5 Receipt OCR Apps for Receipt Data Extraction (Updated for 2020)

5 Receipt OCR Apps for Receipt Data Extraction (Updated for 2020)

2020-07-14 08:50:00 / Posted by to OCR PDF Follow @ admin

With receipts being essential for the work and life, it's imperative to keep track of the receipts. However, it can be really a daunting task since all the receipts are printed or digital, and there is no denial of this fact. Besides, entering receipts information manually can also result in potential errors. Using receipt OCR software can dramatically save your time and effort in such scenarios. 

Here's our round-up of the best receipt OCR apps. Read all about the features they offer and pick the best-suited receipt OCR software that can help you in tracking expenses.

In this article, we'll cover:

OCR Technology Can Help Do Receipt OCR

Since we are in the age of increasingly technological advancement, it doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.

Nowadays, almost all receipt OCR software has been adapted OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to handle receipt data extraction issues. With this, receipt OCR performs its conversion with almost 99% accuracy. With the help of OCR technology, receipts data and text can be read and recognized intelligently.

Benefits of Receipt OCR

Receipt OCR technology brings with it a number of benefits, all of which serve to make your life easier.

1. Reduce errors

Some receipt OCR apps are so accurate that reduce personal errors. Every single receipt is processed with 99% accuracy.

2. Save time and space

Consider of entering receipts data one by one manually, you can save your time by using receipt OCR software. Besides, it can help to reduce the use of paper storage, thus saving space.

3. Increase security

Receipt OCR can keep your transaction data secure and private. All receipts can be stored on a digital device.

4. Make receipts editable

Receipts has to be edited most of the time, particularly when some information like category, location, uses must be updated. Receipt OCR can convert receipt data to many editable formats such as Word, Excel etc.

Receipt OCR Software We Love(Mac/Win/iOS/Android) 

Although most of the receipt OCR apps work friendly with scanned documents, there are extremely few receipt OCR apps that can handle handwritten receipt gracefully.

1. Enolsoft PDF Converter with OCR

Enolsoft PDF Converter with OCR is a Mac program that helps you easily convert native and scanned PDF or images including receipt and invoice to Word, Excel, PPT, Keynote, Pages, HTML, EPUB, Text, Images and etc. In addition, with batch receipt OCR conversion support, users are allowed to deal with a pile of receipt at one time.

Potential downside:

  • Works on Mac only
  • Inaccurate for handwritten text

Below is how you can process receipt OCR

The first thing that you need to do is make a download and then install this software on your device. Next, you can follow these steps to do receipt OCR.

Free Download

Step 1: Add Receipt Files  

Click the + button to import the digital receipt or paper receipt captured by phone camera. Or you can simply drag the target receipt to the main interface. Batch conversion is supported that you can add as many as receipt files you want at the same time.

Step 2: Specify Settings

  1. Make sure the OCR button is ON for receipt OCR conversion.
  2. The default page range is All Pages. If need, you can also customize the page ranges.
  3. Choose file language and output as needed.

Step 3: Adjust Advanced settings

In order to get more accurate results, the receipt has been automatically marked as texts, images and tables in different color. Users are permitted to customize the OCR applied zone manually.

Step 4: Start to Receipt OCR

When you finish the whole settings, hit the Convert button to begin the receipt OCR. After a few seconds, you can view the created receipt files.

2. Adobe Acrobat DC

Adobe Acrobat DC allows users to create, edit, convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, also supports receipt OCR. Enjoying the most powerful features of OCR software, you can extract data from receipt and convert scanned receipt documents into editable format effortlessly.

Follow the guide below for how receipt OCR works in Adobe Acrobat DC

  1. Open receipt file with Adobe Acrobat DC
  2. After importing receipt, Adobe will automatically process receipt. Click Export PDF on the right-side bar
  3. Choose Word as the output, then click Convert, the receipt will be converted as Word format

 

         

Project highlights:

  • High accuracy
  • Support both native and scanned receipt

Potential downside:

  • Need to pay for advanced features

3. OneNote

Microsoft OneNote is Windows inbuilt program for note taking. Surprisingly, OneNote has an additional OCR feature. If you are a Windows user, you can simply do receipt OCR without paying a cent with this app.

Steps for receipt OCR with OneNote:

1. Drag a receipt image or scanned receipt to OneNote

  

2. Right-click on the receipt file, then you will get an option called Copy Text from Picture. Sometimes the option may not immediately appear on the menu, just wait for the option to pop up

3. Now the receipt data has been extracted and copied to the clipboard and you can paste it on Word.

Project highlights:

  • Totally free
  • Accurate results for PDF or image receipt OCR

Potential downside:

  • Fails to deal with handwritten receipt
  • Time consuming for the option to appear

4. Simple OCR

Simple OCR is basic and one of the very few receipt OCR software that allows users to convert handwritten receipt to editable text and it comes with an in-built spell checker. If you have a lot of handwritten receipt documents and you want to do receipt OCR, then Simple OCR would be your best option.

Here is how to do receipt OCR with Simple OCR

1. Go to its official website and download Simple OCR

2. Run it. You will see two options Machine Print and Hand Writing. Choose one depending on your receipt type

3. Add a receipt file from the main interface. There are options available such as text selection, image selection and text ignore features etc. You can choose according to your requirement

4. Edit the texts before receipt OCR

5. Finally, covert the receipt file and save it as doc or txt format.

Project highlights:

  • Free of cost
  • Simple to use
  • Support handwritten recognition (14 days free-trial)

Potential downside:

  • Does not support tables and columns.
  • A little outdated interface
  • Windows only

5. Camscanner

CamScanner is probably the most famous mobile receipt OCR app that can use your phone camera to OCR receipts, notes, invoices, whiteboard discussions, business cards, certificates, etc. 

A step-by-step guide on how to do receipt OCR using the CamScanner app

1. Download CamScanner on App store or Google play

2. Press the camera icon to take single shot of the receipt or select a receipt from library

3. Choose the part you want to OCR by moving the clear circles around the image and then click Next

4. Click theicon. Then choose Recognize full page or Select an area for receipt OCR

5. Choose a way you want to share, CamScanner will automatically save a copy of the scanned receipt on the homepage of the app

Project highlights:

  • Handwritten receipt OCR support
  • Annotate, collaborate, sign doc
  • Password-protected function

Potential downside:

  • Not a free app

Receipt OCR API for Scanning Receipt

1. Google Vision API for Receipt OCR

Google Vision API is a comprehensive receipt OCR API for developers to recognize, process and analysis image including TIFF, GIF, PDF, JPG and GIF. It can detect more than 50 different languages. On top of that, it supports face recognition, image labeling and landmark detection. Given a receipt that contains brand logos, it could identify what the brand belongs to. The best thing about Google Cloud Vision API is that it works well with handwriting receipts.

2. Taggun (real-time receipt OCR API)

Taggun is a unique receipt OCR API, aiming at scanning receipt and invoices. Apart from that it can recognize texts from image, PDF, even URL, it also recognizes the structure of the receipt and processes accurate data like Total Amount, Tax Amount, Merchant Name etc.

3. Microsoft Computer Vision (cloud-based vision receipt OCR API)

Microsoft Computer Vision is a cloud-based receipt OCR API designed for developers with access to use machine learning for processing image receipts and outputting information, and other uses like generating receipt thumbnails, describing the content of receipt using AI. However, its main function is to pick objects out of a receipt and classify them in general.

4. Tesseract (receipt OCR open source)

For receipt OCR, we can also use an open-source command line library called Tesseract. It’s the definitive free receipt OCR engine developed by Google. It is written in C/C++. Sometimes Tesseract can accurately recognize the handwritten text on the receipt.

Conclusion

In this article, we offer you 5 practical ways for receipt OCR. For users using different systems, you may choose a receipt OCR app based on your device (Mac or Windows, iPhone or Android). Among all the tools mentioned above, Enolsoft PDF Converter with OCR is the most suitable one for most Mac users.