Side panel capture against a connected receipt app
Two ways to get a receipt into the books, and the jobs each one is actually good at.
Connected apps push documents into the accounting system over an API. A side panel writes into the form on screen. The difference shows up in setup, in review and in who can use it.
Side by side
| Criterion | Side panel capture | Connected receipt app |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Install the extension, sign in | Admin approves an API connection per company file |
| Access needed | None to the accounting account | Read and write on the company file |
| Where the entry lands | The form you already opened | A review queue inside the accounting app |
| Review step | Before the value is written | After the document arrives |
| Works with | Any web form, including tools without an API | The systems the vendor supports |
| Bulk work | A queue of files in the panel | Folder and email intake |
Which one to take
A firm with one accounting system and a document backlog gets more from a connected app. A bookkeeper who moves between client files, or works in a system with no integration, gets more from the panel, because nothing has to be approved before the first receipt.
Questions that follow
Can both run at once?
Read a receipt of your own
15 documents a month on the free plan.
Read next
Enter a paper receipt in QuickBooks Online without retyping it
The path from a photo on your phone to a saved expense, with the two places people lose time.
Sales tax rate on a receipt
What the percentage line means, why it rarely matches the state rate, and how it is read.
Where receipt data goes after capture
Four destinations, what each one expects, and the file that gets it there.