Reading the receipt is the easy half
Plenty of tools will pull a total off a receipt. That gives you a pile of amounts with no relationship to your accounts, which is a filing system, not bookkeeping.
The valuable step is the link: this receipt corresponds to that line on your card statement. Once the link exists, expense claims stop needing manual cross referencing, categories can flow from the receipt to the transaction, and a missing receipt becomes something the system can point at.
How the match is scored
Amount is the strongest signal, but not on its own, since two coffees on the same day cost the same. Date proximity matters because a card transaction posts a day or two after the purchase. Merchant text is normalized on both sides before comparison, because the receipt says the shop name and the statement says a processor code.
Account and time proximity refine the rest. The signals are combined into a score, and the score is shown. A match at 97 percent and a match at 62 percent look different, because they are different.
Nothing is linked silently at low confidence. Weak matches are offered as suggestions you confirm.
Tax, tip and the fields that get confused
A receipt total is often the sum of a subtotal, a tax figure and a tip. Recording only the total loses the breakdown that a tax return or a reclaim depends on, and deriving the breakdown from a guess is worse than leaving it out.
Karchu reads each figure where the receipt prints it, and leaves the field empty where it does not. Currency is captured with the amounts, so a trip abroad does not silently become a domestic expense.
Fitting into what you already do
Scanned receipts feed the same category rules, reports and exports as everything else. Corrections you make are recorded, and a correction you repeat can become a plain rule that you can read and turn off.
You can also see the reverse view: transactions above a threshold with no receipt attached, which is usually the list an accountant asks for.
Frequently asked questions
What does a receipt scanner extract?
Merchant, date, subtotal, tax, tip, total, currency, payment method and line items where the receipt lists them. Karchu also assigns a category and, where you use them, a project tag.
Can I photograph a receipt with my phone?
Yes. Photos, screenshots and scans are all accepted as JPG, PNG or PDF. Crumpled and faded receipts still get read, but low confidence fields are marked for review rather than saved as certain.
Does it link the receipt to my bank transaction?
Yes, where a plausible match exists. Amount, date, merchant, account and time proximity are scored together, and the match is shown with its confidence so you can accept or reject it. A receipt with no match stays visible as unmatched.
What about tax and tip on a restaurant receipt?
Tax and tip are read as separate fields when the receipt prints them separately, so the total and the taxable base do not get confused. If a receipt does not separate them, the fields stay empty rather than being derived from an assumption.
Can it find receipts I am missing?
It can tell you which transactions have no receipt attached, which is the useful half of the question. Missing receipt alerts are configurable so you are not notified about every coffee.
Is the original image kept?
Yes. The original file is stored unchanged next to the extracted fields, so the source is always available for an expense claim or an audit.