KrataaThe household receipt appWaitlist opens soon

A receipt scanner that itemizes every line

Photograph a receipt, or share a screenshot or a PDF of an online order. With automatic itemizing turned on, Krataa writes down the store, the day, every line and its price, the tax and the total.

For iPhone, iOS 16.4 or later. In beta, on TestFlight by invitation.The waitlist opens at the foot of this page

Sample data, drawn for this page: a receipt as the store printed it, and the same receipt in Krataa's receipt screen. The store, the person and the prices are invented.

  1. 1

    The store and the dayRead from the receipt, and the way it is filed. If either is wrong, you can correct it.

  2. 2

    A name you can read"LG EGGS 12CT" is written down as Large eggs.

  3. 3

    The printed words, keptUnder each name, the line exactly as the register printed it.

  4. 4

    A weighed lineIt keeps its weight and its price per pound, so it can be compared per pound later.

  5. 5

    The price, in whole centsEvery amount is stored and added as whole cents, so a sum never drifts.

  6. 6

    Tax and totalTax is a line of its own. The lines and the tax have to add up to the printed total.

  7. 7

    What it is not sure ofPrinted in red. One tap opens that line for you to check.

How it worksYou add each receipt yourself

How a photo, a screenshot or a PDF becomes lines.

There are three ways in, and one question. After your first receipt is saved, Krataa asks whether to turn on automatic itemizing. Say yes, and each receipt you add is itemized and filed by store and day.

Krataa connects to no bank, no store account and no inbox. Nothing is imported for you.

  1. A photoThe paper receipt from Marlow Grocer. Saved the moment you take it, with three seconds to undo.

  2. A PDFAn emailed receipt from Larkspur Books, shared to Krataa or chosen from Files. Each PDF is its own receipt.

  3. Screenshots of an online orderTwo screenshots from Fernhill Pantry, shared from the share sheet. Together they are one receipt.

Automatic itemizing, onKrataa asks once, after your first receipt is saved. Each person answers for the receipts they add.

Not nowReceipts are saved and not itemized. You can still add purchases by hand, and change the answer any time.

The Ledger, drawn with sample data. Each receipt is filed under its store and its day, with the name of whoever added it. The two online orders wear the tag Online.

An online order adds up too.

A delivery fee, a service fee, a bag fee and a tip each become a line. An order discount becomes a minus line. So the total Krataa keeps is the total the order printed.

An order confirmation and its final receipt carry the same order number, so they count once. One receipt holds up to 20 pictures, and a file can be up to 10 MB.

The linesKind, brand and size, when the receipt prints them

What is written down from one printed line.

A register prints in abbreviations. From each line Krataa writes the item, its kind, brand and size when the receipt prints them, and the price. Here are three lines of the receipt above, taken apart.

What a receipt knows that your bank statement does not

Sample data. Three printed lines from the Marlow Grocer receipt at the top of this page.

What Krataa checksLines plus tax, against the printed total

The lines have to add up to the printed total.

A receipt carries its own proof: the total at the foot. Krataa accepts what it itemized only when the lines and the tax come within 2% of that total.

Adding up is a check, not a promise. A receipt can add up and still hold a wrong name.

When it is not itemizedA receipt not itemized counts toward nothing

What you see when a receipt waits, or cannot be itemized.

The app says so on the receipt itself, in the paper's own capitals. These are the three states the receipt screen prints, with the row each one wears on the Ledger.

  • Still working. This can take a minute.

    While it is being itemizedTake the photo and carry on. It fills in on your Ledger once it is itemized.

  • When it has to waitNo signal, or a service that is busy. The photo is kept and Krataa tries again on its own. Until then the receipt counts toward nothing.

  • When it cannot itemize oneFaded print, a very long receipt, an unusual layout, or lines that will not add up. The photo is kept. You can try again, add the purchase by hand, or delete it.

Drawn after the app's receipt screen and Ledger. The sentences on the paper are the app's own.

CorrectionsA fix is remembered for that store

What you can correct, and what you cannot.

When Krataa is not sure of a line, it asks. You fix the name or the price, or you tell it the line looks right. A receipt's store and date can be corrected too.

The rest of a receipt cannot be edited.

  1. A name it was not sure of. Correct the name or the price, or tap Looks right, record it.

  2. Numbers that disagree. When a line's own printed arithmetic does not come to what was read, the sheet says so in one sentence.

You can correct

  1. 1

    The store and the date. From the receipt itself, under the words Wrong store or date?

  2. 2

    A line it was not sure of. Afterwards the printed words are struck through and marked Fixed.

You cannot correct

  1. 3

    A line it read with confidence. The sheet opens only the lines it was unsure of.

  2. 4

    A receipt's total. And an itemized receipt cannot be deleted after its first minute.

Srdgh brd loafSourdough breadRemembered for Marlow Grocer, for everyone in the household, and used the next time one of its receipts is itemized.

Your dataThe app sends nothing for itemizing before you say yes.

What leaves your phone, and what never does.

A receipt you add is stored in your household's account. It goes one step further, to the provider that does the itemizing, only if you turned automatic itemizing on.

Your phone

These never leave it.

  • Your location
  • Your contacts
  • Sound
  • Other photos

The app never asks for your location or your contacts. The camera records no sound, and no photo is added unless you choose it.

With no signal, a photo waits here and uploads when you are back online.

When you add a receipt

Only if you turned automatic itemizing on

The itemizing provider

The app names the provider on the screen that asks, before anything is sent. It works only on Krataa's behalf.

  • The receipt image or PDF, and everything printed on it. That can include the last digits of a card, a loyalty number, or a name and address on an online order.

  • The names your household uses for its stores, products, categories and income sources, and item names you have corrected, so things are named and filed the same way each time.

  • The day the receipt was added. Later, the text of older lines, to fill in sizes and kinds.

It does not use receipts to train its models, and deletes them within 30 days unless they are flagged for a safety review or the law requires keeping them.

Not yetWhat is not built is printed in red

What it does not do yet.

Krataa is in beta. These are the things a person might expect of a receipt scanner that this one does not do today.

A photo you take is kept, but no screen shows it to you again. An emailed receipt has to be shared in as a screenshot or a PDF, because there is no address to forward it to. And with no signal the photo waits on your phone until you are back online.

Krataa

Automatic itemizing

What it does not do yet

Edit every lineNo

Change a totalNo

Delete once itemizedFirst minute

See the original photoNo screen yet

Forward an emailNo address

Add a link or textNo

Itemize with no signalIt waits

An accuracy figureNone to give

In beta

QuestionsEach answer starts with the answer

Common questions.

Does Krataa itemize every receipt?

No. Faded print, a very long receipt or an unusual layout can end as a receipt that could not be itemized. Its photo is kept, the Ledger marks it as needing you, and you can try again, add the purchase by hand, or delete it.

How accurate is it?

There is no accuracy figure to give, and this page will not invent one. Automatic itemizing can make mistakes. Krataa checks that the lines and the tax add up to the printed total, and marks any line it is not sure of for you to check.

How long does it take?

It can take a minute, and no number is promised. Take the photo and carry on. The items fill in on your Ledger when they are ready, and until then the receipt counts toward nothing.

Can it read a screenshot of an online order?

Yes. Share a screenshot or a PDF to Krataa from any app's share sheet, or choose one from Photos or Files. Several screenshots of one order become one receipt. A link or plain text cannot be added: for an order page in Safari, take a Full Page screenshot and share that.

Do I have to turn automatic itemizing on?

No. Krataa asks once, after your first receipt is saved. If you choose Not now, receipts are saved and not itemized, and you can still add purchases by hand. You can change the answer any time in Account, Data and privacy, and each person in a household answers for the receipts they add.

What can I fix when a line is wrong?

You can fix the lines Krataa was not sure of, and a receipt's store and date. A line it read with confidence cannot be edited, and neither can a receipt's total. A fix is remembered for that store, for everyone in the household.

What if the same receipt is added twice?

It counts once. The same store and the same total within the same six hours are merged, and the first photo is kept. An order confirmation and its final receipt with the same order number are one receipt too.

Can I get the lines into a spreadsheet?

Yes. In Account, Export everything hands you one spreadsheet (.xlsx) with five tabs: Receipts, Lines, Items, Claims and Monthly summary. Export is never locked. Photos are not in it.

Which receipts was it built for?

Receipts from stores in the United States, printed in English and priced in US dollars. A corner shop's receipt is added the same way as a supermarket's. Nothing else has been tested, so this page claims nothing else.

What happens to the photo?

It is stored in your household's account, and it goes to the itemizing provider only if you turned automatic itemizing on. Photos are never sold. For now the app has no screen that shows you the original photo again: it shows the itemized receipt.

Can anyone at Krataa see my receipts?

Yes. The people who run Krataa can open a receipt's photo and its lines, for example to find out why it was misread. Every time one of them opens a photo, it is recorded in a log that nothing can edit or delete.

Does it connect to my bank, my inbox or a store account?

No. Krataa connects to nothing. You add each receipt yourself, and there is no address to forward emailed receipts to.

From the blogGuides that work with a notebook or a spreadsheet too

Longer reads.

  1. What a receipt knows that your bank statement does not

    The idea behind the app6 min read

  2. Budgeting without linking your bank: five ways compared

    8 min read

  3. How to keep a grocery price book: paper, spreadsheet or app

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All articlesThe whole app, on one pageHow the Shelf compares prices

The waitlist is not open yet. It opens here soon.