Why upload instead of design
If your organization already has a receipt PDF — on your own letterhead, with your branding, maybe reviewed by your board or auditor — recreating it field-by-field in the visual designer is wasted effort and a chance to introduce differences from the original. Uploading your own fillable PDF (a PDF that already has AcroForm fields, created in Adobe Acrobat, LibreOffice, or similar) skips that entirely: the app fills and flattens your existing form for every receipt instead of building a new layout.
Uploading and detection
From Templates, use Upload PDF Template and choose your .pdf file. The app automatically detects that the PDF has fillable form fields and manages it as a fillable template rather than the drag-and-drop kind — its field list comes from what's already embedded in the PDF, not from fields you add by hand.
Mapping detected fields to data
Field mapping for an uploaded PDF happens during the Generate step of a run, in a dedicated mapper rather than the visual designer. Each detected PDF form field appears in a table alongside its type, with a "Maps To" picker that groups the available targets: your import data columns, system-generated fields (receipt number, date issued, fiscal year, full name, full address), a fixed static value you type once, or Skip if that field shouldn't be filled. Field names are auto-matched to likely data columns where the naming is close enough (an "auto" badge marks these), and stat tiles above the table track how many of the PDF's fields are mapped versus skipped so you can confirm nothing was missed before continuing.
When to choose this over the designer
Reach for an uploaded fillable PDF, rather than the visual designer or the coordinate-based template form, when you already have a receipt layout that needs to stay exactly as-is — existing letterhead, a board-approved design, or a form your bank or auditor expects to see. Use the designer instead when you're starting from nothing, since it gives you drag-and-drop placement, a background-trace mode, and live preview that an already-finished PDF doesn't need.
Related
- PDF Templates — the visual designer and coordinate-based alternative to uploading your own PDF
- Canada CRA-Ready Receipt Templates — the built-in templates you can use instead of uploading your own