If you keep your own business records, a pile of crumpled till receipts or blurry phone photos quickly becomes a data-entry chore. AI can speed up extraction, provided you check the result against each original receipt.
Three Ways to Convert Receipts to Excel
Method 1: Manual Entry (The Old Way)
Read each line item from the receipt, type it into Excel, calculate totals and cross-check the result. This gives you control but becomes repetitive as volume grows.
Method 2: Basic OCR Apps
Apps like Adobe Scan or phone camera OCR extract text but don't understand receipt structure — you get a wall of text, not a spreadsheet. Time: 1-2 minutes plus heavy cleanup.
Method 3: AI-Powered Receipt Scanning
AI can infer receipt structure and prepare fields such as date, merchant, line items, amounts, VAT and total. Treat the result as a working file and check it against the source.
BankScan AI handles both: receipt photos and supported bank-statement PDFs share the monthly AI-processing allowance shown in the app. The £3.99/month plan is for one UK sole trader or owner-operated small business that keeps sole-trader records.
What AI Receipt Scanning Extracts
- Merchant/shop name
- Transaction date and time
- Individual line items with descriptions
- Item prices and quantities
- Subtotal, VAT breakdown, and total
- Payment method (if shown)
- Receipt/invoice number
Receipt Quality Tips for Best Results
- Photograph receipts on a flat, dark surface for contrast
- Ensure all four corners of the receipt are visible
- Avoid shadows across the text
- For faded thermal receipts, increase contrast or scan instead of photographing
- Multi-page receipts: photograph each page separately
Start a 7-day trial
No charge for 7 days, then £3.99/month for the Sole Trader plan. Account, email verification and a payment card are required.
Start 7-day trial →Last updated: 8 May 2026.