# Expense: a free expense tracker built for tax season

Expense is an expense tracker for those filing taxes
as individuals—freelancers, self-employed, and side hustlers. Drop in a receipt
image (or screenshot, PDF, or forwarded email), it identifies the merchant and
amount, categorizes it (using Schedule C lines from the IRS), groups into
reports with names you give, mileage is computed from the map using the current
year's IRS rate. Ask a question in plain words on the Insights page ("how much
have I spent this year?", "where does my money go?") and the app answers from
your own records, with a chart when the question spans several months. You can
also connect your Gmail or Fastmail account, and Expense will pull in all your
expenses. When it comes to tax filing time, you'll have an option to export a
PDF per each report, or a ZIP of all you need to give your accountant. Ad-free.

Free expense tracking for tax season: receipts, mileage, and exports..

## What do you get

- **Free while we're early** — No credit card, no payment, no ads. Join now while it's free.
- **Stop losing receipts in your gallery** — Take a photo, take a screenshot, import a receipt or forward a receipt email. The OCR finds the merchant and price while the LLM suggests the category and you just approve it.
- **AI invoice & receipt extraction** — Drop in a photo, screenshot, or PDF and the OCR and AI pull out the merchant, amount, date, and category, then file the expense. Receipts and invoices alike, whether uploaded, pasted, or forwarded by email. You just review and approve the result.
- **Email receipts effortless** — Send an email receipt to your account and an expense will be automatically recorded, dated based on the original email for accuracy.
- **Connect your Fastmail account** — Connect your Fastmail mailbox and every receipt that lands in your inbox is processed automatically: merchant, amount, and category filled in, no forwarding needed. Most other expense apps only auto-import from Gmail; Expense works with Fastmail.
- **Smart pre-classification** — Every email is screened locally before any AI runs: receipt-like mail gets processed, newsletters and bank alerts are ignored, and merchants you have paid before skip the model entirely. Less noise, faster imports.
- **Retroactive scan (last 90 days)** — Connect a mailbox and Expense doesn't just watch for new mail: it scans back through your inbox and surfaces the receipt emails already sitting there, so your records start the day you connect, not the day after.
- **Capture PDF attachments** — A receipt email with a PDF attached is captured whole: the attachment is pulled out, read, and stored with the expense, not just the text in the email body. Works for image attachments too.
- **Get ready with your deductions on time** — Accounts come pre-filled with the list of categories from the IRS Schedule C lines. Qualify your expenses as tax-deductible.
- **PDF reports to show your accountant** — Group your expenses into reports named Home, Work, Travel or whatever else you prefer. You'll see the report total in each report.
- **Log drives without Excel** — Map your drives and the app will calculate the distances and your deduction according to the IRS rate for this year.
- **Duplicates detection** — Every receipt image is fingerprinted with SHA-256 when it's stored. The same file arriving twice, by any route (upload, forward, connected inbox), is recognized as one receipt: auto-imports skip the second copy, and manual uploads get a duplicate warning before it messes up your totals.
- **Reconcile against your monthly statement** — Upload a credit card or bank statement (PDF, CSV, QuickBooks, or Excel) and Expense matches every charge against your logged expenses. Any charge without a receipt stands out, so you never miss a deductible expense that slipped through. Reconcile as many statements as you need, even from a card you use for both personal and business spending.
- **Export for the tax time** — You can download a PDF with each report and its attached receipts or a ZIP with all CSV and the receipts images. Perfect for sending it to your accountant.
- **Share with your family or accountant** — You can invite someone with a code and everyone will see the same expenses. Your other accounts will remain private.
- **Use your personal AI assistant** — You can connect your own AI assistant (Claude, OpenAI or any MCP-capable) with your account login. No token needed. Just drop a receipt in the chat and it will be uploaded and categorized for you, ask about flight spend, receive exact totals or build a report with the assistant. One-click disconnect in settings. In Chrome, browser agents also get in-page read tools (WebMCP) without any setup.
- **Your data belongs to you** — No ads, no data selling. Your expenses stay in your account, and you can export and leave anytime.

## Key facts

- Name: Expense
- URL: https://expense.labnotes.org
- Price: free. No ads
- Built for the tax time: categories are from IRS Schedule C lines, expenses are grouped into the reports you name, mileage deduction is calculated at the IRS rate for the drive date/type
- Receipt capture: upload, paste, drag & drop, or forward from email (images and PDFs)
- Fastmail: connect your mailbox and receipts in your inbox are processed automatically: merchant, amount, and category filled in, no forwarding. Most other expense apps only auto-import from Gmail
- The OCR finds a merchant and amount, an LLM categorizes the receipt and you just save it
- Export: a PDF per report with the receipts attached or a ZIP with everything (CSV plus all the receipt images)
- Reconciliation: upload a bank statement (PDF, CSV, QFX/OFX, Excel) to match charges against your logged expenses and catch deductions you missed
- Mileage: map-based drives at the IRS mileage rate for the drive date/type
- AI assistant access: connect any MCP client (Claude, OpenAI, etc) by signing in with your account (OAuth); the assistant can capture receipts, log mileage, answer your spending questions, and build and export reports. In Chrome, the app also registers read-only in-page tools for browser agents (WebMCP)
- Insights: the app's own question page, with no assistant to connect. Ask "where does my money go?" or "what still needs a report?" and the answer is computed from your expenses, with a chart when the question spans months
- Multi-user accounts: collaborate on one account with an invite code
- Data remains in your account. No ads, no data resale

Stewarded by Assaf Arkin (https://labnotes.org).