Easy Ways to Organize Your Receipts Digitally

“I know I had it … I put it right here! WHERE IS THAT RECEIPT FROM THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE!” Sound familiar?

Trust me, you’re not the only one who finds it challenging to organize a stack of receipts. But you should!

The best way to organize and store receipts is digitally. It will simplify your life and will certainly make managing your finances easier.

It can even help you save a little bit more money once you’re better at tracking things. 

I know, I know. Some people just looooove paper but there are a few drawbacks to paper receipts.

The Headaches of Organizing Paper Receipts

Physical Receipt Storage

There is something to be said for the comfort of paper and having physical receipts to hold. However, along with that, comes things that are not so fun.

Receipt clutter. No matter how big or small your house is, I doubt you want it filled with shoe boxes full of paper receipts.

It may not seem like much at first but, believe me, once they build up over years and years, you’ll be drowning in receipts.

Plus, it will be pretty much pointless because you won’t be able to find the ones you need when you need them. That brings me to my next point.

Disappearing Receipts. No matter how hard you try, receipts tend to come up missing. That’s just the nature of paper things. They will eventually get pushed off the table, stepped on, or eaten by your dog. 😣

But even if your receipts managed to escape all of that, they aren’t designed for long-term storage.

Loss. Paper receipts, the kind that comes from a register or card machine, are written using a special heat-activated ink. This ink WILL fade and/or smudge over time.

Think about it … how many times have you dug to the bottom of a purse you haven’t worn in a while and found a blank piece of paper that used to be a receipt!?

Tracking Paper Receipts

So, let’s say you’re one of the few who are actually good at keeping paper receipts safe and orderly (and you don’t even own a dog ).

There is still the matter of tracking all of those receipts and manually entering data from them into whatever financial management tool you use. Even if that’s just a Google sheet, it still takes a lot of time and leaves a lot of room for error.

Now, that’s headache-inducing right there. Or, at the very least, it’s an exercise in tedium.

Plus, what happens if you enter something incorrectly!? Now you have to go back through all those paper receipts to find the right numbers! No, no, friend. There’s a better way.

Benefits of Digital Receipt Organization

You get to say buh-bye clutter. The benefit of digital receipt organization is eliminating clutter and the extra space needed to store all that clutter.

You can actually find your receipts. Organized receipts are far more accessible. If you really want to be an organization champ, you should organize your receipts digitally.

It makes searching for them, sorting them, categorizing, and simply accessing the receipts you need when you need them infinitely easier. 

And all my organization nerds out there, who already know the benefits of organizing, said amen!

Financial management is easier. You can automate data extraction from digitally organized receipts and you can track your expenses a lot easier.

This will be invaluable when it comes to budgeting and managing your finances. Bonus: if you’re looking to save a little extra money, you’ll be able to tell where it’s all going and where you can easily cut.

Don’t Panic my paper lovers! I’ve been where you are. This step-by-step guide to organizing receipts digitally will walk you through converting from paper clutter to digital organization.

Step-by-Step Guide to Organizing Receipts Digitally

Step 1: Choose Your Digital Receipt Organization Method

This can be as simple as you’d like it to be. You can keep them in a folder on your computer, or use Google Drive. You can even scan and copy your receipts from the year into one document.

Although, I would consider keeping them in chronological order for this method.

I prefer using digital folders on my computer or Google Drive. It makes it a lot easier to sort and categorize. You can sort by year, expense type, date of purchase, or amounts (e.g. small expense vs. large expense). 

You can even do all of the above. I sort mine by year and within each year, I have a separate folder for expense type (e.g. medical, home repairs, etc.).

If you want to really show off your receipt organization skills, you can incorporate tags into your digital filing system to link your receipts to bills or credit card statements.

Step 2: Convert Paper to Digital

You can convert your paper receipts to digital receipts by using a receipt scanner app or another general scanning app. You can get a fancy one with lots of features such as data extraction, budget creation, and so forth. 

Or, using a simple one that will scan your receipt and create a digital photo of it is also a great option. 

You can then simply upload the photo to your organization method of choice. CamScanner is a simple tool I’ve used for a long time.

Step 3: Categorize Your Receipts

This is the fun part! At least if you’re an organization nerd like me. 😁 You can use tags or, as I mentioned, my preferred method – folders. You can even use color coding!

Just be sure to label them in a way that you will understand later. The point is to make it easier for you to search for specific receipts when you need to.

Step 4: Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

This one is a nice-to, not a have-to. OCR technology basically “reads” your receipts and extracts information from the text on them. 

It converts the printed text to digital text so you can store and analyze it later. This technology is a good idea for business owners who have a lot of receipts to manage.

Even small businesses need an efficient way to track business expenses and this technology can help.

Step 5: Make it Routine

All this will only work as well as your commitment to do it. The best way to be successful at doing it is to make it a habit. Incorporate digital receipts as part of your normal finance and expense management.

Easy ways to do this include:

• Incorporate digital receipts into any accounting software or budgeting tools you may be using.
  
  
• Ask for electronic receipts when you shop – that way it’s already digitized for you. Most places offer a text or email receipt as an option.
  
  
• Process any receipts from the day right away. Make it part of your nightly routine. Even if you don’t sort them right away, make sure you scan them so you don’t give yourself a chance to lose them. 👀

A Few Best Practice Tips

When choosing file names for your folders, using names that will make sense to you later is a good practice. Additionally, you’ll want your file names to make sense to anyone else who may be helping with managing your receipts and finances.

Now that you’re moving your receipts into the digital world, you want to consider ways to back them up just in case something happens. You know like your computer crashes or come tax time you, eh hem, accidentally throw it against the wall. 

Also, be sure that you’re practicing safe internet use – strong passwords, security software, and two-factor authentication for example.

And this last one is just a bonus tip. If you can find a way to make your receipts available across devices, that’s a win!

For example, Google Drive is available on your computer, your tablet, and your phone. It makes accessing digital files and receipt management a lot more convenient.

Closing Thoughts

See, organizing receipts digitally isn’t that complicated. Just a few simple steps and you’ll be on your way to a much easier system for organizing your receipts and managing your expenses. 

And if it still feels like too much, maybe just try one step at a time and see how it goes. Add in the rest of the steps as you feel comfortable.

Once you’ve made digital receipt organization a habit, on to the next fun organizing project. 😊

Common Questions

What is the best way to organize your receipts?

Organizing your receipts digitally is the best way to go. It makes receipt storage and expense management much easier. 

How do I organize my receipts on my computer?

I like to use folders and label them by expense type and year. You can add a little more fun to it by color coding as well.

How do you digitize a receipt?

You can use mobile apps or a scan tool. CamScanner is a simple scanning tool I like to use to scan receipts. 

Or, if you want to keep it low-tech, taking pictures of your receipts with your phone is a great way too. Just know, the pictures have to be an exact copy of the receipt to work especially for tax purposes.

So, if you tend to cut off the tops or bottoms of images, have someone else take the photos. 😉