Introduction
Receipt scanning lets you reward customers for eligible purchases that happen outside your Shopify checkout, like in-store transactions. Customers can submit a photo of their receipt, and you decide whether those submissions are approved automatically or reviewed manually.
If your store has frequent or high-volume retail activity, Subtotal is often a better long-term fit. It offers a more automated and reliable connection to retail purchase data.
How receipt scanning works
A customer opens your loyalty experience and selects your receipt submission option.
The customer uploads an image of their receipt.
Rivo reviews the receipt details and checks your receipt scanning settings.
The receipt enters review and can be approved, rejected, or kept pending for manual review.
If approved, points are awarded based on your receipt earning rule settings.
Set up receipt scanning
1. Turn on receipt scanning settings
Go to Settings > Receipt Scanning and configure:
Automatic Approval: Auto-approves receipts that pass your fraud threshold.
Auto Approve Fraud Threshold: Sets the fraud-risk cutoff used for automatic approval.
Claim window (days): Lets you define the receipt age policy your team follows during review.
Line item identifiers: Keywords used to detect eligible purchased items.
Enabled vendors: Lets you choose the vendor list shown in your receipt scanning settings.
2. Add a receipt earning rule
In your points program, add or edit the receipt-based way to earn so Rivo knows how many points to award for approved receipts.
Depending on your setup, you can award:
A fixed points amount per approved receipt
A points-per-spend structure
3. Review incoming submissions
Use your receipt submissions view to monitor pending, approved, and rejected receipts and to manually approve when needed.
When manually approving a receipt, you can set the number of points to award.
What customers can expect
Customers must upload an image file.
If no file is selected, they see a prompt to attach one.
After successful upload, they see a confirmation message that their receipt will be reviewed.
Points are awarded only after approval.
Review timing depends on your settings and review volume.
For the best results, ask customers to submit clear, readable photos of receipts on a flat surface.
When to use Subtotal instead
Receipt scanning is a strong option when submission volume is moderate and manual oversight is acceptable.
Subtotal is typically a better fit when you need a more automated and reliable retail data connection, especially for stores with frequent or higher-volume in-store activity.
Use Subtotal if you want to:
Reduce manual review workload
Improve consistency across larger retail purchase volume
Connect more retail channels through a dedicated integration flow
Learn more here: Subtotal integration
FAQ
Does an upload award points instantly?
No. Points are awarded after the receipt is approved.
Can receipts be approved automatically?
Yes. You can enable automatic approval and control it with a fraud threshold.
Can I manually control awarded points?
Yes. During manual approval, you can set the points amount.
What file type can customers submit?
Customers submit receipt images from the landing page.
Is receipt scanning the best option for every retail-heavy store?
Not always. For stores that want a more automated, reliable connection to retail and POS-style purchase data, Subtotal is the recommended path.