How do I photograph a paper receipt?

You can keep a copy of a paper receipt in ReceiptWave by taking a photo of it. Open Receipts, tap the orange camera button at the top, line up the receipt and hold your phone still: the camera takes the photo by itself and saves it straight away. The receipt then sits in your Receipts list with the rest, marked Captured. It's private unless you choose to share it: by sending it, or through a share with your accountant or bookkeeper that covers it.

Taking the photo

In Receipts, tap the round orange camera button at the top right. The camera fills the screen.
The first time, your phone asks to let ReceiptWave use the camera. Tap Allow — the camera is only used while you're taking the photo.
Line up the receipt inside the tall outline, filling it as much as you can, and hold your phone still. For the best result, lay the receipt flat on a dark, plain surface in good light. The outline turns orange and the ring around the shutter fills while you hold still; after about a second your phone makes its usual shutter sound, the screen flashes for a blink, your phone gives a firm tap, and the photo is saved. You can also tap the white shutter button at any time. The moment the photo is taken, the receipt opens on it; the saving happens behind that screen, so you never wait at the camera.
There's no crop step, and the camera never asks you to check the edges. On iPhone your phone finds the receipt's edges itself and crops to them before the photo is sent. On Android (and on an iPhone that couldn't find the paper), the receipt is cropped a few seconds later, when it's read: the same reading that finds the shop, date and total also says where the paper is, and ReceiptWave crops to that; if that isn't sure, ReceiptWave's own finder has a go. If nothing could say for sure, your whole photo stands as the receipt's picture, and you can see it under Original. Your whole photo is kept either way, and the receipt is read in the background.
The receipt opens the instant the photo is taken, showing your photo. A slim strip at the top reads Saving… while the photo goes to ReceiptWave, then Saved, then Reading, then Done once the shop, date, total and items have been read; it fades away after that. You don't need to wait on that screen: if you leave, the saving carries on, and in Receipts the photo shows as Saving… until it lands.
- If you've connected an employer, accountant or bookkeeper, Send to sits under the photo with a row of tiles, greyed until the strip says Saved. Personal (not sent to anyone) comes first, then one tile for each place you can send the receipt, saying Tap to send. Tap one to send it there; it says Sent. An accountant who already sees all your receipts shows as a teal, ticked tile that says Shares all; tap it to keep this one receipt from them (it says Left out), and tap it again to share it.
- If sending to your employer is automatic, a short note says Sent to … with Undo once the photo is saved, and the tile says Sent automatically.
- If saving doesn't work, the receipt says Couldn't save with Retry. Your photo stays right there; Retake is there too.
- If you've saved this photo before, the receipt says You may already have this one with Keep both. If they really are two purchases, tap Keep both; if not, tap Retake or Delete: nothing was saved and nothing counts toward your 25.
Under the receipt: Next receipt opens the camera again; Retake deletes this photo (it doesn't count) and opens the camera again; Delete asks first, then deletes it. Once the receipt has been read, Original takes Retake's place. When the camera comes back for the next one, a small stack beside the shutter counts this visit's photos. Tap the stack to see them under Photographed; Done · 1, Done · 2 and so on sits at the top right of the camera; tap it when you've finished. Close (top left) also takes you back to your receipts.

Finding it again

Your photographed receipts are in Receipts, in date order with your other receipts. Each card says where it's up to: Saving… while the photo is still on its way, Captured once it's been read, Reading or Waiting before that, and Sent to and a name once you've sent it. Once you have photographed one, filters appear above the list; tap Photographed to see only those. To search, tap the magnifying glass beside the camera button and type a shop name, date or amount; it finds photographed and tapped receipts alike. The two small icons at the end of the filter row switch between the receipt view and the list. In the receipt view, a receipt we've read shows on paper; one we couldn't read, or haven't read yet, shows as your cropped photo.

Tap one to open it. The receipt comes first, laid out on paper and headed Receipt (from your photo), with the date, ABN, GST, card, address, phone and website we read from your photo printed on it. While it's being read, the strip sits above it and the photo stands where the paper will be: your whole photo at first, then the cropped receipt once its edges are found. Tap the photo to see your whole, uncropped photo full screen. If there's something to tell you, one line sits above the paper: Couldn't read everything · Retake, Items don't add up, Check the edges · Fix, ABN doesn't look right · Fix, or You may already have this one · Keep both. When all is well there's no line. If we could read only part of a receipt, what we read is on the paper under Couldn't read everything · Retake; an accountant or employer you send it to sees it marked Needs checking, with your photo. At the bottom, tap Original to see your whole photo, uncropped, full screen (pinch to zoom in; Close comes back), or Delete. Under the paper are the Send to tiles, the one way to send a receipt or to keep one from an accountant who sees them all.

A photographed receipt is your record of the shop's paper receipt. It isn't a tax invoice from ReceiptWave, and any GST shown is as printed on the paper.

Using an older version of the app? Your photographed receipts are under Receipts → the camera at the top, in their own list, until you update. Older versions also show a crop screen after the photo.

Reading the shop, date, total and items from your photo isn't switched on for everyone yet. Until it is, your receipt is saved as a photo.

Deleting one

Open the receipt and tap Delete at the bottom, then Delete again to confirm. Both photos (the cropped one and your whole original) and anything read from them are deleted straight away. You can't undo this. Copies in our backups are removed as the backups rotate, generally within 30 days, as our Privacy Policy describes; we never restore a deleted receipt from a backup.

Faster ways to the camera

Press and hold the ReceiptWave icon on your home screen and tap Photograph a receipt. The camera opens straight away, on iPhone and Android alike. On Android you can drag that shortcut onto your home screen as its own icon, so one tap opens the camera.
iPhone's Action button: in the Shortcuts app, make a shortcut with one step, Open URL, and give it the address receiptwaveconsumer://capture/camera. Then in Settings › Action Button choose Shortcut and pick it. Pressing the Action button then opens the ReceiptWave camera.
These shortcuts appear only while photographing receipts is switched on for your account.

Tips

If the photo was taken before you were ready, tap Retake under the receipt. If the photo was already saved, Retake deletes it; within a minute of the save, that doesn't count toward your 25 for the month. The camera comes back and takes one more photo by itself when you hold still.
The shutter sound is your phone's own. It follows your phone's silent setting, the same as your phone's camera (in a few countries phones won't silence it; that's the phone, not the app). If you've asked your phone for less motion, there's no flash; the tap and the sound stay.
To take every photo yourself, open Profile and, under Preferences, turn off Take receipt photos automatically. The camera then waits for you to tap the shutter. Turn it back on the same way. The setting is kept on your phone.
The camera uses your phone's motion sensor to tell when it's held still. That stays on your phone: nothing about how your phone moves is saved or sent anywhere. Your phone won't ask for any extra permission for this.
The receipt is cropped to its edges, and that cropped photo is what an accountant or employer sees if you send it to them. Your whole photo is kept as well, and you can see it under Original. On Android the crop is made when the receipt is read, so for the few seconds before that, the receipt's picture is your whole photo. If the edges couldn't be found for sure, the whole photo stays as the receipt's picture: on a receipt you've just taken, the corner sheet opens by itself; drag the four corners to the edges of the receipt and tap Use, or Cancel to leave it. The receipt then says Check the edges · Fix, and Fix brings the sheet back. That's expected on a white table or when the receipt is far from the middle; a wooden or coloured surface is fine. If we can't read a cropped receipt in full, we read your whole photo too (and the other way round) before saying Couldn't read everything.
You'll see a short tip once, the first time the camera opens on your phone. It says Hold still and it takes the photo: line the receipt up in the frame; receipts are private unless you choose to share them. Under Learn more: the original photo is kept with the receipt, uncropped, so you can check it later, and deleting the receipt deletes both photos; the receipt is read in the background, so you can keep going; and you can turn automatic photos off in Profile › Preferences. Tap Got it and it won't show again on that phone. The same words are here, so there's nothing to go back for.
Tap the photo to see it whole. While the receipt is being read, tap the picture to open your whole, uncropped photo full screen; once it's read, tap Original. Pinch or double-tap to zoom in, drag to move around, and double-tap again to see the whole photo. Tap Close (or your phone's back button on Android) when you're done.
You can photograph up to 25 receipts a month. When five or fewer are left, the camera shows how many ("4 left this month") and so does the line under Receipts at the top of the list ("4 captures left"); the full count, with the date it starts again, is in Profile under Preferences, as Photographed receipts. When none are left, the shutter is greyed out and a short note says You've used this month's 25 and the date there are more. Deleting a receipt doesn't give one back, except a retake within a minute of the photo being saved.
If the receipt says "You may already have this one" the moment it opens, you've saved this photo before. If they really are two purchases, tap Keep both. If not, tap Retake or Delete: nothing was saved and nothing counts toward your 25. If a receipt is found to match another after it's read (same business, total, date and time, or the same receipt number in the last 30 days), the receipt itself asks Keep both or Cancel.
If saving doesn't work, the receipt says Couldn't save with Retry, and Retake is there too. Your photo stays on your phone until it's saved; if you move on, it shows in Receipts as Saving… or Couldn't save until it's sorted.
Sending takes one tap and can be taken back. Tap Undo within five seconds, or open the receipt later and withdraw it until the organisation exports it. See "How do I send or withdraw a receipt?".
Hidden details in the photo are removed. Phones store extra information inside a photo, such as where and when it was taken. We remove it before your photo is saved.
Your photos are private unless you choose to share them. An employer sees a photo only when you send it that receipt. An accountant or bookkeeper you share with sees the photos of the receipts your share covers, and can download copies. Photos are never shared with the shop on the receipt.
The shop's ABN is on one line under its name. If it says ABN doesn't look right, a digit was probably misread from your photo: every ABN has a built-in check, and this one doesn't add up. Tap Fix, compare it with your photo, type the 11 digits and tap Save ABN. If it says No ABN read, tap Add to type it in. Or tap Skip — your receipt is saved either way.
If it says "These items don't add up to the total", we added up every line we read, including any discount, surcharge, card fee or rounding, and it didn't come to the total on your receipt. An amount was probably misread or a line missed. Everything we read is still there. Tap Original and compare it with your receipt.
The shop's address, phone and website are shown only if they're printed on your receipt. We never look them up, and the website is shown as text, not a link.
Deleting your account deletes your photographed receipts too, both photos of each. Backup copies go as the backups rotate, generally within 30 days.
If the camera button isn't there, photographing receipts isn't switched on for your account right now. Any you've already photographed are still in your list, and under the Photographed filter.
You can't add a photographed receipt to an export yet. That's coming.
If you said no to camera access, open your phone's Settings, find ReceiptWave, and turn on Camera.

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