.
The total is wrong. The reader picked another line. Fix Amount ($) by hand; the subtotal-plus-tax hint helps to spot it.
The date is today instead of the receipt date. No date was found on the paper. Tap Date and pick it.
The payee is a street or a slogan. The store name was not in the frame or was printed as a logo. Type it; the app remembers it.
“Processing Receipt…” takes long on Pro. The reading service needs a connection; on a weak one the phone reader takes over after a while. Wait, or retry on a better connection.
“Used … of 250” does not change. The counter counts receipts read by the reading service; a receipt read on the phone (offline, or after the allowance) does not count.