The problem
Receipt-tracking apps either bury the user in features they don’t want (multi-currency travel reports, team approval flows, subscription tiers) or are so basic they don’t actually save the data anywhere structured. There’s a gap for solo operators — tradies, freelancers, sole traders — who want a fast camera button and a clean export at year-end.
What we’re building
ReceiptSnap AI is a native app on both platforms (Swift/SwiftUI on iOS, Kotlin + Jetpack Compose on Android). The capture flow is optimised for one-handed use at the till. Google Cloud Vision runs OCR; results sync to Firebase; an export bundles the year as CSV plus original images for your accountant.
The AI angle
OCR alone isn’t enough — the value is in the post-OCR cleanup. We extract structured fields (vendor, date, total, GST, line items) and confidence-score each one. Low-confidence fields surface for one-tap correction. Over time the model learns the user’s common vendors and pre-fills with high accuracy.
GST is its own field rather than something derived after the fact, because Australian sole traders need it broken out separately at BAS time and a total-only receipt forces someone to reconstruct the split later from a faded thermal-paper photo. Extracting it at capture, while the receipt is still legible, is strictly easier than reconstructing it in July.
Why native over cross-platform
A cross-platform framework would have shipped faster, but the capture flow is the one part of this app where speed and camera behaviour actually matter — autofocus latency, shutter feel, how quickly the app is ready after being opened one-handed at a till with a queue behind you. Those are exactly the things a cross-platform camera layer tends to compromise on. Building twice, once per platform, was the cost of not compromising on the one interaction the whole app exists to make fast.
How it’ll be used
- Tradies and contractors capturing job-related expenses on the go.
- Freelancers and sole traders who do their own books.
- Travel-heavy professionals who want every receipt logged before the day ends.
Where we are
iOS build is in TestFlight. Android build is following close behind. Public release is gated on the year-end export hitting the format conventions of common accounting software.