Why Should Receipts be Scanned Anyway?
The best way to organize paper receipts is to scan them and keep digital copies. There are many advantages to organizing receipts this way.
Get Organized
When you scan in every receipt you ever get, there is some really interesting and useful information that can result. Actually accomplishing the monstrous task of scanning every receipt you have has typically been a challenge in the past. But now, with Shoeboxed Mail-In, you can easily have digital copies of all of your paper receipts.
All your receipts are organized in the same account, and you can organize them by date, totals, store, and any other category that you need. Tracking your spending through receipts gives you a complete overview of what you have been spending you money on, so you can track your spending habits.
Returns, Reimbursements, and Business Expensing
There are many other great benefits to organizing your receipts. First, receipts are critical for many business travelers and companies. If you make a purchase that should be paid for by your employer, you can usually get it covered, but you have to show proof that you actually bought what you say. Receipts are most always required, so it can save you money to be organized. Having all your receipts organized can help you when you are generating expense reports as well.
Second, receipts are necessary for most returns in brick-and-mortar stores. The very large majority of them will accept a printed copy of a scanned receipt for returns, exchanges, and proofs of purchases.
Did you know the IRS accepts scanned receipts?
Receipts are also good to keep around for tax returns. You have to prove to the IRS that you have bought most things that you claim returns on. The IRS allows people to prepare, record, transfer, index, store, preserve, retrieve, and reproduce your receipts electronically. Scanned receipts in your Shoeboxed account will certainly come in handy come tax time.
Register for Shoeboxed Mail-In for Higher Quality Scans
Scanning your own receipts is a great habit to get into. With Shoeboxed Receipt Mail-In, though, we use scanners that make higher quality scans than most desktop and portable scanners.
We use state-of-the-art Kofax scanners that have these great features:
- Advanced clarity features of the scanner make even “unreadable” images legible.
- Automatic image orientation adjusts skewed images, even completely rotating upside down ones, so all captured images are oriented in the same direction.
- Correctly identifies and retains color when it is integral to a document (e.g., logo, photo, date stamp) and eliminates it when it is not (e.g., colored paper stock)
- Laser recognition of paper width in feed tray to ensure that all receipts are scanned one at a time
- Capability to scan extra-long receipts. Standard desktop and portable scanners are usually limited to paper under 14 inches in length. We can process receipts that are almost three feet long.
Your Insurance
Having your receipts organized in place can also be extremely useful in obtaining insurance claims. When your possessions are lost, stolen, or damaged, and you want your insurance to cover their cost, most policies require that you cough up the receipt for you items to prove what they’re worth. If you have all of your receipts organized in one place, like you can with Shoeboxed, you will be in good shape to be reimbursed fully.
Save the Planet
And finally, there are environmental benefits of scanning receipts. By keeping only digital copies, you can finally recycle all those paper receipts sitting around your home and office.
There has never been an easier way to organize scanned receipts than Shoeboxed and Shoeboxed Receipt Mail-In!.
