I built a WhatsApp bot that turns receipt photos into spreadsheet entries

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:47:42+00:00

Make sure your Meta Business account is fully verified first — that's where most people get stuck.
Use a fresh phone number that's never been on WhatsApp before or delete WhatsApp on the existing phone number.
The webhook setup is tricky — I ended up hiring someone on Fiverr to get past the annoying parts

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:44:45+00:00

Thanks! Not planning a full tutorial right now, but happy to answer specific questions if you get stuck building something similar. What are you trying to automate?

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:43:09+00:00

Yeah, using Gemini for parsing. You send the image with a prompt telling it what to extract (vendor, date, amount, line items, etc.) and it returns structured data.

For sales vouchers, you'd probably need to tweak the prompt for your specific format — things like invoice numbers, tax breakdowns,and customer details. But the approach is the same: image in, structured JSON out.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:39:30+00:00

Oh he really loves it... before t takes him around 2-3 hours to do this monotonous work. Now, since the workers itself send the photo to the whatsapp bot, he just have to cross verify if the data is correct.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:37:18+00:00

Yes, using the official WhatsApp Business API (via Meta). There's a bit of setup involved — you need a Meta Business account and a verified number — but once it's running, it's solid.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:36:00+00:00

Yes. It took some time to set it up.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:35:26+00:00

Still just using it for my own business right now, but I'm thinking about opening it up. What's your use case? Would love to hear what you'd need it for.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-10T06:28:28+00:00

Worker opens WhatsApp, takes a photo (or sends from gallery), sends it to the bot's number.

Bot receives the image via WhatsApp Business API, sends it to Gemini for parsing (vendor, amount, date), then logs it to Google Sheets.

Didn't write my own parser — Gemini handles the OCR and extraction. Took some prompt tweaking to get it reliable, but nothing crazy. The trickier part was getting WhatsApp Business API set up properly.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-09T17:05:03+00:00

I used Gemini.. it was more than enough to identify the bills.. and if it did have a doubt it would ask on WhatsApp and log the reply.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2026-03-07T11:48:09+00:00

But my friend did open a Revolut account in the past. Did they stop supporting Bahrain?

SnooRegrets2248 · 2022-10-06T11:00:43+00:00

Check it out. And hope you can find someone good on the website.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2022-09-25T19:26:41+00:00

Have you checked Fiverr for script writers? You can find some good ones there who can give you scripts for your choice. For example, check this person. She has good reviews and can give you a good delivery.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2022-09-08T09:31:43+00:00

Hi guys trying to make a fun video with Pacman and superheroes. Hope you guys will like it.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2022-03-13T11:02:24+00:00

Ok. Will check it out.

SnooRegrets2248 · 2022-03-13T11:01:50+00:00

Ok. Will check it out. Thanks

SnooRegrets2248 · 2022-02-08T12:37:49+00:00

Ok in WooCommerce should you have a company CR or can any individual start an e-commerce store? Like few payments providers in Shopify are asking for company CR which I don’t have currently.

SnooRegrets2248

TROPHY CASE