Building software · Claude Code

Build an app that reads receipt photos and asks you about unsure ones

Idea + starter prompt, not run by us yet

For: Builders making simple bookkeeping tools for freelancers and small businesses

A builder used Claude Code to write most of a bookkeeping app. People send in photos of receipts through the website or through chat apps. The app pulls fields into a fixed structure, keeps raw text for debugging, converts foreign receipts at the rate on the receipt date and sends low-confidence ones to a review screen.

Steps

1. Decide the fields you need from each receipt, such as vendor, date, total and tax.
2. Ask Claude Code to plan the app with a review screen for unsure results.
3. Test with a mix of clear, blurry and foreign-currency receipts.
4. Check that low-confidence receipts really reach the review screen.
5. Expect to tune fallback and review logic more than the main prompt.

Starter prompt

Help me plan a small app that reads receipt photos for [freelancers or my business].

For each receipt it should pull: the vendor, the date, the total, tax, currency and each line item, in a fixed structure. Keep the raw text for checking. If the currency is foreign, convert it at the rate for the receipt date. If confidence is low, send it to a review screen.

First write the plan and the data structure. Then build it with fake receipts in [test folder]. Do not use real customer data while testing.

Original post: Reddit · found via agentusecases.ai. Written up in our own words. We haven't run it, so test it on made-up data first.