Docketbank provides a convenient, compliant and easy way to capture your business expense receipts on the fly.
When paying business expenses with cash or a personal credit card it's important to make sure the transaction is recorded and the paperwork stored so you comply with ATO rules.
We've come across a new service that handles both aspects. DocketBank.com lets people use their smartphones or tablets (iOS or Android) to photograph receipts on the spot, and then organises and stores the images. No smartphone? Use a scanner when you get back to the office.
Once the image has been captured, it's assigned to a folder (you're free to choose the categories) and tagged with information including the supplier, date and amount. There's no attempt to 'read' the image and pick out any information. That would be a moderate technical challenge, but if business cards can be read reasonably reliably, we would have thought something similar could be done with dockets.
Overseas travel is no problem, as DocketBank allows for multiple currencies with approximate conversion to $A until the actual amount is entered, for instance after the credit card statement is received.
Data can be exported from DocketBank into your accounting software to reduce the data entry effort.
Another benefit of DocketBank is that you can set spending limits on folders, and the app uses a 'traffic light' system to indicate whether it is OK to keep spending or if it's time to slow down or stop.
Free DocketBank accounts are suitable for personal use, or in conjunction with a $19.99 per year Pro account which allows folder sharing with more people. Similarly, the apps - which can be used stand-alone or with the online service - are either free but ad-supported, or 99c without the ads.
There are other ways of storing dockets electronically. A few examples are;
- The Xero online accounting system allows scanned images or photos to be attached to records.
- The ACCC Shopper app stores images of receipts, but more from a consumer rights perspective than for taxation compliance.
- Shoeboxed lets you scan or photograph receipts and other documents and then extracts the key data with human verification so it can be exported to MYOB, QuickBooks and other applications.
- Evernote lets you capture, tag and store receipts and pretty much anything else.
