Scan Receipts Into Xero Automatically

ExpenseBot scans your Gmail every day for receipts and invoices, reads each one, and drops it into your own Google Sheet already categorized. When you're ready, one click pushes the receipts to Xero over the direct API as Draft Bills — with the vendor, amount, tax rate, and your correct GL account code already applied, and the original receipt image attached. They arrive as Drafts in Xero for you to review and approve before anything posts.

You approve them. The Gmail scan runs automatically, but the push to Xero is a step you control — nothing goes to Xero until you click. And what lands in Xero is a Draft Bill, so you review and authorise it inside Xero before it hits your ledger. You stay in control of both the timing and the final posting.

Hubdoc and Dext capture what you feed them — you photograph a receipt or forward the email, and they read it. ExpenseBot reads Gmail directly, where most of your receipts already are, so there's nothing to forward or photograph for anything that arrived by email. It maps each receipt to your Xero Chart of Accounts with AI (no per-vendor rule setup), attaches the receipt image to the Bill, and is free forever for accountants and bookkeepers. Paper and cash receipts still work too — snap a photo or email it in.

Yes. ExpenseBot reads your Xero Chart of Accounts and tax rates directly from your connected organisation, then uses AI to code each receipt to the right GL account and tax rate. It also matches or creates the Xero contact for the vendor, and supports Xero tracking categories and multi-currency. You review the Draft in Xero before posting, so you always have the final say on the coding.

Sign in with your Google account, then connect Xero once with a standard OAuth authorisation — no passwords shared, and you can disconnect any time from Xero or ExpenseBot. ExpenseBot uses your most recently authorised Xero organisation for the push.

ExpenseBot tracks whether a report has already been pushed and blocks an accidental re-push, warning you first if you try. If you deliberately choose to push again, it will create a new entry — so the guard protects against slips, not intentional re-sends. As always, Bills land as Drafts, giving you a review step in Xero before anything is final.

Yes — free forever for accountants and bookkeepers, with unlimited clients. Your data stays in your own Google Drive rather than on a vendor's servers. See the full picture on our Xero integration page.

Yes. ExpenseBot connects to Xero directly over the Xero API using standard OAuth — no file exports, no CSV imports. It reads your Chart of Accounts, tax rates and contacts from your connected Xero organisation, then pushes receipts in as Draft Bills with the GL code, tax rate and receipt image already applied. It works with any Xero plan and any Xero region, including Xero AU, Xero UK, Xero NZ and Xero US.

Not as Xero's Expense Claims module — ExpenseBot posts to Xero as Draft Bills, Spend Money transactions, or a Manual Journal, and you pick which one at the point of sharing. For most practices that covers the same ground: reimbursable staff spend goes through as a Bill against the employee as a contact, and company card spend goes through as Spend Money against the card's bank account. Bills and Manual Journals arrive as drafts for you to review; Spend Money posts immediately, so ExpenseBot warns you before using it.

The add-ons around Xero split into receipt and bill capture, bank feeds, bill payment, and practice tools. For receipts specifically, compare on five things: whether the client has to upload anything, line-item versus header-total extraction, where the data is stored, whether GL accounts and tax rates are coded before the push or after, and what actually lands in Xero for approval. ExpenseBot reads receipts out of Gmail automatically, codes them to your Chart of Accounts and tax rates, and creates Draft Bills you approve with the receipt image attached.

ExpenseBot connects to Xero through Xero's API as a connected app. You connect it from inside ExpenseBot when you push a report, not from the Xero App Store.

Practices generally want three things from a receipt add-on: it should work across a whole client book without per-seat fees, it should not put the practice in the middle of every upload, and each client's records should stay with that client. ExpenseBot is free forever for accountants and bookkeepers with unlimited clients, reads each client's Gmail directly rather than waiting on uploads, and keeps each client's data in that client's own Google Drive. Reimbursable staff spend can go into Xero as a Bill against the employee as a contact; company card spend can go as Spend Money against the card account.

Yes, and with Xero NZ and Xero US. ExpenseBot codes each receipt against the GST or VAT rates configured in your own Xero organisation rather than carrying its own tax table, so an AU organisation gets your GST rates and a UK organisation gets your VAT rates. See the section on Xero in Australia, the UK and New Zealand for the per-region detail.

ExpenseBot reads the tax rates configured in your own Xero organisation and codes each receipt to one of them, so an AU organisation gets your GST rates and a UK organisation gets your VAT rates — including the reduced and zero-rated ones you already use. Because the receipts land in Xero as normal Bills with the tax correctly applied, they flow into whatever return you run from Xero, whether that's your BAS in Australia or your MTD VAT return in the UK. ExpenseBot does not file returns itself; it makes sure the underlying transactions and receipt images are in Xero and coded before you file. Check the treatment of any individual expense with your accountant or tax professional.