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A scan is one receipt or invoice read for you, however it is read. Without a plan you get 5 scans, once, to try reading receipts and invoices. Starter gives 40 scans a month, Pro 150 and Business 500. Unused scans do not carry over. Typing a receipt in by hand never uses a scan.

One button sorts each scan. A one-off receipt goes to Receipts, with the shop, date, total, tax and a category. An invoice from a regular supplier goes to Invoices, and every line is tracked in that supplier's price list. If it lands in the wrong place, you can switch it before you save. A shop you buy stock from again and again can be tracked too: open one of its receipts and tap Track this shop's prices.

Reading on the iPhone uses Apple Intelligence, which needs an iPhone 15 Pro or later. If yours has it: it may be turned off (turn it on in Settings, Apple Intelligence & Siri, then come back); it may still be downloading (leave the iPhone on Wi-Fi and charging, then try again); or the iPhone may be set to a language it does not cover. The reason is written in the app's Settings. On any iPhone you can also type a receipt in by hand, read with your own OpenAI key, or use CostTabs Reader.

CostTabs Reader is our server reading. It works on any iPhone: five free uses on each copy of the app, then it is part of a plan. The first time, the app asks you. With your yes, it sends up to three page photos, the text read from them and the product names you already keep for that supplier to the CostTabs server, and its AI provider OpenAI behind it, only to read them. Our server does not keep them. On a plan, each document read counts as one of your scans for the month: 40 on Starter, 150 on Pro, 500 on Business.

In the app's Settings, add your OpenAI API key. The app asks first, then sends the text and up to three page photos straight from your iPhone to OpenAI on your key. CostTabs never sees them. You pay OpenAI for what you use; we add nothing.

Two ways. If you use Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB, FreshBooks or Wave, put that program's email address for your business in Settings, then tap Send on a receipt. Your Mail app opens with the photo attached, and you press send. Or use Export: it makes a spreadsheet and all the photos in a zip file. Each receipt has a record number, like CT-1A2B3C4D, and its photos carry the same number. Save it to Files or send it to your bookkeeper. Neither is a direct connection, so check what arrives.

Every photo is copied to your own iCloud Drive, in a CostTabs Backup folder you can open in the Files app. iCloud Drive must be on for your Apple Account. The app's Settings, under Data, shows whether your backup is up to date, and has the switch for it. We cannot see your backup.

On Pro and Business, yes between your own iPhones. Turn on iCloud sync in the app's Settings, and every iPhone signed in to the same iCloud has all your records. A new iPhone gets them back the same way. Your records go to your own iCloud, never to us. Sync does not share with someone else's iCloud, such as a business partner's. CostTabs is an iPhone app; there is no iPad or Mac version. On Starter, records stay on the one iPhone, the photos are in your iCloud Drive, and the exports are a copy of the rest.

Only the last 4 digits, with the card's name, so you can see which card paid. A longer number is cut to its last 4 before it is kept. Name a card once in Settings and every record paid with it shows that name. Mark a card as a personal card and receipts paid with it are marked Paid personally.

Reading with Apple Intelligence works with no signal. A scan that needs the internet, for CostTabs Reader or your own key, is kept on the phone with a Waiting to read badge, and read by itself when the signal comes back. It counts as a scan only once it is read.

Plans are billed by Apple, so they are cancelled with Apple: on the iPhone, Settings, your name, Subscriptions, CostTabs. The plans screen in the app has a Manage or cancel link that opens the same place. Cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends. Your plan stays on until the end of the period you paid for, and nothing is deleted.

Open the plans screen in the app and tap Restore. Apple may ask for your Apple Account password. Use the same Apple Account you subscribed with. If it still does not show, email us.

Open the invoice and check the line against the paper. A line the app found hard to read is marked Hard to read, check it. A change too big to be real, usually a misread or a different pack size, is marked Check this and left out of every total until you check it. Edit the line and the change is worked out again.

Yes. In Settings, pick your country (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, the UK or the US) and the usual currency and tax are filled in for you. Anywhere else, pick Other and set your own. Change any of them: the currency, the tax name, the rate, whether supplier prices include tax, and whether tax is added up by quarter or month. In the US it starts on sales tax at 0%, for you to set your state's rate and how often it is added up.

No. CostTabs keeps your receipts and invoices, with a clear photo of each, and adds up the tax on them. No tax office approves apps like this. It is not tax advice and it does not lodge anything. Ask your accountant what records you need to keep.