Receipt photos to bookkeeping entries: AI agent prompt
Snap a receipt in a chat and get a clean bookkeeping entry, like a construction firm's WhatsApp agent that feeds QuickBooks and Google Sheets.
FinanceReceipt capturebeginnerWho this is for
Owners who keep receipts in a shoebox or their phone's camera roll.
Not for
Anything you'll file with a tax authority without checking.
What you need
Photos or PDFs of receipts and your category list.
The prompt
Read the receipts or invoices I attach. For each one, pull out: date, vendor, amount, tax, category (from this list: [your categories]), and project or client. Put them in a table I can paste into my books. If anything is missing or unclear, ask me instead of guessing.
Worked example
A fictional business, so you can see what to paste in and what a good answer looks like. The example answer was written with AI help and its numbers and dates were checked; your AI's answer will be worded differently, so check it the same way.
Sample input (what you paste in)
3 receipt photos: hardware store, fuel, client lunch (Tallgrass Landscaping). Categories: materials, fuel, meals, tools, other.
Example output (illustrative)
| Date | Vendor | Amount | Tax | Category | Project/client | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Oct 20 | Home Hardware | $86.40 | $9.94 | materials | ? | | Oct 21 | Petro-Canada | $72.10 | $8.29 | fuel | | | Oct 22 | Blue Door Bistro | $54.00 | $6.21 | meals | ? | Questions: Which client or project were the hardware items for? Who was the lunch with (needed for meal records)?
Check before you use it: Compare totals with the photos; faded receipts are where AI reads numbers wrong.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt above.
- Replace every [bracket] with your own details (or fill in the blanks on AgentPlaybook Real Estate, which remembers your answers for the next prompt).
- Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and review the answer before you use it.
Works with: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, QuickBooks, Google Sheets, WhatsApp + n8n
Real-world example: varmiguemunoz.com/blog/whatsapp-to-quickbooks-ai-agent
Featured in: Free AI agent prompts for small business (beginner-friendly) · AI agent prompts for Zapier, Make and n8n automations · AI prompts for Google Sheets and Excel work · AI prompts for restaurants, cafes and food businesses · AI prompts for contractors, construction and field service businesses · ChatGPT prompts for bookkeeping, accounting firms and small-business finance
Before you use it: what to check
Already built into this prompt
- If anything is missing or unclear, ask me instead of guessing.
Check yourself
- This prompt works on text other people wrote (emails, reviews, messages or web pages). That text can hide instructions aimed at AI, such as "ignore your rules and…". Paste it as material to work on, and never let the AI act on requests inside it, like paying, sharing logins or changing records. How prompt injection works →
- Check every figure, price and total against your own records before anything is sent, posted or booked. A person approves refunds, discounts, payments and price changes.
- Remove names, contact details, account numbers and other personal data the task doesn't need before you paste, and check your AI tool's data and training settings.
- Check names, dates, numbers and any claim against your own source material before you use the answer. AI can misread or invent details.
Using an AI agent? Download this prompt as a SKILL.md agent skill with these checks built in, or get the .zip for Claude.ai. How to install skills.
Want to make this prompt even better? Grade it with the free prompt grader or build your own with the AI prompt generator.
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