Capturing expenses when there is no signal
Published
You do not stop spending money when your phone loses its signal. A taxi from a remote station, lunch at a conference venue with no wifi, a market stall in a basement: these are exactly the receipts that tend to get lost.
What works without a connection
Spend can be installed on your phone or computer like an app, and once it is, you can still open it with no connection and add an expense, with its receipts, as usual. Nothing is lost and nothing needs retyping later.
Where it waits
Expenses and receipts captured offline are kept safely on your device. When the connection is back and the app is open, they are sent in the order you captured them, as the account that captured them. If the connection drops halfway through, it carries on from where it stopped rather than starting again.
Nothing gets added twice
Every capture carries a unique mark, so sending the same one twice, because a signal flickered or you opened the app on two tabs, never creates a second expense.
What still needs a connection
Capturing is offline-friendly; some things are not. Editing an existing expense, reading a receipt's details with AI, asking a question about your spending and downloading reports all need the connection, because they depend on the server.
Before you travel
- Open the app once while you are online, so it has what it needs to start.
- Keep the app installed rather than in a browser tab you might close.
- When you are back online, open it and give it a minute: the waiting captures are sent, and you will see them appear.
If the server ever refuses a capture for good, it is marked rather than discarded, so you can try again or decide to let it go.