Scanning Receipts for tax purposes has become equally necessary and beneficial in this digital era. Rather than digging through a bunch of boxes every tax season to produce required tax receipts, small businesses are now finding it effortless to organise and manage scanned receipts.
The first step of this journey is scanning the tax receipts properly. This comprehensive blog will provide a complete guide to scanning receipts for tax purposes.
Keep scrolling.
What to Use for Scanning Receipts
Scanning tax receipts correctly doesn’t require extensive computer knowledge. You can do it simply with a scanner or even, just your phone. To use your computer system or a laptop, you will need a portable receipt scanner that are readily available to purchase from your local tech or office supply retailer. Let’s learn how to scan receipts using a portable scanner.
How to Scan Receipts Using a Portable Scanner
The receipts being scanned might include normal-length as well as long-length receipts. Below, you can find out how to scan normal-length and longer-length receipts using a receipt scanner.
Scanning Receipts of Normal Length Using Portable Scanner
To scan your receipt using a desktop scanner, please follow the steps below:
- Begin by setting up your scanner. Ensure that your scanner is sufficiently charged if it is battery-operated. Attach the scanner to your system via a USB cable.
- Ensure your PC has scanner drivers and software installed. Please note the software usually comes with the scanner, or you might download the software from the manufacturer’s site.
- Flatten your receipt to remove any wrinkles or folds.
- Open the scanner software on your PC and choose the document type (“receipt”).
- Set the resolution to 300 DPI.
- Choose the file format (Preferably PDF) and file location at which the receipt is to be saved.
- Insert your receipt into the feed slot.
- The scanner will start pulling your receipt, or you might need to press the ‘scan’ button to start the procedure.
- Once scanned, give a meaningful name to your file and save it.
Scanning Receipts of Longer Length Using Receipt Scanner
Although the procedure to scan the longer receipts is the same as the normal ones, longer-length receipts may require additional settings. Please keep reading to learn about them.
- Be careful while unfolding and flattening the longer receipts, as they might be tricky to handle.
- While choosing the file mode, look for “Long paper” or “Extended” mode.
- If your scanner allows, enter the size of the receipt manually. (Measure the length and width of your receipt)
- If you don’t want the file size to be bigger, choose a resolution of less than 300 DPI but not less than 200 (to not compromise on quality).
- Ensure the entire receipt is fed into the scanner and doesn’t get stuck or misaligned.
- Alternatively, you can press and hold the scan button on your scanner for three seconds after feeding the long receipt. It will tell the scanner that it’s a long receipt, and it should scan the receipt in extended document mode.
How To Scan Receipts Using Your Mobile Phone
If you don’t feel like using a scanner, you can use your mobile phone to scan your receipts. Keep reading to learn how scanning receipts can be achieved using your handheld device.
Use a Scanning App
There are tons of scanning apps available on the internet for scanning receipts. ‘CamScanner’, ‘Adobe Scan’, ‘Dropbox Scanner’ and ‘Expensify’ are a few of them.
Usually, these apps automatically detect the receipt’s edges and adjust the scan. Please follow the steps below to scan your receipt.
- Download and install the app on your phone.
- Flatten your receipt to remove wrinkles.
- Place the receipt on the dark background if it is light-coloured and vice versa.
- Choose a well-lit place. Sunlight is the best option, but a properly lit room is enough.
- Launch your app and scan the receipt.
- To scan the longer receipt, choose the write document type, or you can scan it in two halves and merge it afterwards.
Use Google Drive
If you aren’t in favour of downloading extra apps on your phone, Google Drive is the best option.
- Launch the Google Drive App on your phone.
- You can use your existing Gmail account to access Google Drive.
- Click on the ‘+’ button and choose ‘Scan’.
- Scan your receipt and save it in the format you desire. (PDF, JPEG, PNG).
- You can scan more than one receipt at a time if needed.
- Save the scanned receipt to your drive.
Scanning Receipts from Both Sides
Scanning a receipt from both sides requires the same procedure as mentioned above. Whether using a portable scanner, Google Drive, or a Mobile App, follow the procedure mentioned in the text above. You need to scan both sides individually and save them in a single file for better reproduction later.
Get Me Sorted: Best Receipt Scanning Service in Australia
Are you finding the entire procedure of scanning and organising your receipts cumbersome? We have a better option for you. Send your paper receipts to Get Me Sorted and get back to your business.
From effortless organisation to reliability and accuracy, our tailored solution will let you focus on the things that matter.Our experts will scan the receipts for you and organise them accurately and reliably—no more drowning in the sea of papers and bills.
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