How to combine receipts and invoices into one PDF for expenses

To combine receipts into one PDF, first turn any photos of paper receipts into PDF pages with JPG to PDF, then add them together with your PDF invoices in PDF Merge, set the order and click Merge. If the finished file is too big for your company's expense system or email, shrink it with Compress PDF. All three tools work in your browser, so your receipts never leave your device.

This guide walks through each step, with tips for faded or crumpled receipts and for keeping everything in date order.

What you usually start with

An expense claim is rarely one tidy set of files. Most people have a mix like this:

What you have	What to do with it
PDF invoices from email (hotel, airline, online orders)	Use as they are
Photos of paper receipts on your phone	Turn into a PDF with JPG to PDF
Crumpled, shadowy or faded receipts	Clean them up in Image Studio, save as PDF
Screenshots of mobile payment confirmations	Treat like photos: JPG to PDF
A password-protected statement PDF	Remove the password first (see below)

The goal is to get everything into PDF form, then join it in one go.

Step 1: Take good photos of paper receipts

A clear photo saves time later. Put the receipt on a dark, flat surface so the edges stand out, use daylight or a bright room, and hold the phone straight above it. Flatten folds with your hand just before taking the picture.

Many shop receipts are printed on thermal paper, which fades with heat and light and can go blank over time. Photograph them soon after you get them rather than at the end of the month.

If you have several receipts from one day, you can lay small ones side by side in one photo, as long as every amount and date stays readable.

Step 2: Turn the photos into PDF pages

1. Open JPG to PDF and add your photos. It takes JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF, up to 100 images and 200 MB at a time.
2. Drag the thumbnails, or use ↑ and ↓, to put them in order.
3. Pick a page size. Fit to image makes each page the size of its photo; A4 or Letter is better if someone will print the claim.
4. Choose one PDF for all images, then click Convert and download.

Phone photos taken sideways usually come out the right way up, because the converter reads the orientation the phone saved with the photo.

For receipts that are crumpled, shadowed or hard to read, use Image Studio instead. It finds the edges of the paper, straightens it, and its No shadows or Print ready looks turn the background white and keep the print dark. It saves the pages as one PDF too. Our guide on how to scan documents with your phone covers it in more detail.

iPhone photos saved as HEIC can't be read by most browsers. Convert them to JPG first, or set the camera to Most Compatible for future receipts.

Step 3: Combine receipts into one PDF with your invoices

Now everything is a PDF, so you can join it.

1. Name files by date. Use year, month, day first: 2026-10-03-taxi.pdf, 2026-10-05-hotel.pdf. This sorts correctly every time.
2. Open PDF Merge and add all the PDFs: your invoices plus the receipt PDF from Step 2. You can add up to 50 files, about 200 MB in total.
3. Press Sort A→Z to order them by name, which with date names means by date. Drag any file to move it, for example to put a claim form or summary sheet first.
4. Leave out pages you don't need. Many invoices have a second page of terms and conditions. In that file's Pages box, type 1 to keep only the first page, or a range such as 1-2.
5. Click Merge, then Download. The file is named after the first one with -merged added. Rename it to something your finance team will recognise, such as expenses-october-2026.pdf.

If your receipt photos are all in one PDF but need to sit between invoices by date, merge first, then open the result in Organize PDF Pages and drag single pages into place.

If one invoice is password-protected, PDF Merge will ask you to unlock it first. See how to remove the password from a bank statement PDF; the same steps work for other locked PDFs when you know the password.

Step 4: Make the file small enough to send

Photos make large PDFs, and many expense systems and email accounts limit attachment size. Open Compress PDF and pick a mode:

Mode	What it does	Good for
Lossless	Repacks the file without changing content	Mostly text invoices; often saves little
Balanced	Re-saves large photos as smaller JPEGs, keeps text sharp	Most expense claims
Strong	Turns every page into an image	Smallest file, but text can no longer be selected
Auto	Tries the methods so you can compare	When you're not sure

After compressing, zoom in on a receipt and check that totals, dates and the shop name are still readable. For a specific limit, see how to compress a PDF to under 1 MB.

Optional: number the pages

If your claim form lists receipts by number ("receipt 4: taxi, 350 taka"), number the pages so the reviewer can find them quickly. Add Page Numbers can start after a summary or cover page; see adding page numbers but skipping the first page.

Quick checklist

• Thermal receipts photographed soon, not at month end
• Every amount, date and shop name readable in the photo
• Photos turned into PDF pages (JPG to PDF or Image Studio)
• Files named by date (YYYY-MM-DD) and sorted A→Z
• Terms-and-conditions pages left out with the Pages box
• Merged file compressed if there's a size limit, then checked for readability
• Final file renamed clearly before you submit it