There are a few reasons a scan can come back empty or light — here's how to tell which one applies.
1. Your receipts are in a different inbox (most common). If the Gmail you connected is mostly newsletters and notifications, your actual purchase receipts are probably arriving at a different email address. ExpenseBot correctly skips marketing and promotional emails, so an inbox that's mostly newsletters returns few or zero receipts — even if it feels full of "shopping" emails.
The fix is to connect the inbox where your receipts really land:
- Open Scan Gmail for receipts and click the + Add Gmail button at the top of the page.
- Pick the email you want to add (do them one at a time) and accept the Gmail permissions.
- Repeat for any other inboxes — you can connect up to 5 Gmail accounts.
Once connected, each inbox is scanned automatically every day, and you can run a historical scan per inbox to pull in past years — switch between your connected accounts from that same section at the top. Full walkthrough: Connecting multiple Gmail accounts.
2. The emails you're counting aren't actually receipts. ExpenseBot deliberately skips marketing/promotions, shipping and delivery notices, order surveys, and refund-flow emails — even ones that say "your order" or "your purchase." It targets real order confirmations, payment confirmations, and invoices: one row per actual purchase. To check what was captured, open your spreadsheet and look at the merchant column for a diverse mix of vendors.
3. The receipts are older than your plan covers, or aren't emails at all. Historical scans cover the current year on the base plan, up to 2 years back on Pro, and further back with Deep Scan — run a historical scan for the period you need. Paper, point-of-sale, or SMS receipts aren't in any inbox; snap a photo to upload them, or forward an email receipt to receipts@expensebot.ai.
Still think something's missing? Reply to support with the sender, subject, date, and amount, and we'll trace it directly.