In this digital age, the analog way of doing things is continuously losing popularity. However, some things still require a slip of paper – one of those things being a receipt. A receipt is your proof of purchase and is necessary for home budgeting and business expense reports.
You may be asking yourself, “How do I scan a receipt so I can use it on the computer or my smartphone?”
As it turns out, many receipt scanning apps and receipt scanning software programs exist for your desktop or laptop that can make your life easier.
Even the geniuses at Quickbooks have a way to scan paper receipts into their app. We can all agree that these apps make our budgetary and fiduciary lives much easier these days.
Need some quick reasons to switch over to digital receipt scanning? Here are some:
- Most are free
- Work seamlessly
- Integrate well with existing tools
- Saves time
- Reliable
Let’s have a seat and dig in.
What Is a Receipt?
If you have made any purchase in your life, you should receive a slip of paper following the sale. A receipt is a piece of paper proving the purchase and a breakdown of every penny involved in that purchase.

The receipt includes the date and time of purchase, the product price, any potential sales or discounts, and the amount of tax generated from the purchase.
How To Scan a Receipt With a Phone
Not everyone owns a flatbed scanner or an all-in-one printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine.
Who wants to waste all that desk space anyways? Luckily, your smartphone can fill that gap. There are dozens of free receipt scanning software applications you can download.

After selecting an app, you will use it with your smartphone camera. Take a picture of your receipt on a dark, flat surface like a coffee table. The app can generate a digital copy of that receipt.
Best Free Apps for Scanning Receipts
We’ve rounded up some of Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store’s many receipt scanning apps that will answer your question of “how do I scan a receipt?” Let’s take a look at a few of them.
Expensify
Expensify is one of the most well-known personal finance apps for many budgeting needs.
Not only does the app help you maintain expenses and your budget, but it can scan receipts. There is no need to wonder, “How do I scan a receipt?” with this app. Expensify makes it easy!
The company claims their SmartScan receipt scanner works by snapping a photo of your receipt. After that, the app captures all the necessary data in an easy-to-read expense report. Imagine how easy it is to scan receipts for taxes.
Wave Accounting
As a blue-chip accounting and budgeting app, Wave Accounting receives high marks from small businesses.
The best part about Wave Accounting is that its receipt scanning software is free and works with its mobile app and dashboard.
Considering how well the software can integrate with many other Wave applications, the receipt scanning application is another feather in this system’s cap.
Fetch Rewards
If you are seeking an app to scan receipts for money and points, look no further than Fetch Rewards. Fetch is an app that allows consumers to scan their receipts and earn points toward Visa gift cards, retail gift cards, and other rewards.
Now, as to how to scan a receipt on Fetch Rewards, consumers need to locate any active offers for points on the app and activate them. Users will then scan their receipts using their smartphone camera.
Need to know how to scan long receipts with the app? No problem. Fetch allows users to take multiple photos of their receipts if it is long.
Scanning Receipts With Quickbooks
If you’ve only got a smartphone as a personal device, we’ve got good news! Quickbooks scan receipts using your smartphone camera. The device’s small form factor makes it the best for use with Quickbooks.

All you need to do is open the Quickbooks Online app, click on the Menu button, and click “Receipt snap.” The Quickbooks Online app then takes all the necessary data and outputs it into a report you can edit.
You can then look at the report and add it as a transaction to your accounts. The company has made it a cinch to scan receipts for those using Quickbooks as budgeting software, or for an accountant using it to keep the books at the office clean.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, there are many answers to the question of “How do I scan a receipt?” when it comes to using a smartphone. You have your pick of the litter with the number of scanner apps available – quality ones, too.
With heavy hitters like Quickbooks Online offering receipt scanning as a free feature, you are getting software that is user-friendly for novices and while also being in-depth for power users.
You can now scratch “find a receipt scanner” off your to-do list. These apps are more than good enough.