Logging a transaction takes ten seconds, but if your hands are full of grocery bags it's still ten seconds you don't want to spend. Receipt scanning lets the camera and the AI do most of the work.
How it works
You take a picture of a receipt. The AI reads it and returns the merchant, total, date, and a guessed category. You review and save.
Use it
On mobile (iOS)
- Open Transactions and tap Add Transaction.
- Tap the camera icon.
- Allow camera permission the first time.
- Snap the receipt with the total visible.
- The transaction form pre-fills. Confirm or adjust the amount, date, description, and category.
- Save.
On the web
- Open Transactions and tap Add Transaction.
- Tap Upload receipt.
- Choose an image of a receipt (phone photos transferred over work fine).
- Confirm the parsed values and save.
What gets read
- Total amount — the AI looks for the grand total, after tax and tip.
- Merchant — the business name from the top of the receipt.
- Date — the transaction date.
- Suggested category — best guess from the merchant name.
If the receipt is blurry or partial, the AI falls back to whatever it can confidently read. Review the form before saving.
Tips for good scans
- Lay the receipt flat, no folds.
- Even lighting; avoid shadows across the receipt.
- Get the total line in the frame.
- Tax lines and item-by-item breakdowns are ignored — BudgetLabs just wants the total.
Limits
Receipt scanning is unlimited on Free and Pro alike. The cost is small enough that it would be silly to gate it.
Privacy
The image is sent to BudgetLabs's AI provider (xAI's Grok) for parsing. The provider doesn't retain it; BudgetLabs only stores the resulting transaction values you confirm. The image itself is not kept.
Related
- Transactions — the form receipt scanning fills out.
- AI bank statement import — for many transactions at once instead of one receipt.