Getting sharp, readable scans
- Contrast helps: a white page on a dark desk or table is found fastest. On a white surface, slide a darker folder underneath.
- Light from above, not from the phone: daylight or a ceiling light gives even pages. The phone's light is there for dim rooms, but it can leave a bright spot on glossy paper.
- Fill the frame: hold the phone so the page takes most of the screen, with a little margin around all four corners.
- Flatten folded receipts with a hand at the edge, out of the page. A slight curve is fine; a crease across text isn't.
Receipts and expense reports
Scan receipts as you get them, then attach the PDF to the expense in your accounting software or to an expense report. Black and white keeps faded thermal receipts legible and the files small. For a monthly packet, scan every receipt into one PDF in date order, or reorder the pages before downloading.
Under IRS guidance, electronic copies of receipts are generally acceptable records if they're legible and complete, so a clean scan can replace the paper shoebox. Check your own retention rules with your tax advisor before throwing originals away.
Paper bank statements
Some clients still bring paper statements. Scan every page in order, choose black and white or grayscale, and tick Make the text searchable (Pro) so the PDF has real text. Then convert it with the PDF statement converter, which reads the transactions and checks them against the statement's balances. A sharp, straight scan makes a big difference to how many lines are read correctly.
How it works
Each camera frame is shrunk and searched for a four-sided outline with OpenCV. When you capture, the full-resolution frame is kept, the four corners are mapped to a flat rectangle (a perspective correction), and the filter evens out the lighting by estimating how much light falls on each part of the page. All of this runs on your phone, in the browser, so it works the same in a client's office as at your desk.