Receipt scanner for iPhone

How to scan receipts with the Scanfone receipt scanner

1. Open Scanfone and start a document scan.
2. Flatten the receipt on a dark surface and hold your iPhone above it.
3. Scan several receipts in a row if you like; each becomes a page.
4. Pick the Black & white or Gray filter for faint thermal paper.
5. Save the PDF into a folder, for example "Expenses 2026" or "Warranties".

Paper receipts do not last

Many receipts are printed on thermal paper, and that print can fade over time. The receipt you need for a warranty claim, a return or an expense report is very often the one that has turned into a blank grey strip at the bottom of a drawer.

Scanning them when you get them fixes that. With Scanfone, a receipt becomes a PDF on your iPhone in a few seconds, and on-device text recognition (OCR) makes the text searchable.

Find a receipt by typing what is on it

This is the part that makes a receipt scanner actually useful. Scanfone's search looks across all your documents, including their text. Months later you can type the name of the shop, the product or a word from the receipt and the right scan shows up. No more scrolling through a camera roll full of blurry paper photos.

You can also copy text out of a scan, which is handy when you need to type an order number into a returns form.

Folders that match how you work

Create as many folders as you want. Some ideas people use:

• Expenses for work receipts you claim back
• Warranties for electronics, appliances and furniture
• Tax year folders for self-employed paperwork
• Home for repairs, deliveries and bills
• Travel for hotel and transport receipts on a trip

Send expenses without a subscription

When it is time to submit expenses, you can put several receipts into one multi-page PDF, or merge existing scans. Then share, print or save to Files. If an expenses portal has a size limit, compress the PDF first. Need the receipts as images instead? Convert with PDF to JPG.

All of that is free. Scanfone has no paywall at the save step, no ads and no account. Free PDFs carry one small line under each page, "Scanned free with Scanfone". Pro removes it and adds sync between your phones plus a 1 TB cloud backup: $2.99 for the first year, then $19.99 a year.

What Scanfone does not do

To be clear and honest: Scanfone is a scanner, not an accounting app. It does not pull totals or VAT out of receipts into a spreadsheet, and it does not connect to bookkeeping software. What it does well is give you clean, searchable PDFs, organised in folders, that you can send to whatever system or person needs them.

Tips for scanning thermal receipts

• Flatten long receipts with your hand or a book edge before scanning.
• Use a dark background so the edges of white paper stand out.
• Try Black & white or Gray for faded print; it boosts contrast.
• Scan long receipts in two parts if they do not fit the frame, then keep both pages in one PDF.
• Scan on the day you get the receipt, while the print is at its darkest.

Keep receipts safe and backed up

Out of the box, your receipt scans live on your iPhone. Nothing is uploaded, and there are no ads, no tracking and no analytics. That is great for privacy, but it means a lost phone takes your receipts with it unless you back up the phone yourself.

If you want an extra copy, Scanfone Pro adds a 1 TB cloud backup on EU servers (Hetzner) and syncs your documents between your phones. Other phones join with a one-time code, with no email or password account. You can also save PDFs to the Files app at any time, for free.

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