How SpendScan Works

SpendScan uses advanced artificial intelligence to analyse your grocery receipts, helping you understand your spending patterns and environmental impact. Here's how we transform a simple photo into valuable insights.

The Technology Behind SpendScan

📸 Step 1: Receipt Capture & Quality Check

Upload your receipt by taking a photo with your phone or selecting an existing image. We accept JPG, PNG, and PDF formats. Our AI immediately performs a quality check to ensure your receipt is clear, properly oriented, and readable.

If there are any issues—like poor lighting, blurriness, or incorrect orientation—we'll let you know straight away so you can take another photo. This ensures the best possible results from our analysis.

🤖 Step 2: Smart Data Extraction

Using AI Vision and OCR technology, SpendScan reads your receipt and extracts all the important information: shop name, date, items purchased, quantities, and prices. The AI is trained to handle receipts from supermarkets worldwide, understanding different languages and formats.

But we don't just copy what's on your receipt—we make it useful. Product names like "BRCLI FLRTS ORG 200G" get translated into simple terms like "Broccoli Florets, Organic, 200g". If you've set a preferred language, we'll translate item names for you whilst keeping the original for reference.

Processing typically takes 30-60 seconds, during which our AI carefully validates that the numbers add up correctly and all essential information has been captured.

📊 Step 3: Intelligent Categorisation & Analysis

Once your items are extracted, SpendScan automatically categorises them into groups like vegetables, fruits, meat & fish, dairy, and more. We use 14 default categories, but you can create your own custom categories to match how you think about your shopping.

The AI learns from your previous receipts, so if you've already bought "Organic Tomatoes" before, it'll recognise them instantly and use the same category you chose last time. This means SpendScan gets smarter and faster the more you use it.

Environmental Impact Calculation

🌍 Our Methodology

SpendScan calculates the carbon footprint of your food purchases using data from trusted scientific sources, including Our World in Data, research published in the journal Science by Poore & Nemecek, and the IPCC Climate Change Reports.

Our carbon footprint calculations take into account multiple factors:

• Food Type: Different foods have vastly different environmental impacts. Beef and lamb have significantly higher emissions than plant-based foods.
• Production Method: Organic vs conventional farming methods affect emissions.
• Seasonality: Out-of-season produce often requires energy-intensive greenhouse cultivation or long-distance transport.
• Location: Your geographical location influences which foods are in season and how far they've travelled.
• Processing: Highly processed foods generally have a larger carbon footprint than whole foods.

📈 Your Environmental Score

We provide you with an environmental score from 0-100, making it easy to understand your impact at a glance. The score considers your weekly emissions, how much seasonal and local food you buy, and the proportion of high-emission items like red meat and dairy.

You'll also see which items have low, medium, or high environmental impact, with clear explanations about why. This helps you make more informed choices on your next shopping trip.

Data Security & Privacy

🔒 Your Data is Protected

We take your privacy seriously. All your receipt data is encrypted and stored securely. We never sell your personal information to third parties, and you have complete control over your data—you can export it or delete it entirely at any time.

Your receipt images and extracted data are stored only for as long as you keep your account active. If you delete a receipt or your account, the data is permanently removed from our systems.

Accuracy & Transparency

✓ Review Before Saving

Whilst our AI is highly accurate, we know it's not perfect. That's why you can review and edit every piece of extracted data before saving your receipt. Each item includes a confidence score, and we'll flag anything that might need your attention.

If something doesn't look right—perhaps a price was misread or an item was incorrectly categorised—simply click to edit it. Your corrections help improve the system for everyone.

🔬 Scientific Foundation

Our environmental impact calculations are based on peer-reviewed scientific research and regularly updated databases. We're transparent about our data sources and methodology because we believe you deserve to understand how we arrive at our figures.

That said, carbon footprint calculations are estimates based on averages. Individual products may vary depending on specific production methods, transport routes, and packaging. We provide these figures as a helpful guide to understanding relative impacts rather than absolute measurements.

Continuous Improvement

SpendScan is constantly learning and improving. We regularly update our AI models, expand our database of products and environmental data, and add new features based on user feedback.

The more receipts you upload, the better SpendScan understands your shopping habits and preferences. Over time, you'll notice faster processing, more accurate categorisation, and increasingly personalised insights.