BILLNEST · TELEGRAM

Telegram receipts · personal preview

Telegram is an optional personal preview for existing test connections. The Android receipt app is the normal direct-send option. New public Telegram connections are not currently offered.

Open BillNest

Connect once, from your own business profile

Open Receipts → Settings → Telegram · personal preview. Read the Telegram notice, tick the consent box, then choose Connect Telegram. If activation is pending, the site owner must finish the setup below first.
Open the private link or scan its QR code. Tap Start in Telegram. Enter the six-digit code from the bot back in BillNest. Both the link and code expire after 10 minutes. Never share your connection link or code.
Send a photo or file to the connected bot. Use the Send a receipt button. Add a short caption if useful. Send one purchase per file; choose Telegram’s file/document option for the clearest original. Groups, channels and text-only messages do not create receipts.
Open your receipt inbox to read and review. New receipts are received automatically while this inbox stays open, or use Receive and read receipts. English/French text recognition runs on your device. Verify the supplier, date, currency, taxes, total, category and payment status against the original. Nothing enters reports until you approve.

For existing personal connections

Everyone uses the same bot username, but pairing routes each Telegram account to its own BillNest profile. One Telegram account can be linked to one profile at a time. To switch businesses, disconnect first and connect from the other profile. Existing receipts stay with their original business.

Telegram delivery is not profile synchronization. After importing, use your existing encrypted backup or Cloud sync to move records to another device. Open the same restored profile; do not create another empty business. A receipt imported on one device disappears from the delivery queue.

Free services, with practical limits

This integration uses Telegram’s free Bot API and BillNest’s existing local reading tools. It adds no paid AI, automation subscription, OCR API or extra storage service. Existing hosting quotas and your internet/mobile data plan still apply. There is no automatic paid upgrade.

JPG, PNG or PDF; up to 8 MB per file and 10 pages per PDF.
Up to 50 receipts per inbox each UTC day, 100 pending receipts, 10 received per batch. Shared service limits also apply.
Import within 30 days. Keep originals until BillNest confirms they are saved and included in your backup.
Your existing local profile limit is 50 MB, including receipt images. The first reading downloads the reading tools. BillNest must remain open.
OCR suggestions can be wrong. Handwriting, blurred photos and unusual layouts may require manual corrections.

Where your receipts go

Telegram receives and stores what you send to the bot under its own policies. Bot chats are not Secret Chats. BillNest’s server stores your Telegram chat ID, hashed connection credentials, file references, filename, caption, size and delivery timestamps. Pairing temporarily uses your Telegram display name. It retrieves a file through the server only when your browser imports it. Originals and extracted text are then saved in your encrypted BillNest profile; they are not persistently stored on the BillNest server.

After a successful import, BillNest clears the queued file reference, filename and caption. Delivery entries expire after 30 days and are removed during subsequent service activity. Disconnecting stops future delivery but does not delete messages in Telegram, pending receipts or saved BillNest records. Delete Telegram messages in Telegram. The private inbox access key travels only with your encrypted profile and encrypted backups; keep those private.

Full privacy policy

If a receipt does not appear

Check that the bot said “Receipt received”, that you are in the linked BillNest profile, and that the receipt meets the file limits. Open this profile’s Receipt inbox with internet access. If automatic reading failed, choose Receive and read receipts to retry. A saved receipt with unreadable text still appears for manual review. Identical files are skipped; similar purchases are flagged for your review.

Camera capture, file upload and computer-scanner import remain available in Receipt inbox. Telegram is another receipt source; connecting it does not replace those tools.

Site owner: activate the bot once

Open the official @BotFather in Telegram, send /newbot and choose a name and available username ending in bot. Bot creation is free. A regular Telegram account is required; a separate bot phone number is not. @BotFather
Store these private server environment values in the existing BillNest hosting configuration: TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN (BotFather token), TELEGRAM_BOT_USERNAME (without @), and TELEGRAM_WEBHOOK_SECRET (a random 32-byte base64url secret). Never put the token in client code, a URL sent to customers, screenshots or chat.
From the project checkout, run python3 scripts/setup-telegram.py on a trusted computer. Enter the token and the same webhook secret at the hidden prompts. This verifies the bot and registers https://billnest.org/api/telegram/webhook with Telegram. It does not enable payments or discard pending updates. The script prints the public bot username and connection result only.
Open BillNest, link a test profile, send one clear receipt, compare every amount and approve it. Confirm it appears once in Expenses and reports and that its original is included in an encrypted backup. Only this real test completes activation. New Telegram connections remain gated for personal testing.

Official Telegram bot setup