Scan a receipt to PDF on your phone

What you’ll do

• A crumpled receipt under indoor light is the job this page is for. Smooth it, lay it on a darker surface, and scan it with Priceory Scan. The download is a flat PDF. Nothing is uploaded.
• B&W is the usual clean-up. Searchable text is optional and best on clear printed English. A faded thermal total may be missed. The picture of the slip is still saved.
• Amounts in a spreadsheet are Clean Ledger Receipts, a separate next step. This door does not build the table.

How to

1. 1

   Capture

   Photograph each page, or choose photos you already took. Nothing is uploaded.

2. 2

   Adjust

   We find the page edges and flatten them. Drag a corner if it is off.

3. 3

   Enhance

   Pick B&W, Grayscale, or Color boost.

4. 4

   Export

   Save a PDF or JPG. Searchable text and a size target are optional.

Crumpled, faded, or long receipts

Smooth the receipt with your hands. It does not need to be ironed. Lay it on a darker surface so the edges show. Light from above. If your phone casts a shadow on the bottom third, that is a normal indoor shot, and the clean-up pass is there to lift it. A long slip can be one frame if the whole slip fits, or two pages if it does not.

Thermal paper fades. A pale total may not become crisp type. The page image still keeps what the camera saw. Searchable text may miss a faint line. Read the total yourself before you rely on the text layer.

Step by step

Open Scan to PDF. Photograph the receipt or choose the photo. Check the corners. Pick B&W for a plain receipt. Color boost if a stamp or a colored logo must stay. Export a PDF. Turn on searchable text if you want to find the total later. Pick 1 MB or 2 MB if a portal asked for a small file.

The flattened page should be upright and rectangular. Creases may still show. They should not erase the merchant line or the total. If the edge is wrong, drag it. The tool does not silently crop to a wrong box without saying Check corners.

B&W or Color boost

B&W is the usual receipt look: even light, then black and white, so item lines read at arm's length. Color boost keeps a red stamp and a logo. Use it when the color is the point. Grayscale is the middle path when a pencil note sits on the slip and you want the grey kept.

Searchable receipts

English printed totals are the case the text layer handles best. A faded thermal line may be missed. The page is still saved as an image. Handwriting on the slip stays in the picture and is not scored as text. We do not promise to read it.

Expense portal limits

Many portals ask for 1 MB or 2 MB. Set that target before export. Under target means the file fits. Closest we can get means it does not, and the reason is on the page. Do not send a file that only pretends to be small.

From receipt to spreadsheet

Priceory Scan does not turn amounts into table rows. Clean Ledger Receipts is that next step, and it is a separate tool. Scan first if the paper is still a crumpled photo. Then open Receipts if you need rows. Several receipts can be pages of one PDF. That is one export and one Free use.

When the tool says no

A PDF of a receipt you already have is OCR PDF or Compress PDF, not a new scan. An empty file is refused. If the phone is low on memory, export the pages you have and start another scan. The cap is 20 pages on Free and 100 on every plan.

After the download, open the PDF and read the merchant line, the date, and the total at a normal phone size. If a character is broken by a crease, retake that page before you send it. The picture is the record. The text layer is a helper. Several slips in one PDF are still one document and one Free use. A second download of that same file does not spend another use. Start a new scan when the next errand is a different packet. A portal that wants one megabyte gets the 1 MB target. A portal that wants two gets 2 MB. If the closest file is still larger, the page says so, and you can switch to B&W or drop a second slip into the next scan.

Tips

• Contrast the slip against the table.
• Check the total at 100% before you send the PDF.

When the tool says no

• This door does not write spreadsheet rows.
• We don't claim offline use.

Next

Download the file and open it in an ordinary reader before you send it.

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