With the SparkReceipt's Reports feature, you can create reports in CSV, XLSX and PDF formats. Reports are available in the mobile app and in the web app. Reports feature can also be used for exporting your document images from SparkReceipt.

To export your data to e.g. Google Sheets or any other spreadsheet app that allows importing CSV data, use the CSV format.
To export data to Microsoft Excel / Office365 , you have also the option to use XLSX format.
To export data for other purposes, use the PDF format. PDF is a convenient format if you want to send the report to e.g. an accountant or a co-worker for review. PDF reports can include also the uploaded images in the PDF document, see details below.

What each report contains (the columns, the totals per Category, line items, date order and currencies) is explained in What's in a report? If a report fails, won't download or takes long, see Why did my report fail, not download, or take so long?

How to create reports in the mobile app (iOS / Android)

The mobile app has the same two ways to get a report as the web app. Use Export when you are already looking at the documents you want. Use Create report in the Reports tab when you want to set the period, the kind of report and the filters from scratch.

Export from the screen you are on

Open the Documents tab and set the filters you want, or, on the Home tab, tap a Category in Profit & Loss or a row in Spending breakdown to open its documents.
Tap Export at the top of the screen. On a narrow phone, the Documents tab may put it in the three-dot menu instead. It covers everything that matches the view, not only what is on screen. To export only some documents, select them and tap Export in the selection bar instead.
The export sheet opens. Its title says what you are exporting, for example Export expenses, and the line under it shows what is included: the number of documents, the period and the active filters.
Choose the Format: PDF, Excel, CSV or Accounting import file.
To add the receipts, turn on Include receipts in the PDF, or Include receipt files for Excel and CSV. The What you get line tells you which file you will receive.
Change the Report name if you like. It is shown in Reports and used as the file name.
Tap Export.

The sheet then shows Preparing with the report's name. When the report is ready, the sheet says so and offers Open, which shows the file in your phone's viewer. A ZIP on iPhone and iPad gets Share instead, which opens the share sheet where you save or send it.

You don't have to wait. Tap Continue working and the sheet closes while the report keeps being prepared. If it is ready within a couple of minutes, a message with Open (Share for a ZIP on iPhone and iPad) appears on whatever screen you are on. A report that takes longer keeps being prepared without a message, so look for it in the Reports tab, where every report is kept.

The same Export is on the Trips tab, a bank statement's transactions, an expense claim, the Schedule C screen and the Home tab (next to the time period). Each one opens the export sheet with the formats that apply there.

Build a report with Create report

Tap Reports in the bottom bar. The Reports tab lists the reports you have created.
Tap + (Create report) at the top. If you have no reports yet, you can also tap Create report in the middle of the screen.
In the Create report view, choose the Report type and at least a Date range. There are other options too if you want to filter the included documents more, and the Row format, Sort documents and Break totals down by period options described below.
Choose the Export format, when available: PDF, CSV, Excel or, for a document report, Accounting Software.
Tap Export. The same Preparing sheet opens, with Continue working and Open as above.

Open in report builder at the bottom of the export sheet takes the same documents and settings to the Create report view so you can adjust them there. It is not offered when you export selected documents or a bank statement's transactions, because the builder can't keep that exact set.

A finished report has Open on its row (Share for a ZIP on iPhone and iPad). Tap the report for the rest: Share, Rename, Open in report builder (for report types the builder can make), Run again and Delete. While a report is still being prepared, Cancel report stops it.

How to create reports in the web app

There are two ways to get a report in the SparkReceipt web app. Use Export when you are already looking at the documents you want. Use Create report when you want to set the period, the kind of report and the filters from scratch.

Export from the page you are on

Open Documents and set the filters you want, or open a month.
Click Export in the page header. It covers everything that matches the view, across all pages. To export only some rows, tick them and click Export selected in the selection bar instead.
The export dialog opens. Its first line shows what is included: the number of documents, the period and the active filters.
Choose the Format: PDF, Excel or CSV. (Original files (ZIP) and Accounting import file are covered further down.)
To add the receipts, tick Include receipts in the PDF, or Include receipt files for Excel and CSV. The What you get line tells you which file you will receive.
Change the Report name if you like. It is shown in Reports and used as the file name.
Click Export.

SparkReceipt prepares the report while the dialog shows its progress. If you leave the dialog open, the file downloads when it is ready. If you click Continue working, the dialog closes and the report keeps being prepared. A notification then appears with a Download button when it is ready. You stay on the same page either way, with your filters and selection as they were.

Every report is also kept in Reports. If email notifications for finished reports are on in your notification preferences, you get an email too.

The same Export button is on Trips, the Overview, the Schedule C settings page, a bank statement in the Transaction Manager and an expense claim. Each one opens the same dialog with the formats that apply there.

Build a report with Create report

Click the Reports button in the menu on the left
The Reports view shows a list of reports you have generated.
Click the Create report button
On the Create report page, choose at least a date range for the report. There are other options too if you want to filter the included documents more.

In a Standard report, Document type can hold several types. Pick Expenses and Income, for example, to get both in one report without your Statements. A new report starts with Expenses picked, and an empty field shows Any type and includes every type. The mobile app's report builder picks one type at a time.
Choose the format you want: CSV, XLSX or PDF.
Click the Export button to start report generation.
You stay on the Create report page while the report is prepared, with the same progress dialog, Continue working option and Download notification as above.

From a Documents export you can also click Open in report builder in the dialog. It takes the same documents and settings to the Create report page so you can adjust them there.

Find a report again in Reports

The Reports list keeps every report you have exported. Each row shows the report's Kind (for example Documents, Transactions, Trip report, IRS Schedule C or Overview summary) and its Format (PDF, Excel, CSV, or a ZIP when files are packed with it). A finished report has a Download button on its row. Rename, Open in report builder and Run again are in the row's menu.

A downloaded report goes to your browser's download folder, usually Downloads. In the mobile app, Open shows the file in your phone's viewer and Share opens the share sheet, where you choose where to save or send it.

Run a report again, or reuse its settings

SparkReceipt has no saved report templates and no setting for a default date range or a default format. The Create report page always starts on this month's expenses, with CSV selected. To repeat a report without setting it up again:

Run again (in the row's menu in Reports, or when you tap a report in the mobile app's Reports tab) creates the same report again with the same settings and dates, using your documents as they are now. Use it after you have added or corrected documents.
Open in report builder opens the Create report page with that report's settings filled in. Change the dates, for example to the next quarter or your financial year (July 1 to June 30), and click Export.
In the web app you can save a Documents filter as a search and click Export on it whenever you need it. See How to search and filter documents.

Get an expense report by email every month or week

SparkReceipt can email an expense report on a schedule. Open Account settings and then Report emails (in the mobile app, Account settings > Report emails) and turn on Send a monthly expense report or Send a weekly expense report:

The monthly report goes out on the Day of month you choose and covers the previous month's expenses.
The weekly report goes out on the Day of week you choose and covers the previous week, Monday to Sunday.
Both are sent at the Time you set, in your account's time zone, as an Excel and a PDF report.

The reports go to the account owner. Months or weeks with no expenses are skipped. Report emails is visible to admins, owners and accountants.

There is no share link for a report, and SparkReceipt doesn't send reports by text message. Download the report and send the file the way you like:

Web app: download the report and attach it to an email.
Mobile app: tap the report in the Reports tab, then Share. The share sheet lets you send the file with your email or messaging app, or save it.

If the people you send a report to should be able to open each receipt, choose an option under Include links to the documents before you export. Anyone with the link can view adds links that work without a SparkReceipt login, and you can set how long they stay valid and a password. To give someone a link to a whole month of documents, see How to share your documents with anyone.

Reports cover one account at a time

Each report includes the documents of the account you are in. If you use linked accounts, there is no combined report across them. Create a report in each account, or move the documents into one account first.

More report options

A few extra options shape the output. In the export dialog they are under More options. On the Create report page they are part of the form. Set them before you click Export. In the mobile app they are under More options in the export sheet and part of the Create report view.

Break totals down by period

By default, a report shows one grand total for the whole date range. The Break totals down by period option adds per-period subtotals underneath those grand totals:

None — a single total for the whole date range (the default)
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
Yearly

When you choose a period, the report adds a breakdown table with one row per period — for example 2026-Q3 for a quarter or 2026-09 for a month — showing that period's Subtotal, Taxes and Total. If your documents include tips or shipping, Tip and Shipping columns are added as well; if none of your documents have them, those columns are left out. Documents without a date can't be placed on the timeline, so they're skipped from the period breakdown.

The breakdown appears in all three formats — CSV, XLSX and PDF.

Sort documents in chronological order

The Sort documents option controls the order documents appear in:

By category — the default, with documents grouped under their categories
Chronological (earliest first) — lists documents as one earliest-to-latest timeline instead of grouping by category

Chronological order mainly affects the PDF report. Expenses and income stay in their own sections. Within each section, documents are listed from earliest to latest, and any documents without a date appear last. Excel and CSV reports already list their rows by document date, oldest first, whichever option you pick.

One row per line item, with Quantity and Unit Price

The Row format option decides whether each row is a whole document or a single line item:

One row per document — each document is one row with its totals (the default)
One row per line item — each product or service extracted from a document becomes its own row

The one row per line item format is the only one that includes the per-line Quantity and Unit Price columns, pulled from each line item's Quantity and Unit Price fields. This applies to the CSV, Excel and PDF formats; the one-row-per-document format doesn't show these columns.

Dates follow your region

Dates in your Excel and PDF reports are formatted to match the Region setting in your Profile, the same setting that controls how dates look elsewhere in the app. For example, United Kingdom shows 04/07/2025 while United States shows 07/04/2025. CSV reports always use YYYY-MM-DD (for example 2025-07-04), whatever your Region. See Calendar settings: Date format order and language for where to change it.

Export in your accounting software's format

If you import into Sage 50, Sage 200/300, DATEV or Wave, you can get a file already formatted for that software instead of a plain spreadsheet. In the export dialog on Documents, choose the Accounting import file format and pick your template. On the Create report page the same format is called Accounting Software. These are files you import yourself, separate from the direct QuickBooks Online and Xero connections. See Export files for Sage 50, DATEV, Wave and Sage 200/300 for the full walkthrough.

How to download receipt images and files from SparkReceipt

You can get the uploaded images and files out of SparkReceipt in three ways in the web app.

Original files (ZIP)

To get only the files, with no report around them, click Export on Documents and choose the Original files (ZIP) format. The button at the bottom changes to Download files. SparkReceipt packs the files as they were added into one ZIP and downloads it. This is a plain download, so nothing is added to Reports.

For a single document, open it and use Download and then Original files, or Download as PDF to get that one document as a PDF.

PDF format

Choosing the PDF format option creates just one file for easy download. PDF is great if you want to send the report e.g. to your accountant or co-worker without dealing with multiple files.

To include images in the exported PDF, tick Include receipts in the PDF in the export dialog. On the Create report page the option is called Embed files into the PDF.
To include links to the documents, choose Include links to the documents option
A document's Details note prints on the line under its row in the summary table, with its AI Fields. With the One full page per file page layout it also ends the heading line on each of the document's file pages. The Details and file on one page layout shows it with the document's other details.

Make the PDF smaller

A PDF with receipt photos can get large. When the receipts are included, an Image quality option appears (under More options in the export dialog, and below Embed files into the PDF on the Create report page). Choose Low for a smaller file, or Custom to set the JPEG quality yourself. Default keeps the usual quality. With the One full page per file page layout, receipts that arrived as PDF files keep their original pages, so the quality setting changes only the photos. You can also split a long period into several reports, or leave the receipts out of the PDF and get them separately as Original files (ZIP).

CSV and Excel (XLSX) formats

CSV and Excel formats are great when you need more control over your data.

To include document files (uploaded images) in the export, tick Include receipt files in the export dialog. On the Create report page the option is called Include files in the export. The spreadsheet and the files then download together as one ZIP. Images are saved as PDFs in that ZIP unless you turn off Convert images to PDF. In the export dialog it is under More options. On the Create report page it sits right below Include files in the export.
To include links to the documents, choose Include links to the documents option