What this does: drop a photo of a receipt into a Drive folder and AI reads the vendor, date, and total straight into your expense sheet.
Time to set up: about 15 minutes once. After that your shoebox of receipts logs itself.
What you need: a Make account (free tier is fine) and a Google account with Drive and Sheets.
Skip if: you have very few receipts, or you already use a dedicated expense app you trust.
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A food-truck owner ends every week with a fistful of crumpled supply receipts and good intentions. Come tax time, the shoebox is a panic. The numbers are all right there on the paper; entering them by hand is the job that never happens until it has to.
This build enters them as they arrive. Snap a photo of a receipt, drop it in a Drive folder, and Make hands it to an AI extractor that reads the vendor, date, total, and tax, then logs a clean row to your expense sheet. By the end of the month the spreadsheet is done.
We wire it in Make, part of our AI image and vision set. The nice part: this one uses Make’s own built-in AI extractor, so there is no separate API key to set up. Drop, read, log.
What does this workflow actually do?
In one line: a receipt photo becomes an expense row. Make watches a Drive folder. When you add a receipt image, Make’s AI extractor reads the key fields, and Make logs them to your Google Sheet. The photo stays in Drive as your record; the sheet holds the numbers.
A few real cases, none of them the usual ones:
- The food-truck owner above, walking into tax season with the spreadsheet already done.
- A freelance photographer tracking gig expenses from the road.
- A youth-sports club treasurer logging volunteer reimbursements.
- A touring musician capturing fuel and lodging receipts between shows.
Keeping the receipt is easy; you just photograph it. Reading every one and typing the numbers is the grind that piles up. That reading is exactly what an AI extractor does in a second.
Why use Make instead of typing receipts in by hand?
Because typing is the whole problem. The numbers are already on the receipt; the cost is the minutes per receipt and the dread that makes you skip it.
Make watches the folder, reads each receipt the moment it lands, and writes the row for you. The AI extractor does the one clever step, reading a photo into fields; Make does the watching and filing. Your shoebox turns into a live, sortable expense sheet without entering a single number yourself.
What do you need before you start?
- A Make account. The free 1,000 operations a month covers a busy month of receipts.
- A Google account with a Drive folder for receipt photos and a Sheet for the log.
- No separate AI key. This build uses Make’s built-in AI extractor, which runs on your Make plan.
- A Sheet with columns: Vendor, Date, Total, Tax, and a link to the photo.
Two Make words. A scenario is the whole folder-to-sheet automation. A module is one box. Three boxes, one scenario.
How does the workflow work, step by step?
Three modules, left to right:
| Module | App | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Trigger | Google Drive | Fires when you add a receipt photo to the folder |
| 2. Brain | Make AI Extractor | Reads vendor, date, total, and tax from the image |
| 3. Output | Google Sheets | Logs the fields as an expense row |
Step 1: Watch a receipts folder
Create a scenario and add Google Drive, Watch Files in a Folder. Connect your account and pick the folder you will drop receipt photos into. This trigger fires on each new image and passes it along.
Step 2: Let the AI extractor read it
Add Make AI Tools, Extract information from a receipt and map the file from Step 1. This built-in extractor is purpose-made for receipts: it returns the vendor, date, total, tax, and line items without a prompt or a separate key. That is why this build is the simplest in the set to stand up.
Step 3: Log it to your expense sheet
Add Google Sheets, Add a Row, connect your account, and map the extractor’s fields into your columns, plus a link back to the photo in Drive. Now every receipt you snap becomes a tidy, sortable row.
How do you run it and check the result?
Click Run once after dropping a test receipt in the folder. When I tested this, a clear photo turned into a correct row in seconds, and the one habit that mattered was taking a flat, well-lit photo so the extractor read the total cleanly. Check a few, then turn the scenario on so receipts log themselves all month.
After that, the shoebox is gone. You photograph a receipt, drop it in the folder, and forget it, because the spreadsheet already has it. Tax season becomes a download, not a panic.
What does this cost to run?
| Piece | Free tier | If you outgrow it |
|---|---|---|
| Make | 1,000 operations/month free | Core plan from about $9/month |
| Make AI extractor | Runs on your Make plan | Counts toward your operations |
| Google Drive | Free | Free |
| Google Sheets | Free | Free |
Because it uses Make’s built-in AI, there is no separate per-image bill, just your Make operations. A month of receipts sits inside the free plan. More on tiers in our Make guide.
What can go wrong, and how do you avoid it?
- A blurry photo misreads. Take flat, well-lit photos; the extractor is good, not magic.
- It logs non-receipts. Use a dedicated folder so only receipts go in.
- Unusual formats slip. Spot-check totals and tax, especially for foreign or handwritten receipts.
- You lose the original. Keep the photo in Drive and link it from the row, so you always have the source.
The same drop-and-extract pattern runs many jobs. See Make AI scenarios.
How do you build this in Zapier or n8n instead?
Same three jobs, different names.
| Job | Make | Zapier | n8n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catch the photo | Watch Files in a Folder | New File in Folder trigger | Google Drive Trigger node |
| Read the receipt | Make AI receipt extractor | AI parser by Zapier | OCR / AI node |
| Log the row | Add a Row | Create Spreadsheet Row | Google Sheets node |
Make and Zapier are easiest to start. Zapier vs Make vs n8n compares all three.
Want the ready-made template?
The steps above build it from scratch. If you would rather skip the setup, the importable Make blueprint is yours free: subscribe to the daily newsletter and the download is waiting on the thank-you page, next to our Special Reports. Import it, connect your own accounts, and you are running in minutes.
Want it set up with you, live?
Book a 1-on-1 Live Claude AI Crash Course and we build your first automation together, screen to screen.
Want better prompts for it?
The AI Prompt Library is more useful for the writing builds, but pairs well once you start summarizing your logged expenses.
Turn your shoebox of receipts into a spreadsheet
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Frequently asked questions
Do I really not need an API key?
Right. This build uses Make’s built-in AI extractor, which runs on your Make plan, so there is nothing extra to sign up for.
How accurate is it?
Good on clear, flat photos. Blurry or crumpled receipts can misread a digit, so spot-check totals before you rely on them for taxes.
Can it handle PDFs of receipts?
Yes, the extractor takes image and PDF receipts. Just drop them in the same folder.
Can it categorize expenses too?
Yes, add a Claude step to tag a category from the vendor and items before the sheet. Start simple, then layer that on.
Where does the original photo go?
It stays in your Drive folder. Link it from the row so the source is always one click away.
Sources and references
- Creating a scenario (Make Help)
- Google Drive on Make (Help)
- Google Sheets basics (Google)
- Make integrations directory
- OCR — Grokipedia
Last reviewed: May 2026. Make and Google update their interfaces; check the official pages for exact button names.