Buying a round is where drink tracking usually falls apart. Four drinks arrive at once, you are mid-conversation, and logging them one at a time is the last thing you want to do.
The receipt scanner reads a bar or restaurant receipt and adds everything on it in one go. It is a Premium feature, and the reading happens on your device through Apple Vision. The photo is not uploaded anywhere.
# Step 1. Open the scanner
During a session, tap + Add Drink, then Scan Receipt.
If you are on the free tier you will see Receipt scanning is a Premium feature instead, with the option to upgrade.
The first time you use it, iOS asks for camera permission. Choose Allow. If you tap the wrong one, the sheet gives you an Open Settings button to fix it.
# Step 2. Take the photo
Tap Take Photo and photograph the receipt, or Choose from Library if you already snapped it.
Flat, well lit, and square on works best. A crumpled receipt at an angle is where any text recognition struggles, and this is no exception.
While it works you will see Reading the receipt….
# Step 3. Review what it found
This is the important step, and it is deliberately not optional.
Everything the scan found appears in a list headed Untick anything the scan got wrong, with the count above it, for example 4 drinks found. Each row has a tick beside it.
Nothing is saved until you confirm. Untick anything that is not a drink, or that it misread. Service charges, food and the tip are the usual culprits.
# Step 4. Check the currency and the venue
AlcoLog reads the currency off the receipt where it can, and tells you what it settled on, for example Recording in GBP. Tap it to change it if the receipt was ambiguous.
If the receipt names the venue, you can attach it with Find Venue, which tags the drinks with where you were. That is what later fills in your session map.
# Step 5. Add them
Tap Add 3 Drinks, or whatever your count is. They land in the session as normal drinks, each with ABV and calories filled in from the catalog where the name matched.
From there they behave like any other drink. Tap one to correct a size or a time.
# When it finds nothing
If the receipt is unreadable you get No drinks found, with Try Another Photo to have another go.
There is no penalty for giving up: + Add Drink is still there and always works. The scanner is a shortcut, not the only route.
# What’s next
The barcode and photo scanners do the same job for a single drink when there is no receipt.
If the receipt tagged a venue, your session map shows the night laid out geographically. And for the round you did not get a receipt for, adding a past session covers it afterwards.