Receipts to Excel, matched to your card statement, without uploading either.
Each date, merchant, tax line and total is read from a box on the receipt, with the crop one click away, so every value is checkable — and the charges with no receipt come out as a list.
Free: photo receipts use the 5 free OCR pages a day, a report takes up to 20 e-receipt PDFs, files go up to 25 MB, and the whole report counts as 1 of 3 daily jobs. expense-pack.pdf carries a visible Made with Bindery line. Pro removes the caps and the line.
Prefer the full studio? Open Receipts to Excel in the app →
An expense report starts as paper slips, PDF receipts from email and a card statement, and ends as a spreadsheet someone typed by hand. Receipts to Excel does the typing on your device. In a photo, the receipt is found and flattened, its contrast is raised and it is read with OCR in your browser; an e-receipt PDF is read from its own text. From each receipt Bindery takes the date, the merchant, the receipt number, the subtotal, every tax line with its rate (VAT, GST, HST, MwSt, TVA, IVA, BTW), a tip, the total, the currency, the last four digits of the card and a VAT number. No AI model guesses a value: every number comes from a box on the receipt, and clicking a cell shows that crop.
Add the card or bank statement PDF and each receipt is matched to a charge: the same amount to the cent, a posting date up to 5 days after the receipt, and the merchant’s name with prefixes such as SQ * and TST* and store numbers taken off. The result comes in three tabs — Matched, Receipts without a charge, and Charges without a receipt: the charges to find a receipt for, or to leave out as personal. Fix any cell in the grid and pick a category, which is remembered for that merchant. Then download expenses.xlsx and a CSV, expense-pack.pdf with a summary page and each receipt on its own numbered, bookmarked page, and a ZIP of the originals renamed by date, merchant and amount. Nothing is uploaded.
How it works
- Drop the receipts — photos or PDFs — and the card or bank statement PDF if you have one; each receipt is read on your device
- Check the grid: click a cell to see the box it was read from, fix what is wrong, pick categories and read the three tabs
- Download expenses.xlsx and the CSV, expense-pack.pdf and a ZIP of the renamed originals
What is read from each receipt
| Field | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Date | The receipt’s date, found the way Rename by content finds a document date, and written YYYY-MM-DD. A date such as 03/04/2025 is read day first or month first, as set for the report. |
| Merchant | The name at the top of the receipt. For matching and for categories, prefixes such as SQ *, TST* and PAYPAL *, store numbers and a city at the end are taken off. |
| Total | The amount after TOTAL, AMOUNT DUE, AMOUNT PAID, CARD, Summe, Total TTC or Importe. SUBTOTAL, Total savings, CHANGE, CASH TENDERED and TIP lines are skipped when the total is chosen, so the change from a cash payment or a loyalty saving is not taken for it. |
| Tax | Each VAT, GST, HST, MwSt, TVA, IVA or BTW line with its rate and amount, so a receipt with MwSt at 19% and at 7% keeps both lines. |
| Subtotal and tip | The subtotal, and a tip where the receipt prints one. |
| Currency | The symbol or code next to the total, such as € or GBP; a $ alone, or a receipt that prints no currency, takes your default currency, which you can change in the grid. |
| Card, number, VAT ID | The last four digits of the card from a line such as **** 1234, the receipt or invoice number, and the seller’s VAT number where one is printed. |
Each value keeps the box on the receipt it came from, and clicking its cell in the grid shows that crop. No AI model is involved: a value the receipt does not print stays empty for you to fill in rather than being guessed.
The checks on every row
- Red: the amounts do not add up. The subtotal, the tax lines and the tip must add up to the total within a cent — or, where the prices include the tax, the subtotal and tip alone must — or the row turns red. That is what a misread digit usually looks like. A receipt that prints no subtotal cannot be checked this way; compare its total with the crop.
- Amber: OCR was unsure. A value read from a photo with low confidence is marked, so you know which cells to compare with their crop first.
- Duplicate. Two receipts with the same date, amount and merchant are flagged as a possible duplicate — the same receipt photographed twice, or a paper receipt and its emailed copy; two identical purchases on one day are flagged too, and with a statement, two charges show both were real.
- Unmatched. With a statement, a receipt that found no charge is marked, and so is a match flagged “tip?” or “FX?”.
A flag is a pointer to look, not a verdict. Type over any cell to fix it; the crop stays one click away.
Matching receipts to the statement
Drop a card or bank statement PDF with the receipts, or several statements for a longer period. Each PDF is marked as a receipt or a statement, and you can switch it. The statement is read the way Bank statement → Excel reads it, and its badge says how far to trust it: a statement whose printed running balances all agree reads “reconciled”, one with a mismatch names the row, and a card statement with no running balance reads “unverified rows”.
Each receipt is then scored against each charge. The same amount to the cent counts most; a posting date from the receipt’s date to 5 days after it counts next; the words the two merchant names share, once SQ *, TST*, PAYPAL * and store numbers are taken off, add the rest. Pairs are made one to one, best score first, so two identical charges on the same day each take one receipt and no receipt is used twice. A charge up to 25% higher than a receipt from the same merchant is matched with the flag “tip?”, for a tip added after the receipt was printed. Currencies are not converted, so a receipt paid in another currency usually lands in Receipts without a charge; a charge within 3% of a foreign receipt’s printed amount is flagged “FX?” for you to check. Both stay in Matched with the flag, so you can check them.
| Tab | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Matched | Each receipt with its charge, and any “tip?” or “FX?” flag |
| Receipts without a charge | Usually cash, another card, or a charge that posts on the next statement |
| Charges without a receipt | The charges to find a receipt for, or to leave out as personal; bank fees and interest land here too |
What you download
| File | What is in it |
|---|---|
| expenses.xlsx | Five sheets: Expenses, one row per receipt with the grid’s columns — date, merchant, total, tax, currency, card last 4, category, purpose and flags; By category; Statement match; Missing receipts, the charges without a receipt; and Checks |
| expenses.csv | The Expenses rows, for an expense system or an accounting import |
| expense-pack.pdf | A summary page, then each receipt on its own page, stamped R-001 · date · total and bookmarked, fitted under an email attachment limit where it can be, with the real size shown |
| ZIP of originals | The files you dropped, renamed with the pattern {date}_{from}_{amount}; the files themselves are unchanged |
Categories you pick are remembered per merchant, so the next report fills them in; on Pro they sync with your account.
Honest limits
- One receipt per photo. Several receipts photographed together are read as one; photograph them one at a time.
- Check every value. OCR can misread digits on faded thermal paper and creased receipts. The red and amber marks catch many misreads, not every one, which is why each cell shows its crop.
- No currency conversion. Each amount stays in the currency printed on the receipt, and totals are kept per currency. A receipt paid in another currency usually lands in Receipts without a charge.
- Day or month first. A date such as 03/04/2025 is read in the order set for the report; check it if your receipts come from another country.
- HEIC photos. Bindery does not read HEIC files, the format iPhone photos are in when copied to a computer; set the iPhone camera to “Most Compatible” so it saves JPG, or export the photos as JPG.
- PDFs need text. A receipt PDF that is only a picture, such as a scan, has nothing to read; run OCR on it first.
- Not covered. Mileage and per-diem allowances are not part of the report; add them to the spreadsheet yourself.
Reading receipts in the browser versus uploading
| Receipts to Excel | Bindery | Upload-based tools |
|---|---|---|
| Where the file is processed | In your browser tab, on your device | Uploaded to the service’s servers |
| Receipts and statement | Read on your device, card digits and all | Uploaded to the service’s servers |
| Where each number comes from | A box on the receipt, its crop one click away | Varies by service |
| What exists afterwards | The original and the new file, both on your device | A server copy until the retention window ends |
| Works offline | Yes, once the app has loaded | No |
Questions people ask
Are my receipts and my statement uploaded?
No. Photos are read with OCR in your browser tab, PDFs from their own text, the matching happens there too, and every file you download is written on your device. On the free plan, photo receipts use the 5 free OCR pages a day, a report takes up to 20 e-receipt PDFs, files go up to 25 MB, and the whole report counts as 1 of your 3 free jobs a day; expense-pack.pdf also carries a visible “Made with Bindery” line, which the spreadsheet and the CSV do not. Pro removes the caps and the line.
How do I know a number was read correctly?
Every value is checkable. Clicking a cell shows the crop of the box it was read from. The subtotal, the tax lines and the tip must add up to the total within a cent — or, where the prices include the tax, the subtotal and tip alone must — or the row turns red, and a value OCR was unsure of is marked amber. A receipt that prints no subtotal cannot be checked this way, so compare its total with the crop.
Which receipts can it read?
Photos in JPG, PNG or WebP with one receipt in each, and receipt PDFs that have text, such as the ones shops and services email you. A PDF that is only a picture, such as a scan, needs OCR first. Bindery does not read HEIC files, the format iPhone photos are in when copied to a computer; set the iPhone camera to “Most Compatible” so it saves JPG, or export the photos as JPG. The total is found after labels such as TOTAL, AMOUNT DUE, AMOUNT PAID, CARD, Summe, Total TTC and Importe.
Does it categorise expenses?
By merchant. When you pick a category for a merchant, it is remembered and filled in the next time that merchant appears, with prefixes such as SQ * and store numbers taken off so the same shop is recognised with or without them. A merchant you have not categorised is left for you to pick; Bindery does not guess. On Pro the rules sync with your account.
What about receipts in another currency?
They are read with the currency printed on them and kept in it: Bindery does not convert amounts, and totals are kept per currency. Matched against a statement in your own currency, such a receipt usually lands in Receipts without a charge; a charge within 3% of its printed amount is flagged “FX?” for you to check.
Can I import the result into expense or accounting software?
The CSV holds the Expenses rows, one per receipt, which expense and accounting imports accept after you match the columns, and expense-pack.pdf is the evidence to attach. The Excel workbook is for reading and checking: by category, against the statement, and the charges still missing a receipt.