Belego guide: Every feature of the receipt app explained
Belego guide: how to scan receipts, have them read automatically, organise them and export a ZIP, CSV or PDF report. Every feature of the app step by step.
In short: Belego is a receipt app for iPhone and Android. You photograph or import a receipt, the app saves it as a PDF and automatically reads the amount, currency, date, merchant and category. At the end you export any period as a ZIP with PDFs and a CSV list or as a PDF expense report, all without an account and without a cloud.
This guide explains every feature of Belego in the order you need them day to day: capture, have it read, organise, export and back up. It applies to iOS and Android alike; the app works the same way on both.
Belego is deliberately not an accounting program. The app collects, reads, organises and exports. What happens to the receipts afterwards is up to your Treuhänder (the Swiss term for an accountant or trustee), your tax adviser or your accounting tool.
How do you capture a receipt?
Tap "Add receipt" and pick one of three sources: "Scan (camera)", "From gallery" or "Import PDF". For paper receipts the camera is the fastest way.
When scanning, Belego detects the edges of the receipt, crops it, straightens it and saves the scan as a PDF. A few tips for good scans:
- lay the receipt flat on a dark, plain surface
- make sure the light is good and avoid shadows
- get the whole receipt into the frame, including the top and bottom with the date and total
Multi-page invoices are scanned page by page. Belego then asks whether the pages belong to one receipt or are separate receipts, and files them accordingly. More tips are in How to photograph receipts properly.
Invoices that arrive by email or in the browser come in through the share menu: in Mail, the browser or the Files app, tap Share and choose Belego. The receipt is imported and read automatically. Up to 10 files work in one go.
What does Belego read automatically?
After capture, Belego reads the amount, currency, date, merchant and category and adds a short, factual note such as "printer cartridges" or "train ticket". This usually takes a few seconds and briefly needs an internet connection.
The key principle: Belego never guesses. Anything it cannot read reliably stays empty, and you fill it in by hand. You can override every field at any time, and changes are saved automatically. If you capture a receipt twice by mistake, Belego shows a warning when merchant, date and amount match.
The free version includes your first 10 automatic reads, one time and with no monthly reset. With Belego Pro the app reads without limit. Without Pro you can keep scanning without limit and enter the details yourself. How text recognition on receipts works in general is explained in Reading receipts automatically.
How do you organise and find your receipts?
Belego keeps all receipts in one running list, sorted by date and per year. Categories come with a starter set that you can rename, delete or extend in Settings. Deleting a category keeps its receipts.
There are several ways to find things again:
- Search finds merchants, notes and amounts, also written with a comma (49,90), across all years.
- The category filter shows only the receipts of one category.
- The year overview shows the year's total in your home currency, broken down by currency.
- The monthly bars show how spending spreads over the year. Tap a bar and the list filters to that month.
Receipts in foreign currencies are stored and exported in their original currency. For the overview, Belego also converts them approximately into your home currency using the daily rates of the European Central Bank. Which categories work well for taxes and your accountant is covered in Receipt categories that make sense.
What are the bookkeeping fields for?
If you are registered for VAT or want to match receipts against your bank statement, switch on the extra fields in Settings under "Accounting". Every receipt then shows VAT rate, VAT amount and, if you like, the payment method, for example card, cash, bank transfer or PayPal.
Belego reads these fields automatically too. Handy detail: the values are stored even while the fields are switched off. If you switch them on later, older receipts are already filled in. The tax type follows your region (VAT in Europe, sales tax in the US, GST for example in Canada or Australia) and can be changed.
Belego does not prepare a VAT return. The fields give your accountant the details needed for input tax recovery. What a VAT-compliant receipt must show in Switzerland is covered in VAT-compliant receipts.
How do you export your receipts?
Tap "Export", choose the period (this year, this month, last month, last quarter or a custom range) and then the format. There are two options.
| Export | Contents | What for |
|---|---|---|
| ZIP: originals and CSV | every PDF named by date, merchant and amount, belege.csv, a summary CSV, a README | accountant, accounting tool, archive |
| PDF expense report | receipts by month with subtotals, totals per currency and category, receipt images attached | employer, manager, accountant, tax return |
The PDFs suit bexio and similar tools, and you open the CSV in Banana, CashCtrl or Excel. The CSV format follows your region and can be changed in Settings: Swiss (semicolon and dot), EU (semicolon and comma) or standard (comma and dot). That way Excel splits the columns correctly. The PDF report can get a title, and you can switch off the attached receipt images. More on the CSV is in Exporting receipts as CSV, and the expense report workflow in Expense reports by app.
Where is your data and how do you back it up?
All receipts are stored only on your device. There is no account, no login, no Belego cloud and no tracking. Capturing, searching and exporting work offline. Only for automatic reading is a receipt sent encrypted, read and then discarded.
That also means: if the app is deleted or the phone is lost, your receipts are gone unless you have a backup. In Settings, "Create backup" makes a backup that includes your settings and categories, which you store in your own cloud folder or on your computer. "Restore backup" brings it onto a new device. Why local storage makes sense for receipts is explained in A receipt app without a cloud.
Other settings: a weekly reminder (a gentle nudge after 7 and 14 days without opening the app, purely local), light, dark or system appearance, your home currency and the language. Belego is available in 14 languages.
Frequently asked questions
Is Belego free?
Yes, the free version includes unlimited scanning and managing, export as ZIP and PDF report, backup and your first 10 automatic reads. Belego Pro unlocks unlimited automatic reading and costs CHF 10 per month or CHF 50 per year. Without Pro, you enter the amount, date and merchant yourself after the first 10 reads.
Can I use Belego on several devices?
Belego deliberately does not sync through a cloud; receipts stay on the device where you captured them. To move receipts to another device, create a backup and restore it there. To hand receipts to your accountant or employer, use the ZIP export or the PDF report.
Does Belego work with receipts from abroad?
Yes. Belego recognises the currency on the receipt and stores the amount in the original currency, for example euros or dollars. The overview also shows an approximate conversion into your home currency. In the export every receipt stays in its original currency, and the totals in the PDF report are listed per currency.
What happens if automatic reading fails?
The fields stay empty and Belego shows that reading did not work. You can try again or enter the details by hand. Files over 4 MB are not read automatically, but they are still saved. Without internet the receipt waits and is read as soon as a connection is back.