Which fields are required on a document, and which can I leave blank?

You can save an expense, income or statement with almost every field left blank. SparkReceipt does not force you to fill in the Merchant, the amount, the category, the payment method, a reference, tax, tags or a description before saving. There is no red "required" asterisk and no blocked Save button anywhere in the create or edit flow — in the web app, or the iOS and Android apps.

The only fields a document truly can't exist without are a currency, a date and a document type — and SparkReceipt fills all three in for you the moment the document is created, so you never actually hit a "this is required" wall.

The one place a blank field will stop you later is publishing to QuickBooks Online or Xero — those integrations need a Merchant (or Customer) and a Category. More on that below.

Which fields are required, and which are optional

Everything you type on a document is optional and saves blank:

Three things are always present, because SparkReceipt sets a sensible default at creation rather than asking you for them:

• Currency — defaults to your account's preferred currency.
• Date — defaults to today.
• Document type — defaults to Other if you don't pick Expense, Income or Statement.

SparkReceipt also adds one line item (with a zero amount) automatically, so a document is never completely empty inside. You can edit or fill in any of this later; nothing is locked.

This is the same across every surface. The web app and the mobile apps both auto-save each field as you go, with no validation blocking the save.

Is Merchant (or Payer) a required field?

No — Merchant is not required. You can record an expense without entering a supplier or vendor name, and you can save it that way. The same is true for the Payer field on income documents. If you want to leave the merchant or supplier blank, SparkReceipt lets you.

On an expense, this name field is labelled Merchant. On income, the same field is labelled Payer. Under the hood it's one and the same field — the document's name — so everything here applies to both. If the AI scan doesn't detect a merchant, the field simply stays empty until you fill it in, which you don't have to.

A blank Merchant is safe everywhere in normal use:

• Document lists: the row shows a neutral "Untitled" placeholder instead of a name, so it's still clear and clickable.
• Reports: totals, categories, tax and date breakdowns don't depend on the merchant name, so they're unaffected.
• Exports (CSV / Excel / PDF): the row still exports in full; the Name column is simply left blank for that document.

So for personal tracking, tax reports and exports, a blank Merchant costs you nothing but a little readability in lists.

The exception: publishing to QuickBooks Online or Xero

This is the one case worth knowing up front, because it's easy to get bitten by later.

A document with a blank Merchant or Payer cannot be published to QuickBooks Online or Xero. When you publish, SparkReceipt runs a pre-flight check first. If the name is missing it flags the document with a blocking error:

• On an expense: "Merchant is required"
• On an income document: "Customer is required"

SparkReceipt then skips that document before anything is sent — it is never handed to your accounting software, and no partial or placeholder record is created on their side. SparkReceipt does not invent a fallback name like "Unknown" for you. This is intentional: QuickBooks and Xero require a vendor (for expenses) or a customer (for income) on every transaction, so a nameless document has nowhere to land.

The same pre-flight check blocks a couple of other blanks when publishing: a document with no Category is skipped with "Category is required", and an income document with a zero total is skipped too. Everything else on this page stays optional even when you publish.

What to do: open the document, add the missing Merchant (or Payer) and Category, save, and publish again. Once the name is there, SparkReceipt matches it to an existing vendor/customer in your accounting software or creates a new one using that name.

If you never publish to QuickBooks Online or Xero, none of this affects you — the fields stay entirely optional.

Flagging documents that are missing a field you care about

Sometimes you'd like a field filled even though SparkReceipt doesn't force it — for example, you personally want every expense to have a Merchant. SparkReceipt can't be reconfigured to make an optional field mandatory, but you can find and flag the documents that are missing it so they stand out for a second pass.

The tool for that is the review status. Every document carries one of four statuses — Pending, Needs Attention, Reviewed or Rejected — so "Needs Attention" is a natural way to mark documents that still need work.

Ask SparkAgent (works for any field, including Merchant)

The most flexible option is to ask SparkAgent, the built-in AI assistant, to do it for you. Open Chat with SparkAgent from the left sidebar (or the Ask SparkAgent button) and describe the job in plain language:

Find all my expenses that have no merchant name and set their review status to Needs Attention.

SparkAgent finds the matching documents, shows you a preview, and asks for your approval before changing anything. You can adapt the same pattern to any field and any status, for example:

Find all documents with no category and set their status to Needs Attention.

SparkAgent is available on every plan; how many messages you can send in a month depends on your plan.

Filter and flag in bulk in the Documents view

For fields that have a built-in "is empty" filter, you can do this by hand without the AI:

1. Open the Documents view.
2. Add the filter for the field and set it to is empty. This is available for Category, Payment method, Reference and Description, and Tags.
3. Select the matching documents (Select all).
4. Open Actions → Review status → Needs Attention.

There is no "is empty" filter for the Merchant / Payer name specifically, so for a missing Merchant the SparkAgent approach above is the reliable one.

Afterwards, come back to just the flagged pile any time by filtering Review status → Needs Attention in the Documents view.

FAQ

Q: Can I record an expense without entering the supplier or vendor? A: Yes. Merchant is optional — leave it blank and save as usual, in the web app or the mobile apps.

Q: What fields are actually mandatory? A: From your point of view, none. SparkReceipt guarantees a currency, a date and a document type behind the scenes by defaulting them, and everything you type (Merchant, amount, category, payment method, reference, tax, description, tags) is optional.

Q: Will a blank field break my reports or exports? A: No. Reports and totals are unaffected, and exports still include the row — the blank field's column is just left empty.

Q: Why does SparkReceipt say "Merchant is required" when I try to publish? A: QuickBooks Online and Xero require a vendor or customer on every transaction. SparkReceipt blocks publishing a document with no Merchant/Payer (or no Category) and skips it rather than sending an invalid record. Add the missing details and publish again.

Q: Can I make SparkReceipt require the Merchant so I never forget it? A: You can't turn an optional field into a mandatory one. Instead, ask SparkAgent to find documents with no merchant and set their status to Needs Attention, or filter and flag them in bulk in the Documents view — then work through the Needs Attention pile.

Q: Does the same apply to income documents? A: Yes. The field is called Payer on income, and it's optional to save. At publish time it must be filled in — the error there reads "Customer is required".