Top 6 best receipt-scanning apps for tracking expenses

What is a receipt scanner? 

A receipt scanner — specifically, a receipt-scanning app — is a piece of software that you can use to scan and save paper receipts. Several of these applications use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to scan important details on the receipt, like the date, vendor, and amount spent. 

What are the benefits of using a receipt-scanning app?

With a receipt-scanning app, users can digitally organize, classify, and track their spending. Receipt-scanning apps make budgeting, tracking expenses, and filing taxes easier. 

Receipt apps can also help remote employees track their expenses more efficiently. Instead of having them physically mail or hand in receipts, your distributed team can quickly scan their receipts and submit them for reimbursement.

One big advantage of receipt apps is that they help to uphold company policies, even when working with remote teams. For example, smart receipts can help run expense policies by identifying non-compliant expenses based on predefined rules.

With a receipt-scanning app, an audit trail of all expenditure-related actions, including approvals and rejections, is kept up to date. This keeps your expenses transparent so you stay compliant under local regulations.

6 top receipt-scanning apps 

Receipt-scanning apps can be incredibly useful for your team members. Here are the six receipt-scanning apps that we recommend.

1. Remote HR Management - Best for international teams 

If you want to track your remote team's expenses, then Remote HR Management is the app for you. You can manage your whole global workforce under one platform using multiple currencies.

With just one login, you can create roles and permissions to help you manage settings, including receipt approvals, all in one place.

Remote HR Management comes with integrated payroll and payments, a mobile app, and employee onboarding and offboarding capabilities. You can also track hours on the platform and manage documents and employee information.

It also features instant notifications on expense approvals after receipts are uploaded, making it easier to stay on top of new updates.

The HR Management platform is free to use for everyone.

2. QuickBooks Online - Best for large businesses

QuickBooks receipt scanner lets you automatically capture and upload receipt pictures. You can also upload your receipts manually to add them to your accounting report.

With QuickBooks, you can automatically extract vendor, amount, date, and payment method information and match it to an existing expense. Not only that, but you can automatically sort expenses and track spending so you never miss a deduction.

QuickBooks Online includes automatic receipt scanning and can match each field to the proper expenses. Everything is centrally located, making expense reporting easy.

Additionally, you can automatically produce financial statements, tax and inventory reports, and cash flow statements from your receipt scans.

Integrations include Zoho CRM, Zapier, QuickBooks Time, SAP Concur, and Zoho Expense.

Pricing starts at 24 USD per month.

3. Expensify - Best for tracking employee travel expenses

Expensify lets you quickly sort your expenses using filters based on date range, vendor, approval status, and other criteria. 

You can connect Expensify with apps you already use for travel, HR, and finance, including Uber and Intuit. What’s more, the platform helps you save on storage since everything is stored in the cloud.

It also lets you import credit card transactions and automatically import receipts from services like Uber and Airbnb. You can incorporate Expensify with your phone’s GPS sensor to manage mileage tracking.

Integrations include NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, and Gusto.

Their most popular plan is 5 USD per user per month.

4. FreshBooks - Best for freelancers

FreshBooks is primarily built for accounting, invoicing, and time-tracking. Its receipt-scanning feature streamlines expense tracking and helps maintain an up-to-date expense database.

FreshBooks is ideal for freelancers because it lets you easily capture receipts on your mobile device, classify expenses, and attach those expenses to the relevant invoices.

FreshBooks features automated invoices and time-tracking abilities. You can also connect with several payment processors, including PayPal and Stripe. Plus, FreshBooks supports automatic billing and time capture and lets you make mileage calculations.

Integrations include Slack, Asana, Basecamp, Shopify, Gusto, and HubSpot Marketing Hub.

FreshBooks offer multiple plans, but its most popular plan is 17 USD per month.

5. Zoho Expense - Best cloud-based receipt-scanning software solution

Zoho Expense is made to automate travel and expense management. With its autoscan feature, you can generate and submit receipt images immediately — even on the go. 

Scanned receipts are uploaded to the cloud, where they are securely processed and stored.

Zoho Expense features advanced reporting, unlimited receipt scanning and storage, and cloud-based access. Featuring a mobile app, the platform is great for travel expense approval.

Zoho Expense is scalable and can seamlessly integrate with other Zoho software. Additionally, it recognizes receipt duplicates by analyzing the date, currency, and amount.

The advanced auto-scan feature in Zoho Expense scans receipts in 14 different languages, giving you lots of options — especially if your employees are globally distributed.

Zoho Expense has a free plan for up to three users. After that, it's about 5 USD per active user per month, billed annually.

6. Wave - Best freemium solution

Wave's mobile receipts feature lets you manage expenses easily.

You can send your receipt or e-receipts straight to Wave through email. You can also take a photo of a receipt and upload it from your mobile device.

Wave Accounting features unlimited receipt-scanning capabilities with cloud-based access. You can also integrate receipts into an expense report.

Wave Accounting has offline capabilities for scanning receipts, so you can scan multiple receipts at once. Accountants are also available for support in case you need assistance with bookkeeping.

Wave's starter plan is free to use. The pro plan is 16 USD, billed monthly.

Optimizing your expense tracking with Remote HR Management

Manually entering expenses can increase the risk of error. Receipt apps can improve accuracy and reduce the likelihood of mistakes by directly capturing receipts from purchases. They’re a quick and easy way to save important documents and maintain digital tabs on your spending.

Remote HR Management helps your employees upload receipts and manage expenses so you can quickly approve any benefits.

To see how Remote can help you manage your expenses for your global team, chat with us today.

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