Digitize Paper Receipts for Expense Reports
Tired of manual data entry? Learn how to turn a pile of paper receipts into a clean CSV file for your expense reports. Scan, verify, and export in minutes.
The end of the month brings a familiar task: processing a pile of paper receipts for expense reports. Each one needs to be manually entered into a spreadsheet—a slow, error-prone process that consumes hours.
What if a tool could read the receipt for you? You can see how it works on a real Japanese receipt below. Click any field on the right to see where it was found on the image.
Every value carries a verified on-page location — bbox + 4-point vertices + match_ratio — on a 0–1000 normalized grid (0,0 top-left → 1000,1000 bottom-right), the same shape the live API returns. Hover a field to trace it back to the pixels it came from.
The workflow is straightforward. First, you create a 'Sheet' in space-ocr and define the columns you need to capture, like 'Vendor', 'Date', and 'Total'. You can also create an 'array' column for line items. Then, you can drag and drop your receipt images. The app accepts common formats like JPEG and PNG, and if you have a multi-page PDF of scanned receipts, it will automatically process each page as a separate image. The system reads each one and populates a new row in your sheet.
Verification is built in. When you review the extracted data, you can click on any cell—say, the total of "2,045" from the "KINSHO" receipt—and the system instantly highlights the exact location of that text on the original receipt image. This direct link between the data and its source on the page provides a clear audit trail, letting you spot-check figures with confidence.
For every piece of data it extracts, space-ocr provides proof. The AI suggests a value, but the engine confirms it by performing a character-by-character matching against the page's OCR symbols. This process generates a match_ratio score (a score of 0.85 or higher is considered a confident match) and the precise xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax coordinates for the value. These coordinates are normalized to a 0-1000 grid, so you can always trace a value back to its source, regardless of the original image's dimensions.
The pricing is simple: it costs five cents ($0.05) to process one receipt. If the system can't read a receipt or the process fails, you are not charged. Your first 100 scans each month are included on the free plan, with no credit card required to get started.
- Create a SheetIn your space, create a new Sheet and define the columns you need to capture, such as Vendor, Date, Total, and an array for line items.
- Upload ReceiptsDrag and drop your image files (JPG, PNG) or a multi-page PDF onto the sheet. Each image or PDF page will be processed as a separate entry.
- Review and VerifyClick on any cell in the generated table. The original receipt image will appear with the corresponding value highlighted, allowing for quick verification.
- Export to CSVOnce you have reviewed the data, click the export button to download a single CSV file, ready for import into Excel or your accounting software.
What file types can I upload?
How are line items from a single receipt handled in the CSV?
Will I get garbled Japanese or other characters in Excel?
How does space-ocr verify the location of the data it finds?
What is the cost if an upload fails or a receipt is unreadable?
Do I need to tell it the language of the receipt?
Clear Your Desk of Receipts
Get your first 100 scans free. No credit card required.