Scan receipts with your phone

Scanning receipts on your phone

On your phone, the workspace has a camera button in the bar at the bottom. You tap it, hold the receipt in view and take the picture. If the photo is already in your library, you pick it from there. On a computer you upload the file under Receipts, for example the PDF a supplier sent you.

Bilanzi files every file as an original, in private storage that belongs to your business. When it files it, Bilanzi works out a digital fingerprint of the file, and the original is never overwritten after that. Uploaded the wrong thing? You void the receipt and give a reason. It does not disappear. It stays visible, marked as void.

• PDF, JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC, up to 20 MB per file
• Every receipt can be opened and linked to an entry

What the AI reads from a receipt

Reading receipts with AI is part of the Starter, Business and Fiduciary plans, with a set number of receipts a month. When you photograph a receipt with the camera button, Bilanzi reads it as soon as the photo is in. For a receipt you uploaded under Receipts, you start the reading with the button «Code with AI».

You then see the merchant, the date, the amount and the suggested account, with its number and name. The AI only picks accounts from your own chart of accounts. If your business is registered for VAT, the input tax gets a line of its own. If not, the whole amount goes to one account.

Next, Bilanzi looks at your bank account. If the payment is already there, it suggests attaching the receipt to that transaction. That way the expense lands in your books only once. Nothing happens until you confirm.

Every suggestion shows what it rests on

Bilanzi collects the suggestions under More › Receipt inbox. For each receipt you see how Bilanzi would post it, with every account on the debit or credit side. Next to it you see how sure Bilanzi is, as a percentage. Under «What the model read» you find the places on the receipt the suggestion rests on, such as the amount, the date and the supplier.

Before a suggestion appears, Bilanzi checks it against fixed rules. The accounts must exist in your chart of accounts, and debits must equal credits. A suggestion that fails this check cannot be accepted.

When you accept, Bilanzi creates a draft entry. It only becomes binding once you post it under More › Drafts. When you reject, you write down why, and the suggestion stays on record with your decision. A suggestion expires after thirty days, and after that you can only reject it.

Where the AI does its work

The suggestions come from a language model that Infomaniak runs in Geneva. The processing takes place in Switzerland. We say it here because you should know it before your first receipt.

Infomaniak receives the receipt and what it needs to judge it, for example your chart of accounts. That only happens when a receipt is being read. Your books and your receipts stay in Zurich. Payslips never go to the model. The details are in the privacy notice.

Entries without a receipt

Swiss law requires every entry to be backed by a voucher. So Bilanzi shows you a list of the entries that have no receipt attached yet. For each line you photograph the missing receipt, pick one you already filed, or note that there is no separate receipt. For bank charges, for example, the statement itself is the proof.

Some things are only agreed by word of mouth, such as a rent settled with a handshake. For those you write your own voucher: what it is about, with whom, since when, how often and who confirms it. Bilanzi files it and attaches it to the entry.

Sources: Code of Obligations, Art. 957a (fedlex.admin.ch)

Keeping receipts for ten years

Accounting records and vouchers must be kept for ten years. The period starts when the financial year ends. Vouchers may be kept electronically, as long as they match the transactions they document and can be made readable at any time. The details are set out in the ordinance on keeping business records, the GeBüV.

Bilanzi treats that period as a rule. A receipt attached to an entry cannot be voided while the period runs. That holds even if the link was removed first. For certain records about real estate, the VAT Act requires twenty years. If you mark a receipt that way, Bilanzi keeps it for twenty years. While a legal hold is in place, no receipt can be voided at all.

Sources: Code of Obligations, Art. 958f (fedlex.admin.ch), Ordinance on Business Records, GeBüV (fedlex.admin.ch), VAT Act, Art. 70 (fedlex.admin.ch)

What does not work yet

The AI can misread things, especially from a blurry photo. So check the amount, the date and the account against the receipt before you accept.

Bilanzi files an image in HEIC format, but the AI does not read it. You cannot forward receipts to Bilanzi by email. You open each receipt on its own, and there is no export of all receipt files at once.

Bilanzi is not a certified archive. Before you throw away the paper after taking the photo, ask your fiduciary.

Frequently asked questions

Related topics

• Bank reconciliation

  You import the bank statement as a file. Bilanzi suggests a match for every transaction and tells you why. The decision is yours.

• Year-end closing for your GmbH

  Every Swiss GmbH ends its financial year with annual accounts. Bilanzi builds the balance sheet and income statement from your entries and walks you through the close in five steps. The notes you write yourself or with your fiduciary.