Why your receipt scanner reads the total wrong

Short answer: a receipt has many numbers that look like money, and the scanner has to guess which one is the total. Blur, faded ink, folds and unusual layouts make the guess worse. Better photos help, but the reliable fix is an app that shows the amounts it found and lets you pick the right one in one tap.

Common ways the total goes wrong

• Subtotal or tax picked instead of total. “Subtotal”, “Tax”, “GST” and “Total” sit on neighbouring lines. One reviewer noted a scanner that “sometimes adds the GST into the total”.
• Payment and change lines. “Cash 50.00” and “Change 12.40” are larger or later than the total, and a scanner that takes the biggest or last number gets them.
• Digits merged. A missing decimal point or two numbers read as one produces absurd results, like a receipt for about £30 scanned “as £850,615”.
• Tips added after printing. A handwritten tip is not part of the printed total.
• Foreign formats. 1.234,50 in Europe means one thousand two hundred thirty-four and a half; read the other way it is wrong by a factor of a thousand.

How to take a photo that scans well

• Flatten the receipt on a dark, plain surface so the edges are clear.
• Use even light and avoid your phone's shadow; turn off the flash if it causes glare on glossy paper.
• Hold the phone directly above the receipt so lines are straight, and fill the frame.
• For long receipts, make sure the total section is sharp even if the item list is small.
• Scan soon: thermal paper fades within months, especially in a warm wallet.

Always check three fields

Date, store and total. It takes two seconds and prevents an expense report that does not match your card statement.

Slipkeep

Slipkeep does not hide its guess. After a scan, every amount it found on the receipt appears as a chip, with its best guess selected. If it picked the subtotal, tap the real total; if nothing matches, edit the number right there. Recognition runs on the phone, so this works without an account or an upload.

Coming soon to Google Play · About Slipkeep