A monthly receipt routine your bookkeeper will thank you for

Once a month, ideally in the first week, take 30 minutes. Gather last month's receipts in one place, match one to every transaction, chase what's missing and hand the package to your bookkeeper. No more hunting for June's fuel receipt in March, and your VAT return goes in on time.

Why every month?

• The VAT return does not wait. In Austria the return (UVA) is due on the 15th of the second month after the period (§ 21 (1) UStG); in Germany on the 10th of the following month (§ 18 (1) UStG), one month later with a permanent extension. Your bookkeeper needs your purchase invoices for the input VAT.
• The law expects timely records. In Austria, entries for a month count as timely if made within one month and 15 days after the month ends (§ 131 (1) no. 2 lit. a BAO). In Germany, records must be "timely and orderly" (§ 146 (1) AO).
• Gaps close faster. After four weeks you still remember what the €38.90 to an online shop was, and the shop resends the invoice.

How does the 30-minute routine work?

Example: you run Werkhaus Studio, and in September 2026 you have 34 transactions on the business account and 6 on the credit card. On 3 October you go through the list.

1. Collect (8 minutes). Search your inbox for "invoice", "Rechnung" and "receipt" from last month, and check the customer accounts of your subscriptions and online shops. Add the paper receipts from your wallet. Download the statements of every business account and the credit card, plus PayPal or Stripe if you use them.
2. Upload (4 minutes). Everything in one place: PDFs, photos, statements. Photograph paper receipts straight away, flat and fully legible.
3. Match (10 minutes). Go through the transactions and attach the right receipt to each. Mark what needs no receipt (transfers between your own accounts, private withdrawals) as "not relevant" so it does not show as open.
4. Chase what is missing (6 minutes). Three are missing: a software subscription, a parking ticket and an online order. You download the subscription invoice from the customer account, ask the shop for the order invoice by email and write a self-made receipt for the parking (see below).
5. Hand over (2 minutes). One folder per month with invoices issued, receipts and bank statements goes to the bookkeeper, with a short list of what is still open. What belongs in it is in the handover checklist.

How do you do it for free with AI in 20 minutes?

No Backbone needed, just Claude and a good prompt. Claude renames your receipts, matches them to your statements and lists the missing receipts for each payment method. The free plan is enough, with code execution switched on.

Set up these folders once

One folder per month with two subfolders. That is all Claude needs:

• Receipts-2026-09/ is the month folder.
• Receipts-2026-09/Statements/ holds one statement per payment stream, as CSV or PDF. The file name is the stream's name: Business-account.csv, Credit-card.pdf, PayPal.csv.
• Receipts-2026-09/Receipts/ holds every receipt of the month, as PDF or photo. Any file names will do.
• Receipts-renamed/ and Missing-receipts.csv are created by Claude. Your originals stay untouched.

Where do you get the statements?

• Business account: in online banking, open the account, pick last month as the period and export the transactions, usually under "Transactions → Export → CSV". Claude reads CSV most reliably. No CSV? Take the PDF statement.
• Credit card: in the card portal or your banking app, download the month's transactions as CSV or the statement as PDF.
• PayPal: under "Activity", download the month's transactions as CSV.
• Other payment streams such as Stripe or a second account: the same, one file per stream.

How it runs

1. Fill the folders (8 minutes). Inbox, customer accounts of subscriptions and shops, paper receipts as photos: all into Receipts/. The statements go into Statements/.
2. Hand it to Claude (2 minutes). Zip the month folder, upload it to the chat and paste the prompt below. In the desktop app, Claude can also work right in your folder with Cowork.
3. Rename and match (5 minutes). Claude reads every receipt, renames copies without asking, e.g. 2026-09-14_Hetzner_38.90.pdf, and matches each receipt to a payment by amount, date and name.
4. Close the gaps (3 minutes). For each payment method you get the payments without a receipt, plus the receipts without a payment. Claude asks about unsure matches only at the end. The parking ticket still gets a self-made receipt.
5. Pack the month folder (2 minutes). Claude returns the folder for your bookkeeper as a ZIP: statements, renamed receipts and Missing-receipts.csv.

You are my assistant for the monthly receipt routine. Work through every step on your own and ask questions only at the very end.

Month: from the folder name (Receipts-YYYY-MM), otherwise last month.

Inputs (in the ZIP or the shared folder):
- Statements/: one statement per payment stream (business account, credit card, PayPal …) as CSV or PDF. The file name is the stream's name.
- Receipts/: every receipt of the month as PDF or photo, any file names.

Rules:
- Never change, move or delete an original file. Work on copies only.
- Never invent anything. If a date, supplier or amount is unreadable, write "unreadable".
- No tax advice.

Steps:
1. Read every statement. Each file is one payment stream. List every payment of the month: date, payee, reference, amount.
2. Read every receipt: invoice date, supplier, gross amount, currency.
3. Rename copies of all receipts without asking: YYYY-MM-DD_Supplier_Amount.pdf, e.g. 2026-09-14_Hetzner_38.90.pdf. Supplier short, no legal form, hyphens instead of spaces. Amount gross with two decimals, credit notes with a minus. Photos keep their extension. Same name twice: add _2. Unreadable receipts keep their name.
4. Match each receipt to at most one payment. Amount equal to the cent; for a foreign currency up to 3% off (rate and fees). Date up to 10 days before or 5 days after the booking. Supplier fits the payee or reference. Only amount and date fit: "unsure".
5. No receipt needed: transfers between own accounts, private withdrawals, taxes, salaries, and the credit card or PayPal debit on the business account when that stream has its own statement.
6. Put the copies into Receipts-renamed/<payment stream>/, receipts without a payment into Receipts-renamed/No-payment/.
7. Show me:
   - for each payment stream, a table "Payments without a receipt" (date, payee, amount),
   - a table "Receipts without a payment" (file, date, supplier, amount),
   - a summary per payment stream: payments, with receipt, without receipt, unsure.
8. Write Missing-receipts.csv (payment stream, date, payee, amount, reference), sorted by stream and date.
9. Zip Statements/, Receipts-renamed/ and Missing-receipts.csv for download.
10. Only now: show me the unsure matches and ask whether they are right.

It is even faster with our free skill from the skill library. Install it in Claude once, then "receipt routine for September" is enough and Claude knows every step.

What counts as a receipt?

A receipt proves the transaction: who, what, when, how much. Any of these formats works:

• PDF invoice by email or from a customer account.
• Photo or scan of a paper receipt, if everything is legible and nothing is cut off. You may then throw the paper away under certain conditions, see record retention.
• E-invoice (XRechnung, ZUGFeRD): keep it in its original format, not just as a printout.
• Bank statement proves the payment but does not replace the invoice. For input VAT you need a proper invoice.

The receipts also have to be kept in an order that lets anyone check each entry at any time (§ 131 (1) no. 5 BAO; in Germany § 146 (1) AO). A transaction with its receipt attached does that.

What if a receipt is missing?

Ask for a copy first. Almost every shop, platform and subscription reissues invoices or keeps them in your account.

If that is not possible, for example at a parking machine that gave no ticket, write a self-made receipt (Eigenbeleg) with:

• date and amount,
• who you paid,
• what it was for and the business reason,
• why there is no original,
• date and signature.

Germany: the Eigenbeleg is not in any statute. It is established practice that the tax office may accept if it stays the exception and is plausible. The law sets no fixed amount limit. You cannot claim input VAT from it: that requires an invoice under §§ 14, 14a UStG (§ 15 (1) sentence 1 no. 1 sentence 2 UStG).

Austria: not in any statute either. Input VAT requires an invoice under § 11 UStG (§ 12 (1) no. 1 lit. a UStG). A careful self-made receipt can support the expense itself if the transaction is credible; whether it is accepted is the tax office's call in each case.

If self-made receipts pile up, fix step 1 instead of writing more.

How do you keep bank statements complete?

Your bookkeeper books from the bank statement. A missing month or account means missing transactions, and receipts nobody knows about.

• Every account: business account, credit card, PayPal, payment providers such as Stripe, savings if they are business money.
• No gaps: every month, including months without movement. Each statement's closing balance is the next one's opening balance.
• The official statement as a PDF from the bank, plus a CSV file if your bookkeeper wants to import it.

A few things stay with you: receipts that never come by email, like a parking ticket or a till receipt, you photograph yourself, missing ones you request from the shop, and you take a quick look at the suggestions.