Mobile devices have become indispensable tools. They allow us to do so much more than just make phone calls and send text messages. Today’s smartphones come loaded with powerful applications that help us manage both our work and personal lives. And they could be one of the easiest solutions for accountants tasked with tracking down receipts for employee expense reports.
The IRS requires receipts for business expenses over $75. If your employees are regularly losing receipts or requesting copies from their corporate credit cards, it might be time to introduce a receipt scanner app to your staff.
This handy tool lets you quickly capture important business transactions like purchases, bills, payments, etc., and store them digitally. In fact, some of the most popular smartphone apps available today include built-in receipt scanners.
What is Receipt Management Apps?
A receipt scanner app allows people to scan and organize their physical or digital receipts into one central location and can then be accessed from any device with internet access. In addition, the best receipt scanner app programs allow the user to add notes about each transaction and attach photos. These details come in handy when you need to itemize business dinners, for example.
Some even offer additional features such as automatic categorization based on business type or product category.
What Makes a Good Receipt Scanner App?
There are several things to consider when choosing a receipt scanner.
First, make sure it has enough memory so that all transactions will fit within its storage capacity without deleting old records. Second, look at how fast it scans documents; if it takes too long to process them, you’ll end up spending more money than necessary. Third, check whether it offers other useful functions like inventory tracking, customer relationship management, and expense reporting.
Why Should I Download a Receipt Scanner App?
If you’re like most people, you probably have piles of paper receipts that you need to keep track of but don’t want to carry around or file away. But what happens when you get home at night after an exhausting business trip or a long day at work? Do you just toss your pile into a drawer somewhere?
You may already have an existing file-based filing system that works well for you. If so, great! But if not, here are some reasons why it might be worth downloading a receipt scanner app:
- It makes organizing your receipts much faster than manually searching through paper files or using pen & paper.
- You’ll never lose another receipt again because they will all be in one place.
- Receipts can now be organized by date, vendor, store name, etc., making it easier to find what you need when needed.
- A receipt scanner app makes it easy to keep track of expenses while traveling.
- They help reduce the clutter at home and in your office.
- In addition, a receipt scanner app helps prevent identity theft since there is no way to forge a legitimate receipt anymore.
So what are the Best Receipt-Scanning Apps?
There are many different types of receipt scanners app available today, but they generally fall into two categories:
- A receipt scanner app that works directly off of physical receipts
- A receipt scanner app that uploads scanned images to cloud storage services like Google Drive
The first type of scanner works by taking a picture of each page when you’re done using it.
Advantages of This Type of a Receipt Scanner App
It doesn’t require any additional hardware beyond what you already have—your smartphone. You can use your phone in areas where there isn’t Wi-Fi or cellular service available. In addition, your device will be able to store all of its files locally so they won’t get lost if something happens to your phone.
Drawbacks of This Type of a Receipt Scanner App
They don’t work well when you need to take multiple pictures at once because they’ll just overwrite one another. Because they save everything locally, you lose control over how much space those photos consume. If you want to delete them later, you’ll have to do so manually. In addition, these types of scanners aren’t very good at recognizing text. They might recognize numbers correctly, but anything else could end up being misread.
The 10 Best Receipt Scanner App Programs
1. QuickBooks
If you’re looking for something simple, easy to set up, and free, look no further than Quickbooks Online. It offers basic features like invoicing, inventory control, and payroll processing. But if you want more advanced functionality, such as creating custom reports, integrating with other software packages, and managing multiple companies, you may need to upgrade to Quickbooks Pro.
2. Expensify
If you travel frequently, Expensify makes sense as a tool for managing your receipts. It works like many other expense trackers by letting you enter transactions manually or automatically using data pulled directly off credit cards.
The difference is that when you make purchases with your card, Expensify will pull up relevant information about each transaction—like what flight number they were made on, how much they cost, and even their status.
Expensify is one of our favorite apps for scanning receipts because it makes it easy to manage them anywhere. In addition, you don’t need to worry about losing important documents anymore since Expensify scans every receipt into its own database.
This means that you won’t lose anything even if you accidentally delete something on your phone. The only thing you need to do is open the app whenever you receive a new document.
3. Bench
For businesses with fewer employees, there may only be room for one person to do their books. That’s why we love using Bench as both a personal finance manager and receipt scanner. It makes keeping up with bills, paying off debt, saving for retirement, and planning for taxes easy.
The app lets us set goals, budget, pay recurring bills, manage investments, and even keep track of how much we’ve spent on coffee since January 1st.
There’s no need to invest in expensive software for businesses with fewer employees when you can get by just fine using free online tools. That said, if you want something simple and easy to set up, Bench is worth checking out. It allows users to upload their own PDF files and images of receipts, bills, invoices, etc., and provides basic reporting functions such as creating charts and graphs.
4. WellyBox
The WellyBox app is a great way to scan receipts from any business that accepts credit cards or debit cards as payment. It’s also an excellent tool if you’re self-employed because it allows you to keep track of all your expenses in one place.
The free version includes unlimited scans but only saves them locally on your phone; however, the paid versions have more storage space available.
You can find the WellyBox app at iTunes and Google Play for Android devices.
5. Receipts by Wave
Receipts By Wave is another great option if you’re looking for a simple yet powerful receipt scanning tool. This app allows users to create their own unique templates based on their needs. You can then use them to capture receipts from anywhere at any time.
Once captured, they’ll be sent directly to your inbox, where you can review them later. There are no limits when it comes to how many receipts you want to store.
6. Neat Receipts
The app allows users to scan receipts in one tap, send them directly to your email , or save them as PDF files. You can also add notes to each receipt, making it easy to keep track of the details you are required to include in your expense reports.
This app works great if you want to get rid of paper clutter and make sure everything gets filed away properly. In addition, if you have multiple people using the same device, you’ll be able to see who made what purchase when.
7. Shoeboxed
The Shoeboxed mobile application allows users to scan receipts into their account in seconds. You can then organize them using tags or categories and search through all your scanned documents at once. The free version includes unlimited scans per month, while paid versions offer additional document editing and PDF conversion.
8. Evernote Scannable
This receipt scanner app works like magic! Simply snap pictures of your receipts using the built-in camera and upload them to Evernote. Then, you can access those files through the web browser or via email. Your data will always stay safe and secure, thanks to the company’s encryption technology. Plus, you get up to 2 GB of free storage space per month.
If you’d rather not spend money on an application, we recommend checking out the free version. In addition to saving your receipts online, you can also sync them between multiple computers. All you need to do is sign up for a free account and start saving your receipts today.
9. Smart Receipts
You can get started using this tool right away without any setup required. Simply scan your receipts and save them to your computer via Dropbox. Then, upload those files to the application‘s server, where they will be processed automatically. The results are then sent back to your device so that you can view them at your leisure.
This service works great to keep track of all your transactions, especially when traveling abroad. However, some people may find it too time-consuming because it requires manual entry of data.
10. Veryfi
100% Machine Processing – Unlike many other receipt scanning applications, Veryfi doesn’t rely on human intervention. Instead, it uses advanced algorithms to process every single image within seconds. Because of this, you won’t miss anything during checkout.
Wrapping it up
In conclusion, plenty of options are available for anyone looking to create a simple yet effective system for tracking expenses.
This post originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks.
As a full-time police officer and personal finance blogger, Ryan Luke has made it his personal mission to provide honest and easy to understand personal finance information. He is a husband and the father of three children. Through proper budgeting and money management, they have been able to live off one income and build wealth at the same time. Come join him in an active conversation about all the best personal finance information available at ArrestYourDebt.com!
