Importing invoices

This is what Vehicare is for. Give it the invoice your mechanic handed you, and it fills in the visit: the vehicle, the workshop, the date, the odometer, every job and what it cost. You check it, and save.

Every way in

Vehicare reads a PDF, a photo or a scan of a maintenance invoice. Use whichever you have. The simplest is Import invoice…, at the top of the list, or ⇧⌘I on a Mac.

The Import invoice screen, with buttons to scan an invoice, choose a photo, choose a file or paste. — Scan the paper copy, or pick a photo or a PDF.

Scan invoice uses the camera to scan the paper copy, page by page. It’s also in Control Center, on the Lock Screen and on the Action button, if you add it there.
Choose photo and Choose file take one from Photos or Files.
Paste takes one you’ve copied. On a Mac, use Edit ▸ Paste Invoice (⇧⌘V).
From another app, like Mail, Files or Safari, tap the share button and choose Vehicare.
Drag an invoice onto a vehicle in the sidebar, on an iPad or a Mac, to import it for that vehicle.
On a Mac, Scan with iPhone scans it with your iPhone’s camera, straight into Vehicare. More ways for the Mac are in its chapter.

An invoice PDF open in Files, with the share sheet showing Vehicare first among the apps. — Sharing an invoice from Files. It works the same from Mail.

Shared invoices wait in Vehicare until you open it. You can share up to 100 at once, and choose the vehicle they’re for, or let Vehicare read it from each invoice.

While it reads

Reading an invoice usually takes under a minute, more when it runs to several pages. Vehicare says what it’s doing as it goes: recognizing each page, reading the details, finding the work done, checking what it read.

On an iPhone, you don’t have to wait. Leave Vehicare, and it carries on reading, with its progress on the Lock Screen. A notification says when the visit is ready for you to check.

The invoice is read on your device, by Apple Intelligence, and never leaves it. Where your invoices go says more.

Checking what it read

When it’s done, the visit opens over the invoice, for you to check. Nothing is saved until you tap Save. Apple Intelligence can make mistakes, and you always get the last word.

The invoice at the top of the screen, and below it the Review imported visit form, with the vehicle’s details and the visit date read from the invoice. — The invoice above, the visit below. Drag the form up to see all of it.
1The invoice, as Vehicare read it
2Read from the invoice: tap the icon to see where
3Not sure: check this one against the invoice

Every field that was read from the invoice has a small icon beside it. Tap it to see the line it came from, highlighted on the page. An orange one means Vehicare wasn’t sure: worth a look.

Vehicare finds the vehicle by its VIN, plate or description. If it isn’t one of yours yet, it says so, and adds it when you save.
It finds the workshop the same way, by its phone number or name.
If you already have a visit to that workshop on that day, it warns you, in case the invoice is already in.

iPad · Mac

On a larger screen, the invoice is beside the form, so you can read both at once.

On a Mac, the invoice on the left and the Review imported visit form on the right. — Checking a visit on a Mac.

Jobs and what they cost

Under Interventions, each job the invoice lists has its own line, with what it cost. Tap one to change its type, its cost or its notes.

The workshop, then three interventions with their costs: brake pad replacement, tire rotation and cabin filter replacement. Below them, a Not added as work section with one line, “Rear brake pads at 4/32”, read as work you declined. — The jobs on the invoice, and a line left out.

If a cost looks wrong, tap Pick lines on the invoice, then tap each line of the invoice that belongs to that job. Vehicare adds them up for you. Tap Done picking lines when you’re finished.

Not added as work

Invoices also list things that aren’t work done: parts used by another job, shop fees, work recommended for later, work you declined, remarks about the vehicle. Vehicare leaves these out, and lists them under Not added as work, each with the reason. If one should be there after all, tap it to add it.

Several invoices at once

iPad · Mac

Choose several invoices, or drop a handful on Vehicare, and they line up in a list beside the one you’re checking. Each is read in turn while you check the others.

On an iPad, a list of invoices on the left, the invoice in the middle, and its visit on the right. — Importing invoices one after the other, on an iPad.

Save each visit, or tap Skip to leave one for later. Add invoices adds more to the list. On an iPhone, invoices are imported one at a time.

When something goes wrong

Couldn’t read invoice: try again, or choose another copy, like a sharper photo.
No text found or Not a maintenance invoice: Vehicare thinks it isn’t one. If it is, tap Read it anyway.
Invoice already imported: this invoice is already in a visit, which Vehicare names. Tap Import it again only if you really want two.
Apple Intelligence unavailable: reading invoices needs a device that supports Apple Intelligence, with Apple Intelligence turned on in Settings. Right after it’s turned on, it can take a little while to get ready.

You can always record a visit by hand, on any device.

Reporting a misreading

If Vehicare read an invoice wrong, I’d like to know. Correct the visit first, then tap Report a misreading… at the bottom of the form, before you save.

Vehicare shows you exactly what will be sent: the invoice, what was read from it, your corrections, and which versions of Vehicare and your system you use. You send it yourself, by email or another way. I see it only if you send it, and use it only to make Vehicare read invoices better.

Where your invoices go

Invoices are read on your device by Apple Intelligence. The invoice, and the visit it becomes, are kept in your own iCloud account.

Some invoices are too much for the device alone. If you turn on Refine invoices with Apple’s servers in Settings, one your device can’t finish reading can get help from Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. It gets the invoice’s text, never its pages, and doesn’t keep a copy.

Still stuck, or something doesn’t work the way this says? Write to me.