Xero: Automated receipt processing

Receipt processing on Xero

With its clever bank reconciliation process, Xero solved one of the most painful parts of the bookkeeping process.

But the one that remained was the data entry required to process receipts and expenses. And it was the sort of task that often got left for ever, usually in a plastic bag in the corner of the room.

However, there are several 3rd party apps that integrate into Xero and automate this process particularly well.

We tend to use Receiptbank which makes the whole process wonderfully easy.

To get it up and running, you can either install the app, which allows you to photograph each receipt, or, if the receipt or invoice has come through by email, you can just forward it to your own dedicated receiptbank email address.

Receiptbank then uses a mix of AI and human sorting to capture the key information from the receipt. It will capture the supplier name, the price and the VAT amount and upload all of the details to Xero. And because it has a human back up it generally interprets the data with high levels of accuracy.

Xero have recently added their own, native receipt and invoice processing capability, through the acquisition of Hubdoc. Hubdoc operates in much the same way as receiptbank, and also has the advantage that it can automatically fetch receipts from certain suppliers like Screwfix, BT, EDF, Thames Water, Paypal and many others besides, without you even needing to send them off for processing.

At the time of writing, Receiptbank costs £10 / month and Hubdoc is available free of charge with certain Xero plans.

Drop us a line if you are still processing receipts manually, or if you can’t decide between Hubdoc or Receiptbank. We can help you get set up, migrate from other accounting systems and help train your team.