How automatic receipt recognition (OCR) works

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The automatic receipt recognition feature saves time when entering an expense report.

The text on proof of expenditure documents (photographs of invoices, files, etc.) is recognized in order to pre-enter the expense. The user only has to check and complete their expense.

Thus, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) allows converting an image into text.

How OCR works

Enable or disable OCR

To enable or disable the feature:

Click at the top right
Check or uncheck the 'reconnaissance automatique de justificatif' box
The choice will be saved for subsequent expense reports

To disable recognition only for the current expense:

Create a new expense
Click 'Désactiver':

Use OCR

Create an expense report or open an existing one
Create a new expense
Select the expense type
Add a receipt to the expense in the designated area
Certain recognized fields are filled automatically, in green:

Check and complete the other requested information
Save the expense

Information that can be recognized by OCR

The fields that can be pre-filled are:

Expense date
Total incl. tax
VAT amount(s) (VAT rates are determined based on the amounts)
Expense currency

How does OCR work?

Eurécia's OCR is based on keywords present on receipts to determine the type of information to retrieve. For example, it will detect terms such as 'Restaurant', 'Déjeuner', 'Péage', etc.

It also searches for the date, total incl. tax, VAT and currency.

Frequently asked questions

Will adding the receipt after entering the expense overwrite manual entry?

No.

If the user has already started entering their new expense, adding the receipt still launches recognition. Only “empty” fields will be automatically filled.

OCR is no longer triggered when selecting a receipt in the “Nouvelle dépense” form if the user has entered data in all fields that can be recognized by OCR.

Can I manually restart OCR?

Automatic recognition cannot be directly restarted in manual mode.

Only adding a receipt in a new expense triggers it.

However, it is possible to add the receipt at any time during entry.

Does OCR run for global expense report receipts?

No, OCR only runs on receipts present in each expense.

Which formats are recognized?

The file formats displayed on screen that benefit from OCR are:

JPG / JPEG
PNG
GIF / Animated GIF
BMP

The PDF format displays correctly even if it contains several pages, but it does not benefit from automatic recognition.

The optimal image size is 1024*768 and the maximum size is 4 MB.

The recognized date formats are:

31-12-2019
31/12/2019
31.12.2019
31/12/19
31-12-19
31.12.19
31JAN20
31 January 2020

Keywords associated with this article:

Expense report - Reimbursement - pro expenses - Professional expenses - travel - receipts - supporting documents - invoices - optical character recognition - ROC - OCR - Optical Character Recognition

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