How Smart Capture works on the FreeAgent mobile app

This article explains what Smart Capture is and how the functionality works when using the FreeAgent mobile app.

Smart Capture is available in the FreeAgent mobile app on iOS devices that run on the iOS 16 operating system or newer and Android devices running the Android 9 (Pie) operating system or newer.

What is Smart Capture?

When you capture and save a photo of a receipt or upload a file into your FreeAgent account, FreeAgent’s Smart Capture functionality will attempt to automatically extract the date and amount. It will then attach the file to a Money Out bank transaction, if one exists that is marked ‘For approval’ and has a matching date and value.

If no such transaction exists, FreeAgent will keep checking every 24 hours for seven days. The bank transaction must be dated between the receipt date and two days later in order for the receipt to be matched to it. Find out more about how FreeAgent automatically matches receipts to bank transactions.

Files that have had the date and amount automatically extracted will be added to the ‘Smart Capture’ tab in the Files area.

Alternatively, if there isn’t a matching bank transaction, you can convert the file into an out-of-pocket expense and Smart Capture will automatically extract the date and amount and suggest a cost category.

Please note that there are a few reasons why the data might not be extracted - for example, the file type may be unsupported or you may have exceeded the monthly allowance.

You can also attach an image file to an out-of-pocket expense, bill or bank transaction using the FreeAgent mobile app.

Which file types are supported by Smart Capture?

The Files area in FreeAgent can store up to 1GB of files in total and you can upload files of up to 5MB in size in a number of different formats. These include .jpg, .jpeg, .pdf and .gif.

How the monthly allowance works

You can use Smart Capture to extract the date and amount from 10 files each month for free as part of your FreeAgent subscription. If Smart Capture can’t extract the data from a file, or if you delete a file from the ‘Smart Capture’ tab in the Files area, the capture won’t count towards your monthly allowance.

If you need to extract the date and amount from more than 10 files per month, you can subscribe to the Smart Capture Unlimited add-on, which will allow you to extract the data from an unlimited number of files.

To find out more, log in to the desktop version of FreeAgent or log in via your mobile web browser, select 'Connections & Add-ons’ from the drop-down menu at the top-right corner of the screen and select ‘Get started’ on the Smart Capture panel.

Please note that once you’ve extracted the date and amount from 10 files using Smart Capture in a month, you can capture or upload additional files but the date and amount won’t be automatically extracted if you haven’t purchased the Smart Capture Unlimited add-on. The additional files also won’t be automatically assigned to bank transactions and can’t be converted into out-of-pocket expenses.

Reasons why data might not be extracted from a file

There are several scenarios where the date and amount won’t be automatically extracted from a file. For example:

• If you capture or upload a file type that is unsupported by Smart Capture.
  
  
• If you’ve used your monthly allowance, i.e. you have already extracted the date and amount from 10 files using Smart Capture this month and haven’t purchased the Smart Capture Unlimited add-on.
  
  
• If the date and amount wasn’t clearly visible enough on the receipt for Smart Capture to extract the data.