Handoff guide
A receipt handoff checklist you can use today
Organize one month of receipts with a spreadsheet and the original files. You can do it without an account. This is organization guidance, not tax advice.
The problem
Accountants lose time when a month arrives as unnamed photos, mixed currencies, and totals that cannot be traced to a file. Agree the handoff first: which month, which file format they want, and which categories they actually use. A tidy sheet only helps if it matches that request.
What to collect
- Email attachments you save yourself, PDFs you download, and readable photos of paper receipts.
- Keep the whole document, including the merchant, date, total, and any tax line that is actually printed.
- A link inside an email is not a copy of the receipt. Save the file the link eventually gives you, if you are allowed to.
Checklist
- Choose one month. The sample uses October 2026 only as a fictional demonstration.
- Put the source files in one folder. Name them so a row can point at a file.
- Make one spreadsheet row per receipt. Record merchant, date, currency, and total.
- Leave subtotal, tax, and invoice number blank when the document does not show them. Do not write zero unless the document prints zero.
- Do not add amounts that use different currencies. Ask your accountant how they want conversions handled.
- Mark rows you have not checked, and write a short note for anything odd. Do not delete a receipt to hide a gap.
- Deliver the spreadsheet and the folder together.
A row should find its file
In the synthetic sample, the document ID maps to a file name:
- sample-coffee-001 → receipts/corner-coffee.pdf. The fictional receipt prints tax as 0.00, so the cell is an explicit zero.
- sample-paper-002 → receipts/harbor-paper.pdf. The fictional receipt has no tax line. The tax cell is blank, which is not the same as zero.
A restaurant order number is not automatically an invoice number. The coffee sample leaves the invoice cell blank for that reason.
Limits
- This guide does not say which expenses are deductible or how long you must keep records. Ask a qualified person for your situation.
- It does not claim that most accountants prefer one layout. Confirm the columns with yours.
- It is not a global tax method.
When a receipt is incomplete
If a photo is unreadable or the tax line is missing, keep the file and leave the unknown cells blank. Tell your accountant what is missing.
Worked example
Synthetic example — not real customer data. The downloadable ZIP uses the same IDs as the list above.
FAQ and privacy
Following this guide on your own computer does not send receipts to Receipt Lane. Do not email receipts to an address you invent. No forwarding address is published. Early-access signup is not open.
What to do next
View the sample and compare it with one real month of your own. The Excel preview explains what a future workspace would and would not do. It still does not accept uploads.