Capture a receipt with the iPhone camera
Photograph the receipt. Pippin reads the vendor, date and total on the device, and you correct what it got wrong.
Before you start
An Expense is a cost you paid directly, with no Bill in between — the parking, the cable, the lunch. A cost that arrives as an invoice from a supplier is a Bill instead.
The reading is done on the device. The image does not go anywhere to be interpreted, and everything Pippin reads is a guess you can edit before you save:
- the total — the amount on a line saying “total”, or else the largest amount on the receipt
- the date — the first one it finds
- the vendor — the first prominent line of text
Check the total. A crooked photo, a wrapped description or a line carrying both a unit price and a line total are the three things that mislead it.
Two decisions, kept separate
Whose cost it is and whether to charge for it are different questions, and Pippin asks them separately on purpose.
A cost recorded against a Client but not charged on still counts against that Client’s margin. That is how you find out a Client is expensive before you find out from the numbers at year end.
Charging it on creates a Billable Item at the retail you set — which need not be what you paid.
Steps
- Open More › Expenses and tap the camera. You can also send a photo straight from Photos or Files with the Pippin share extension.
- Frame the receipt. Pippin fills in the vendor, date and total.
- Correct anything it misread — the total first.
- Choose the expense account, and the Client if the cost was for one.
- Turn on Charge to client to make it a Billable Item, and set the retail.
- Save. The image stays attached to the Expense.
- Open Expenses and tap the camera in the toolbar.
- Confirm the fields Pippin read.
- Choose the account, the Client, and whether to charge it on.
- Save.
Good to know
Keep the image. The Expense is the entry; the receipt is the evidence, and the two are worth the least when they live apart.
An Expense can be split across several lines, each with its own account, Client and billable flag — one card payment covering two Clients’ parts is one Expense with two lines, not two Expenses.