Scan-to-Add: photograph a bill, get an expense

Scan-to-Add turns a photo of a bill into a recorded expense: point your camera at the receipt and Finocket reads the vendor, date, total, GST split and GSTIN, prefilling the expense form for you to check and save. It also links the supplier, records the bill's line items, and starts from the category you actually use.

Scan a bill

1. Open the Add hub and tap Scan bill, or tap Scan receipt inside Add expense.
2. Photograph the bill, pick an existing photo, or choose a PDF. A bill emailed as a PDF reads the same way as one you photograph.
3. Finocket reads it and prefills the form: the date, the due date where the bill prints one, the total, the CGST/SGST/IGST split, and the supplier’s own details (their name, their bill number and their GSTIN where printed), each in its own field rather than only in the description. Their PAN is worked out from the GSTIN, since a GSTIN contains it, which is what the TDS threshold check looks up.
4. A due date is only taken when the bill prints one. It is never calculated from terms like “Net 30”, because a computed date is a guess about when money is owed and overdue reporting counts from it.
5. The bill is linked to the supplier it came from, so it appears in their ageing rather than as an unnamed expense. Finocket matches on the GSTIN first and the name second: a GSTIN names one business in one state, while the same firm's name is often spelt three ways across three bills. It looks across everyone on your books, not only those already marked suppliers, because when you record the first bill from someone they are not yet a supplier.
6. The lookup happens once both the read and your list of parties are ready, so a bill scanned the moment you open the form still finds a supplier you already have. If nobody matches, the new supplier Finocket intends to add is shown with its GSTIN before you save, and you can tell it not to.
7. If that business was already on file as a customer, it is simply also marked a supplier. It is never added a second time: two rows for one business means two ledgers, and a payment can go to the wrong one. If the business is genuinely new, Finocket creates it, with the GSTIN already filled in, when you save, so a bill you start and abandon leaves nothing behind. Where two of your parties have names that read alike, it leaves the choice to you rather than guessing.
8. The description records what else the bill said: each line item with its quantity and rate, plus anything the read could not make out. A note about a doubtful figure is worth as much next month as it was at the scan, so it is kept on the expense instead of only flashing up once. Anything you had already typed stays, and re-scanning the same bill does not add a second copy.
9. Those lines also become real priced rows, with stock going in for the items you track, but only when every line matches something in your catalogue by name and the lines add up to what the bill says. Otherwise they stay as text, because once the expense has rows, its total is worked out from them, and a single misread rate would quietly replace a total the scan had read correctly.
10. The category starts as the one you use most, or the one the bill itself suggests, with a small badge when it was suggested rather than chosen by you. It is collapsed to a single row showing the category in force; tap Change for the full list.
11. Check the numbers and adjust the category and any field. AI reading is good, but you stay the accountant.
12. Save. The photo stays attached to the expense, stored privately; reopen it any time from the expense's edit screen.

Because the GSTIN and GST split come off the bill, a scanned purchase is ITC-ready. See Expenses & ITC for how the credit flows to GSTR-3B.

A bill you issued is not an expense

Finocket reads which way the document points. A receipt or supplier bill is money you spent; a bill you gave a customer is money coming in, and recording it as an expense would put it in your books backwards. So a scan that looks like your own sales bill is not filled in. You are told why, and offered the invoice screen instead. Sales bills are raised in Finocket rather than scanned, so the numbering, the tax treatment and the customer's terms come from your settings and not from a photograph. If it misjudged a supplier's own invoice, choose No, I paid this bill and it prefills as normal.

When scanning works

Scanning needs an internet connection because the photo is read server-side. Nothing is stored with the AI provider. Offline, add the expense by hand and attach the photo later. There's a daily scan limit per workspace to keep AI costs sane; the screen tells you when you've hit it, and hand entry always works.

What a scan uses: free scans, credits or your own key

Under every scan button a short line says what the next scan will use, before you take the photo, and it updates as soon as a scan finishes:

• Free scan — N of M left this month: scans come out of your free monthly scans and do not use credits. When only a few are left the line offers to add your own AI key.
• Uses credits — N left: shown once AI is billed in credits; the line links to Buy credits.
• Uses your own AI key: your AI provider bills you directly, and neither free scans nor credits are used.

Plan and billing and Usage explain the two the same way, with the same line.

What kinds of bills read well

Printed retail and B2B invoices, fuel receipts, restaurant bills and utility bills read reliably. Crumpled thermal paper, faint ink or handwriting reads worse. Good light and a flat bill make the difference. Whatever the read quality, you always review before saving; nothing posts unchecked.

When a read isn't confident

Finocket flags a shaky read instead of guessing. When the confidence is low, the prefilled amount, date and GSTIN are highlighted for you to double-check, and a banner shows roughly how sure the read was plus anything to verify. An amount it couldn't make out is left blank rather than invented, a GSTIN whose checksum fails is dropped so you don't claim ITC on a mis-read number, and an unclear date is left empty. If a photo can't be read at all, you're told to enter it by hand, and nothing is filled in from a bad scan.

Access & control

Owners and assistants can scan; an invited accountant can view the saved expense and its attached photo read-only. Scan-to-Add is part of the core expense flow. If the Add hub doesn't show Scan bill, check your internet connection and that expenses are available in your workspace.

Related: Expenses, ITC & reverse-charge, Day Book, Cashbook & Outstanding.

Beyond receipts: what else you can scan

You can scan more than expense receipts. In every case below you review every line before anything is saved, and the import can be undone.

• A bank statement. Snap a photo or upload the PDF on Bank reconciliation and the lines are read for you. A PDF downloaded from net-banking is read straight from its text, free, without a scan; only a photo or a scanned PDF is scanned. Matching stays suggest-only, and nothing posts to your books until you confirm each match.
• A GSTR-2B PDF. The rows are read and cross-checked against the statement's own printed totals. Scanned lines stay flagged so you verify against the portal before claiming the credit, and one tap removes a scanned import.
• A KYC document (PAN card, Aadhaar, GSTIN certificate or cancelled cheque) to prefill a client. Names, PAN, GSTIN and address are read and checksum-checked. Only empty fields are filled, the photo is read once and discarded, and at most the last four digits of an Aadhaar are ever kept.
• A purchase order or a supplier bill. Tap Scan a PO or Bill on the Add hub. Finocket suggests the matching PO and, once you confirm, saves a draft order or a PO-linked bill that lights up the Billed column of your three-way match. Line pairing is optional and never forced, and billing the same PO twice needs an explicit override.