Guide

Digitising receipts properly

Thermal paper fades, slips get lost, binders fill up. Digital receipts can be searched and reach your accountant in minutes. To get there, a few small things matter.

A good photo

Put the receipt on a dark table, smooth it out and photograph it from above. All four edges should be in the picture, along with the supplier, date, amounts and tax. For long receipts, two photos are better than one you can’t read. Please don’t print out invoices you received as PDFs and scan them again: the PDF already is the original.

File it straight away

The best moment is right at the till. With belegbuddy a phone photo or a WhatsApp message is enough, and email invoices are forwarded to your receipt box. That way there is no pile at the end of the year.

Data, not just pictures

A photo alone is not bookkeeping. What counts is the supplier, date, net amount, tax, gross amount and category. The AI in belegbuddy extracts all of that, checks the VAT ID and makes a booking suggestion. You should still check it, because AI does get things wrong now and then.

Retention

In Austria, books and receipts generally have to be kept for seven years (§ 132 of the Federal Fiscal Code, BAO). Keeping them digitally is allowed as long as they can be reproduced completely, in order, with identical content and true to the original until the period ends. Whether you may throw the paper away afterwards, and which exceptions apply, is best clarified with your accountant. Also export your data regularly as your own backup.

Keep things apart from the start

Company and rental property, two projects, the club: whatever is accounted for separately belongs in separate receipt boxes, each with its own address and categories.

This guide is not tax or legal advice.