Receipt scanning (+1 Merged Vote)
Comments
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Receipt scanning would make entering transactions so much faster and easier. I read Quickbooks online has a feature to scan receipts. I do not understand why Quicken doesn't have the feature as well.
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Absolutely! Not only would I use this feature daily but having intelligent receipt scanning directly connected to Quicken app would Blow Away your competition. Quite feasible especially now with great AI backends available. Buy a small solution or develop your own. If your marketing folks want a draft business case around this let me know - I’d do that for free just to get you excited about it.
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This feature needs to be added to the mobile app ASAP. Just like when I use SAP Concur to scan my work expense receipt and then it uses OCR to automatically read and extract the data. Please do the same.
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"to itemize" receipts from a scan would seem to require that OCR capability be built into Q, and that doesn't exist.
Also, you should be aware that bringing attachments in Q causes incredible file bloat and the ONLY way to view those receipts in within Q.
You'd be better served by getting a PDF management product, scanning into that and referencing the receipt location in the Memo field of the Q transactions.
Q user since February, 1990. DOS Version 4
Now running Quicken Windows Subscription, Business & Personal
Retired "Certified Information Systems Auditor" & Bank Audit VP0 -
For what it is worth, I checked and there are open source/free OCR libraries available like this one.
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I work in accounting and for years there has been OCR software that scans a document (receipt) and identifies the itemized expenses. We really need this integrated.
Try to imagine, you snap a picture of your walmart receipt and it automatically recognizes how much you spent on food, how much on baby stuff, how much sales tax is on the receipt so it automatically adds it to your SALT deduction. Just try to imagine the wealth of data you now actually have in Quicken and you can actually understand where all your money is going and what you can save on.
That $500 Costco expense categorized as groceries is completely useless information on my cashflow and budgeting report.
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Is there specific OCR software that has done auto-categorization "for years", or are you just talking about OCR software in general.
There are challenges in this. The way store receipts abbreviate items isn't standardized and often hard for even humans to decipher. Maybe using AI, but you'd have to somehow teach it your category scheme.
How would it know, for example, that "SimilAdv 12oz" is baby formula on a Walmart receipt and that it isn't "groceries" but "baby supplies"?
I'm reminded of the attached.2 -
Thanks for reaching out with this request. Your idea has been merged into this already active idea thread!
Thank you!
-Quicken Jasmine
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One challenge with receipts is that they are sometimes the line item is in "code" and is not always descriptive or or seems way off to what the item really is. There is no standard between merchants. I have tried to use OCR with other programs or apps and the results have been less than good. What comes across sometimes is gibberish and you spend more time correcting, fixing, and editing than it's worth. That is my experience with it but things might have gotten better since I last tried it a few years ago.
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I use Quicken for both personal use and for my rentals. Receipt scanning is similar to what I have Claude Cowork doing.
I will lay out what I have claude cowork doing. I understand that I am old school with still using a PC to handle my input but method of input shouldn't matter. Reading a PDF from a directory should be no different than reading a pic from my phone of a document. The real work happens from that point forward.
Anyway, I have Claude Cowork scan my "invoices" folder once per day. It then takes those invoices and reads them and renames the files to YYYY.MM.DD VENDOR PROPERTY. It takes the total of that invoice, categorizes the invoice (utilities/repairs/insurance/legal/etc.) and puts what it actually was for along with the details like pulling out the cf of water used, Kwh of electric, etc., the period the invoice was for, if there are late charges or other fees on the invoice, and the year. It then adds into a totals portion of the spreadsheet, and saves it off. the file gets renamed and moved to a processed directory. It then tells me what it did so I can read and validate it was correct. If there is an unknown vendor or item, or something can't be read or is new, it prompts me with that information. If there is a change in a trend, like I recently got an estimated water bill, it calls that out both in the notes column for that entry in the spreadsheet and in the summary it provides me.
It has been working so well I have added my personal receipts to this. When processing my personal receipts it called out that I had an invoice from 2023 from my mechanic changing my serpentine belt and another invoice from 18 months later for the same item on the same vehicle (I have 2 vehicles). it was an eye opener.
That is the kind of integration I would love to see with Quicken. Where I pass it a receipt, it read it, categorizes it based on what is in the receipt, and has the intelligence to see trends or anomalies to call out to me instead of me having to print the reports and find them myself. Give me a summary of what was done instead of me having to take the time to do it.
I think Quicken has the chance to be on the forefront of this. The data that is within Quicken is invaluable and adding in the ability to proactively process items and offer insights into spending patterns, duplicative charges, etc is a game changer in my opinion.
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