Receipts

Page: Receipts (the Receipt Scanner)

What it is

The Receipt Scanner reads a connected Gmail or Outlook inbox over a date range, pulls out the receipts and invoices, works out the company, the amount, the GST and a category, and flags what looks work-related. From there a receipt can become a cost on a job, go to Xero as a bill, or be exported for the bookkeeper. It is for the person who does the books and for anyone who buys things on a company card.

Before you start

• The Receipts module must be on (Settings → Team modules).
• A Gmail or Outlook mailbox connected (Settings → Integrations). The scan reads that inbox.
• Xero connected if you want to Export to Xero.

How to

Scan a period

1. Press New Inbox Scan.
2. Set From and To. The default is the current financial year to date.
3. Press Scan inbox. Progress shows how many emails have been processed and how many receipts found. When it finishes you are returned to the scan history, with the new scan at the top.

Open a completed scan to see its results. A failed scan shows its error.

Mark what is work-related

Each receipt shows the date, company, description, category, the total, the GST and the ex-GST amount, and a Work-Related badge. Press the badge to flip it between Yes and No. To rule a company out for good, press the ban icon beside its name: every receipt from that company is marked not work-related and the company is auto-excluded from future scans. Excluded companies are listed above the table; remove one there to let it back in.

Add a receipt to a job

1. Press Add to project on the row.
2. Choose the project, and optionally type a cost code or section.
3. Press Record $X ex GST. The receipt becomes an unapproved cost entry on that job, GST backed out, and the row reads Recorded on the project. It counts toward the job's actuals only once someone approves it on the job's Job Costs page.

If the same invoice is already on the project, Base links the receipt to the existing entry and says so rather than adding it twice.

Export receipts

Choose the scope — Shown (the rows ticked, or everything the filters leave), Work-related, or All — then press Export CSV, Export XLSX or Download Images ZIP. Filter the table with Work-related only and the category list; tick rows to export a subset.

Send receipts to Xero as bills

Press Export to Xero (N). Every work-related receipt not already exported and not recorded on a project becomes a bill in Xero on your configured purchases account and tax type. A receipt whose lines do not reproduce its total is refused. The result says how many went, how many were skipped because they are already on a project, and how many failed and why. An exported row reads Exported; one recorded on a project reads Via project, because it reaches Xero as that job's cost once approved.

What happens on its own

• Nothing scans unless you start it. Each scan is a job you run over a date range.
• A receipt added to a project is announced to the reviewer as an unapproved cost awaiting a tick.
• A receipt both added to a project and exported to Xero is never pushed twice. Export to Xero skips receipts already on a project, and the project's approved-bills push skips entries that already carry a Xero bill.

Things that surprise people

• A receipt is a tax record until you add it to a job. Receipts you never add stay here and never reach a job or the P&L.
• Adding to a project does not approve it. Approve it on the job's Job Costs page for it to count.
• Add to project is disabled when no amount was read from the receipt.
• The Work-Related badge is yours to flip; the scan's guess is a starting point, and the confidence it had is kept on the receipt.

Related

• Job costs and supplier bills — approving what you added.
• Xero — the bills this page sends.