Have you ever been in a scenario when you desperately needed your Smart Receipts but could not locate them? Perhaps you tossed them away or misplaced them. This occurrence is inevitable. You risk losing your receipts if you do not back them up.
Whether it’s someone stealing your property or a natural disaster like a fire or flood wrecking your home. A cloud-based mobile app can be used to save receipts. Keeping your receipts in the cloud is an excellent method to declutter your house.
Importantly, what counts most at the end of the day is that your documents are secure and backed up. If you are a business person or an individual interested in efficiently collecting and storing receipts, here is how to do so in the cloud.
Why should receipts be kept?
Almost all successful businesses maintain orderly records. Even though this seems rather obvious, the majority of business owners do not bother to keep records for tax and other purposes. They may not even Rico recognize the need for records or organization
Whether you are running a small business or doing your taxes, it is essential to understand where your money is going. Not only may proper receipt storage boost tax deductions, but it can also assist expedite operations. Apps that save receipts can be of great use in this regard. Here are several reasons why you should keep your receipts:
Monitor the success of your business
No company is sufficient to avoid competition. With so many people working hard and attempting to expand their businesses to the best of their abilities, it is easy to become buried with Smart Receipts and expenditure reports. How then can you remain at the top of your game? By storing your smart receipts and records in the cloud, you can quickly find the receipts you need and assess your company’s success.
Putting together financial statements
You need receipts to properly compile a profit and loss statement (P&L) and balance sheets. This is true throughout the year, not just during tax season. Profit-and-loss statements and balance sheets are crucial for any organization, particularly if it is thriving.
Identifying the origin of income
If you take credit cards as payment for your goods or services, you must be able to issue receipts to your clients. Proper documentation enables the separation of taxable income from nontaxable revenue and the identification of deductible business expenses.
Maintaining a record of tax-deductible expenses
If you are a person or the single proprietor of a firm, keeping track of your costs and deductions throughout the year will help you pay less in taxes at the end of the year. Keeping records might be time-consuming but using receipt-saver applications can save you a substantial amount of money.
Filling up tax returns
Receipts allow you to reconstruct an image of your tax year. After completing tax returns at the end of the fiscal year, many individuals discard their receipts, even though experts advise preserving them for at least seven years. The best part is that you may save your receipts forever by putting them in the cloud.
Which receipts should be kept for tax purposes?
Which receipts should you preserve and file away for your tax return? What must you include on your tax return? I can tell you that the majority of people do not know how to keep their Smart Receipts effectively. Determining whether deductions are tax-deductible might be difficult.
Below, I address several questions regarding deductions, demonstrate which things are tax-deductible, and assist you in determining which ones will help you reduce your taxes immediately.
If you are a private citizen, you should save the following receipts:
1) Medical expenditures
Did you know that medical bills can be deducted from your taxes as a medical expense? This is especially true in countries like the U.S., where medical bills make up most of the cost of health care.
To reduce your tax liability, you can utilize receipts and create expenditure reports for nursing care, hospital stays, the cost of eyeglasses or contact lenses, prescription medications, sessions with a psychiatrist or psychologist, occupational or physical therapy sessions, and ambulance transportation.
2) Educational expenditures
According to the government, a student enrolled in a recognized and qualified educational institution is eligible for tax deductions for education-related expenses such as tuition, books, study equipment such as a computer or peripheral device, internet access, computer software, and other related services.
3) Childcare expenses
A youngster younger than 13 years old is considered dependent. You are eligible for a credit for a child or dependent care expense paid to a babysitter, after-school program, or another care provider. If the care is provided in your home, extra expenses, such as the cost of a cook, maid, or housekeeping, may also qualify. You are only eligible for these credits if you paid for them to enable you and your spouse to produce income, or if your spouse is either disabled or a full-time student.
4) Self-employment expenses
The majority of your expenses, such as insurance, office supplies, travel, etc., can be deducted from your taxable income if you are self-employed.
If you own a business, you must keep the following receipts:
- Sales slips
- Paid expense reports
- Invoices \sReceipts
- Deposit slips
- Returned checks
What additional receipts should you keep?
The simple solution is to keep all of your receipts. You never know what might one day be required. Other critical documents to save include:
- Payroll
- Business transactions
- Journals
- Ledgers
- Earlier tax returns
- costs for travel, entertainment, transportation, and gifts
- Employment taxes
- Business assets and property
- check cancellations and bank statements
- Statements for 1099, K1, W2, and other tax forms
How to save receipts electronically (in the cloud) — Detailed Instructions
Emailing receipts alone is insufficient. This is the most common method of spending management since it is convenient, but it has numerous downsides. The cloud should be used to store receipts for future reference.
Cloud storage is essentially a method for storing files on internet-connected PCs or servers. With an Internet connection, you can access these files from anywhere in the globe. This provides numerous benefits over storing your stuff on a hard drive or USB stick.
Some of the benefits of storing your documents in the cloud include:
- reducing clutter in your home or workplace
- Finding a receipt amid thousands or hundreds of thousands of others
- Easily backing up and retrieving your files from anywhere
- Your information will be safe
Keeping your receipts in the cloud
Now, all you need to save receipts in the cloud is a computer, laptop, iPad, iPhone, or any other internet-enabled device. Choose a cloud platform to store your data. This article discusses the three most popular cloud platforms that provide individuals with a few gigabytes of free storage space.
There is no free trial available on the following platforms. They provide either a free plan with unlimited length and restricted storage space or a premium plan with more storage space.
Google Drive
Google Drive is Google’s option for cloud storage. Since it is a Google service, there will be no advertisements, unlike similar offerings. This platform provides 15GB of free storage space, which may be expanded by connecting your Google accounts. It is sufficient to create a Gmail account.
Then, visit www.google.com/drive and sign in with your email address. Click the “Create folder” button when you are finished to create a new folder. You may now add receipts, bills, and other critical documents to this folder. Additionally, you can share this folder with others by modifying “Sharing options.”
Dropbox
DropBox is a free cloud storage service that enables the uploading and management of any digital material in the Cloud. Using the Dropbox mobile app, you may access files from your desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile phone. It is also a receipt-saving application.
With the free Dropbox Basic account, you can store up to 2 Gigabytes of data. However, this program allows in-app purchases that can be used to subscribe to a higher plan, allowing you to have over a Terabyte of cloud storage space.
To upload your receipts to Dropbox, navigate to the Settings menu and then select Require app passcode. Using this, you can configure your four-digit PIN lock. Create a folder just for storing Smart Receipts, and you are finished!
Evernote
Evernote is a well-known cloud-based productivity suite with more than 45 million users. In addition to creating to-do lists, organizing checklists, and expense reports, you can also preserve voice recordings. Even without using words, you can create these notes.
Evernote enables you to create all of these audio notes. It is easily accessible on all of your devices. Evernote and Google Drive have identical procedures for storing receipts and bills.
Apps for Receipt Scanning
After selecting your online cloud platform, you can easily download a receipt-scanning app from the Google Play Store on the web. Alternatively, you can review the list of the finest receipt scanning applications available online. It is possible to scan receipts, receipt images, and other documents with a receipt scanner app.
What Apps for Receipt Scanning You Should Use
Some receipt scanning apps offer wonderful capabilities that allow users to make expense reports, mileage smart receipts, data entry, accounting, expense tracking, and interactive graphs and charts to analyze expenses. Simply take a photo of the receipt using the receipt scanner app. The software will then automatically scan the photograph and optimize its quality to make it more legible.
Then, you can export the scanned images in either JPEG PNG or PDF CSV format. Once your smart receipt has been exported, you can submit it to your cloud platform. The programs listed below are some of the top receipt scanning applications available.
These apps or software are compatible with Android, iOS, and the computer, and have received several positive ratings and reviews online. Some of these applications are free, while others are expensive but provide a trial period.
- Wave’s WellyBox Receipts
- NeatDesk
- NeatReceipts
- Evernote Shoeboxed Veryfi Core Intelligent Receipts
Read More: How to Maintain Digital Receipts for Business Expenses
