Photograph the invoice.
Stock updates in 5 minutes.
Your supplier’s invoice has 47 line items, lot numbers, and expiry dates in three different formats. Your phone camera handles all of it.
The 4:30 PM receiving problem
The delivery truck arrives at 4:30 PM. Your distributor hands over an invoice — 47 line items, three pages. Each line has a lot number, unit price, and an expiry date (some printed as “Jan 2027”, others as “01/27”, and a few that say “Best By 01-2027”).
Your receiving clerk starts typing. Item 1: Organic Whole Milk 1gal, lot LM-2024-8847, qty 48, price $4.29, expiry Jan 2027. Items 2 through 47 follow.
The store closes at 9 PM. The data entry takes until 8:15 PM — if nobody makes a typo. (Somebody always makes a typo.) Lot LM-2024-8847 becomes LM-2024-8874. Nobody catches it until the next inventory audit.
This is not a technology problem. It's a “humans copying 200+ data points by hand under time pressure” problem.
The average store spends $1,200/month on receiving labor. ShelfLifePro OCR cuts that by 60%.
Three steps. Five minutes. Done.
From supplier invoice to completed receiving report with every lot number and expiry date captured
Photograph
Point your phone at the invoice. Works with thermal prints, laser prints, PDFs. Take multiple photos for multi-page invoices.
AI Extracts
The system reads product names, quantities, lot numbers, prices, and expiry dates. Matches products against your existing catalog automatically.
Review & Confirm
Review the extracted data side-by-side with the invoice image. Fix any misreads (highlighted in yellow). Confirm to create your receiving report with all lot data.
Every format your suppliers throw at you
Thermal receipts, laser-printed invoices, emailed PDFs — the OCR reads them all
Printed invoices
Standard thermal and laser prints. 95%+ accuracy on product names, quantities, prices, and dates.
Handwritten invoices
Handwritten notes and annotations alongside printed data. 60-70% accuracy on handwritten portions with review interface for corrections.
Date formats
MM/DD/YYYY, MMM YYYY, "Best By Jan 2027", "Use Before 01/27". Every format your suppliers use.
Lot numbers
Alphanumeric lot codes from margin notes, header fields, or line items. Extracted exactly as printed.
Multi-page invoices
Photograph each page. System stitches them into one receiving report. No manual page-matching.
PDF invoices
Forward email PDFs directly. Same extraction, zero photography. Works with distributor email attachments.
Before and after OCR
The difference between manual data entry and a 5-minute photo import
Before: Manual entry
- 45 minutes per invoice
- Typo rate 3-5% on batch numbers
- Lot numbers miscopied
- Expiry dates guessed from illegible prints
- Staff overtime during receiving
- Corrections discovered during audits
After: ShelfLifePro OCR
- 5 minutes per invoice
- Uncertain fields highlighted in yellow for review
- Lot numbers extracted from source image
- Expiry dates parsed and verified against known formats
- Staff freed for selling and customer service
- Audit-ready from day one
Invoice OCR questions
Straight answers about accuracy, formats, and what plan you need
Stop typing invoices by hand
Your next supplier delivery should take 5 minutes to process, not 45. Start your free trial — scan your first invoice today.