Why Scan Bills Instead of Typing?
A typical small business gets 50-200 purchase bills a month. Typing each one — vendor name, invoice number, items, taxes, totals — takes 3-5 minutes per bill. That's hours every week.
iAccounting's mobile bill scanner does it in seconds: point your phone, snap, accept. The AI extracts everything and drafts the voucher. You just review and approve.
Available on the Starter plan (50 scans/year), Professional (200 scans/year), and unlimited on Virtual Accountant.
Step 1 — Install the iAccounting App
- Open Play Store (Android) or App Store (iOS).
- Search "iAccounting".
- Install. Open.
- Log in with the same credentials as your web account.
- Pick the company you want to scan into (if you have multiple).
Step 2 — Scan a Bill
- Tap the camera icon on the home screen.
- Position the bill in the frame — auto-detects edges and corrects perspective.
- Tap "Capture" (or it auto-captures when steady).
- App enhances the image (contrast, deskew).
- Tap "Process".
In 3-5 seconds, the AI returns extracted fields:
- Vendor name + GSTIN (validated)
- Invoice number + date
- Line items (description, qty, rate, amount)
- Sub-total, tax breakup, grand total
- HSN codes per line (where present)
Step 3 — Review & Confirm
The app shows the extracted data side-by-side with the bill image. Tap any field to correct. Then:
- Pick a ledger — for known vendors, system suggests the same ledger as last time. For new vendors, pick or create.
- Confirm tax category — system suggests based on vendor GSTIN (intra/inter-state, RCM, etc.).
- RCM applicable? — auto-detected for unregistered vendors / specified categories.
- Pick voucher type — Purchase Invoice / Expense Voucher / Asset Purchase.
Tap "Save Voucher". The voucher is created in your books immediately. The original bill image is attached for audit reference.
Bulk Scanning Mode
Got a stack of 30 bills? Use bulk mode:
- Tap camera → "Bulk Mode".
- Snap each bill quickly — no processing between shots.
- When done, tap "Process All".
- App queues all bills; AI processes in parallel.
- Review each one tab through — accept, edit, or reject.
A stack of 30 bills can be scanned in 5 minutes and reviewed in 15.
Email-Forward Bills (No Scanning Needed)
For digital invoices arriving by email:
- In iAccounting → Setup → Email Inbox.
- You get a unique inbox address:
yourco-bills@iacc.in. - Forward (or have vendors send directly to) this address.
- iAccounting processes incoming PDFs automatically.
- Drafts appear in the "Pending Review" queue.
- Review and approve from web or mobile.
WhatsApp Bill Capture (Beta)
If your staff or vendors share bills via WhatsApp:
- Save the iAccounting WhatsApp number as a contact.
- Forward any bill image/PDF to that number.
- You receive a reply with extracted data within 30 seconds.
- Reply "Confirm" to post, or "Edit field" to adjust.
What the AI Extracts (and What It Doesn't)
Extracted reliably
- Vendor name (printed or letterhead)
- GSTIN (validated against PAN + state code)
- Invoice number, date
- Total amount, tax amount
- Quantity, rate (where formatted as a table)
- HSN codes (when explicitly mentioned)
Less reliable
- Handwritten bills — works but ~80% accuracy
- Multi-page invoices with continued tables
- Bills in regional scripts (Devanagari, Tamil, etc.) — supported but slower
- Very low-resolution photos (< 500 pixels wide)
The app shows a confidence score per field. Below 80% confidence = flagged red, asks for your verification.
Offline Mode (Android Only)
On Android, the OCR engine works offline. Capture and pre-process bills without internet — they sync to your books when the phone comes online.
Use cases:
- Travelling salesman captures expense bills on the road.
- Site engineer at a construction site with poor signal.
- Storekeeper in a basement warehouse.
Toggle ON in Settings → Offline Mode. Uses ~50 MB of device storage.
Tips for Best Capture
- Good lighting — daylight or bright overhead, not direct sunlight (creates glare).
- Flat surface — wrinkles distort text.
- Phone parallel to bill — angled shots warp text; AI tries to deskew but accuracy drops.
- Full bill in frame — including the bottom totals. Cut-off bills miss tax amounts.
- Wait for focus lock before capturing.
- Use bulk mode for batches — way faster than one-at-a-time.
Audit Trail for Scanned Bills
Every scanned voucher stores:
- Original bill image (encrypted, in cloud)
- OCR text result
- AI confidence scores
- Who scanned it (user, device)
- Time of scan
- Geo-location (if permitted)
- Any manual edits made before posting
During audit, click any voucher → "View Source" → see the original bill image. No more rummaging through physical files.
Privacy & Security
- Images encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES-256).
- OCR runs on dedicated servers; bills not shared with third-party AI APIs.
- You can permanently delete a scanned bill — image + OCR data — from voucher options.
- Data residency: stored in Indian data centres.
Common Scan Issues
"GSTIN not detected"
Often the GSTIN font is small or photocopy is faint. Manually enter from the bill. Future bills from the same vendor will auto-fetch from the master.
"Items extracted with wrong quantity"
Tables with merged cells confuse the parser. Edit the line manually; the AI learns from your correction.
"Total doesn't match line sum"
Some bills have discounts/freight beyond standard rows. Add the missing component manually before saving.
"App freezes on capture"
Low device memory. Close other apps, restart iAccounting. Update the app from the store.