This shortcut provides multiple ways to automate every step required to save a receipt or document, resize and save as pdf, and send it FROM a preset email address TO a preset email including the attachment, extra information such as current location, date/time and OCR text extraction from the receipt/document itself.

Features

There are different ways to use the Shortcut:

• Tap the icon (as Widget or from Home Screen)
• Use the Share feature from within existing photos or PDF’s to initiate the shortcut from the context menu
• Use the “Print” feature from your email or other apps to generate a pdf of contents, and then hit the share feature to initiate the shortcut

Initial Setup Steps

1. Configure your from email address (possibly a personal email account available within your Mail app *required, might not be important which account this is)
2. Configure your to email address (could possibly be your work email account, so that your expenses show up in your work inbox, at work)

User Inputs

The shortcut will raise three user inputs: 1. Camera starts to encourage to take a photo of your receipt 2. Input the total amount of the expense in #.## format 3. Input the occasion or reason for expense in single line text format

Automations

The Attachment

It takes a photo > resizes it to max 2000px > converts it to PDF > optimises the file size > saves it to your iPhone storage in the /Expenses/{Year}/{Month} folder, renames it to Expense-{occasion}-{date}-{time}-{location}.pdf and attaches it to an email and sends it to your configured email address.

Example of a full Filename:

Expense-Office-Team-Lunch-20230621-190652-11a-Main-Street-43000-Jersey.pdf

The Email Body and Subject

The subject of the email will follow accordingly:

Example of a full Email Subject:

Expense Receipt | $39.28 | Office Team Lunch | 11a-Main-Street-43000-Jersey Australia

The email body will also contain the above, as well as date, the full OCR extraction from the receipt as well as device information.

This will assist in finding Receipts or documents in the future from your inbox and easily use the attachment to upload to your finance system.

Requirements

The Mail app is required, configured with at least one email account from which you will send the Expenses.

Permissions

• Allow access to Camera
• Allow full Location Sharing to within the Shortcuts app.
• Approve of file storage on your phone

Recommendations

From the Shortcuts app, it's suggested to use the Add to Home screen feature for easy access to the shortcut, to quickly capture your expenses in the heat of the moment.

It's also recommended to consider adding the shortcut as a Widget