What receipt formats does the agent support?

The agent can process photos (JPEG, PNG), PDFs, and forwarded email text. For best results with photos, make sure the entire receipt is visible and the text is legible. PDF receipts from online purchases typically produce the most accurate results.

Can I change my expense categories later?

Yes. You can add, rename, or remove categories at any time by telling your agent. Existing expenses will keep their original category, but you can ask the agent to re-categorize past entries if needed.

How does the agent handle receipts in different currencies?

The agent extracts the currency symbol from the receipt and logs it alongside the amount. You can ask the agent to convert amounts to a base currency using a rate you specify, or keep them in their original currency for accurate record keeping.

Finance

Expense Tracking: Receipt Scanning and Categorization

Configure your OpenClaw agent to scan paper and digital receipts, extract key details, and sort expenses into categories automatically.

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What You Will Get

By the end of this guide, your OpenClaw agent will accept receipt photos or PDFs, pull out the vendor name, date, total amount, and line items, then file each expense into the correct category. You will have a running log of every business expense, organized and searchable.

The agent uses optical character recognition to read receipt images and structured extraction to parse the data. You can define your own expense categories, such as meals, travel, software, office supplies, and more. The agent learns from corrections, so accuracy improves over time.

Once everything is configured, you simply snap a photo of a receipt or forward a digital receipt to your agent. Within seconds, the expense is logged, categorized, and available for export. No spreadsheets, no manual entry, no lost receipts.

Step-by-Step Setup

Follow these steps to configure receipt scanning and expense categorization on your running OpenClaw instance.

Open the Chat Interface

Navigate to your OpenClaw agent on RunTheAgent and open the chat panel. This is where you will send receipts and configure how the agent handles them. Make sure your agent is online and responding to messages before proceeding.

Define Your Expense Categories

Tell your agent which expense categories to use. For example, you might specify meals, travel, software subscriptions, office supplies, and professional services. The agent will use these categories when sorting incoming receipts. You can update these categories at any time by chatting with your agent.

Send a Test Receipt Photo

Take a clear photo of a receipt and send it to your agent through the chat. The agent will process the image, extract the vendor name, date, total, and line items, then confirm the parsed details back to you. Review the output to make sure the data is accurate.

Confirm or Correct the Categorization

The agent will suggest a category based on the vendor and items. If the suggestion is correct, confirm it. If not, tell the agent the correct category. These corrections help the agent make better category assignments in the future. Over several receipts, you will notice accuracy improving steadily.

Set Up a Storage Format

Ask your agent to store expenses in a structured format, such as a CSV table or a JSON log. Specify the fields you want tracked: date, vendor, category, subtotal, tax, total, and any notes. The agent will maintain this log and append new entries each time a receipt is processed.

Test with Multiple Receipt Types

Send a variety of receipts to test coverage. Try restaurant receipts, gas station receipts, online order confirmations, and subscription invoices. Verify that the agent handles different formats and layouts correctly. Flag any parsing errors so the agent can adjust its extraction logic.

Export Your Expense Report

Ask your agent to generate a summary of all logged expenses for a given period. You can request a weekly, monthly, or custom date range export. The agent will compile the data into a clean report with totals per category, making it ready for your accountant or bookkeeper.

Tips and Best Practices

Use Good Lighting for Photos

Clear, well-lit receipt photos produce much better OCR results. Avoid shadows, crumpled paper, and blurry images. If a receipt is faded, try increasing your phone's exposure before snapping the photo.

Forward Digital Receipts Directly

For online purchases and subscriptions, forward the email confirmation or PDF receipt directly to your agent. Digital receipts are easier to parse than photos and produce more accurate extraction results.

Review Weekly

Set a weekly reminder to ask your agent for an expense summary. This keeps your records current and lets you catch any miscategorized entries early, before they pile up at the end of the month.

Tag Business vs. Personal

If you use the same card for business and personal expenses, ask your agent to add a business or personal tag to each receipt. This makes tax time much simpler, since you can filter for business-only expenses instantly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Budget Tracking: Monthly Spend Analysis Tax Preparation: Expense Categorization Invoice Generation: Automated Billing

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