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Reduce paper clutter from all those receipts, business cards and other documents that pile up on your desk. Receipt scanners, a mobile phone receipt organizer app, or another receipt scanning service may be the answer not only to your clutter, but to your expense accounting needs.
Why Use Receipt Scanners?
So why spend the time scanning your receipts in the first place? It saves you time in the long run and helps reduce stress.
- Going paperless not only clears all that paper clutter.
- Makes finding documents much easier- you can scan and store your papers and search for them later using keywords like gas, groceries, credit cards or a contact’s name instead of searching through the filing drawer or old shoebox.
- It comes in handy for tax season to have all receipts organized and give access to your accountant to take advantage of tax deductions.
- Receipts don’t fade over time if scanned.
LifeHack.org offers six more reasons you should keep your receipts.
Depending on your personal needs, we will help to determine which receipt organizer is best for you.
Best Receipt Scanning App: Shoeboxed
Shoeboxed is the winner here (and our personal choice, we use it to scan and organize all our expenses too) due to the easiness and timeliness of it.
You don’t have to sit at your desk and scan each receipt yourself. Either snap a photo with your smartphone right from the app or mail all your items into Shoeboxed and they do it for you.
Every single receipt is human-verified for precise reporting of your expenses. If you upgrade past the Lite package, you even get the receipts sent back to you.
Pricing is reasonable, and there are nearly zero complaints about this receipt scanning software. They recently added the ability to scan business cards into your account as well if that is of interest to you and your business.
Learn more in our interview with Shoeboxed founder, Taylor Mingos.
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Price
- Startup $29/month
- Paper documents: 25 /mo
- Digital documents: 50 /mo
- Document mail-in: 1 prepaid Magic Envelope /mo
- Document returns: Fees may apply
- File storage: Unlimited
- Users: Unlimited
- Professional $59/month
- Paper documents: 150 /mo
- Digital documents: 150 /mo
- Document mail-in: Unlimited prepaid Magic Envelopes
- Document returns: Free
- File storage: Unlimited
- Users: Unlimited
- Business $89/month
- Paper documents: 300 /mo
- Digital documents: 3000 /mo
- Document mail-in: Unlimited prepaid Magic Envelopes
- Document returns: Free
- File storage: Unlimited
- View all plans
Read Our In-Depth Shoeboxed Review
Best Physical Receipt Scanner: Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner Review
View on Amazon | iOS App | Google Play App
This is one of the best-selling scanners on the market today. Customers are extremely happy with their purchase and the quality of this scanner.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 has two-sided scanning, and it’s compatible with both PC and Mac.
You can connect to it via Wifi or USB and it generates PDF files that can be edited.
This is a pretty advanced scanner making it our #1 pick for best receipt scanner.
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Price
- Price: $470.00
Video: Let Shoeboxed Organize Your Paper Clutter
See how Shoeboxed works in this two and a half minute overview video.
What About Concur, Expensify, NeatDesk, NeatReceipts, OneReceipt, & ReceiptBank?
Below are reviews of other products and services that did not make our top picks this year, but may suit your needs best, so we encourage you to check them out.
Concur | Expensify | NeatDesk | NeatReceipts | OneReceipt | ReceiptBank
Concur Review
Visit Website | iOS App | Google Play App
Concur is an app you can download and use on your smartphone to track your receipts. Simply download the app and start emptying that box of receipts by adding them to your account.
Users have reported Concur to be easy to use, but also say it is lacking integrations and other features.
We couldn’t find enough pros and cons to warrant a specific table for them. If you know more about Concur, please share with us!
Price
- $8 per user per month after 30-day free trial
Expensify Review
Visit Website | iOS App | Google Play App
Expensify is strictly for businesses to help track company expenses for each employee. Tracking business expenses can be a daunting task but Expensify tries to relieve that.
This expense tracking software can help keep your business finances tracked.
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Price
- Team: $5/user per month
- Corporate: $9/user per month
- Enterprise: custom pricing
NeatDesk Desktop Scanner Ad Digital Filing System Review
View on Amazon | iOS App | Google Play App
The NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System features a quicker scan speed when compared to the NeatReceipts and has the ability to feed documents automatically.
It may be hard to commit $299.95 to this scanner and filing system, though. It does have a very large maximum page size and integrates with many other programs.
If you’re looking for a desktop time-saver to file your receipts, business cards, and other important documents, this may be the solution for you.
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Price
- Price: $278.99
NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner And Digital Filing System Review
View on Amazon | iOS App | Google Play App
When deciding between the mobile scanner and the desktop scanner offered by NeatScanner, it came down to price.
There isn’t a big enough difference to pay that extra $170 for the NeatScanner, so we think NeatReceipts mobile scanner is the better option. It seems like more of a benefit to have a scanner that is small and compact and also easy to travel with than one that is larger and takes up more space on your desk. Of course, different things appeal to different people.
NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System will help you eliminate that paper clutter around your office and home in no time. It can, “Scan receipts, business cards, and documents on the go while the software identifies, extracts, and organizes key information.” The scanner itself is very small and easy to pack for business trips.
It connects right into the USB port on your computer to allow immediate scanning. The downfall is the price of the scanner and filing system, $129.95. However, if you are in need of a dependable scanner that can automatically organize your receipts and other documents without your tedious care this may be the product for you.
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Price
- Price: $108.00
Receipt Bank Review
Visit Website | iOS App | Google Play App
Receipt Bank allows you to submit receipts, bills, and invoices by email or using the app. It extracts the key information including the name of the supplier, invoice number, currency form, tax, date, and total amount.
You can then download the data into Excel to create expense reports or use one of the many other add-on partners including Dropbox, Crunch, FreeAgent, Sage 50, Xero, and others.
The downfall to Receipt Bank is that you have to scan or take a photo of each item yourself and send it in via email or the smartphone app. There’s not a way to mail your items in and have them do the it for you. Therefore, it’ll still take up a good amount of time to do all the scanning if you have a lot of it.
But if you are just looking to scan occasional expenses as they are incurred, then Receipt Bank will not be too troublesome. If you have the time to do the scanning yourself and want a way to organize your items, this may be a good choice for you.
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Price
- Free DIY Plan
- Starts at $14.99/month Single-User Plan
- Starts at $25.00/month Multi-User Plan
Best Scanners & Accounting Software For Small Business
While you’re at it, you might want to go paperless in other aspects of your business. Using a scanner and filing away other important documents electronically is a great way to reduce clutter and stay organized. Learn more about our top picks for scanners. You can also check out our experts’ comparison of online accounting software.
What’s your favorite way to reduce clutter? Let us know in the comments!
Tagged With: Comparison
