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Ticket Scanning with OCR

Ticket scanning allows members to photograph their purchase receipts to validate transactions and earn points. It is the ideal solution when you do not have a direct integration with the point of sale or when you want to validate purchases made at third-party physical stores.

How It Works​

  1. The member makes a purchase at a physical store
  2. From their member portal, they access the Scan Ticket option
  3. They take a photo of the receipt with their phone camera
  4. The OCR (optical character recognition) system automatically analyzes the image
  5. Relevant data is extracted: amount, date, products, establishment
  6. If validation is positive, points are awarded automatically
  7. If the system cannot validate automatically, the ticket goes to manual review

The Member Experience​

Uploading a Ticket​

  1. The member opens the member portal on their phone
  2. They tap Scan Ticket or Upload Ticket
  3. They choose between:
    • Take photo: opens the camera to photograph the ticket right away
    • Upload image: selects an existing photo from their gallery
  4. They adjust the framing if needed
  5. They tap Submit
  6. They see a confirmation message: "Your ticket has been submitted for validation"

Ticket Status​

The member can check the status of their submitted tickets:

  • Under review: the ticket is being analyzed
  • Approved: the ticket has been validated and points have been awarded
  • Rejected: the ticket did not pass validation (with the reason for rejection)
tip

Recommend that your members photograph the ticket with good lighting, without creases, and with all data visible. A clear photo significantly improves OCR accuracy.

Automatic Validation​

The OCR system automatically extracts:

  • Total amount of the purchase
  • Date of the transaction
  • Store name (if legible)
  • Product list (if legible)

Automatic validation approves the ticket if:

  • The amount is consistent with the program rules
  • The date is within the allowed range
  • A duplicate ticket has not been submitted
  • The establishment is one of the authorized ones (if this restriction has been configured)

Manual Validation​

When the OCR cannot automatically validate a ticket, it goes to the manual review queue:

  1. Go to Transactions > Pending Tickets
  2. You will see the list of tickets requiring manual review
  3. Click on a ticket to see:
    • The ticket image
    • The data extracted by OCR (if any)
    • The data of the member who submitted it
  4. Review the information and decide:
    • Approve: confirm the data and points are awarded to the member
    • Approve with correction: adjust the amount or other data before approving
    • Reject: indicate the reason for rejection (illegible ticket, duplicate, not valid, etc.)
  5. The member receives a notification with the result
info

The better configured the automatic validation parameters are, the fewer tickets you will need to review manually. Over time, the system learns and improves its accuracy.

Configuration​

Enable Ticket Scanning​

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations > OCR
  2. Enable the Ticket Scanning option
  3. Configure the basic parameters:
    • Minimum amount: minimum ticket amount for it to be valid
    • Maximum amount: maximum accepted amount (to avoid OCR errors)
    • Validity days: how many days after purchase the ticket can be submitted
    • Tickets per day: maximum tickets a member can submit per day

Store Restrictions​

If you only want to accept tickets from certain stores:

  1. In the OCR settings, go to Authorized Stores
  2. Add the names of the valid stores
  3. The system will automatically reject tickets from stores not on the list

Anti-Fraud​

To prevent fraud, the system includes:

  • Duplicate detection: identifies if the same ticket has been submitted more than once
  • Daily limit: controls how many tickets a member can submit per day
  • Image review: detects manipulated images or screenshots
  • Alerts: notifies you if a member has a suspicious submission pattern
warning

Periodically review the pending tickets queue to avoid delays in awarding points. A fast response time improves the member experience.

Next step

If you are a partner or integrator, discover how the partner portal works.