The basics are easy — forward a receipt, let the nightly scan run. These are the features people don't discover on their own, the ones that save the most time once you know they're there.
📥 Two ways to get receipts in — pick the right one
| Forward a receipt | Connect a Gmail (auto-scan) | |
|---|---|---|
| How | Forward any email to receipts@expensebot.ai | Click +Add Gmail and sign in to that inbox |
| What it does | Processes the one email you send | Scans that whole inbox automatically, nightly |
| Best for | One-offs, a non-Gmail / work address, a partner's email | An inbox full of receipts you want captured hands-free |
The #1 confusion: a forwarding address only catches emails you manually forward — nothing in that inbox is read on its own. A connected Gmail is read automatically every night. (How many of each you get depends on your plan — see the pricing page.)
⌨️ Subject-line commands — the hidden override
When you forward a receipt, you can boss the AI around from the subject line. These beat the AI's guess, calendar rules, everything — perfect for cash or vague-merchant receipts the AI can't read.
| Command | Does | Example |
|---|---|---|
tag:Name | Force a tag | Fwd: dinner tag:Personal |
for:Client / project:Name | Attribute to a client / project | Fwd: ad spend for:Acme |
paidby:Name | Stamp who paid (wedding flow) | Fwd: florist paidby:bride's family |
paidfor:Name | Record a gift recipient (realtor flow) | Fwd: gift basket paidfor:Alice |
Commands stack and are case-insensitive — use as many as you need on one email.
🕑 "It's only finding the last couple of months" — run a historical scan
The nightly scan only reads recent mail (everything since the last scan). To pull older receipts, open the Gmail scan and pick a past period — that kicks off a one-time scan of older mail. How far back you can go depends on your plan (Deep Scan reaches the furthest). Each connected Gmail scans its own history independently.
🚫 Stop importing noise — exclusion rules
Tell ExpenseBot to skip a merchant or category and it stops pulling those in — handy for a personal subscription you don't want landing on the business sheet.
🏷️ Tags do the heavy lifting at tax time
Tag rows Personal / Business (or your own custom / client tags). Reports and tax forms filter on those tags — get tagging right during the year and the year-end report basically builds itself.
⚙️ Settings → Use Cases unlocks specialized reports
ExpenseBot ships with several report types that are hidden by default — they surface once you activate the matching use case in Settings → Use Cases. Activating one tells the AI how you work and adds the right report to your My Reports tab.
| Use Case | What it unlocks |
|---|---|
| Rental Property | Rental Property P&L — income vs expenses per property, Schedule E / T776 ready |
| Wedding | Wedding Budget Summary — vendor payments, per-category spend, what's left |
| HSA / FSA | HSA / FSA Reimbursement Report — eligible medical expenses with receipt links |
| HUD Medical | HUD Medical Deduction calculator for tenant rent adjustments |
| Realtor | Three reports: Commission P&L, Tax Preview (deduction estimate), Gift Limit tracker (IRS $25 rule) |
| Film Production | Production Cost Report — AICP-formatted (ATL / Production / Post / Other) for documentary filmmakers |
| Vehicle Deduction | Vehicle Deduction Optimizer — actual vs standard mileage method comparison for heavy vehicle users / rideshare |
| Subscription Audit | Subscription Audit — surfaces recurring charges, flags ones with no matching receipt in 60 days |
If your situation changes (you stop being a landlord, wrap a wedding project), you can deactivate the use case — the reports stay in your history but stop appearing as suggestions.
🏷️ Personal Identifier wizard — tell ExpenseBot what's personal once
If you run personal and business expenses through the same account or Gmail, the Personal Identifier wizard trains the AI in about 90 seconds. Find it in Settings → Expense Organization → "Improve your Personal tagging."
Five questions it asks:
- Which card is mainly personal? (last 4 digits → every receipt from that card auto-tagged Personal at 100% confidence)
- What do you buy on Amazon for yourself / family? (kids, pets, clothing → Amazon orders with those items tagged Personal)
- Do you pay for streaming? (Netflix, Spotify, Apple TV+, Disney+ → tagged Personal automatically)
- Household / personal hints (cleaning supplies, pet food, kids' clothing → keyword-matched)
- Personal travel? (reminds you to use
tag: Personalin the subject when forwarding vacation bookings — hotel bookings look identical to business travel, so the AI can't tell without your help)
You can also check "Re-classify my existing receipts" at save time — it rescans past rows and corrects anything that should now be Personal. Only generic Business rows are reconsidered; custom-tagged rows (Wedding, Realtor, Property) are protected.
📅 Calendar → Tags wizard — auto-tag from your Google Calendar
If you have recurring client meetings, scheduled gigs, or trips in Google Calendar, ExpenseBot can read them and tag receipts automatically. Launch from Tag Management → "Create tags from your calendar" (or Settings → Automation Hub).
What it does: scans 90 days back + 90 days forward, clusters patterns (same attendee → Client – Name, same location → Location – Place, project keywords → Project – Name, travel shapes → Trip – Name), and creates bindings. After that, a receipt on the day of a client meeting auto-tags to that client silently — you see it in a "Recently auto-tagged" panel with a one-click Undo.
Works best for consultants, photographers, chefs, and agencies with a calendar full of client events. If your work and personal events share a calendar, use the event color filter to tell the wizard to only scan work-colored events.
💰 Client gave you a cash advance? Track it with the Credit toggle
When a client hands you money upfront for project expenses — a production float, petty cash for a shoot, a Google Ads budget they've fronted — that money is not income. It's their money, held against expenses you'll spend on their behalf.
The flow:
- Add Expense → Add Manual Expense, check the Credit / refund (money in) box, enter the client's name, tag it with
Client – [Name] - Tag every project expense with the same client tag (Credit OFF — this is money going out)
- Check Add Income → Open Balances widget anytime for the running net: "C$300.00 to refund" (you're holding their cash) or "$120.00 owed to you" (you overspent)
- When the project wraps: tap Refund leftover to close it out, or Bill Client on the report card to generate an invoice for any shortfall
The Credit toggle works for any pass-through money: client advances, refunds, reimbursements. Voice entry works too — say "Acme gave me 500 cash advance for the shoot" and ExpenseBot pre-checks the Credit box.
🔍 Bank reconciliation — verify your income is complete
Once you connect a bank (Settings → Bank & Plaid), tap Reconcile with bank on the Income tab monthly. ExpenseBot's 4-layer matcher has already silently deduped deposits against your recorded income — this session shows you whatever didn't match, one gap at a time: Accept (new income), Edit (fix the merchant), or Ignore (transfer, refund, not income).
The Bank Summary in your year-end report shows reconciliation status by month — ✓ Reconciled or ⚠️ Partial — so your accountant can see whether your Schedule C / T2125 gross receipts are bank-verified before filing.
💡 Things people don't realize
- Your data lives in your own Google Drive / Sheets — yours forever, even if you cancel.
- Add info@expensebot.ai to your safe-sender list so processing notifications reach you.
- You don't need to label emails "ExpenseBot" — the scanner finds receipts on its own. Labeling is just a guarantee for one specific email.
- Fee & Interest Detector (requires bank connection) — ExpenseBot scans your bank feed for recurring service fees, interest charges, and avoidable bank fees and flags them in a monthly report. Find it under My Reports → Fee & Interest Audit.