Even if you’re the best administrator around, keeping track of office expenses can be difficult. This can be especially true if you’re handling the books for a team of people who aren’t as organized as you are. Well, you’re in luck. Here are five user-friendly apps that can take a lot of the headaches and mistakes out of tracking receipts. And they’re all free.
Genius Scan
Brandon Hilgemann at ProPreacher.com listed this app among the best apps available for pastors. The app lets you easily scan documents, including receipts and handwritten notes, and archive them for later use. The main benefit of Genius Scan is it allows you to export your scans as a JPEG or PDF file for later reference. The free version is fairly basic, but it gets the job done. If you’re looking for an easy way to snap a photo and archive receipts in PDF format, this app has you covered.
Availability: iPhone and Android
Shoeboxed
Shoeboxed is designed specifically for business owners and business travelers so they can easily document expenses in order to maximize their reimbursements and tax refunds. The app also claims that your uploaded photos and data are verified by actual people. Shoeboxed has a website with the same name that syncs with your app so you can manage your expenses wherever you have Internet access. With a recent major update, which greatly improved functionality and a newly added mileage tracking feature, this may be a contender for the best app out there for business travel reimbursement.
Availability: iPhone and Android
CamScanner
This app is specifically designed to scan documents. That means it will certainly handle your receipts as well as give you a searchable database. But the real standout feature is its ability to extract printed text from images and create PDFs. You can export these PDFs or even send your data via fax. If you need to scan documents in addition to saving receipts, you may want to give this app a try. And if you love CamScanner, you can purchase upgraded versions with even more functionality.
Availability: iPhone and Android
OneReceipt
This app stands out for its organizational capabilities. Not only does it scan receipts, but you can create tags and messages to organize your receipts into custom subcategories like “travel expense,” “food,” or whatever else you like. It will also keep track of your e-mail receipts–from online purchases, for example. As an added feature, your OneReceipt account allows you to view your receipts within your bank or credit card statement. If that wasn’t enough, the app will give you a report of your monthly spending summary. Be prepared to never again have a legitimate excuse for losing track of a receipt.
Availability: iPhone
Expensify
This app is designed specifically for taking the hard work out of expense reports. Like the other four apps reviewed here, it allows you to scan receipts by snapping a photo. But unlike the other apps, its “SmartScan” feature will pull the details from the receipt automatically. You can track and categorize expenses at the touch of a button. Perhaps the best feature is that it will generate expense reports for you based on the receipts you’ve uploaded and categorized. If you’re tired of manually inputting your data into a complicated expense report, Expensify is your solution for–according to its developers–”expense reports that don’t suck.”
Availability: iPhone and Android
For more help with your office needs, see the articles “5 Tech Tools to Manage Pastoral Ministry” and “Tracking Expenses–Why Churches Must Do Better.”
