Receipts versus invoices

Use an expense receipt when the document shows that a purchase already happened, such as a store receipt, hotel folio, parking receipt, rideshare receipt, or restaurant slip.

Use an invoice when the document is a bill from a vendor that your company still needs to pay.

Why The Difference Matters

Sifterra handles the two workflows differently:

• expense receipts are organized around expense lines and expense accounts
• invoices are organized around vendor billing details
• expense receipts usually create journal lines for posting or reimbursement tracking
• invoices usually create or update payables documents

If a document is really a bill to be paid later, it should usually be processed as an invoice, not as an expense receipt.

What Sifterra Pulls From A Receipt

For expense receipts, Sifterra focuses on the information needed to classify spending:

• merchant name
• receipt type
• document date
• total amount
• one expense line for the whole receipt, or multiple lines if the receipt is itemized
• suggested expense account for each line
• matching pattern, if a saved rule was used
• confidence score

A simple receipt usually becomes one line. An itemized receipt usually becomes several lines that can be reviewed one by one.

Quick Decision Rule

Ask this before upload:

• If the document should become a payable vendor document, use the invoice flow.
• If the document should become expense journal lines for review or reimbursement tracking, use the receipt flow.