Organizing receipts for taxes

Keep the slip and the numbers together

A spreadsheet with no image is hard to explain. A folder of photos with no dates is hard to add up. Put both on the same line: the photo or PDF, the date printed on the slip, the vendor, the amount you paid, and the tax if the slip shows it. Use the slip’s date, not the day you finally sat down to sort a drawer.

Photograph the receipt while the print is dark. Thermal slips fade, and a blank slip in April cannot be reconstructed from memory. If you only have time for four fields, make them vendor, date, amount, and tax.

Do not add the tax twice

Many receipts print one total that already includes sales tax, and a tax line above it. In ReceiptGrid, amount is what you paid. Tax is stored beside it. Reports show a tax column next to spending. The tax is not added on top of the amount a second time. If you are unsure which number is the total, look at the slip and put the figure you actually paid in amount.

Name categories the way you will talk about them

The export uses the category names you set during the year. Starting names are Travel, Meals, Office, Supplies, Software, Utilities, Fuel, Lodging, Services, and Other. Change them in Settings if your preparer uses different words. A consistent name all year is more useful than a perfect name you only apply in March.

Personal spending mixed into the same pile is how a year-end folder gets noisy. If a line is not for the business, leave it out, or say so in the notes so you can filter before you export. The software will not know which lunch was personal.

Pull the year they asked for

On Reports, set the start and end dates to the year or the quarter. Group by category when they want totals, or by vendor when they want to see who you paid. The page totals the amount and the tax for that range. Widen the dates if a month looks empty and you suspect you filed the slip in the wrong month. The date on the line is the one you typed or accepted, so it is worth a look.

Hand over a packet, not a shoebox

From Reports you can download Excel, a CSV, or an accountant packet. CSV uses the delimiter in Settings: comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe. That matters when the file is opened in software that expects semicolons. The accountant packet is a zip you download yourself: a CSV of the lines in that date range, plus the receipt images named with the date and the vendor. A preparer can match a photo to a row without opening every picture to see what it was.

You send that file. You do not have to give anyone your password. The rest of the ledger stays in your account unless those dates are in the export.

What this does not do

ReceiptGrid does not file a return, calculate what you owe, or tell you that a meal is deductible. It keeps the records people ask for: the slip, the date, the vendor, the amount, and the tax. If a number is questioned, open the original file from the line. If a rule is questioned, that question is for your preparer.

The day-to-day capture habit is covered in receipt tracking for a small business. Turning a date range into something you can email is covered in expense reports. A workbook of those rows is covered in receipt to Excel or CSV. Records kept beside 1099 work are covered in receipts for self-employed and 1099 work.