/ Text a Receipt
/ Text a Receipt
You text a photo. It lands in your ledger, categorized, with the tax treatment already applied. This guide covers how to send things so they land correctly the first time, and how to read what comes back.
Replies come back from a different number, (956) 622-4784. That's normal — send to the first, expect the answer from the second. Either thread works for following up.
Send the photo and one line saying what it was for.
Not what it was — what it was for. The receipt already says what it was.
That sentence isn't decoration. The IRS requires a business purpose for every reimbursed expense, and it's the only thing that tells the system whether your $65 restaurant charge was a client lunch or catering for an open house — two different deductions, and it can't tell from the receipt.
A photo with no words still gets logged, but it comes back marked MISSING: business purpose and stays unclaimable until someone fills it in.
Within about thirty seconds you get a reply that looks like this:
Three things to read in it. The amount it captured — if that number is wrong, reply and say so. What you get back, which isn't always what you paid. And whether anything is still needed: if it says you don't need to do anything else, you're done.
The link opens your live ledger. It's the same workbook your accountant sees.
A photo is required. Under $75, your written word is enough — this is the Cohan rule. You can text "spent $40 on parking at the title office" with no photo and it counts.
Always needs a photo. Any amount, no exceptions. A $40 hotel night still needs the receipt.
An expense submitted more than 60 days after you paid it falls outside the safe harbour and gets flagged. It doesn't vanish — it just stops counting toward your reimbursement until it's sorted out.
The practical version: send it the day you spend it. Everything else in this guide is easier if you do.
Three different treatments, depending on the expense.
You get back every dollar. Business travel, hotels, internet, telephone, anything used entirely for the business.
You get back the business share. Your electric bill isn't 100% business, so if your office is 14% of your home's square footage, you're reimbursed 14% of the bill. Same for water, heating, insurance, repairs, lawn care.
Same idea for the car. Gas, insurance, repairs and payments come back at your business-use percentage.
You are reimbursed in full, but the company only deducts half. That's the law (IRC §274(n)), not a cut to what you receive. You get your $93 back; the company writes off $46.50.
Until these are on file, anything pro-rated sits in your ledger marked PENDING: client setup — recorded, but not yet reimbursed.
Reply once with something like:
The moment either arrives, every pending row recalculates itself backwards. Nothing has to be resubmitted. Mileage is worth updating monthly — it's the number most likely to drift.
"Gas" is ambiguous: vehicle fuel is pro-rated by business mileage, home heating gas by office square footage. Say "gas for the car" or "the gas bill for the house."
Food set out for the public at an open house is a marketing expense and fully deductible. A lunch with one client is a meal, deductible at 50%. The receipt looks identical. Use the words "open house." If you don't, it's treated as a regular meal — we'd rather under-claim than over-claim on your behalf.
The Accountable Plan reimburses you for business expenses you covered out of your own pocket. Something already paid on the company card is already a company expense; sending it here would double it.
MLS fees, board dues, E&O insurance, your CRM — these are straightforward business deductions. They go into the ledger without the pro-rating step.
The Audit Status column is the one to scan. Everything else is arithmetic.
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| OK | Complete and claimable | Nothing |
| MISSING: receipt | Over $75, or lodging, with no photo | Send the photo |
| MISSING: business purpose | A photo with no explanation | Reply with what it was for |
| MISSING: amount | You described a spend without a number | Reply with the amount |
| PENDING: client setup | Needs your square footage or mileage | See section 05 |
| PAST 60-DAY DEADLINE | Submitted more than 60 days after paying | Talk to your accountant |
Only rows marked OK count toward your reimbursement total. That's deliberate — an incomplete row shouldn't inflate a number you might rely on.
Nothing is ever thrown away.
No photo. It's logged with the amount, and marked as needing a receipt if it's over $75.
No number. It's logged with your exact words and marked MISSING: amount.
That's conversation. It stays in your message thread and you'll get a note asking what you'd like to log. It doesn't clutter your ledger.
If a message ever seems to disappear, it hasn't. Ask, and it can be found.
Photograph the receipt before you put your wallet away, and add the sentence while you still remember who you were with.
Everything else — the categorizing, the percentages, the deduction limits, the audit trail — happens without you. The only part that needs a human is the part only you know: what it was for.