Donation Receipt Vault

Productivity

Original Idea

Donation Receipt Vault A mobile app that scans receipts, auto-categorizes causes, and exports a tax-ready report.

Product Requirements Document (PRD): Donation Receipt Vault

1. Executive Summary

The Donation Receipt Vault is a mobile-first platform designed to simplify tax season for philanthropists and everyday donors. By leveraging 2026-edge OCR technology and real-time IRS data verification, the app automates the capture, validation, and organization of charitable contributions. It transforms a shoebox of paper receipts into a secure, encrypted, and audit-ready digital vault, ensuring users never miss a tax deduction.

2. Problem Statement

Taxpayers lose billions in unclaimed deductions annually because physical donation receipts are easily lost, faded, or forgotten. Manual tracking is tedious, and verifying the 501(c)(3) status of a charity at the time of donation is often overlooked, leading to potential audit risks or rejected deductions during tax season.

3. Goals & Success Metrics

  • Goal 1: Reduce time spent on tax reconciliation from hours to minutes.
  • Goal 2: Ensure 100% audit readiness with IRS-compliant data retention.
  • Metric 1: Capture Rate - Average number of receipts scanned per active user per year (>12).
  • Metric 2: Data Accuracy - >98% accuracy in automated extraction of "Amount" and "Date."
  • Metric 3: Verification Rate - % of scanned receipts successfully matched to a valid IRS EIN.

4. User Personas

  • Philanthropic Phil (High-Net-Worth): Donates to 20+ organizations annually. Needs high-security storage and detailed reports for his CPA.
  • Organized Olivia (Average Taxpayer): Donates old clothes and small cash amounts. Needs help valuing non-monetary items and tracking small receipts.
  • CPA Chris (Accountant): Receives data from clients. Needs clean, structured CSV/PDF exports that integrate with professional tax software.

5. User Stories

  • As a donor, I want to scan a wrinkled receipt so that I don't have to manually type in the amount and date.
  • As a taxpayer, I want to see if a charity is actually 501(c)(3) compliant so that I can be certain my donation is deductible.
  • As a busy professional, I want the app to match my bank transactions to my receipt photos so that I have dual-proof of payment.
  • As a user, I want my data encrypted with my own biometrics so that my financial history remains private even if the device is lost.

6. Functional Requirements

6.1. Intelligent Capture & OCR

  • FR-1.1: Real-time frame processing to detect receipt boundaries and auto-crop.
  • FR-1.2: Extraction of: Merchant Name, EIN, Date, Amount, and Currency.
  • FR-1.3: Support for "Messy" receipts (crumpled, low-light) using Generative AI parsing.

6.2. IRS Verification Engine

  • FR-2.1: Automated lookup against the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (EO BMF).
  • FR-2.2: Real-time status flagging (501(c)(3) Active, Revoked, or Needs Review).
  • FR-2.3: Categorization of the charity based on NTEE codes (e.g., Religion, Education).

6.3. Financial Reconciliation (Plaid)

  • FR-3.1: Sync bank transactions via Plaid /transactions/sync.
  • FR-3.2: Fuzzy matching of bank "Merchant Strings" to receipt "Merchant Names."
  • FR-3.3: Flagging unmatched transactions that look like potential charitable donations.

6.4. The Vault & Export

  • FR-4.1: Zero-Knowledge storage of all receipt images.
  • FR-4.2: Generation of PDF/UA compliant tax summaries.
  • FR-4.3: CSV export formatted for standard tax software import.

7. Technical Requirements

7.1. Tech Stack

  • Frontend: React Native v0.83+ (using Hermes Engine and New Architecture/JSI).
  • Backend: Python 3.13 with FastAPI (utilizing asyncio and Lambda Response Streaming).
  • Database: PostgreSQL 17 with Citus 13.0 (sharded by user_id).
  • OCR Engine: AWS Textract (AnalyzeExpense) for speed; Google Document AI (Generative Workbench) for non-standard donation letters.
  • Encryption: AES-256-GCM for data at rest; Argon2id for key derivation.

7.2. Architecture & Integrations

  • Architecture: Event-driven serverless. S3 uploads trigger Lambda workers for OCR processing.
  • Integrations:
    • IRS Select Check API (or ProPublica wrapper) for status.
    • Plaid API for transaction reconciliation.
    • AWS KMS for hardware-backed key management.

8. Data Model

8.1. Entity: User

  • user_id (UUID, PK)
  • email (Encrypted)
  • master_key_hash (Argon2id)
  • tax_year_start (Month/Day)

8.2. Entity: Receipt

  • receipt_id (UUID, PK)
  • user_id (FK, Distribution Key)
  • s3_object_path (String)
  • amount (Decimal)
  • currency (String)
  • date (Date)
  • status (Enum: Pending, Verified, Flagged)
  • organization_ein (String)

8.3. Entity: Organization

  • ein (String, PK)
  • legal_name (String)
  • irs_status (String)
  • deductibility_code (String)

9. API Specification (Sample Endpoints)

9.1. Upload Receipt

  • Endpoint: POST /v1/receipts/upload
  • Request: multipart/form-data (image)
  • Response: 202 Accepted
{
  "task_id": "ocr_550e8400-e29b",
  "status": "processing",
  "eta": "5s"
}

9.2. Get Verification Status

  • Endpoint: GET /v1/verify/{ein}
  • Response: 200 OK
{
  "ein": "12-3456789",
  "is_deductible": true,
  "last_checked": "2026-02-15T10:00:00Z",
  "subsection": "501(c)(3)"
}

10. UI/UX Requirements

  • Camera Interface: Overlay with "Smart Guides" to help users align receipts. Haptic feedback on successful capture.
  • Dashboard: High-level "Deduction Meter" showing year-to-date total against a user-defined goal.
  • Security UI: Biometric prompt (FaceID/TouchID) required every time the app is opened or a report is exported.
  • Accessibility: Support for Dynamic Type and high-contrast modes. PDF exports must include PDF/UA structural tags.

11. Non-Functional Requirements

  • Performance: OCR extraction results must be visible within 8 seconds of upload.
  • Security: SOC2 Type II compliance. All PII masked in application logs. 5-minute inactivity auto-lock.
  • Reliability: 99.9% uptime for the Vault service.
  • Retention: Immutable storage for 7 years (IRS standard) using S3 Object Lock.

12. Out of Scope

  • Filing tax returns directly within the app (Export only).
  • Tracking business expenses (Charitable donations only).
  • International tax laws (US IRS 501(c)(3) focus only for V1).

13. Risks & Mitigations

  • Risk: IRS data is only updated monthly; new charities may not show up immediately.
    • Mitigation: Allow users to flag a charity for "Manual Review" and re-verify every 30 days.
  • Risk: Users scanning non-deductible receipts (e.g., GoFundMe).
    • Mitigation: Implement a clear warning UI when an EIN is not found in the EO BMF.

14. Implementation Tasks

Phase 1: Core Infrastructure & Security

  • [ ] Initialize React Native v0.83 project with JSI enabled
  • [ ] Set up Python 3.13 FastAPI backend on AWS Lambda
  • [ ] Configure PostgreSQL 17 with Citus sharding by user_id
  • [ ] Implement Argon2id key derivation and AES-256-GCM encryption modules
  • [ ] Configure AWS KMS for hardware-backed key storage

Phase 2: OCR & IRS Verification Pipeline

  • [ ] Implement react-native-vision-camera for real-time frame processing
  • [ ] Build S3-triggered Lambda for AWS Textract AnalyzeExpense
  • [ ] Create secondary "Messy Receipt" fallback using Google Document AI Workbench
  • [ ] Ingest IRS EO BMF dataset into a Citus reference table
  • [ ] Build the background worker for monthly IRS status synchronization

Phase 3: Banking & Reconciliation

  • [ ] Integrate Plaid Link for transaction aggregation
  • [ ] Implement /transactions/sync cursor logic to minimize API costs
  • [ ] Build fuzzy matching engine using RapidFuzz for merchant name reconciliation
  • [ ] Create UI for "Suggested Matches" between bank lines and receipt scans

Phase 4: Reporting & Export

  • [ ] Integrate Syncfusion Flutter PDF (or Nutrient for RN) for PDF/UA generation
  • [ ] Build CSV generator with fixed-point decimal math (big.js)
  • [ ] Implement S3 Object Lock (Compliance Mode) for 7-year data retention
  • [ ] Perform SOC2 readiness audit and security penetration test
  • [ ] Finalize UI/UX animations and "Deduction Dashboard" components