The Best Receipts and Expense Tracking Software buyers guide by Inspector Jones

Basic functionality

The basic functionality must work well, be easy to use and intuitive. Look for:

• Receipt scanning
• Data entry
• Automatic processing (or human verification) to convert receipts into categories, dollar amounts, etc.
• Ability to categorise, tag and add comments

Advanced functionality

You may be interested in software which supports more advanced features. Consider whether you need:

• Expense reporting and reimbursement - look for integrated workflow, approval and payments if possible. I recommend Expensify.
• Support for different expense types - like mileage, time, and travel expenses. Some software will automatically calculate these (e.g. mileage based on maps or GPS, and time based on clocking on and clocking off)
• Support for scanning and recognising other documents, such as business cards, to be automatically filed. I recommend NeatCloud and NeatMobile.

Questions to ask your vendor

• What mobile devices do you support? Look for full apps for your preferred devices (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, iPad, etc.), that support the entire set of functionality - data input, reporting, approvals, and camera integration.
• What accounting packages do you integrate with? Look for pre-built support to automatically load data into your current accounting software.
• Are you compliant with tax / government regulations in my country - particularly, make sure you understand whether you need to retain a paper copy of receipts.
• What pre-built reports are available?
• Is the data verified for correctness? Some vendors use manual (human) verification