The Starlog blogNotes from the receipt‑layer of the internet. Sometimes useful. Always honest.
Tax tips and honest notes on building Starlog. Written by the person building it.
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Showing 24 of 24How to photograph a receipt so the OCR actually reads it.
OCR does the typing for you — but only if the photo gives it something to work with. Seven habits that turn a blurry, half-lit slip into a clean, correct capture.
Connecting Google Drive to Starlog: setup, permissions, and fixing sync.
What Starlog can and can't see in your Drive, how to connect it in under a minute, and how to fix the most common snag — signing in with Apple and wondering where Drive went.
Handing your accountant a clean export (what's actually in the ZIP).
One tap gives you a single ZIP: a spreadsheet plus every receipt image. Here's exactly what your accountant receives, and how to hand it over so they don't bill you to sort it.
Tracking expenses by trip, project, or client — not just by month.
Tax season wants your year sliced by month. But you think in trips, projects, and clients — and so does your profit. How to group receipts the way the work actually happens.
Receipt OCR for PDF and emailed receipts: the ones that were never paper.
A growing share of receipts arrive as PDFs and email attachments, never as paper. How receipt OCR handles a digital receipt, why a PDF isn't automatically 'done', and a workflow that files it in your own Drive.
Faded thermal receipts: scanning them before they vanish.
Most receipts aren't printed with ink — they're heat-printed on thermal paper that fades to blank, sometimes in months. Why a faded slip is OCR's worst case, how to rescue one, and the timing habit that beats every trick.
Foreign-currency receipts, and the evidence you can't get back.
A conference in another country, a SaaS bill in dollars, a client trip abroad — the receipts that cost you the deduction are the ones in the wrong currency. What OCR can and can't do with them, and the three things to keep so your accountant can do the rest.
Handwritten receipts and OCR: capture it anyway, type the total.
OCR is built for print, and handwriting is the case it reads worst. A market vendor's scrawl, a tip on a restaurant bill, a handwritten kacha bill — here's how to keep them as real records anyway.
How to clear a backlog of old receipts without losing a weekend.
You don't start receipt tracking on day one — you start it with a drawer full of paper. A sane, two-pass method for digitising a backlog with OCR, and an honest note on when to stop.
Restaurant receipts and OCR: the hardest slip to scan.
The everyday receipt OCR struggles with most — two slips, a tip written in by hand, and a fistful of numbers that all look like the total. How to capture a meal receipt so the amount that lands in your books is the one that left your account.
Long, itemized receipts and OCR: the business-and-personal split.
The warehouse run where you also grabbed groceries, the office-supply trip with a birthday card in the basket — one long slip, business and personal mixed. What OCR reads off it, what it can't, and how to claim only your share.
Parking and toll receipts: the smallest slips OCR has to read.
The parking stub and the toll slip are the least glamorous receipts you'll ever file — tiny, faint, and increasingly not printed at all. How to capture them, what to do when there's no paper, and why they're worth more at tax time than their size suggests.
Crumpled receipts and OCR: flatten it first, then shoot.
The receipt that rode home balled up in a pocket isn't unreadable — it's just warped. Why creases and shadows trip OCR more than you'd think, the ten seconds of flattening that fixes most of it, and why you capture it either way.
Utility and phone bills: the receipt for money that pays itself.
The most reliably deductible expenses you have are the ones you never record, because autopay makes them invisible. How to scan a recurring bill, why a statement is OCR's trickiest layout, and the one number you have to pick yourself.
Flight receipts and OCR: the fare, the fees, and the total.
The airfare receipt is one every travelling freelancer collects and few capture cleanly: the fare is buried among taxes, seat and bag fees, and a booking total that isn't always what your card paid. How receipt OCR handles a flight receipt, and how to land the real number in your books.
Office-supply receipts: the easy scan with one catch.
Printed clean on fresh paper, one store, one total — the office-supply receipt is the one receipt OCR reads almost perfectly. The catch isn't the scan. It's what else was in the basket.
The date on a receipt: the one field worth setting yourself.
Snap a receipt and the store and amount fill themselves in — but the date waits for you. Why the date is OCR's most ambiguous field, especially across the US and India, and how to set it in two seconds.
Receipt OCR and the amount field: the one number worth checking twice.
Store name, date, total — the total is the number your books actually run on, and it's the hardest one for OCR to pick out of the crowd. Here's why, and the two-second habit that catches every miss.
Fuel and gas receipts: the two numbers OCR mixes up.
A gas or petrol slip puts two prices side by side — the rate per gallon and the sale total — and OCR can't always tell which you meant. How to capture a fuel receipt so the number in your books is the one you actually paid, and where fuel quietly collides with your mileage deduction.
Hotel folios and OCR: which of these numbers is the total?
The folio you get at checkout is the longest receipt of the whole trip — three nights, taxes, parking, a minibar you'd rather forget — and every line looks like it could be the total. What receipt OCR can draft off a lodging bill, what it can't, and how to capture one so the figure in your books is the one your card was actually charged.
Receipt OCR for taxi and rideshare receipts: the ones you never hold.
A ride to a client is paid the moment the trip ends, and the receipt lands somewhere you never look. Why rideshare receipts are the easiest expense to lose, what OCR reads off one, and a workflow that files every ride before it slips away.
Tracking cash receipts, the ones with nothing to back them up.
Every card purchase has a second copy on your statement. A cash purchase has one record — the slip in your hand — and when it's gone, so is the expense. Why cash receipts are the ones you can't afford to lose, and how to capture them so they file themselves.
Shipping and courier receipts: scanning the slip with five fees on it.
The receipt that piles up fastest for anyone who mails things — and one of the trickiest to scan, not because it's faint but because it itemises. Postage, surcharge, insurance, packaging, a total: how to capture a courier slip so the right number lands in your books.
What receipt OCR reads for the store name — and why it matters.
Nobody worries about the store name — OCR reads it fine. But the label on the paper often isn't the merchant you think, and that quietly breaks your search, your totals, and the suggestions meant to save you taps.