Keeping track of receipts is good bookkeeping. It is also handy when the IRS wants to see proof of expenses! But, do you really want to be keeping boxes full of old receipts, for years and years? And, for that matter, it is time-consuming and expensive to manually tally up the receipts and keep track of what you paid and to whom. At Exigo Business Solutions we suggest that you use ReceiptBank to digitize paper receipts. What is Receipt Bank and how does it work?
Receipt Bank is based on optical recognition software that converts printed words and numbers into digital form. Download their “app” to your smartphone. Take a “photo” of one or more receipts. Receipt Bank software “reads” the receipt and shows you the digitized results. You check these results against the receipt itself. When you are satisfied that the information is correct, you will go ahead and “publish” the information to your accounting software such as QuickBooks.
When you use Receipt Bank to digitize paper receipts you get a number of benefits. First, this method of extracting information from a paper receipt is quicker and cheaper than manual data entry for putting the same information into your bookkeeping software. And, once you have a record of each transaction in QuickBooks, you can get rid of all those stored receipts that are now just taking up space. There is a seamless integration of Receipt Bank into QuickBooks Online so that the information is now in your QuickBooks and the image is linked to the transaction. And, in the end, the first reason for doing the books is to get the information right, all of it. The next reason is to provide you with information like QuickBooks Custom Reports so that you can get a clear overview of your business financials. And, of course, if Uncle Sam, by way of the IRS, expresses an interest in your tax returns, you will not end up digging through boxes of old receipts to prove the validity of the business expenses that you claimed!
How about receipts you receive via email? Just forward them to your Receipt Bank email and the information is also processed and seamlessly moved to your accounting software.
The old routine may have been to let the receipts pile up and then periodically go through them and enter the data into each and every account as needed. This method was time-consuming, costly, and prone to error. The better choice is to get into the Receipt Bank habit. As soon as you get a receipt, take a photo with the Receipt Bank app, review the results for accuracy, and publish. Before you can toss the paper receipt into the wastebasket, the correct information is in the correct place in the correct account and there is a photo that is linked to it.
You will always have instant access to the image of the receipt, even though the information you are now using is in QuickBooks or other accounting software.
Making Receipt Bank a habit keeps your books up to date and clean with a lot less effort than doing the job with periodic data entry sessions. And, if you are still storing paper receipts in case you might need them, think of how much better your dust allergies will be from not having to rummage through old stored papers!
