Core Features

Receipt Scanning

Point your camera at any paper receipt and Spend Sense extracts the total, merchant, date, and line items — automatically, right on your phone. Currently in development.

Best Practice

Receipt scanning is in development. When it ships, extracted data will be stored encrypted on your device — with no ad sales, no data broker sales, and no selling your data to third parties.

How it works

Spend Sense reads your receipt automatically using built-in scanning technology, right on your phone. Nothing is sent to outside scanning services.

How Receipt Scanning Will Work

📷Step 1

Camera Capture

Live preview. No photo saved to Camera Roll.

🧠Step 2

Read receipt

Spend Sense reads the receipt automatically on your phone.

🏷️Step 3

Parse & Tag

Merchant, total, date, and items extracted.

🔒Step 4

Save on device

Transaction written to your encrypted local database.

Receipt data is stored encrypted on your device. We never sell it to advertisers, data brokers, or third parties.

Scanning a receipt

Open the scanner

From any screen, tap the camera icon in the toolbar or press the receipt icon when logging a transaction manually.

Align and capture

Hold the receipt flat and well-lit. Tap the shutter button. The live viewfinder highlights detected text regions in real time so you know before you tap that the text is readable.

Review extracted data

Spend Sense presents a pre-filled transaction form with the extracted total, merchant name, and date. Verify and correct any field before saving.

Attach items (optional)

If line items were detected, you can review them as sub-items attached to the transaction — useful for splitting bills or tagging individual products.

Tip

For best results: lay the receipt flat on a dark surface, ensure the full receipt is in frame, and scan in good lighting. Thermal fax-paper receipts fade quickly — scan them soon after printing.

What gets extracted

Field	Source on Receipt	Accuracy
Total amount	Bottom total / Grand total line	High — usually largest number
Date	Header or footer timestamp	High — multiple format patterns
Merchant name	Header, logo text, or store name	Medium — depends on font/format
Individual line items	Itemized list in body	Medium — works best on structured receipts
Tax & tip	Subtotal section	High when clearly labeled
Payment method	Footer (VISA, CASH, etc.)	Low — highly variable formatting

Solving common problems

Problem	Cause	Fix
Scanner misses text	Low contrast or glare	Move to diffuse light; avoid direct sun
Wrong total extracted	Multiple totals on receipt (tax, subtotal)	Manually correct in review screen before saving
Merchant name blank	Logo-only header (image, not text)	Type the merchant name after scanning
Date shows wrong year	Receipt only shows MM/DD	Spend Sense defaults to current year — correct if needed
Receipt too crumpled	Distorted text geometry	Flatten against a flat surface before scanning

Privacy architecture

Scanned right on your phone

Receipt scanning happens on your device — nothing is sent to an outside company to read it.

Encrypted storage

Extracted transaction data stored encrypted in your Spend Sense account.

No data sales

No ad sales, no data broker sales, no selling your receipt data to third parties.

No scan telemetry sold

We do not sell analytics about your scans, merchants, or spending patterns.

Info

Spend Sense requires camera permission to scan receipts. This permission can be revoked at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera without affecting any other feature.

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