Receipt scanning is provided by one of our partners, Sensibill, to allow you to keep track of your expense receipts by scanning them while you’re on the go and reviewing them later in your Uploads on iOS. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), details are automatically extracted from the scanned documents and filled out for you when reviewing so you can quickly create expenses.
Upload a Document
Upload your Expense Receipt using the below steps:
- Tap on the Expenses icon
- Then tap on the camera icon in the bottom corner
![Camera icon in Expenses section.]()
- If it’s your first time uploading a receipt, tap on Next to move through the receipt scanning tips and then tap on Done to finish reviewing the tips
- Choose a photo from the library, or take the photo
- If the receipt is short, stay on Regular mode
- If the receipt is long, tap on Long and capture the receipt in sections
- If needed, tap on Retake to get a new photo, or tap on Crop and resize the photo as needed
- Tap on Done to upload the receipt to your Uploads as a document. This can take up to 10 minutes to scan before it's available to review.
![Scanning bar above list of Expenses.]()
Notes:
- If the receipt fails to upload, the receipt image is saved locally on your device in the FreshBooks app for you to retry again later
- To delete failed attempts, tap on Retry Uploading Receipts, then on the receipt, swipe to the left and tap on the trash icon
![Scanning section showing receipt scanned with trash icon available.]()
- To delete failed attempts, tap on Retry Uploading Receipts, then on the receipt, swipe to the left and tap on the trash icon
- Tap on Retry Uploading Receipts, then tap on Retry again to re-upload it
![Scanning section showing receipt with option to retry.]()
- Tap on Retry Uploading Receipts, then tap on Show and export the receipt to save it to your camera roll instead
![Scanning section showing receipt with option to show.]()
- If you're unable to use your iOS device's camera, ensure that the FreshBooks mobile app has permission to access the camera first
Review a Document
Access all scanned documents in the Uploads section and begin reviewing them with the below steps:
- Tap on the Expenses icon
- Then tap on the Review x Receipts banner at the top of your list of expenses
![Review bar on top of list of Expenses.]()
- In the Uploads section, tap on a document you want to review
- In the Review screen, look over any populated fields and ensure they are correct, or if missing, add them in
![Review Expense screen with fields to fill out.]()
- If needed, tap on Add purpose of expense and add details
- If needed, under Settings, tap on either:
- Mark as billable and slide the toggle to assign the expense to a client, include the receipt on the invoice, and/or add a markup
- Currency and change the currency
- Then tap on Save and a new expense will be created with this document attached as a receipt. The document will also be moved out of your Uploads into the list of expenses.
Note:
- To create a bill from a document, upload the receipt and complete the rest of the steps on a web browser instead
- To delete a document, tap on it to open it in the Review screen, then tap on the Delete button
FAQs
Why did my document not scan successfully?
There are several reasons why the scan may fail, read more about them in How do I scan my expense and bill receipts? here.