From the till to your tax return, without typing.
Take a picture of the receipt on your iPhone. A few seconds later it's on your Mac with the supplier, date, total and VAT filled in, matched to the payment in your bank.
Point your phone at it.
Open Canny and tap the camera. It finds the edges of the receipt, straightens it and takes the picture itself. For a long receipt, take several shots and they're joined into one.
- Works for paper receipts, invoices and handwritten notes
- Got it by email? Share the PDF to Canny from Mail or Files
Your phone reads it. We never see it.
The text is recognised on your iPhone using Apple's own on-device text recognition. Canny picks out the supplier, date, total and VAT, and suggests a category. Check it, tap Done.
- No upload to a Canny server; there isn't one
- Works with no signal, and syncs when you're back online
It's on your Mac before you sit down.
The picture and its details are saved to your private iCloud database and appear in Canny on your Mac. When the card payment shows up in your bank import, the two are matched.
- The VAT goes into the right box of your next return
- The cost comes off your profit at the year end
- Payments with no receipt are listed so you can find them
Where the receipt actually goes
| What | Where it is | Who can read it |
|---|---|---|
| The photo or PDF | Your iPhone and Mac, and your iCloud | You |
| The details read from it | Your iPhone and Mac, and your iCloud | You |
| A copy with Canny | Nowhere. There is no Canny server | Nobody |
iCloud data is encrypted by Apple in transit and on its servers. If you turn on Apple's Advanced Data Protection, it's end-to-end encrypted. See Apple's iCloud data security overview.
What HMRC expects you to keep
- Limited companies must keep accounting records, including receipts, for 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to (GOV.UK).
- Sole traders must keep records for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for that tax year (GOV.UK).
- You don't have to keep the paper. HMRC accepts scanned or photographed copies as long as they show everything on the original, front and back.
Canny keeps each receipt next to the transaction it supports, so if HMRC asks about a figure you can show what's behind it. You can export a year's receipts as PDFs at any time.
Questions
Do I need the iPhone app?
No. On the Mac you can drag in PDFs and photos, or use your iPhone's camera straight from the Mac. The iPhone app is for capturing a receipt the moment you get it.
Does it need a paid iCloud plan?
Receipts are small. A year's worth for a one-person business usually fits within the free 5 GB, alongside whatever else you keep there.
What if it reads a receipt wrong?
You see the details before saving and can change any of them. Faded or crumpled receipts are the usual cause; the picture is kept either way.