Best receipt scanner app in the UK
Allowances, prices and where your receipts end up

A receipt scanner saves you typing, which is the easy part. The harder part is what happens next. A scanned receipt is useful only once it is in the right expense category, matched to the payment on your bank statement, and counted once in your tax figures.

So this page compares receipt scanners on four things: how many a month the plan reads, whether line items cost extra, whether the result is checked, and where the data goes. Every allowance and price was checked on 7 October 2026. Accuracy figures are the vendors' own claims; we have not tested anyone else's.

Side by side

Sources: Dext, Expensify free features, Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Zoho Books, Powered Now and Tradify, all checked 7 October 2026.

Best for sole traders who do their own books: TapTax

TapTax publishes this page, so here are the facts to judge it by. It reads receipts and supplier bills on every plan: 5 a month on Free, 50 on Starter at £4.99 and 500 on Pro at £9.99. It reads the supplier, date, net, VAT, total and each line, with a confidence for every field. Before you see the result it checks that net plus VAT makes the total, that the VAT rate is a UK one and that the date makes sense, and anything doubtful goes into a review queue beside the original.

Then it does the work that makes the receipt count. It suggests the HMRC expense category, flags a likely duplicate, matches the receipt to its payment on your CSV bank statement, and keeps a "No receipt yet" list of payments still missing their evidence. Your quarterly update to HMRC comes from the same records. More on the receipts and bills page.

What it does not do: publish to Xero or QuickBooks directly (it exports a CSV in their formats), or handle a team's expense claims.

Best for accountant-run books: Dext

Dext, formerly Receipt Bank, is the capture tool many UK practices use. The business plan is £290 a year excluding VAT for 250 documents a month and five users, with line items as an add-on. Dext says it reads with "over 99% accuracy", from models trained on over 2 billion documents; that is its claim. It publishes to more than 36 accounting platforms and does not file to HMRC itself.

Best free option: Expensify, or TapTax's converter

Expensify's free personal account includes unlimited SmartScans, receipt forwarding, mileage and CSV export. Categories, accounting integrations and reimbursements need a paid workspace, whose UK price we could not verify on 7 October 2026.

For a batch of receipts into a spreadsheet with no account at all, TapTax's free receipt to CSV converter reads up to 20 a day, five at a time, with the same checks as the app, and keeps nothing. For a single supplier invoice, the free invoice parser does the same.

Line items

The individual lines on a receipt or invoice, each with a description, quantity and amount, as opposed to only the total and VAT.

Already on accounting software

If you already pay for accounting software, use the capture that comes with it before adding another subscription. Xero includes Hubdoc while it is connected. QuickBooks includes receipt capture on every plan. FreeAgent's Smart Capture reads 10 receipts and bills a month as standard, and unlimited for £5 a month more. Zoho Books' free plan includes 50 autoscans a month.

What HMRC needs from a receipt

A scanned receipt is a valid record if it is clear and shows the supplier, date and amount, and the VAT if you will reclaim it. You must keep business records for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for the tax year. Our guide to how long to keep invoices and receipts covers the detail, and the expenses guide explains which costs you can claim.

How to photograph a receipt so it reads first time

Most failed reads are photos, not software. Lay the receipt flat on a dark surface, in daylight or under a bright light, with the whole receipt in frame and nothing folded over the total. Hold the phone directly above it rather than at an angle. Photograph till receipts on the day: thermal paper fades, and a faint VAT figure is the first thing to go. For a long receipt, take it in one photo if the text stays sharp, and in two if it does not. TapTax checks each photo as you take it and tells you if it is too dark or blurred to read.

Which to choose

• You do your own books and file under MTD: TapTax.
• Your accountant uses Xero, QuickBooks or Sage: Dext, or the capture built into that software.
• You want free scanning into a spreadsheet: Expensify's free account or TapTax's receipt to CSV converter.
• You run a trade business on job software: check whether your plan includes scanning; Powered Now and Tradify include it on their top plans.

The bottom line

“Scanning a receipt is the easy part. Getting it into the right category, matched to the payment and onto your tax return is where the time goes.”

Dext is the best capture tool when your books live in accounting software, and the scanning built into Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent and Zoho Books is often enough. For a sole trader who keeps their own records, TapTax reads, checks, matches and files from one app, with line items included, from £4.99 a month.

People also ask

Can I scan receipts for my tax return?

Yes. HMRC accepts clear digital copies. Under Making Tax Digital, the scanned receipt also needs to reach your digital records, which an app that files your quarterly updates does in one step.

How do I turn receipts into a spreadsheet?

TapTax’s free receipt to CSV converter reads up to 20 receipts a day with no account and gives one CSV with the date, supplier, VAT and total for each, which opens in Excel or Google Sheets.

Does a receipt scanner work on faded till receipts?

Usually, if the photo is sharp and well lit. TapTax checks the photo when you take it and shows a confidence for each field, so a faint figure is flagged rather than guessed.

Is Dext worth it for a sole trader?

If your accountant uses it and runs your books in accounting software, yes. If you do your own books, £290 a year excluding VAT plus the accounting software it publishes to is more than most sole traders need.