BOOKKEEPING GUIDE

How to organise receipts and invoices for your business.

A shoebox of paper and an inbox full of order emails is how most businesses start. It works until the VAT return, the year end or an HMRC question arrives. This guide sets out a simple system: capture every receipt quickly, name it the same way every time, keep a digital copy HMRC will accept, and match it to the bank.

Figures for the 2026/27 tax year · Last reviewed 21/10/2026

Why the system matters

Receipts and invoices are the evidence behind your figures. GOV.UK lists the types of proof a sole trader should keep, including receipts for goods and stock, bank statements, sales invoices, till rolls and bank slips. A limited company must keep records of all money received and spent, along with receipts, invoices and bank statements.

If you are VAT registered, the paperwork has a direct cash value. You need the evidence to reclaim VAT on a purchase. A lost invoice can mean VAT you cannot claim on that return. Our guide on reclaiming VAT covers what counts as valid evidence.

A good system also saves time. When a bank line says only "CARD 4471 LONDON", the receipt is the only thing that tells you what it was.

Step 1: Capture each receipt when you get it

The best time to deal with a receipt is the day you get it. Paper fades, gets lost in a van or ends up in a coat pocket. Emails sink under newer ones. Set up a habit for each way receipts arrive.

Paper receipts. Photograph them on your phone straight after paying. Lay the receipt flat, in good light, with all four edges in the shot.
Email receipts and invoices. Forward them to one dedicated address, such as a finance inbox, rather than leaving them spread across personal and work accounts.
Online accounts. Many suppliers, marketplaces and software providers keep invoices in an account area. Download them once a month, or set the account to email each one.
Direct debits and subscriptions. Check the first invoice is coming through to your finance inbox. After that, it should arrive on its own each time.

Sales invoices you send out need the same care. Keep a copy of every invoice you issue, ideally in the software you raised it in. If you need a starting point, see our guide on making an invoice template.

Step 2: Name files the same way every time

A consistent file name means you can find any receipt in seconds, even without special software. A simple pattern works well:

Date, supplier, amount. For example: 2026-10-14_Fuel-Station_62.40.pdf

Putting the date first, written year then month then day, means files sort in date order automatically. Adding the amount makes it easy to match a file to a bank line.

Then store the files in a small number of folders. One folder per month inside one folder per financial year is usually enough. Avoid folders by type of cost. Deciding whether something is "travel" or "motor" is a coding decision for the books, not for your filing.

Keep business and personal receipts apart from the start. If you pay for something personal with a business card, note it as soon as you see it, so it is not treated as a business cost.

Digital copies and what HMRC accepts

Many people keep paper receipts for years because they are not sure a photo or scan is enough. HMRC's guidance is clearer than most expect, at least for VAT.

VAT Notice 700/21 on record keeping says you do not have to keep records in a set way, and that most bookkeeping and computer systems will meet the requirement. It also covers scanning directly:

A scanned image can replace the paper. If your software scans an invoice and keeps the image, and that image contains all the detail needed for VAT, you do not need to keep the original. That is unless you need it for another purpose.
Typed-in figures are not a copy. If you only key selected details from an invoice into your software, the software data is not a copy of the invoice. In that case you must still keep the original.
Some documents must stay in their original form. HMRC gives the C79 import VAT certificate as an example.

So the rule of thumb is simple. Keep a full, readable image of the whole document, not just the numbers from it. A blurred photo, or one with the VAT number or date cut off, may not do the job.

VAT-registered businesses must also keep certain records digitally, in functional compatible software, under Making Tax Digital. HMRC says you should keep records in a way that lets you find them easily when asked. Our page on Making Tax Digital bookkeeping explains what that means day to day.

The GOV.UK pages for sole traders and limited companies set out what records to keep and for how long. They do not say those records must be kept on paper. If you are unsure about a particular document, keep the original as well as the scan.

Where receipt apps fit in

Receipt capture apps such as Dext, Hubdoc and AutoEntry do the capture and filing steps for you. They work in broadly the same way:

You photograph a receipt in the app, forward an email to a dedicated address, or upload a PDF
The app reads the supplier, date, total and VAT from the image
Someone checks those details and chooses how to code the cost
The details and the image are sent to your bookkeeping software, where the image stays attached to the transaction

The main benefit is that the image and the transaction live together. When you look at a bank line in the software, the receipt is one click away. Some apps can also fetch invoices from supplier accounts automatically.

Apps do not remove the need for checking. Reading software can get a date, a supplier or a VAT figure wrong, especially on crumpled till receipts. Someone still needs to review each item before it reaches the books. Whichever app you choose, make sure it keeps the full image, not only the extracted figures. We cover each tool on our Dext, Hubdoc and AutoEntry pages, and the wider picture on our software page.

Step 3: Match receipts to the bank

Capturing receipts is only half the job. The other half is checking that every payment out of the bank has a receipt or invoice behind it. This is part of bank reconciliation.

Work down the bank lines and attach or match the right document to each one. Anything without a document goes on a missing list. The sooner you do this, the easier the missing items are to find.

A worked example

This example is made up. A sole trader decorator matches receipts once a week. One Friday, three card payments have nothing behind them: a builders' merchant, a fuel station and an online order.

The builders' merchant can reprint the invoice from the account number. The fuel receipt turns up in the van and is photographed. The online order invoice is downloaded from the supplier account. Ten minutes later the week is complete. Left until the year end, the same three items might take an afternoon, or never be found.

When a receipt is missing

Ask the supplier for a copy invoice first. Most can send one from their own records. Check your email, online accounts and card statements for anything that confirms what was bought.

If a record truly cannot be replaced, GOV.UK sets out what to do. Sole traders must do their best to provide figures, using estimated or provisional figures, and tell HMRC which they used when filing. A limited company must do its best to recreate the records, tell its Corporation Tax office straight away, and include this information in its Company Tax Return.

How long to keep everything

In short, limited companies keep records for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to. Sole traders keep them for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. VAT records are generally kept for at least 6 years. There are exceptions, which our guide on how long to keep business records explains in full.

A simple routine to follow

Every time you pay. Photograph the receipt or forward the email.
Every week. Match receipts to bank lines and list anything missing.
Every month. Download invoices from online accounts and chase the missing list.
Every VAT quarter. Check that every purchase you are claiming VAT on has a full, readable invoice.
Every year end. Make sure the year's folder is complete and backed up.

If that routine keeps slipping, you are not alone. It is the part of bookkeeping most owners find hardest to keep up while running a business.