Twelve receipts in your wallet after a business trip. Finance wants "all receipts as one PDF, named [trip-date]_receipts.pdf, with the total visible per receipt".
Photograph, combine, OCR, name. Twenty minutes once. Easier next time.
Photograph each receipt
Phone camera, good light, document mode if available. Crop tight to the receipt so the PDF page isn't mostly background.
For crumpled thermal receipts, smooth them flat under a book first. Wrinkled receipts confuse OCR badly.
Combine into one PDF in order
Drop the photos into Flint's image-to-PDF tool. Name them in order first (`01_lunch.jpg`, `02_taxi.jpg`) so they combine in the order finance expects.
Each receipt becomes one PDF page. The result is one document with every receipt visible.
OCR for searchable expenses
Run OCR so amounts and merchant names are searchable. Finance can find specific expenses without scrolling through every page.
Also useful for your own records — "What did I spend on dinner in Berlin?" becomes a search rather than a hunt.
FAQ
Should I include the bank statement too?
If finance asks for it. Many policies require receipt-statement matching for amounts over a threshold.
What if a receipt is faded?
Photograph in bright side light to bring out the printing. Some expense systems accept a typed substitute if the original is illegible.
Can I rotate pages where the photo came out sideways?
Yes — rotate individual pages after combining.
How big will the final PDF be?
Twelve receipt photos: typically 5-15 MB. Compress if your finance system has an upload limit.
Expense receipts get easier once you have a workflow. Photograph, combine in Flint's image-to-PDF tool, OCR, send.