How to scan and keep receipts on your phone

Which receipts are worth keeping

• Anything with a warranty: electronics, appliances, furniture.
• Work expenses you will claim back.
• Large purchases you might return or need to prove you own, for example for insurance.
• Tax-related costs, where your country allows deductions.

A coffee receipt can go in the bin. Being selective keeps your library small enough to search.

Scan it the same day

Thermal ink fades with heat and light, and a receipt in a wallet is often unreadable within a few months. Scanning it right away, while the print is sharp, is the only reliable way to keep it.

Flatten it first

Receipts curl. Press it flat on a dark surface, or hold the ends down with two fingers outside the frame. For a very long receipt, scan it in two parts as two pages of the same document.

Use Gray or B&W

A receipt is just printed text on white paper. A grayscale or black-and-white filter makes faint print easier to read and keeps the file small.

Name it by store, item and date

A name such as “Laptop, Tech Store, Oct 2026” tells you exactly what it is when you need it a year later. Searching for “laptop” then finds it in seconds.

Record the amount in your expense tracker too

The scan is your proof; the amount belongs in your budget. If you track spending, log the purchase there as well, so the receipt and the expense are never out of step. See how to track your monthly expenses.

Doing this in Keepscan

In Keepscan, name each scan and mark it as a receipt. Your library is grouped by day and searchable by name, so a receipt is easy to find again. Scans stay on your phone, and you can back up and restore your whole library, so a new phone does not mean losing your receipts.