Receipt Extraction

AU GST/ABN-aware receipt & invoice extraction — applies documented AU entertainment/ITC tax-code rules per line item, returning a tax_code, a confidence, and a one-line rationale for each, not just OCR text. You supply the document; get validated structured JSON: vendor, line items, tax, totals — with Australian GST and ABN checksum validation built in from day one. One API call, no hand-rolled vision-LLM prompts, no re-deriving ABN/GST rules from the ATO's own documentation.

What it does

• Accepts a receipt/invoice image or PDF (base64), returns a clean, versioned Receipt JSON object.

• Validates the vendor's ABN (11-digit modulus-89 checksum) and cross-checks GST across line items and totals, excluding non-creditable GST on entertainment-coded expenses per the documented rule set.

• Each line item carries its tax_code plus a confidence (0–1) and a one-line rationale naming the actual rule applied (e.g. "entertainment ITC denied, no exception context", or the incidental-to-travel exception that flips a restaurant-style meal back to claimable) — so you can check the call, not just trust it.

• Works as an MCP server (extract_receipt tool) or a plain HTTPS API — usable from Claude, Cursor, or any HTTP client.

GST handling reflects publicly documented Australian tax law and is provided as software output, not tax advice.

Example (MCP tool call)

{
  "tool": "extract_receipt",
  "input": { "document_base64": "<base64 image or PDF>", "mime_type": "image/jpeg" }
}

{
  "vendor": { "name": "Acme Pty Ltd", "abn": "51824753556", "abn_valid": true },
  "date": "2026-07-14",
  "line_items": [
    {
      "description": "Widget",
      "qty": 2,
      "unit_price": 12.5,
      "gst": 2.5,
      "tax_code": "taxable",
      "confidence": 0.95,
      "rationale": "Standard-rated retail good; 10% GST applies."
    }
  ],
  "totals": { "subtotal": 25.0, "gst": 2.5, "total": 27.5 },
  "schema_version": "1.0"
}

Related MCP server: kelnix-receipt-mcp-api

Pricing

• Free — 20 documents/month, no card required.

• Pay-as-you-go — $0.02/document, no minimum.

• Pro — $19/month for 1,500 documents (~$0.013/doc effective), with priority support.

Getting a key

The MCP server is live at https://receipt-extraction.acjlabs.com/mcp (the alternate https://acjlabs-receipt-extraction.acjlabs.workers.dev/mcp address reaches the same deployment and keeps working, so existing configurations need no change). Free-tier keys self-serve — POST /v1/signup with { "email": "you@example.com" } returns your key directly in the response, good for 20 documents/month, no card required. Store it immediately — it is shown once and cannot be recovered if lost (re-signup for a new one). Paid keys provision the same way via a one-time claim link once Pro/pay-as-you-go billing is live. See https://acjlabs-receipts.pages.dev for the same steps plus pricing and a comparison against alternatives.

Connecting it to an MCP client

With Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http receipt-extraction \
  https://receipt-extraction.acjlabs.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Any other MCP client that supports a remote HTTP server with a custom header (Cursor, Cline, VS Code, etc.) works the same way: point it at the URL above with an Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY header. A gateway or scanner that can only forward the raw key value (no Bearer prefix) also works — both forms authenticate. Tool discovery (initialize/tools/list) doesn't require a key at all; only calling extract_receipt does.

See docs/quickstart.md for a full copy-paste walkthrough (getting a key, per-client configs, confirming the connection with curl) if you'd rather follow one linear guide.

How accurate is it?

Validated 4/4 against hand-built (but genuinely readable) test documents covering net-priced, GST-inclusive-only, checksum-invalid-ABN, and unreadable-document cases. Real production accuracy across more document formats will be tracked once live traffic exists.

npm client

Prefer a typed function over hand-rolling MCP JSON-RPC calls? @acjlabs/receipt-extraction-client (live on npm) wraps the extract_receipt tool call:

npm install @acjlabs/receipt-extraction-client

import { createReceiptExtractionClient } from "@acjlabs/receipt-extraction-client";

const client = createReceiptExtractionClient({
  baseUrl: "https://receipt-extraction.acjlabs.com",
  apiKey: "...",
});
const receipt = await client.extractReceipt(base64EncodedImageOrPdf, "image/png");

Why not just use generic OCR?

Generic OCR extraction APIs return raw fields. None of them apply the AU layer on top: that an Australian ABN carries an 11-digit modulus-89 checksum, or that GST apportionment differs for entertainment-coded expenses. You'd build and maintain that yourself, against someone else's schema that can change under you. See the full comparison, or read why AU GST rules break most receipt-extraction tools (the ABN checksum, the three real GST cases, and how to test any tool against them).

Source availability & support

This repository hosts the documentation for the hosted service. The service implementation is not open source. Bug reports and feature requests are welcome in this repo's Issues; you can also reach us at contact@acjlabs.com.