Getting your team's receipts into Xero from WhatsApp, photos and email

The quickest way to get receipts into Xero is to capture them on the day they're spent: a photo in the Xero Me app for staff expenses, a photo or forward to Hubdoc or Xero's bill email for business purchases, or a shared WhatsApp channel that someone codes each week. Each receipt needs the job code written on it, or it can't be costed.

Why do receipts go missing?

Because the person who spends the money isn't the person who does the books. An engineer buys fittings at 7am, stuffs the receipt in the door pocket, and by Friday it's gone or unreadable. The cost still left your account, but it's not against a job and you can't reclaim the VAT.

The problem grows with headcount. Take on a second engineer and the receipts can double. A metal fabrication firm with eight staff lost its office manager and described the result as "a bit carnage", with orders needing splitting across jobs and nobody to do it.

What do lost receipts cost?

More than the receipt, because you lose the VAT and the job cost. Here's a three-engineer heating firm, VAT-registered, where each engineer makes a few small merchant trips a week.

The VAT is straightforward to lose. HMRC says you can only reclaim VAT shown on a valid VAT invoice, and you must keep purchase invoices as originals or electronic copies. A card slip without the supplier's VAT number isn't enough.

Which route into Xero should you use?

Pick one route per type of spend, and tell the team which. Mixing routes is how receipts end up in three places and none.

Prices are Xero's UK list prices as of October 2026, excluding VAT: Ignite £18, Grow £39, Comprehensive £55 and Ultimate £70 a month. Hubdoc is included on these plans when connected to your subscription. Check Xero's pricing page before you choose, as offers change.

If your merchants send invoices by email, set the account email to forward straight to Xero or Hubdoc so those never touch the van. Then receipts are only the counter purchases. See Dext alternatives for trades if you already pay for a separate capture tool.

How do you get the team to send them?

Make it one rule, sent once, and enforced for a month. Engineers will send a photo if it takes ten seconds and they know someone will ask if they don't.

Receipts from today, please:

1. Every time you buy anything for work, take a photo of the receipt before you leave the counter.
2. Post it in group name with the job: e.g. "job code or address, copper fittings".
3. If you paid on your own card, add "MINE" so it goes through as an expense.
4. Ask for a VAT receipt, not the card slip. It needs the merchant's VAT number on it.
5. No job code? Put "STOCK" and say what it's for.

I'll check the group every day. Anything not posted by then I'll ask about. Thanks.

1. Set up the group or app.

   One WhatsApp group named for receipts, or Xero Me on each phone. Not both.

2. Send the rules.

   Use the template above. Pin it.

3. Code weekly.

   One person, one slot each week, every photo coded to a job and posted to Xero.

4. Chase the gaps.

   Check the bank feed for card spends with no receipt. Ask the same week.

5. Bin the paper only after it's in.

   Once the image is attached in Xero and the VAT invoice is legible, the electronic copy is your record.

How long do you need to keep receipts?

Long enough for HMRC. Limited companies keep accounting records for 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to. Sole traders keep them for at least 5 years after the 31 January filing deadline for that year's return. VAT records are kept for at least 6 years. A photo stored in Xero against the transaction is the easiest way to meet all three. Ask your accountant if you're unsure which applies or if HMRC has opened a check.

What about the receipts you already have?

Batch them once, then never again. Sort the pile by month, photograph them in one sitting, and code them against the bank feed lines that have no attachment. Anything you can't match to a job goes to overheads. If you're months behind across the board, start with catching up an invoice backlog.

A groundworks firm we spoke to, seven staff plus subbies and about £1m a year, was "doing it all on pen and paper". That works until you want to know what a job cost, and then the receipts are the missing half. Once receipts are in, match supplier invoices to jobs in Xero and cost each job.

Common questions