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You have several ways to get invoices into Garde. The most popular by far is the mobile app. You can also email them to your unique restaurant address, upload from the browser, or create an invoice manually if you don’t have a physical copy. Here’s how each method works.
Helpful related articles:
Best file formats for upload: Garde accepts JPEG, PNG, CSV, and PDF files. PDFs tend to produce the best results for multi-page invoices since all pages stay together in one file. For photos, make sure the image is sharp and the entire invoice fits in the frame.

What Happens After You Upload

Once an invoice is submitted — whether by email, app, or browser upload — it enters the Processing status. Within a minute, the invoice should move to Needs Review. At that point, you can open the invoice to verify that the parsed information matches the original document. During review, you will match products to items in Garde. Keep in mind that different vendors often use different names for the same product (e.g., “Baby french beans,” “string beans,” and “french beans” may all refer to the same item). Confirm the vendor, line items, quantities, and prices are correct, then click “Update Invoice” and change the status to Approved.
Invoice stuck in Processing? If an invoice does not move to Needs Review within a minute or two, try reloading the page. If it is still stuck, upload the invoice again using a different method (for example, browser upload instead of email) and delete the stuck one.
You can always edit an invoice after approving it if you notice something that needs correction later.

First Step: Check Your Unit

Make sure you’re logged into the correct restaurant unit before uploading. If you have access to multiple units, it’s easy to forget to switch. We generally trust that you meant to upload an invoice where we find it, so we’ll process it even if the “Bill To” address shows a different location. That said, you can always move it later if you made a mistake.

Uploading from Your Phone

The Garde app is the fastest way to get invoices in. It’s free and available for both iPhone (App Store) and Android (Play Store) — just search for “Garde” and download it.

Steps to upload with the app:

  1. Open the app. You’ll see your recent uploads by default. Tap the blue “CAPTURE NEW INVOICE” button at the bottom.
  1. The camera opens immediately. Fit the entire invoice in the frame, then take the photo. If it looks good, tap “USE THIS PHOTO”. If it’s blurry, tap “RETAKE”.
If you get a warning about a possibly blurry image, you can retake or accept it as-is. For more help, see: Tips for Taking Great Invoice Photos
  1. One page per photo. If the invoice has multiple pages, tap “ADD PAGE” for each additional page.
  2. When you’re done, tap the blue “SUBMIT” button. That’s it — your invoice is now stored in your restaurant’s Garde filing cabinet.

Uploading via Email

If you receive an invoice by email, just forward it (with the attachment) to your restaurant’s unique invoice email address. Find this by going to Inventory > Invoices and looking for the banner at the top of the page with your email address and a copy button. You can also give this address to vendors so they email invoices directly to Garde.
Heads up: Don’t send invoices to contact@garde.app — that’s our support team, not the processing team. And please don’t CC contact@garde.app when emailing invoices, as it can slow things down.

Uploading from the Browser

From the Invoices page (navigate to Inventory > Invoices), click “New Invoice” and select “Upload Invoice” from the dropdown. A file picker will pop up so you can select files from your computer.

Tips for browser uploads:

  1. Multi-page invoices: Submit as one cohesive file. If each page is a separate file, make sure every page includes both the vendor name and invoice number so we can match them.
  2. Don’t combine multiple invoices into one file. One multi-page invoice as a single PDF is great. Five invoices from different vendors crammed into one PDF is not — it’s very difficult for our team to separate them.
  3. File type selection: The upload dialog defaults to image files. To upload PDFs or Word documents, change the filter to “All File Types” (or click “Options” on a Mac).

Attach an Image to an Existing Invoice

Already have an invoice in Garde but need to add an image? Go to your Invoices page (Inventory > Invoices), find the invoice, click to open it, and hit the green “Add Photo” button at the top. Select the file you want to attach.

Don’t Have an Invoice?

You can create a Manual Category-Level Invoice for situations where you don’t have an image or don’t need one. Or, if you need to pay a vendor quickly and want a placeholder, see: Create an Invoice to Upload - Invoice Cover Sheet