Capture expenses and receipts

How a receipt arrives in Billance

There are three routes into the expense area. A structured XRechnung XML or a ZUGFeRD/Factur-X PDF is read locally: supplier, invoice number, dates, currency, amounts, VAT breakdown and line items land straight in the receipt draft. A photo, a scan or an ordinary PDF goes through local text recognition. And for awkward layouts you can trigger AI recognition — but only after an explicit action and confirmation, because it transfers data and consumes quota.

Recognised values always remain a suggestion. Before saving you check supplier, receipt number, date, document type, category, currency and the net, tax and gross amounts; for supplier invoices, due date, discount, payments, service period and tax case come on top. The original stays attached.

After saving, a receipt has more ahead of it than just filing: you can mark it reviewed, finalize it, archive it, record payments, use it as a recurring expense template or — where it fits — rebill it to a customer.

From a stack of paper to a clean expense list

1. 1

   Bring receipts in

   Pick a file, drop it in, scan it with the camera or create it by hand. A single file opens the editor, several files are prepared as drafts.

2. 2

   Let recognition run

   Structured e-invoices and local OCR are evaluated automatically. AI recognition only starts when you explicitly confirm it.

3. 3

   Review and complete

   Check amounts, tax case, category, due date and the deductible input tax share. A hint warns about possible duplicates.

4. 4

   Save and file

   The receipt lands in the list and the original stays attached. Folders, archive and trash work as they do for outgoing documents.

5. 5

   Reuse it

   Record payments, create a recurring expense, finalize it or rebill it to a customer — the receipt stays linked to the invoice.

What the expense area does

App view – screenshot follows at release

• Read e-invoices locally

  XRechnung XML and ZUGFeRD/Factur-X PDFs are evaluated without any upload; the original file stays stored unchanged.

• Local text recognition

  OCR reads photos, scans and ordinary PDFs on your device without consuming any quota.

• AI only on request

  AI recognition is used exclusively after an explicit confirmation and draws on the shared page quota.

• Batch import with drafts

  Several files become receipt drafts waiting at the top of the list. A draft counts in no report until it is saved.

• Split multi-page PDFs

  If one PDF holds several receipts, it can be split into individual drafts instead of forcing everything into one record.

• Watched folder

  Optionally Billance watches a local folder and turns supported files dropped there into drafts — nothing is ever imported automatically.

• Recurring expenses

  Rent, subscriptions and insurance are set up as a series; expected receipts appear at the due dates without consuming quota.

• Rebilling

  A business expense becomes a line item on a customer invoice, with an optional percentage markup; receipt and invoice stay linked.

• Finalization and integrity check

  A reviewed receipt can be finalized; the change log documents the history, and the check compares original files with their stored SHA-256 hash.

Finalization, history and file integrity

Finalizing protects a reviewed receipt from normal editing. What happens afterwards stays visible in the change log, and the integrity check tells you whether the original file is still the one that was filed.

• Check before finalizing

  Review content, amounts, tax data, payments and the attachment — afterwards the business data is locked.

• Still usable

  A finalized receipt can still be viewed, archived and used in supported follow-up workflows.

• Change log

  Creation, editing, status changes and finalization are documented; absolute local file paths are never transferred to other devices.

• Integrity check

  “Unchanged” means the file content still matches the stored hash. “Missing” or “changed” calls for a manual review. No files are sent to an AI service for this.

• Protection from premature deletion

  Finalized receipts and receipts inside their retention period deliberately cannot be deleted permanently; Billance names the earliest permitted date.

Finalization and the integrity check are Premium features that support your bookkeeping but do not replace tax advice.

On desktop and in the app

The expense area exists on both platforms; capturing uses the strengths of each device.

Free or Premium

After a downgrade all captured receipts, payments and recurring expenses are kept.

Frequently asked questions about expenses

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