We repeatedly came across three receipt scanning software options that work for individuals, families, businesses and organizations. When you scan receipts, software like this will allow you to create digital images of them and use optical character recognition (OCR) to make the text from them editable and searchable in their systems, which in turn helps you:

• Save space
• Reduce clutter
• Reduce paper and ink usage
• Securely store your data so that it is clear and legible, easily retrievable, private and protected from loss
• Watch your finances in order to stay on budget
• Always have the receipt you need on hand to make a return
• Share your data safely with others as necessary
• Make tax time easier and more effective
• Maintain a more efficient workforce
• Save money in a variety of ways, almost certainly paying for itself many times over

But the different receipt scanning software providers accomplish all of this in somewhat different ways, each with its pros and cons.

Let’s take a look at each of these options so that you can consider which, if any, might best meet your needs. The information here is as provided by the companies about their products and services.

Neat

Neat offers a bundled scanning hardware/receipt scanning software integration with several options. They offer both desktop and mobile versions of their stylish scanner along with their proprietary “digital filing cabinet” software and you can get either bundle for Windows or Mac.

(Note: Links in this section will show you the products discussed on Amazon)

Their desktop scanner uses Automatic Document Feeder technology, featuring a special input tray, to carry out batch scanning. It can also do two-sided scanning in one pass.

Their mobile scanner is designed for very convenient portability. It weighs under a pound and requires only a USB cable for both data and power so you don’t need to carry batteries for it.

Neat also sells accessories like protective cases to protect your mobile scanner on the go and items to maintain your scanner in good working order.

You can also get Neat’s receipt scanning software on its own for use with other compatible scanners.

Once you scan your receipts using either their desktop or mobile scanner or your own compatible scanner, their software does two things:

• Saves an image of your receipt
• Extracts the text from your receipt using “Intelligent Text Recognition” technology to parse the data into its digital filing system, automatically placing each piece of information, such as the vendor, date, price, location of purchase, payment method and so on into the proper field.

With the images and data now securely in your digital filing cabinet, you can then:

• Modify the data or add any notes
• Assign tax categories and link tax-related information to receipts
• Use both simple and advanced search capabilities to find whatever you need
• Export data to Excel, PDF, Quicken, Quickbooks, Turbo Tax and other programs
• Create expense reports

In addition, Neat’s Mac versions of its receipts scanning software are designed to integrate seamlessly with Mac and its OS, allowing you to drag and drop information from within Neat, use Spotlight and move documents into Neat from drop down menus throughout the OS.

As a bonus, you can also scan – including batch scan if using their desktop scanner – and make editable and searchable any combination of other types of documents. Neat’s software will recognize which type of document is being scanned and respond appropriately.

Its software even includes a special module for digitizing, storing and using business cards, including compatibility with Outlook or vCards.

Neat is always updating and improving their receipt scanning software based on feedback. And they also offer online community and customer support if you have questions.

NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System

OfficeDrop

If you want to scan your receipts directly from your scanner or mobile device to storage in the cloud that you can access from anywhere on multiple devices, OfficeDrop is an option you will want to consider.

OfficeDrop does not sell scanners. They just provide receipt scanning software that works with your own scanner or mobile device and an account where your data is stored for you.

When you sign up with OfficeDrop, you will get software that works with many types of scanners on both Windows and Mac and an OfficeDrop account.

• On Windows – OfficeDrop’s desktop software enables you to scan right from your scanner into your account without opening a web browser.
• On Mac – You can use their ScanDrop scanning software to scan directly into the cloud and it also integrates with Evernote, Google Docs, Dropbox and Gmail, in addition to your OfficeDrop account.
• On Your Mobile Device – You can use one of OfficeDrop’s apps which allow you to use your device’s camera to image your documents.

So you will scan your receipts with your own scanner or mobile device and OfficeDrop will help you align the scanned images.

The images will then be transmitted securely in encrypted form into your OfficeDrop account, transformed into searchable PDF’s and stored safely on their servers. OfficeDrop also boasts of several security measures they take to protect and ensure the privacy of your stored data.

OfficeDrop will also provide you with a dedicated email address so that you can email scanned images into the system.

Once uploaded, OfficeDrop’s OCR technology will digitize the text of your receipts.

You can then add any notes you wish to each document.

You can organize them in folders and add tags and labels that are all searchable.

Since your data is stored in the cloud, you will be able to easily access and work with it from anywhere with an Internet connection. And, in addition to helping you scan receipts with your mobile device, OfficeDrop’s apps allow you to work optimally with the data in your account from various mobile devices, as well.

OfficeDrop offers several free and paid plans based on options including your number of users, storage and file size limits, amount of pages you can upload and have OCR performed on each month and your support level.

Shoeboxed

If you want to avoid the hassle of scanning and uploading your receipts by yourself, Shoeboxed looks like a very interesting option.

They offer a service where they will do all of this for you. Here is how it works:

• You simply send them your documents by mail in special envelopes that they pay for and track.
• They will then scan these documents and enter the data in organized form into your online account for you.
• You can then have them send your receipts back to you in the mail or shred them, whichever you prefer.

You are also welcome to scan or image your receipts yourself and send the digital files to Shoeboxed electronically for entry into your account.

However you choose to go about it, you get the peace of mind of knowing not only that your documents are placed in your account, but that Shoeboxed’s staff will have verified that all of the data is entered correctly

You can then access the data in your account from anywhere you can get online.

• It is categorized and searchable.
• You can download reports, PDF’s and spreadsheets.
• You an import data into various financial programs like Quickbooks, Salesforce and others.

Choose the Right Receipt Scanning Software for You!

All of this description is just based on our study of available information about each of these companies. No matter which one you decide offers the best scanning software to meet your needs, receipt scanning software provides tremendous benefits. And with several options to choose from, you should certainly be able to find one that works for you.

Let’s take a look at 16 of the benefits that receipts scanning software can bring you.

1. Save Space

One of the main reasons people are drawn to digitizing their receipts with receipt scanning software is to get rid of paper clutter. This not only makes your area cleaner, but may allow you to maintain less or much smaller filing cabinets or other storage units.

2. Ensure Financial Data is Recorded Promptly Due to Multiple Convenient Input Options

As you know, when you fall behind on tracking your finances, the work pile progressively builds and it becomes more daunting to catch up. So it is wise to make sure your important data is accounted for on a consistent basis.

In light of this, it is a good thing that there are receipt scanning software solutions that can make inputting your data incredibly simple no matter where you are.

(Note: Links to Neat products will show you the relevant products on Amazon)

• At home or at the office – A variety of desktop scanners with a range of features can be used to input your data.
  • Neat’s NeatDesk system offers a desktop scanner with Automatic Document Feeder technology including a special input tray to support batch scanning so you can instantly scan even a large pile of receipts at once.
  • OfficeDrop offers tools that let you scan directly to cloud storage from your own compatible desktop scanner without even opening a web browser.
  • Shoeboxed offers a web-based uploader that you can use to submit receipts imaged with any scanner or imaging device.
• On the road – Various providers offer mobile scanners and apps that work with your own mobile devices so you can input your data from anywhere.
  • Neat offers a portable mobile scanner that weighs less than a pound and needs only a USB cord for both data transfer and power so no cumbersome batteries are required.
  • OfficeDrop provides apps that let you use your mobile device’s camera to scan information to be transformed into multi-page PDF’s on the go.
  • Shoeboxed offers an app for uploading images taken by your mobile device’s camera, as well.

  Options like this make it easy to keep track of travel expenses while still in the midst of your travels. You can even get it done while waiting at the airport.

• You can even outsource your receipt digitizing if you don’t want to bother with receipt scanning software yourself. With Shoeboxed, you can simply send your receipts to them and they will take on the rest of the labor to accurately get them into the system, ready for you to work with. You can either electronically send them images of the receipts that you’ve created or mail them the physical receipts using envelopes they pay for and track, after which they can return the documents to you or shred and recycle them as you wish.

What all this means is that no matter where you are, no matter what the time, you can input your receipts into your digital system in just seconds. So you never again have to forget to do it or lose a receipt before you get around to entering it.

3. Security

Some refer to a “digital filing cabinet” when describing the storage of your digitized receipts. These receipt scanning software options, by keeping your data in such a cabinet, offer security on a couple of levels.

• Privacy – When receipts are physically lying around, anybody could access them and their sensitive information. When you enter them into a digitized system, they are stored in a way where that information can be kept private.
  • With Neat, you can store them on your system where you can keep it safe.
  • With OfficeDrop, the entire upload process is encrypted and the company boasts of many security measures that they take to safeguard your stored data.
  • Shoboxed also offers encryption, monitoring and other strong security measures.
• Protection from Loss of Data – Once digitized, using backups properly, it is easy to ensure your receipts will not be lost, even in the event of a natural disaster such as a fire or flood. OfficeDrop stores your data in the cloud. Shoeboxed promises to do backups of your data for you so you don’t even have to worry about it yourself.

4. Clarity/Legibility

If you scan your new receipts consistently, you will always have crystal clear images of them long after paper receipts would have become crumpled, faded and nearly unreadable. Some receipt scanning software, like OfficeDrop’s, will help you align your images properly when you scan them in, as well, making it even easier to read them whenever you need to.

5. Make Tweaks or Comments on Any Receipt Easily with Editability

Once your information is in one of these systems, you can easily manually fix or modify anything you need to or add notes of any kind. With Neat, you can even drag and drop text from your scanned digital images.

6. Organization

Once uploaded, all your receipts are in one identifable place. Also, each system allows you to categorize and/or label them so you can easily sort in a number of ways when you want to find any particular receipt.

• In OfficeDrop, you can organize using folders.
• Neat is especially…well…neat…because its patented software uses “Intelligent Text Recognition” technology to automatically recognize various types of data on the receipt, such as the vendor, location of purchase, date, price and payment method and place each piece of information in the right field within the software so you can sort by any of them.

7. Find Receipts Easily with Searchability

Once your data is in any of these systems, you can use a search function to find whatever receipt you need in a flash.

• Neat has both simple and advanced search capabilities designed specifically for use with these types of documents.
• OfficeDrop lets you attach tags and labels to each document that you can then search by later.
• Shoeboxed also has searchability.

8. Access Your Data 24/7 from Anywhere on Almost Any Device

You can view or work with your files anytime you want from any location.

• With Neat, you can keep your data on a tiny flash drive that you can easily bring with you anywhere. Or you can put it on your network that you can reach while away from your home or office or on the road.
• OfficeDrop stores your data in the cloud and offers a variety of ways to access it on your computers or using special apps for your mobile devices.
• Shoeboxed stores in the cloud where you can access it, as well.

9. Share Data Simply and Safely

With your receipts digitized and stored, it is very easy to share them with partners or anyone you need to and to do so safely.

Any of the programs allow you to easily email data or images anywhere you desire.

OfficeDrop lets you grant access to particular files to whoever you wish and then monitor and revoke that access when you choose.

10. Work with your Data in Many Common Programs

• Neat’s software can export to Excel, PDF, Quicken, Quickbooks, Turbo Tax and more.
• Shoeboxed exports into Quickbooks, Salesforce, Evernote, Bill.com and more.
• On Mac, OfficeDrop will also integrate with Evernote, Google Docs, Dropbox and Gmail.

These are just examples and not even comprehensive lists of the programs and formats with which each system is compatible.

11. Create Reports

You can use your digitized data to create expense and other related reports in the different receipt scanning software.

12. Stay on Budget More Easily

In order to really stick to a budget, you need to track all of your expenses and other financial information. If doing so is a hassle, you may not consistently do it, leading you to miss your goals. When inputting and storing each receipt is as easy as these receipt scanning software systems make it, and you can access and work with them anytime from any place, you are far more likely to follow through with your financial plans.

13. Make Returning Your Purchases Easier

Part of staying on budget is making sure you return unwanted or defective items. But this requires having a receipt for each item you want to return. With these systems, you will always have the receipt you need available when you go to do a return.

14. Maintain a more Efficient Workforce

Having financial data so conveniently accessible and easy to work with means workers that rely on that data can better and more effectively carry out their jobs.

It also means that you either may not have to hire someone to do your bookkeeping or that whoever does it can do it while expending far less time and energy, freeing them to work part-time or spend more time on other important work.

15. Make Tax Time Easier and Less Expensive

A good receipt scanning software system will benefit you come tax time in a few ways:

• You can add tax information or assign tax categories to receipts when you scan them in, so when tax time comes, everything is prepared in a form you or your tax preparer can use.
• The best receipt scanner software systems, like Neat, can easily facilitate the creation of the reports you or your accountant will need to prepare for taxes and will even allow you to export the reports into the financial programs you use, such as Excel, Quicken, Quickbooks and Turbo Tax.
  This will save you time, and therefore money, if you do your own taxes. And if you have a tax preparer do them, it will take them less time and you may then receive a less costly bill.
• Having every expense well documented may also benefit you financially by ensuring that you receive all of the tax deductions for which you qualify.
• The scanned digital images themselves are IRS acceptable. So if the IRS ever asks to review any of your receipts, you will easily be able to find and provide them within seconds.

16. Eco-Friendly

Going paperless with your receipts, as well as possibly saving printing ink, may mean that receipt scanning software is better for the environment.

The Bottom Line: Simplify Your Life and Save Money at the Same Time

How often does an action both make your life much easier and save you money by doing it? Not often. But using receipt scanning software can do just that.

With batch scanning, mobile scanning, direct scanning to the cloud, integration with and exporting to many commonly used programs, easy report creation and so much more, the entire process can be extremely convenient.

And at the same time it offers:

• More space with less clutter
• Reduced paper and ink usage
• Protection of your sensitive data from prying eyes or loss
• Clear, legible, editable, organized and searchable records that you can access and share whenever, wherever and however you need
• Easier budgeting compliance
• Simpler purchase returns
• An easier, more straightforward tax process
• A more streamlined workforce in terms of activity and size

Efficiency is enhanced all around. And it is probably better for the environment, to boot.

Moreover, if you think about it, just about every benefit of receipt scanning software mentioned also custs costs and saves you money. And these are costs you save on not just once, but again and again for years to come. In the end, receipt scanning software pays for itself many times over.

Bonus: The Benefits Go Beyond Just Receipts

As if all of these benefits aren’t enough, consider that certain receipt scanning solutions will also bring you similar benefits in regards to other types of documents.

For instance, Neat has a special module in its digital filing software that stores business card images and data. So you scan the business cards and, just as when you scan receipts, software will intelligently extract the data and automatically organize it in the proper digital fields. You can then edit or add notes to the cards, search them to find what you need or even work with them in contact management programs like Outlook or in a vCard. You can also then sync them with your mobile device.

Neat will also allow you to scan in just about any other kind of document of any shape or size, including:

• Bills
• Statements
• Medical records
• Legal documents
• Insurance documents
• Product warranty documents
• Newspaper or magazine articles
• Personal or family records or documents

With Neat’s desktop scanner, you can even take advantage of its batch scanning technology to scan any combination of these in just one pass and the software will automatically recognize each document’s type and respond accordingly. Furthermore, with that scanner, you can scan up to fifty standard sized documents at once, even using two-sided scanning.

NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System

And once uploaded, all of the data from these documents will also be editable and searchable. You can even link various related documents to make it easier still to find them when you need them.

Shoeboxed will also digitize other documents besides receipts, such as business cards, bills or just about any other document you want stored with them.

Receipt Scanning Software: A No Brainer

So whether for your own personal or family accounting or that of your business or organization, you can see that receipt scanning software can make life so much easier in so many ways, and that the best scanning software can actually pay for itself. That is why we highly recommend that you take advantage of this wonderful technology today!

What this means is that you render the paper receipts into quality digital images and/or turn the physical text printed on them into highly organized, categorized and searchable digital text that you can easily access, work with and share from just about anywhere, anytime.

If you want to scan receipts, software like this will be of great assistance. So we want to help you understand how receipt scanner software works so that you can decide what you think is the best scanning software for your purposes.

There are several aspects involved in the process of taking advantage of receipt scanning software. Let’s take a look at each of them.

Physically Scanning Your Receipts

The first step in using receipt scanning sofware is to transform your paper receipts into digital images. There are several options for how you can do this:

(Note: Links to Neat and other products on this page will let you see information about them on Amazon)

Desktop Scanners

Some receipt scanning software will allow you to use whichever desktop scanner you happen to have to input your receipts. Other systems, like the Neat system, can include their very own scanner which is designed specifically to work seamlessly with their own software in an integrated solution.

Neat’s desktop scanner is especially nice because it uses Automatic Document Feeder technology with a special input tray to allow you to do batch scanning of many documents at once. It even allows you to do two-sided scanning in one pass.

NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System

Mobile Scanners

Neat offers an extremely lightweight, portable scanner. It requires only a USB cable both to send and transmit data and to receieve power so you don’t even have to carry batteries for it, making it even more convenient to bring on the road. You can use it to scan receipts just about anywhere. So, for example, it is very helpful for inputting receipts of your travel expenses as you obtain them, rather than having to wait until you return to your home or office, by which time you may have forgotten to do so or lost some of the receipts.

NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System

Neat also sells accessories like protective cases to keep your mobile scanner safe on the go.

There are also plenty of other small portable scanners on the market. So you can decide which you think is the best receipt scanner for your purposes.

Mobile Devices

Some receipt scanning software providers offer applications that enable you to initially digitize your receipts using a mobile device’s camera.

Outsourced Option

Shoeboxed is a service that offers the ability to simply mail them your receipts and have their staff scan them into their system for you. To facilitate the mailing, they will provide you with special envelopes that are prepaid and which they track. When they are done inputting your data, you can have them either return your physical receipts to you or shred them.

Using any combination of these options, you can quickly digitize even a large pile of old receipts and keep up with inputting any new receipts as you get them. From the point when you begin employing them, you will always have crystal clear images of your receipts that will last until long after the paper versions would have become unreadable.

Uploading Your Scanned Receipts into a Receipt Tracking System

Different receipts scanning software allows you to securely upload scans of your receipts in various ways:

• Neat comes with digital filing software that you put on your computer and, when you use it, the images that you scan are directly entered into the system.
• OfficeDrop receipt scanning software will take the images from your scanner and upload them directly to a cloud-based OfficeDrop account that you set up.
• Shoeboxed takes the scans that they have done for you and puts them in your online account. Shoeboxed also offers a web-based uploader so that, if you prefer, you can scan images of your receipts yourself and then transmit them so their staff can carry out the next steps for you.

Both OfficeDrop and Shoeboxed also provide you with a dedicated email address where you can send your scanned images for uploading into their systems.

Furthermore, both OfficeDrop and Shoeboxed offer encryption and other security features to protect your sensitive data during the uploading process.

Organization and Storage of Your Scanned Receipt Images and Their Data

Once your images are uploaded, different receipt scanning software will handle and/or transform your scanned images in different ways in order to store them in what is sometimes called a “digital filing cabinet” in which it will be very easy for you to find whatever information you need in the future.

• OfficeDrop, for instance, will immediately turn your image into a PDF file and store it on its cloud servers.
• Shoeboxed will store an image of the receipt along with the text form of its data, which has been extracted from the printed version, in your online tracking account.

Both of these services boast of the security of their data storage systems.

• Neat’s digital filing software will take your uploaded digitized receipt and do two things:
• Store an image of the receipt in the digital filing system
• Use its patented parsing technology to determine which text on the receipt represents the vendor, the date, the price and so on and automatically place each piece of information in the proper field in the system. This makes it simple to sort by any of these fields when you work with your information in the future.

All of these receipt scanning software options use what is called Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to turn the text in the scanned images of the receipts into actual digital text that you can work with as you wish.

All of them let you categorize receipts and use various types of tags and labels to make it easier to find particular documents later.

And all of them give you the peace of mind of knowing that your receipts are not lying around haphazardly where others might find them and view sensitive information and that your important financial data and documents need not be lost, even in the event of a disaster.

Working with Your Digital Financial Data

Once your data is organized and stored in a digital filing system, you can do just about anything you wish with it. You can:

• Access it from anywhere, anytime on multiple types of devices – Some of these companies offer apps specifically to allow you to optimally work with your data on particular devices
• Modify or add notes to any document
• Assign tax-related information to receipts – This will make tax time far easier and help ensure you get your maximum deductions and that you will instantly be able to produce any receipt necessary if the IRS comes calling for it
• Use a search function to find any image, document or information you want very easily – Neat, for instance, offers both simple and advanced search capabilities designed precisely for use with with these types of files. You’ll always be able to find the recipt you need quickly whenever you have to look up some information or make a return
• Safely and conveniently share specific images, documents or information with others as you wish
• Export your data for use in many programs and formats, such as Excel, PDF, Evernote, Google Docs, Dropbox, Gmail, Quicken, Quickbooks, Salesforce and Turbo Tax (depending upon which of these is compatible with the particular receipt scanning software you are using.)
• Create expense or other related reports – Some of the software, like Neat’s, will directly facilitate these operations

Beyond Receipts

Many of these receipt scanning software systems will carry out similar functions with business cards and even with all kinds of other documents.

Receipt Scanning Software: A Range of Uses, Diverse Options and Enormous Benefits

Whether you wish to use it to digitize and work with financial information for yourself or your family or for your organization or business, there is a receipt scanning software solution that will work well for you.

There are also solutions available for use with different operating systems, including ones that work very nicely with Windows and Mac, as well as with myriad mobile devices.

And each company offers a variety of products and plans, so there is sure to be one that can meet your needs, whatever they are.

As you can probably see and imagine, using receipt scanning software brings many benefits. It will save you time, energy and so much money that it will likely pay for itself many times over.