File Upload

The most straightforward way. In the Documents tab, there is an area at the top where files can be dragged and dropped with the mouse, or you can click on it and select them from your disk.

What the area will accept

• PDF — both digital and scanned.
• Photos and images — JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, BMP.
• Word, Excel, PowerPoint — text and embedded photos are taken from the document.
• Electronic invoices — ISDOC, ISDOCX, UBL, ZUGFeRD, XML from Pohoda; these are read directly, without a model and without credits.
• Saved email — .eml file. It opens and an entry is created from each attachment.
• Archive — ZIP, RAR, 7z, TAR, and compressed TAR (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .tar.xz). It will be unpacked, and an entry will be created from each file inside, all receiving a label based on the archive name.

The type is determined by the content of the file, not by the extension.

Uploaded email

When invoices arrive in your inbox, you don't have to extract the attachments one by one. Save the message as .eml and upload the entire thing — a separate entry will be created from each usable attachment, and in the list after uploading, you will see how many were created from the file.

The same rules apply as for receiving via email:

• forwarded messages are unpacked, including any attachments within them
• attachments under 20 kB are skipped because they are usually logos and signatures
• from one email, at most ten entries will be created
• if there is also an ISDOC for the same invoice next to the PDF, only one entry will be created, not two

If no entry is created from the attachments, the message text will be processed — payment confirmations or simple invoices are often written directly in the email. This also applies if there was an attachment but it was rejected, such as a duplicate. In the case of an email with an invoice attachment, the body will not be processed; a sentence like "I am sending the invoice" would lead to only an extra entry.

If the email contains no entry either in the text or in the attachment, the upload will be rejected, and each attachment will state why it was not used. The message itself is not saved as an entry — it is just an envelope.

Uploaded archive

You don’t have to unpack twenty invoices in one ZIP. Upload the entire archive: a separate entry will be created from each file inside, and in the list after uploading, you will see how many were created from the file. Folder structures within the archive do not affect anything; the entry is named according to the file, not the path.

Label based on the archive. Each entry from the archive will receive a label with the name of the archive without the extension — from invoices-august.zip the label is invoices-august. You can find entries from the same batch by filtering them by month. It’s a regular label: it can be renamed, recolored, and deleted, and if you already have a label with that name, it will be used. An archive within an archive will have an entry with labels from both.

What applies to the archive:

• formats ZIP, RAR, 7z, TAR, and TAR compressed with gzip, bzip2, or xz
• at most fifty files from one archive; the rest will be listed among the unused
• each file inside must pass the size limit of your subscription, just like the archive itself
• files added by the system (__MACOSX, .DS_Store, Thumbs.db) are skipped without notification
• if there is also an ISDOC for the same invoice next to the PDF, only one entry will be created, not two
• a saved email in the archive will be opened, as will an archive in the email; not deeper, an archive within an archive in the email will be rejected
• a password-protected archive cannot be opened; remove the password before uploading

If no entry is created from the archive, the upload will be rejected, and in the activity log, each file will state why it was not used. The unpacked archive has its own record in the activity log listing the entries created from it. Word and Excel are technically also ZIPs but are not considered archives — they will be processed as a single document, as you are used to.

Batch selection works: select multiple files in the dialog, or drag the entire selection to the area, up to twenty at a time. Each file will become its own entry, and the payment will be based on its number of pages. Files are uploaded one by one; if one fails, the others will continue, and at the end, you will see what failed and why.

Sharing from your phone

When you install ParseDoc as an app in Chrome on Android (using the Add to Home screen and Install options), it will appear in the system menu Share. Take a picture of the receipt, choose Share in the gallery or camera, and select ParseDoc — the app will open and upload the file automatically. This works with PDFs from the file manager and with multiple files at once. iPhone does not provide a Share option for web apps; Telegram works there.

The shared entry is processed with the default account options — type of entry, direction, format, and currency from the settings — just like an entry from email or Telegram.

Nothing gets lost without a signal. The shared file is first saved to the queue on the phone and only then uploaded. If you currently have no connection, you will see the page Saved, waiting for connection instead of the app, and you can close it. The file will be sent once there is a signal: immediately if the app is open, otherwise in the background, and no later than upon the next opening of the app. In the Documents tab, you will see how many shared files are waiting. You can share several of them in a row; the queue will hold all of them.

What is good to know:

• Background uploads with the app closed work for about an hour from the moment you last opened it. After that, the phone no longer has a valid login, and the queue will wait until you open the app.
• Any file that the service rejects, such as a duplicate, will disappear from the queue and the reason will be visible under the upload area.
• The queue belongs to the account under which you shared. After logging out, it will wait for your next login and will not upload to another account on the same phone.
• The queue is stored in the browser data. Deleting this data or uninstalling the app will lose the waiting files; photos in your gallery are not affected.

Quality of the source document

The quality of the original document matters more than anything else. Practical rules:

1. Take photos from directly above, not at an angle. Perspective can distort itemized tables.
2. Uniform lighting. A shadow over half the document will reliably disrupt OCR.
3. Entire document in the shot, including the footer with bank details.
4. Flatten crumpled receipts. Creases can make digits appear as different numbers.

Digital PDFs are always better than printed and rescanned versions. If you have a choice, ask the supplier for a PDF.

What happens after uploading

The file will be saved, will appear in the list with the status Waiting in queue, and will be added to the queue. From that moment, it is on the server — a closed browser or a turned-off computer will not stop processing. Photos larger than 2 MB are stored in the archive at a reduced size (longest side 3400 px), so that over years of storage, you do not pay for extra megabytes; PDFs and documents remain unchanged.

Common issues

• File is password-protected. PDF with a lock cannot be opened; please remove the password before uploading.
• Scan is rotated or skewed. The service recognizes and aligns rotations of 90, 180, or 270 degrees, as well as documents lying at a slant of up to 25 degrees.
• File is an image inside a PDF. This is common and will be handled via OCR, just taking a bit longer.
• File is not a document. An ad, letter, or a photo without a document will result in an error, will receive the label Document not recognized, and credits will be returned.