Tips for Scanning your Receipts Using your Smartphone

Automatic receipt data extraction and expense categorization in modern receipt scanner and expense tracker apps depend on OCR (optical character recognition for reading) and AI (for understanding content), enabling smartphones to automatically extract relevant information from scanned receipts.

What is OCR and AI?

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) teaches computers to read text from images. When you scan a receipt with SparkReceipt, OCR technology converts the picture into digitized text, enabling two benefits: searchability within the full document and the ability to feed text to language-based AI for deeper understanding.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) refers to computer programs that learn and improve over time rather than following preset rules. SparkReceipt uses OpenAI's ChatGPT, one of the most advanced language-based AI systems available today.

How OCR and AI Make Receipt Scanning Better

The technologies work in tandem:

• Reading Your Receipts: OCR converts receipt images into digitized text, making documents searchable and preparing content for AI analysis
• Making Sense of It All: AI interprets the digitized text to identify merchants, prices, taxes, and purchased items

Why Should You Aim for Clear and Easily Legible Receipt Scans

Although receipt scanner apps use advanced OCR technologies, they perform optimally with clear scans. The better your scans, the better the AI is able to auto-extract all necessary information from expenses. Modern technologies provide strong auto-corrections for minor mistakes.

Receipt Scanning Tips

Choose a Flat Surface

Prevent unnecessary skew by selecting a flat surface when possible. While photos taken on your lap or hand typically work fine, ensure the picture remains sharp and free from camera shake blur.

Positioning the Receipt

Take photos directly above the receipt while keeping lines horizontally level. Although the app detects receipt lines and auto-rotates for OCR, manual alignment ensures maximum readability consistently.

Optimize Lighting

Ensure adequate illumination, particularly with less expensive phones. Activate the flashlight from camera view if needed and avoid casting large shadows across the receipt before capturing.

Take the Picture While the Receipt is Still New

Receipts fade, crumble, and lose clarity quickly. Scanning immediately after receiving prevents deterioration that could render them illegible even to advanced OCR technologies, potentially causing you to miss tax deductions.

Straighten Crumbled Receipts

If receipts are already damaged, straightening them before scanning improves automatic results by minimizing reading errors and reducing the guesswork AI needs to interpret the content.

Crop Receipt to Edges

While not strictly required, cropping receipts to their edges before accepting scans allows the app to perform perspective correction and deskew the image before reading.

Rescan if Necessary

Retake blurry pictures, as OCR likely cannot read them properly, leaving AI with insufficient data. Blurry receipts may not qualify for tax deductions if information isn't clearly visible.

Prefer Digital Receipts When Possible

Major chains including Apple Stores, Starbucks, and Target offer digital receipt options. These can be added directly to the app as PDF files or forwarded from email.

Conclusion

The clearer your scans are, the better the OCR and AI technologies can work to auto-extract and categorize your expenses. Modern iPhone and Android receipt scanner apps optimize your phone's camera capabilities. Following these techniques sets you up for successful receipt scanning.