7 Tips to Keep Track of Receipts for Your Church and Nonprofit

Here are some tips to keep track of receipts:

Tip #1: Always get a cash receipt. Get into a habit of always asking for a receipt. Even if you purchase something used off an individual...get a written receipt from them.

Tip #2: Always look at your receipt. Get into a habit of looking at your receipt as soon as you get it. Sometimes your receipt won’t print off properly. Fill in any missing information. Always write or circle the date on it too.

Tip #3: Keep track of receipts. Have one special place to put your receipts as soon as you receive them. For some people this may be a compartment in their wallet, purse, or checkbook. For others it could be a pocket in their day planner, a compartment in their laptop bag, or a special place in their vehicle....just as long as you get in the habit of putting your receipts in that same safe place every time.

Tip #4: Require receipts from everyone. This is one detail of our church secretary’s job that she states gives her the most stress. Getting receipts from everyone that is sent out to pick up things for the church. Every staff member and/or volunteer should give you receipts for purchases within a certain time frame. If they are a little forgetful where they put those receipts...have them ask the cashier to tape the receipt to the merchandise. Whatever it takes to get that receipt!

Tip #5: File your receipts promptly. Every day or at least once a week...take those receipts you have put in that special place or received from other people and file them.

Do not just stick them in a desk drawer. If you have a very small organization, you can file them in an accordion file separated into the 12 months.

You can staple or tape small receipts on to copy paper and write out to the side: when, where, and why you purchased that particular item. Then file them into a file system that works best for you.

Some small churches or nonprofits organize their invoices and receipts in a series of file folders labeled by the month and year such as “Receipts July 2010”. You can keep this month and even last month’s on your desktop for easy filing and data entries. How you set up your filing system is up to you. Set it up where you will know in a instant where that receipt to Home Depot from the summer of 2007 is.

Tip #6: Enter your receipts into your accounting software often. Most important tip! Don’t let those nicely filed receipts stack up. Enter them into your accounting software at least once a month. I put a small red check mark in the corner of the receipt to indicate that I have entered it into the accounting software.

Tip #7: If you dislike filing and data entry as much as I do...try Shoeboxed. You simply stuff all your receipts and/or business cards into a pre-addressed envelope and send it to Shoeboxed and they scan them, categorize them, and organize them into your online secure account. You can also forward all your email receipts (such as Amazon) to them.

No more worrying about filing your receipts! You can even take a picture of your receipt with your phone and send it to Shoeboxed and they will take care of it.

This may be just the answer you were looking for with those wonderful people that always manage to misplace that essential receipt before they remember to get it to you. Just have them immediately take a picture of the receipt with their phone! They can then either send it to Shoeboxed or just send it to you and you can send it to them. Whichever works best for you.

After your documents are processed into your Shoeboxed account, they can be viewed, printed, emailed, downloaded, or exported from your account in a wide variety of formats including PDF, Excel, CSV, QuickBooks, and Quicken file types. Sweet!!!

Note: Shoeboxed scanned receipts are accepted by the IRS.

Save $10 on any Shoeboxed Mail-In plan.

It is imperative to safely store all your receipts and important documents. See how long you have to keep those documents: Records Retention Schedule

Share some of your tips on how you keep track of your receipts!

Do you have a system to keep track of receipts that is working for you? Could you take a moment to share some of your tips with other churches and nonprofits? It is easy to do. Just enter your idea or thought for the title and then click on the link that says: ”Click here to see the rest of the form and complete your submission.”

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