A receipt scanner that tracks line items, not just totals
Most apps that scan a receipt keep the picture and record the total. Portofelo reads what is printed on it — every product, every price — and files each line under its own category. That is the difference between knowing you spent €62 at the supermarket and knowing that €14 of it was snacks.
What it does
Point the camera at a till receipt. The app reads the merchant, the date, the total and the individual line items, then categorises each line on its own — so a single trip can land partly in groceries, partly in household and partly in alcohol, which is what actually happened. You can correct any line, and corrections stick.
Fifty scans a month on the free plan. Unlimited on Pro, at €2.99 a month. There is no cap on transactions, budgets or accounts on either plan, and no advertising on either.
How this differs from a receipt-storage app
There is a whole category of apps that photograph receipts and file the images, so you can find them later for a warranty claim or an expense report. They are storage, and they are good at it. What they give you at the end of the month is a folder.
Portofelo is not storing the receipt, it is converting it. The output is categorised spending you can budget against, not an image you have to open and read. The test is simple: after a month of scanning, can the app tell you what you spent on cleaning products? A storage app cannot, and neither can one that only captured the total.
What it works with
Any printed till receipt: supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, petrol stations, corner shops. Accuracy is highest on a flat, clearly printed receipt in reasonable light, and drops on faded thermal paper — which is true of every scanner, ours included.
Amounts are read in the currency printed on the receipt, so a receipt from a trip abroad is logged in that currency rather than converted behind your back. Handwritten receipts are not reliable; type those in.
What happens to the image
Scanning is the one part of Portofelo that needs an internet connection. The photo is sent to an OCR service, read, and not stored. What comes back — the line items and their categories — is written to the database on your phone and stays there.
Everything else runs with no connection at all: entering expenses by hand, budgets, reports, your whole history. There is no bank connection anywhere in the app, so a receipt you choose to scan is one of the very few things that ever leaves the device.
Frequently asked questions
What does a receipt scanner app actually extract?
It depends on the app, and the difference is larger than the marketing suggests. Most extract three fields — merchant, date and total — which is enough to create one transaction. Portofelo extracts the individual line items as well: each product on the receipt, its price, and a category for each one. A €62 supermarket shop becomes a list rather than a single number.
Does receipt scanning work offline?
No. Scanning is the one feature in Portofelo that needs an internet connection, because the image is read by an OCR service rather than on the phone itself. Everything else — entering expenses by hand, budgets, reports, your whole history — works with no connection at all.
What happens to the photo of my receipt?
It is sent to the OCR service, read, and not stored. The line items that come back are written to the database on your phone and stay there. Portofelo has no bank connection, so a receipt is one of the only things that ever leaves the device, and only for as long as the scan takes.
How many receipts can I scan for free?
Fifty a month on the free plan, which is more than most households produce. Pro is €2.99 a month and removes the cap, plus adds encrypted backup, sync and CSV export. Everything else in the free plan is uncapped: transactions, budgets and accounts have no limits.
Which receipts and currencies does it handle?
Any printed till receipt — supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, petrol stations. Faded thermal paper and crumpled receipts are where accuracy drops, as they are for every scanner. Amounts are read in the currency printed on the receipt, so a receipt picked up abroad is logged in that currency rather than silently converted.
Try it on your next shop
Free on iPhone. No account needed to start, and 50 scans a month.
Download for iOSWeighing up the alternatives? We compared the main options in budget apps with receipt scanning, and wrote separately about how accurate receipt scanning actually is.