PaperTin

How PaperTin works

Everything you can do in PaperTin on iPhone and Android, one area at a time. Short on time? The support page answers the questions people ask most.

In one minute

Adding a bill

A bill can be a shop receipt, an invoice, a warranty card, a screenshot of an online order or an emailed PDF. Everything you add stays on your phone.

Tap + beside the tab bar. The Add a bill sheet offers:

Snap a bill
Opens the camera. Take one photo of the receipt, invoice or warranty card.
From photos
Pick one photo or screenshot, such as an order confirmation. One photo makes one bill.
From a PDF
Pick an emailed invoice or any PDF (or an image) from Files or a cloud drive.
Subscription
For something that charges you on a schedule. See Subscriptions.
Type it in
A blank bill to fill in yourself, for when there’s no paper at all.
Find bills in your Photos
On iPhone, PaperTin looks through the last two years of photos on your phone for receipts, invoices and order screenshots, and shows you what it found. Nothing leaves your phone. On Android, you pick photos of bills from your gallery (up to 100 at a time) and PaperTin reads them all at once.
Find bills in a folder
PaperTin looks through a folder you pick, such as your downloads, for invoices and policies, and shows you what it found. See Finding bills in a folder.

More than one page

A long receipt or a two-page invoice can live on one bill. While adding, tap Add page and choose Camera, Photos or PDF. On a saved bill, the button is Add a page, on the bill’s page. PaperTin fills in the details from the first page; of a PDF, it reads up to the first five pages. Every page is kept.

From another app (Share)

You can send bills to PaperTin without opening it: from Photos, Files, Mail, your gallery or a chat app.

  1. In the other app, choose Share, then PaperTin.
  2. One file is saved straight away. For several files, choose whether they are separate bills or Pages of one bill, then tap Save.
  3. Open PaperTin later and check what was read (see Bills to check).

You can share up to 30 photos or PDFs at once, each up to 50 MB. Photos (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP) and PDFs are accepted; other files are skipped, and PaperTin tells you how many.

Tips

Finding bills in a folder

Downloaded invoices, insurance policies and e-bills are usually PDFs sitting in a folder. Point PaperTin at the folder and it finds the bills among them, on your phone.

  1. Tap +, then Find bills in a folder. It’s also under Settings → Find bills in a folder.
  2. Tap Add a folder and pick the folder in your phone’s picker. On iPhone, that can be a folder in iCloud Drive or anywhere else in Files. On Android, tap Use this folder; Android doesn’t let apps have the Download folder itself, so pick a folder inside it, or use Choose files.
  3. PaperTin looks through the PDFs and photos (JPEG, PNG, HEIC) in it, newest first, 200 files at a time. Other files, and files over 25 MB, are skipped.
  4. Found in folders shows what looks like a bill, with its file name. Deselect any that aren’t, then tap Add N bills. They wait in Bills to check.

Camera and Screenshots folders (Android)

On Android, PaperTin can find new photos of bills in your Camera or Screenshots folder as you take them, without access to the rest of your photos.

  1. In Settings → Find bills in a folder, or on the Found in folders screen, tap Add Camera folder or Add Screenshots folder. The Find bills in your Photos screen also offers Choose Camera folder.
  2. Pick the folder in the picker and tap Use this folder.
  • The first look covers the newest 200 photos from the last 30 days.
  • After that, each time you open PaperTin (at most every 15 minutes), it checks new photos only: it reads a small preview first, and reads in full only the photos that look like bills. Each check reads up to 40 photos, then carries on next time.
  • What it finds waits in Found in folders for you to add; nothing is added by itself. It checks only while Keep checking these folders is on.
  • The Camera and Screenshots folders don’t count toward the five. Remove them like any other folder.

Reading a bill and checking it

PaperTin reads the bill on your phone: on iPhone with Apple’s Vision and PDFKit, on Android with Google’s ML Kit, built into the app. It fills in what it finds, and you check before saving. The line at the top says how it went, for example “Filled 4 fields from the bill. Check them.”

What it can fill in:

  1. What is it? Choose Purchase, Service, Policy or ID. The labels follow: a service has “Done by” and “Cost”, a policy has “Insurer” and “Premium”, an ID has “Issued by” and no price.
  2. Name. Give it a name you’ll search for, like “Fridge” or “Car insurance”.
  3. Category. Tap one of the suggested chips, or More for the full list. A guessed chip says so; tap another to change it.
  4. The date question. A purchase asks “Is it under warranty?” and “Can you return it?”. A service asks “When’s the next service?”, a policy “When does it renew?”, an ID “When does it expire?”.
  5. More details holds the model, serial number, where the paper copy is kept and a note.
  6. Tap Save.

Leaving a new bill before saving asks whether to discard it. Nothing is half-saved.

Bills to check

Bills shared from another app, or added from Find bills in your Photos or from a folder, are saved with only what PaperTin was sure of, and wait for you. Home shows “N bills to check”.

  1. Tap Check on Home to go through them one by one.
  2. Fix anything that’s wrong and Save, or tap Not a bill · Delete.
  3. On a bill’s page, Looks right accepts it as it is.

Smart suggestions

On phones with a built-in language model (Apple Intelligence on iOS 26 or later, or Gemini Nano on Android), PaperTin can use it to guess a bill’s category from its name and shop. It runs on the phone. Turn it off under Settings → Privacy & lock → Smart suggestions on this phone. On phones without one, the row isn’t shown and guesses come from your past bills.

Tips

Reading learns your shops

Reading gets better with your bills. When PaperTin has just read a bill and you fix its shop before saving, it remembers which line at the top of that bill names your shop, in your words. The next bill with that line gets the shop right, and the line it took by mistake isn’t taken as the shop again.

Settings → Reading bills

What reading learns, and the counts, stay on this phone. They aren’t in PaperTin’s backups, so a new phone starts fresh.

Bills: search, filters, select, swipe

The Bills tab lists everything you’ve saved, newest first, grouped by month. Under the search box are quick chips: open returns, bills to sort, each category with its count, and IDs.

Type in Names, shops, words on a bill. Search looks at a bill’s name, shop, notes, model, serial and bill numbers, where the paper copy is, and the words printed on its pages. Matching subscriptions show in their own section. You can also search from the button on Home.

Filters

  1. Tap the filter button beside the search box.
  2. Choose any of: Status (Return open, Under warranty, Warranty ending, No photo, To check), Kind (Purchases, Services, Policies, IDs) and When (This month, Last 3 months, This year, Last year, or Custom). You can also drag across the monthly chart to pick a range.
  3. Tap Show N bills. Remove a filter from the chip row, or tap Clear.

“Warranty ending” means a warranty that ends within the next 90 days.

Selecting several bills

  1. Press and hold a bill. Then tap others to add them; All selects every bill shown.
  2. From the bar at the top: Claim pack (see Claim packs), Share (the bills’ pages in one zip file) or Delete. Make a trip puts them in a new trip (see Trips); it shares the ⋯ button with Claim pack.
  3. Close the bar with the × button.

Swipe to delete

Swipe a bill left and tap Delete. A message offers Undo for a few seconds; the same goes for deleting a selection.

A bill’s page

Tap a bill to open it. At the top are its pages (tap to see them full size), then its name, amount and shop, then its dates: return window, warranty, next service, renewal or expiry. Below are its details: model, serial number, bill number, shop phone, paper copy and notes.

Home and What needs you

Home answers one question: does anything need you?

Something shows under What needs you when:

Acting on what needs you

Each card has the buttons it needs:

When more than three things need you, tap + N more need you to see them all (overdue, this week and later, looking 45 days ahead). The widget and the Needs you quick action open the same list. Snooze moves a date to tomorrow, next week, next month or a day you pick. Mark done on a date that repeats moves it to the next one.

Tips

Suggestions

Now and then PaperTin suggests something you haven’t used yet, worked out on your phone from what’s already in it: “3 bills, no warranty”, “Lock your IDs?”, “What charges you monthly?”.

Dates for several bills at once

Two suggestions set dates on several bills in one sheet:

You can change any of them later on the bill.

Upcoming

Upcoming lists every date in the next twelve months, by calendar month, with anything overdue at the top: warranty ends, returns, renewals, services, expiries, policies and claim follow-ups. Dates in the next 14 days stand out.

Warranties

Every warranty shows the date it’s covered until, so the repair counter is a short conversation.

  1. When you add a purchase, answer Is it under warranty?: No, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, or Other to pick the end date. If the bill states a warranty, PaperTin fills it in.
  2. To add one later, open the bill and tap + Add a warranty (or Add a date on a bill with no dates yet). A bill with a warranty can also have an extended warranty, with its provider: Add an extended warranty.

The bill’s page shows “Under warranty” with the time left, or “Warranty ended”. You’re reminded 30 and 7 days before it ends, and it shows on Home from 30 days before.

Several purchases with no warranty yet? A suggestion can add them all in one sheet: see Dates for several bills at once.

Returns

The last day you can return a purchase, so you don’t miss it.

  1. When you add a purchase, answer Can you return it?: No, 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, or Pick a date. If the bill states a return policy, PaperTin offers it.
  2. While the window is open, the bill’s page counts down the days left. Tap Keeping it or Returned it to close it.

You’re reminded 3 days and 1 day before the last day. Once the day has passed, the return drops out of Upcoming quietly. Filter Bills by Return open to see every open window.

Bought several things recently? A suggestion can set their return days in one sheet: see Dates for several bills at once.

Something broke: claims

When a purchase stops working, Something broke? on its page gathers what the shop or maker will ask for. It shows on purchases, and on services that have a warranty.

  1. Open the bill and tap Something broke?.
  2. Check whether it’s still under warranty, or still returnable.
  3. Under What’s wrong?, describe the problem in a line (optional).
  4. Under What the shop will ask, check the product, model, serial number, date, shop and price. Missing the model or serial? Tap Snap the label and photograph the product’s label; PaperTin reads the numbers onto the bill.
  5. Tap Send the claim pack: a PDF of the bill and its pages with a message to the shop, ready to send from any app. Or Save the PDF, or call the shop if its number is on the bill.
  6. Choose In a week or In 2 weeks for a nudge to chase it. Mark it done on the bill’s page once the shop has sorted it.

When the warranty names a maker, a support link searches the web for its claim page in your browser.

Claim packs for several bills

For an insurance or expenses claim, put several bills in one pack. In Bills, press and hold a bill, select the others, and tap Claim pack. Choose:

Or Copy as text. Bills in a category without warranties (Health, Food & drink and Travel, to start with) have Claim it on their page, which makes a claim pack of that bill.

When the bills are of more than one type, the Types chips leave some out, for a portal that takes one kind at a time. In a trip, the types are flights and trains, stay, food and drink, rides and other; otherwise, the bills’ categories. A trip has its own claim pack: see Trips.

Trips

A trip keeps a trip’s bills together, the flights, hotel, meals and rides, ready to claim as one pack. Open your trips from the Trips row at the top of Bills.

Starting a trip

Adding bills

While a trip is collecting, every purchase, service or policy you add joins it. The form shows “In: Goa” under the category; tap it to leave that one bill out. IDs and subscriptions never join a trip. Bills shared from another app or found in your photos or folders join only when they’re dated within the trip’s days.

Collecting, To claim, Claimed

Claiming a trip

A trip’s page shows its total and its bills, grouped into Flights & trains, Stay, Food & drink, Rides and Other.

  1. Tap Claim pack for one PDF, separate PDFs or a table of the trip’s bills (see Claim packs).
  2. A bill with no bill number shows a dashed Bill no. chip: tap it to add the number portals ask for.
  3. Most portals take one bill at a time: tick each bill as Submitted to see where you stopped.

Subscriptions

Things that charge you on a schedule: streaming, music, cloud storage, phone plans, gym and so on.

  1. Tap +, then Subscription.
  2. Pick the service from the list, grouped by type with the popular ones in your country first, or type a name and add your own.
  3. Enter the amount, how often you’re billed (Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly) and the next charge date. Tap Add subscription.

The renewal date moves on by itself after each charge; there’s nothing to tick off. You’re reminded 1 day before a monthly or quarterly renewal, and 7 days and 1 day before a yearly one.

Tap the subscriptions strip on Home to see them all, with what they come to a month and a year. A yearly or quarterly plan counts as its share of a month. Sort by date or by cost.

When you cancel one

Cancel it with the provider first, then tap I cancelled it in PaperTin. Reminders stop and it leaves your totals; its history stays under Cancelled, where Restart brings it back.

IDs and expiry

Keep a passport, a driving licence or any card in PaperTin, and get a reminder well before it expires.

  1. Tap +, then Snap a bill to photograph the card, or Type it in. Under What is it? choose ID.
  2. Answer When does it expire? with the date, or Doesn’t expire. Add the document number under More details.

Your IDs have their own page, by expiry: open it from IDs on Home, the IDs chip in Bills, or by pressing and holding PaperTin’s icon. From 90 days before an ID expires, its page says to start the renewal.

Reminders come 30, 7 and 1 days before. On an ID’s page, Remind me 90 days before adds an earlier one; for a passport it’s 6 months, and it’s on from the start, because renewing takes weeks. Renewed it? Swipe the ID and tap Renewed it to set the new expiry.

Service history

Save each car, bike or appliance service as a bill of kind Service, in the same category (for example, a category for each car). PaperTin builds its history.

When you save a service bill, answer When’s the next service? (6 months, 1 year or a date) to be reminded. Marking a next service done counts as a visit.

Categories

Bills are grouped by what they’re about. PaperTin starts with Home, Electronics, Appliances, Vehicle, Health, Shopping, Personal, Food & drink, Travel and Other.

  1. Go to Settings → Categories.
  2. Tap one to rename it or change its colour and icon, or tap New category to add your own.
  3. Bills here come with warranties: turn it off for a category like groceries or travel. Its purchases skip the warranty question and get Bill no., People and Claim it instead.

Deleting a category asks where its bills should go. Bills in Other show as “to sort” on Home and in Bills.

Reminders

Reminders are notifications set on your phone. PaperTin asks for permission the first time you save something with a reminder, or when you tap Turn on reminders in the tour. Tapping a reminder opens the bill.

By default, PaperTin reminds you:

Reminders arrive at 9:00 in your phone’s time zone unless you change the time.

Changing them

Tips

Weekly tidy-up

An opt-in note, once a week at a time you pick: the week’s bills, or the one thing your vault needs next, such as a backup or warranties to add. It’s off until you turn it on.

  1. Go to Settings → Reminders and turn on Weekly tidy-up. (After you’ve saved a few bills, a suggestion may offer it too: “Make it a Sunday habit?”.)
  2. Pick the day, Saturday, Sunday or Monday, and the time, 9 am, 6 pm or 8 pm (your phone shows them in its own format). It starts as Sunday at 6 pm.
  3. Allow notifications if your phone asks.

Widgets, quick actions and Spotlight

Widget
The Needs you widget shows what needs you next, up to three things, or All clear. On iPhone, add it to the home screen (small or medium) or the lock screen; on Android, to the home screen. Tap it to open What needs you; tap a row to open that bill.
Quick actions
Press and hold PaperTin’s icon for Scan a bill, Search bills, Needs you and, once you have one, IDs. On iPhone and Android.
Spotlight (iPhone)
Search from the home screen finds your bills and subscriptions by name, shop, kind, category or date. Amounts are never included. The index stays on your phone.

With app lock on, the widget shows counts only and Spotlight finds nothing.

App lock

Ask for Face ID, Touch ID, your fingerprint or your phone’s passcode each time PaperTin opens.

  1. Go to Settings → Privacy & lock, or use the App lock tile in Settings.
  2. Turn on the lock row. It names how your phone unlocks: on iPhone, for example, Lock with Face ID; on Android, Lock with fingerprint, Lock with face unlock, Lock with face or fingerprint or Lock with screen lock. Confirm it’s you.
  3. Choose Lock after: Immediately, 1 minute or 5 minutes.

Backup, restore and moving phones

PaperTin has no account, so a backup is how your bills move to a new phone. Backups go only to your own iCloud Drive or Google Drive, or wherever you save the file. Everything is under Settings → Backup & restore; the card at the top of Settings shows when you last backed up.

On iPhone

On Android

Automatic backup

After your first backup to iCloud or Google Drive, turn on Also back up automatically. When you leave PaperTin after a change, it updates the backup, at most every 30 minutes.

A backup file

Export backup makes one file (its name ends in .papertin) and opens the share sheet, so you can save it anywhere. Import backup restores any PaperTin backup file.

What’s in a backup

Your bills and their pages, subscriptions, categories, dates and reminder settings, your default currency and appearance, and your trips. App lock and backup settings belong to each phone, so set them again on the new one.

Deleting data

Everything is under Settings → Clean up & delete.

Delete history
Clears what’s finished: cancelled subscriptions, finished reminders and ended warranties. Choose Older than 1 year or All history, and History only or Also bills with ended warranties. You see what goes before anything is deleted.
Delete all data
Every bill and its pages, subscription, date and reminder on this phone, and the categories you made (the starting ones come back). Your reminder days and time, currency and appearance go back to their defaults; app lock and where your backups go stay as they are on this phone. Type DELETE to confirm. Backups you made elsewhere aren’t deleted. Your trips go too. So does what reading learned. PaperTin forgets the folders you picked and gives back its access to them.

To delete one bill, swipe it left in Bills, or tap Delete bill at the bottom of its Edit screen. Deleting the app removes all of PaperTin’s data from the phone.

Text size, dark mode and motion

Currency

PaperTin starts with your phone’s region currency. Change it under Settings → Default currency. It applies to new bills; ones you’ve saved keep their own currency. You can also set a currency on any bill or subscription. The services offered when you add a subscription follow the default currency too (rupees: India’s), unless you choose a country in that list.

Help and feedback

Under Settings → Help & support:

The version is at the bottom of Settings. Still stuck? Email support@valueaddapps.com.