What Happened To Those Receipts?

We all know that keeping records is an essential part of our business finances, but sometimes those important receipts seem to disappear. Perhaps they’ve been misfiled, or maybe they’ve been lost during the regular hustle and bustle of the workday. Either way, it’s a problem because you can’t claim expenses without having proof of the costs.

Thankfully, these days there are better recording choices than having to resort to the ‘old envelope full of receipts’ option.

Here are five apps which will help you track and record your receipts. Easily, the best thing about these apps is the way they feed the data straight into Xero, which, as you may know, is our preferred choice of bookkeeping software at The Accounts Studio. These apps will save you both the time and effort of having to do manual entries, and, what’s more, they are all acceptable to the ATO as long as your electronic copies show the following information:

• the name or business name of the supplier
• the amount of the expense expressed in the currency in which it was incurred
• the nature of the goods or services
• the day the expense was incurred
• the date of the receipt

So, let’s look at some of your options.

ATO My Deductions allows you to record tax-related information such as deductions on the go. This may be a very basic app, but it will enable you to keep electronic copies of your paper receipts, so you never have to worry about losing them. The ATO says that if the copies are true and clear reproductions of the original, they will be accepted.

Squirrel Street (formerly ShoeBoxed Australia) works with the major systems such as Xero and MYOB. Just scan in your receipts using your mobile phone where it is then stored and available to be sent directly to your accountant or accounting system. Squirrel Street works only with Australian and New Zealand businesses. According to their website, they are the only digital receipt management provider registered with the ATO.

Concur Expense connects your travel, expense and invoice processes, and, if you have employees, let’s you monitor and approve, or disallow, their spending on the go. Just take photos of receipts using your mobile or uploading the e-receipts from any related company.

Receipt Bank integrates with the major cloud accounting software systems such as Xero, letting you scan and upload your receipts to track and manage your business expenses. A real time saver if ever there was one!

Expensify is an app that is primarily designed for tracking and recording expenses like fuel, travel, and lunches. As their website states, “From receipt scanning to reimbursement, Expensify automates every step of the expense management process.” Simply take a photo of a receipt using SmartScan, and it is automatically saved for you by the app.

These five apps eliminate the fuss of loose invoices and missing paperwork, saving you hours of lost time. Just imagine how much easier it will be this financial year, knowing all your receipts are stored in the one place.