Receipts to PDF: a month of receipt photos as 1 file for the expense report

This is the full workflow, from the receipt in your hand to the file the approver opens. Karol Michał uses it for his monthly travel claim from Linz: 8 receipts, 10 minutes, 1 PDF.

1. Photograph each receipt the day you get it

Thermal paper, the shiny kind most tills print on, darkens and fades with heat, light and time. A total that was sharp on Monday can be grey by the end of the month, and a total nobody can read is a claim that comes back.

• Lay it flat on a dark, plain surface, so the edges show and the phone does not expose for a white table.
• Shoot straight down, filling the frame, in daylight or under a ceiling light, without flash glare on the shiny paper.
• 1 receipt per photo. Long receipts are fine; the page will fit them.
• Check the total and the date in the photo before the paper goes in your pocket again.

2. Name them by date, and the set sorts itself

Rename each photo with the date first, then a word: 2026-10-03-taxi.jpg, 2026-10-04-hotel.jpg, 2026-10-04-dinner.jpg. Year, month, day in that order sorts correctly as plain text, so every program lists the set in claim order, and so does the PDF.

If you keep the photos in a folder per month, drop the whole folder onto the tool, or use “or a whole folder” under the drop zone: the tool sorts a folder’s files by name, the way people count, and includes subfolders. Picked files arrive in the order your picker hands them over; check the list and move any stray with Up or Down.

3. Convert to 1 PDF, 1 receipt per page

1. Drop the photos or press Choose files. JPG, HEIC from an iPhone and PNG screenshots of e-receipts can go in the same file.
2. Paper: A4 (or US Letter), Orientation: Portrait. Receipts are tall; portrait keeps them large.
3. Margin: 10 (millimetres). It leaves room for a stamp or a note and keeps printers from cutting the edges.
4. Fit: Fit, so the whole receipt shows, top to bottom. Fill would crop the total off a long receipt.
5. Output: “One PDF, a page per picture”, the default.
6. Make the PDF, then Download PDF.

JPG photos go in as they are, no re-encoding, so the conversion costs no sharpness. The camera details in each photo (GPS position, phone model, time) are left out of the PDF.

4. Number the pages, so receipt 7 of 23 stays receipt 7

When an approver writes “the taxi on page 7 has no VAT number”, both of you need the same page 7, on screen, on paper and in a forwarded email. Print the number on the page:

1. Open Add page numbers and drop the receipts PDF.
2. Where: Bottom right, clear of most receipts’ totals. Format: “1 of 12” (it fills in your real count).
3. Optional: a Header such as Karol Michał, travel October 2026; {date} and {file} are filled in for you.
4. Press Add numbers and download. The file ends in -numbered.pdf.

On our 8-receipt test file, numbering took about 1 second and changed the size by less than 0.1 MB.

5. Under the expense system’s size limit

Receipt photos are big: our 8 test photos (12 megapixels each, 15.6 MB in total) made a 15.6 MB PDF, because JPG photos are copied in unchanged. Expense systems often cap a file far below that. SAP Concur, for example, takes receipt files up to 5 MB each, according to its community staff and Penn State’s Concur help pages (checked on 11 October 2026); your company may set its own limit, so check the upload screen.

Compress PDF with a Size target finds the best picture quality that fits. Measured on the numbered 8-receipt PDF:

The 5 MB target lands well under 5 MB because the next gentler setting (300 dpi) did not fit; the tool keeps the best one that does. At 150 to 200 dpi a printed total stays crisp. Zoom into the smallest line you need, usually the VAT number, before you upload. For more ways to shrink, see make a PDF smaller.

The honest part

Keep the paper until the claim is paid. A photo is evidence of a receipt, not always a replacement for it. Some employers and tax offices accept images; some still want originals for a period. Check your employer’s policy and your local rules; this guide explains the file, not the law.

It does not fix a bad photo. The converter does not straighten, crop or brighten. A dim, skewed receipt goes in dim and skewed, so retake it while you still have the paper.

The text is a picture. The approver can read the totals, but a search for “taxi” finds nothing. OCR PDF adds a text layer and shows how confident it is per page; on faded thermal print, check the numbers by eye rather than trusting the recognised text.

Nothing is uploaded. Receipts carry shop names, card digits and where you were on which day. Every step here runs in your browser on your device, and the camera’s GPS details are left out of the PDF. More everyday paperwork jobs like this one are in everyday PDF jobs, and the pictures to PDF guide covers every page option in depth.