Yes, FreshBooks scans receipts. Whether you get it, and how long you wait, depends on your plan, your country and where the receipt comes from. Here's what FreshBooks' own help center says, in one place.
Does FreshBooks scan receipts?
Yes. FreshBooks reads receipts with OCR from its partner Sensibill, on the Plus, Premium and Select plans (and trials) for users in the US, Canada and the UK. A phone scan can take up to 10 minutes before it's ready to review; a web upload or emailed receipt takes 30 minutes to several hours. Either way you review every field, and the result is a FreshBooks expense with the receipt attached.
| FreshBooks receipt scanning | |
|---|---|
| OCR engine | Sensibill, a FreshBooks partner |
| Plans | Plus, Premium and Select, plus trials. Not Lite. |
| Countries | United States, Canada and United Kingdom, with the right country set in Basic Information settings |
| How you send a receipt | Phone camera (Regular mode for short receipts, Long mode for long ones); web upload of JPEG, PNG or PDF; or email it to your unique FreshBooks address, one receipt per email |
| Wait before you can review | Phone: up to 10 minutes. Web upload or email: 30 minutes to several hours |
| What you do next | Check every filled-in field and add anything missing. Optionally add a purpose, mark it billable to a client, or change the currency. On the web, you can attach the receipt to a matching expense instead |
| Where it ends up | In Uploads until you review it, then a FreshBooks expense with the receipt attached |
Where FreshBooks receipt scanning stops
The scan is built to finish inside FreshBooks, as a reviewed expense in your books. That's the right ending if FreshBooks is where you invoice and keep your accounts. The data can come back out, too: Export Expenses downloads a CSV, and the Expense report has an Export for Excel option that saves one.
It stops sooner if you're on Lite, or outside the US, Canada and the UK. And if your books are a spreadsheet, a FreshBooks plan is a lot of accounting software to buy for the scanner. Without it, you're back to typing totals off thermal paper.
If your books are a spreadsheet
Slipsheet does the smaller job. Photos, PDFs and forwarded emails become one row per receipt, which you check and then export as one CSV named slipsheet-YYYYMMDD.csv. Every export has the same nine columns in the same order: date, merchant, total_amount, currency, tax_amount, category, client_tag, notes, file_name. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets, or on Pro let the rows sync to Google Sheets. The column walkthrough shows what each one holds.
There's no FreshBooks connection. If you also use FreshBooks, its expense import takes a CSV in one currency with Amount, Category, Date, Description and Merchant headers. Slipsheet's file calls the amount total_amount and has no Description column, so you'd adjust the headers before importing.
Starter is $5/mo for 250 receipts. Pro is $12/mo for 1,500 receipts plus Google Sheets sync. Start with a 14-day free trial, no card needed. Try Slipsheet.
More on the spreadsheet route: how to convert receipts to a spreadsheet, why OCR text is not a ledger, and what to do when most receipts arrive by email.
FAQ
Does FreshBooks scan receipts?
Yes. FreshBooks reads receipt photos, PDFs and emailed receipts with OCR from its partner Sensibill, then fills in the expense details for you to review. It's available to users in the US, Canada and the UK.
Which FreshBooks plans include receipt scanning?
Plus, Premium and Select, and FreshBooks trials. Lite doesn't include it, and FreshBooks asks users on other plans to upgrade.
How long does FreshBooks receipt scanning take?
A receipt scanned in the FreshBooks mobile app can take up to 10 minutes before it's ready to review. Web uploads and emailed receipts take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on image type and number of files.
Can I get my FreshBooks receipts into a spreadsheet?
Yes, as expense data. In Expenses, choose More Actions, then Export Expenses, and download a CSV. The Expense report also exports as a CSV, and Export Expense Receipts downloads the receipt images in bulk.