Capture a receipt using OCR

2025-07-15

Applies To: Project Operations Integrated with ERP, Project Operations Core

Expense entry was enhanced through the introduction of optical character recognition (OCR) processing for receipts. This functionality is designed to improve the user experience when creating expense reports.

Key features

The system extracts the merchant name, date, and total amount from receipts.
The system tries to match unattached receipts to unattached expense transactions.
You can create manually entered expense transactions from receipts.

Attach receipts to an expense report

To automatically attach receipts that include credit card transactions when an expense report is created, complete the following steps.

Open the Expense management workspace.
On the Receipts tab, verify that unattached receipts exist. You can also upload receipts on the Receipts tab.
On the Expenses tab, verify that unattached expenses exist. Typically, the expense administrator imports these expenses from the credit card provider.
Select New expense report. Notice that you can include expenses, and receipts, now as well, when you create an expense report. If you add both expenses and receipts, automatic matching of the receipts against the expenses is triggered.

Create or match receipts to an expense report

To create an expense, or match an expense from a receipt, complete the following steps.

On an expense report, on the Receipts tab, attach a receipt by selecting Add receipts.
Under the uploaded image of the receipt, notice the Create and Match options.
- Select Create to create a manually entered expense transaction and fill in the values that are extracted from the receipt.
- If you select Match, the system tries to match an existing expense to the receipt.

Installation

Option 1: To use these advanced expense capabilities, install the Expense Management Service add-in for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, and turn on the features in your instance. You can access the add-in from your project in Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS).

Sign in to LCS, and open the desired environment.
Go to Full details.
Select Maintain, or scroll down to the Environment add-ins FastTab.
Select Install a new add-in.
Select Expense Management Service.
Follow the installation guide, and agree to the terms and conditions.
Select Install.

Option 2: You can also enable the service by installing the Dynamics 365 Project Operations expense receipt capture application from the Power Platform Admin Center.

To install the Dynamics 365 Project Operations expense receipt capture application, follow these steps.

Go to the Power Platform admin center and select the required environment.
Select Dynamics 365 Apps.
Select Install App.
Search for the Dynamics 365 Project Operations expense receipt capture application, agree to the terms of service, and install it.

After completing either of the two installation options previously mentioned, go to the Feature management workspace and turn on the following features:

Expense reports reimagined
Automatch and create expense from receipt

When you turn on these features, the following actions occur:

The existing Expense management workspace is replaced with the new workspace.
A new menu item for expense field visibility is added.
You can still open the former Expense reports page by going to Expense management > My expenses > Expense reports.
Workflows and any approvals still take you to the existing expense reports page.
Receipts are processed through Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, and metadata is extracted and added.
An option is added that lets you create an expense report that includes matched unattached receipts.
An option that is added to expense reports lets you create an expense line from a receipt, or attempts to match an existing receipt to an existing expense line.

Frequently asked questions

Does Microsoft use my data for its models?

No, Microsoft built a general machine learning model for its receipt processing service. This model isn't based on the receipts that you upload.

Where is this feature available and processed?

The current regional availability of this feature is outlined in the following table.

Note

OCR support isn’t expanding to other regions. Instead, use the Expense entry feature of the Time and Expense agent that offers greater flexibility to meet your business needs. Learn more about the agents in Expense Entry feature of the Time and Expense Agent.

Region	Supported
USA	Yes
CAN	Yes
UK	Yes
AUS	Yes
EU	Partially. English receipts only.
Asia	No
Japan	No
Africa	No

Where do my receipts go?

Finance contacts Cognitive Services to extract the field data. Cognitive Services retains a copy of your receipt for up to 24 hours while processing occurs. After processing is completed, Cognitive Services removes the receipt. Receipts are still stored in Finance.

For more information, see Enable receipt understanding with Form Recognizer's new capability.