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PARTLY

As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly extract data from your business receipts.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

30 minutesto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill needednone

Who has to check ityou

What the alternative costsA specialist alternative is Parseur, which pulls data out of invoices, emails and PDFs.

If this goes wrong, incorrect supplier, amount or VAT data can enter your records and affect your bookkeeping or VAT return.

What to actually do

  1. Hand it to a person

    The route this page recommends

    A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Do it yourself

    The distant third

    A chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. Gather the original paper receipts and digital receipt files, then remove unrelated documents and redact card numbers or other irrelevant personal data.
    2. Photograph or scan each paper receipt clearly, keeping the whole receipt visible and using a separate file for each receipt.
    3. Open a chatbot or receipt extraction tool, attach the files, paste the prompt, and ask it to process the complete batch.
    4. Export the returned table to your bookkeeping spreadsheet and keep the receipt reference linked to the matching image or PDF.
    5. Open every receipt marked CHECK and compare the supplier, date, net amount, VAT amount and gross total with the source document, correcting the spreadsheet rather than accepting a guessed value.
    6. Send the checked table and the original receipts to your bookkeeper or accountant if they will use the records for VAT or tax work.

    Prompt

    Extract structured data from the attached business receipts. Return one row per receipt in a table with these columns: receipt reference, supplier, receipt date, currency, net amount, VAT amount, gross total, VAT rate if clearly shown, expense description, payment method if shown, and notes. Preserve the figures and wording from each receipt. Do not infer missing values, classify an expense as allowable, or calculate VAT unless I explicitly ask. Mark any unreadable, ambiguous or conflicting field as CHECK rather than guessing, and identify the receipt and field in the notes. Keep dates in the format YYYY-MM-DD where the receipt makes the date clear. After the table, list receipts that need manual checking and explain why. Do not retain or repeat card numbers, bank details or other irrelevant personal data.

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot reliably read every crumpled, blurred, faded or partially hidden receipt.
  • It cannot decide from the receipt alone whether an expense is allowable for your business or how it should be treated for VAT.
  • It cannot resolve a supplier name or VAT treatment when the document is ambiguous without your business context.
  • It does not take responsibility for incorrect bookkeeping records or a VAT return built from them.
  • Checking a large batch still requires you to compare the extracted fields with the original receipts.

What caps this at PARTLY: verification cost, private data access and legal accountability.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output2
Inputs2
Verification1
Liability1
Effort delta1
Total7 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT read receipts?
Yes, it can extract visible text and figures from receipt images or PDFs. It can still misread poor-quality images or guess when a field is unclear, so compare the result with the original receipt.
What information can AI extract from a receipt?
It can usually extract the supplier, date, net amount, VAT amount, gross total and other clearly printed fields. Ask it to mark missing or unclear values instead of filling them in.
Can AI categorise my business receipts for bookkeeping?
It can suggest categories, but a receipt does not always show whether an expense is allowable or how its VAT should be treated. Use AI for data entry and give ambiguous items to your bookkeeper or accountant.
Is it safe to upload business receipts to AI?
Only upload documents to a service whose privacy and retention terms you have checked, and remove card numbers and unrelated personal data first. This is not professional advice; ask your accountant or bookkeeper about your business's record-keeping and VAT process.

Nearby answers

All Bookkeeping & reconciliation rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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