1. Real-World Problem: Why Manually Extracting Receipt Data is Painful
Meet Sarah, a small business owner who manages dozens of expense receipts every week. Instead of focusing on growing her business, Sarah spends hours typing out vendor names, dates, totals, and tax details from photographed receipts into her accounting software. This manual process is time-consuming—about 3 hours weekly—and prone to mistakes like misreading amounts or missing line items. Over a year, that’s over 150 hours lost and errors that require costly corrections.
Imagine if Sarah could automate extracting all the important information from receipt images quickly and accurately—freeing up her time for more important tasks.
2. What This Automation Does
This specific n8n workflow automates the extraction of detailed receipt information from an image URL, delivering structured data ready for further processing. When triggered, this workflow performs the following:
- Fetches a receipt image automatically from a specified URL.
- Sends the image data to the Mindee Receipt API for OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and intelligent data parsing.
- Receives structured JSON response containing extracted fields like merchant, date, total amount, tax, and line items.
- Outputs parsed receipt data to be used downstream – such as saving to a database or sending to accounting software.
- Eliminates manual data entry errors and cuts processing time from hours to seconds.
With this workflow, imagine saving several hours each week and improving financial accuracy dramatically.
3. Prerequisites ⚙️
- n8n account: You’ll need an n8n installation or cloud account where you can build and activate workflows.
- Mindee API account and API key: Mindee Receipt API credentials activated for your account to process the receipt images.
- Internet access: As this workflow fetches an image from a remote URL and calls an external API.
4. Step-by-Step Guide to Build the Workflow
Step 1: Set up the Manual Trigger node
In n8n, create a new workflow. Click 1 Manual Trigger node from the nodes panel, and add it to the canvas. This node lets you run the workflow on demand.
You don’t need to configure any parameters here.
Just position it first.
Expected outcome: When you click 1 Execute1 in n8n, this triggers the workflow start.
Common Mistake:
Forgetting to add this node means your workflow won9;t start manually.
Step 2: Add an HTTP Request node to fetch receipt image
Click 1 nodes panel → Choose HTTP Request node → Add to canvas. Set it up as following:
- URL:
https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/0*1T9GkAb93w5NSMsf(this example URL hosts a sample receipt image) - Response Format: Set to File because we are fetching an image, not JSON.
- Leave other options as default.
Connect Manual Trigger → HTTP Request.
Outcome: HTTP Request node downloads the image from the URL and stores it as a binary file for the next step.
Common Mistake:
Not setting response format to 1 File1 will cause issues as Mindee expects a binary file input.
Step 3: Add the Mindee node to extract receipt data
From nodes panel choose Mindee and add it to canvas.
Configure it to use your Mindee Receipt API credentials.
Connect HTTP Request → Mindee node.
The Mindee node automatically reads the binary file from HTTP Request and sends it to Mindee’s receipt OCR API.
Outcome: After execution, Mindee provides parsed JSON with detailed receipt info like merchant, date, total, taxes, etc.
Common Mistake:
Not adding or wrongly setting Mindee credentials will cause authentication errors.
Step 4: Execute and review the parsed output
Click 1 Execute1 at the top of the n8n editor.
Observe the output of the Mindee node in the execution data tab. It should contain structured receipt data as JSON.
This output can now trigger further automations, such as saving the data to Google Sheets or sending it via email.
5. Customizations ✏️
- Change receipt image source URL: In the HTTP Request node, update the URL field to your own receipt image URL to process different receipts.
- Save results to Google Sheets or Database: Add a Google Sheets or MySQL node next, map fields from Mindee output to columns for archive or reports.
- Add error handling: Use a Function or IF node before Mindee to validate the binary file and handle errors gracefully.
6. Troubleshooting 🔧
Problem: “Authentication failed” in Mindee node
Cause: Mindee API credentials are missing or incorrect.
Solution: Go to Credentials → MindeeReceiptApi in n8n and confirm your API key is correct and active.
Problem: HTTP Request node returns “404 Not Found”
Cause: The image URL is incorrect or inaccessible.
Solution: Verify the URL in HTTP Request node, ensure it points to a publicly accessible image.
7. Pre-Production Checklist ✅
- Verify your Mindee API credentials are set up correctly in n8n.
- Test the HTTP Request node URL for proper image retrieval.
- Run Manual Trigger to ensure end-to-end workflow runs without error.
- Validate Mindee node output to confirm receipt data accuracy.
8. Deployment Guide
When ready, activate your workflow by toggling the active switch. You can trigger the workflow manually anytime through the n8n UI. For regular automated processing, replace the manual trigger with a schedule trigger node.
Monitor executions in n8n’s execution logs to track for any errors or data anomalies.
9. FAQs
Q: Can I use my own receipt images?
A: Yes, simply replace the URL in the HTTP Request node with a valid public URL of your receipt image.
Q: Do I have to pay to use the Mindee API?
A: Mindee offers a tiered pricing model with a free usage tier. Check Mindee’s pricing page for more details.
Q: Is the extracted data secure?
A: Data sent to Mindee is encrypted over HTTPS. You should also secure your n8n instance with best practices.
10. Conclusion
By following this guide, you automated the tedious task of extracting receipt data from images using n8n and the Mindee API. Sarah saved hours each week previously wasted on manual entry, eliminated costly errors, and improved her accounting workflow.
Next steps could include expanding this workflow to process multiple receipt images in batches, integrate with your accounting software, or trigger expense approval notifications via email or Slack.
Ready to save time and boost your financial accuracy? Let9s build this workflow today!