Add a new business
In Receipt Bot, all documents and expenses are linked to a ‘Business’. However, you do not need a ‘Registered Business’ to get started with bookkeeping automation; it is a broad term for a person, business, company, department, partnership or charity to whom the invoices and bank or card statements are addressed.
The business information is used for document classification (purchase invoices vs sales invoices) purposes. The country information is used to apply correct currencies, forex and VAT/GST rates, and the industry information aids in auto-assigning accounting categories. Therefore, it is essential to provide this information as accurately as possible.
Note: Receipt Bot currently supports documents in the English language for the list of countries mentioned in the following article Supported countries and languages. If your accounting documents are in English but your country is not supported by Receipt Bot, please get in touch with us at hello@receipt-bot.com or through our online chat.
This article covers detailed steps to add a business via the web interface or mobile app.
Prerequisites
It’s important to have the following details prepared before you start:
- Business name (as it appears on invoices, bank, or card statements)
- Country and currency information
- Access to your accounting software (If planning to integrate Receipt Bot)
Steps to add a new business
Step 1 – Click the gear icon at the top right corner and select the Add New Business option.
If you are signing up for the first time, the wizard starts automatically with one additional question: How do you plan to use the Receipt Bot? If you are an accounting firm, you must also set up your practice/firm to proceed.
Step 2 – Complete the new business form providing the following information
– Business Name: Enter as it appears on invoices, bank and card statements. To avoid duplication, you cannot add two businesses with the same name in one account.
– Short Name: It is mainly used to create a document inbox for emailing invoices and statements and is unique across the system. (Just like you cannot have two Gmail accounts with the same ID.) So, you might get a ‘Name already taken’ error. Please make the short name recognizable. If the business name is longer than 30 characters, the system displays the short name.
– Country: Select the country where the business is registered or based.
– Base Currency: It is auto-selected based on country. Invoices/receipts in other currencies will be translated into this currency. If the base currency in Receipt Bot does not match the base currency in your accounting software, then your document exports will not work.
– City/State (Optional): If state-specific VAT/tax information is on documents, it is helpful to provide it.
Step 3 – Click the Next button to proceed to the next step.
Step 4 – Select the modules to be enabled for data extraction:
– Purchases: Extract data from scanned purchase documents.
– Sales: Extract data from scanned sales documents.
– Bank Statements: Convert PDF statements into Excel, CSV or other formats.
– Other Documents: Extract grids/tabular data from any document (e.g., supplier statements, payroll reports).
Note: You must select at least one module to proceed to the next step.
Step 5 – Select the radio button for the accounting software to integrate with the Receipt Bot.
Integration streamlines the export of extracted data from invoices and receipts into your accounting software. However, you can also use Receipt Bot without integrating with accounting software to manage expenses and revenues. Alternatively, you can manually download data and upload it to accounting software if you use software other than Xero and QuickBooks Online.
You have the following options in this step:
– Option 1: Integrate with Xero
– Option 2: Integrate with QuickBooks Online
– Option 3: No Integration (Use Receipt Bot Standard Setup)
If you integrate accounting software with Receipt Bot, the system will import the accounting master data. The imported master includes the chart of accounts, contacts, VAT/GST rates, payment methods, and currencies. If you have enabled locations or classes in QBO or tracking categories in Xero, those will also be imported.
If you select “No Integration”, Receipt Bot will import default lists of accounting categories and VAT/GST Rates that will be assigned to your invoices or receipts.
Note: Integrating your account with Xero or QuickBooks Online at this stage is recommended if you intend to use those platforms. This integration allows Receipt Bot to link documents with the relevant supplier, accounting Categories, VAT Rates, and Payment Methods already set up in your accounting software, ensuring seamless exports and minimizing errors. If you opt for no integration during setup, you can always integrate later, but in that case, you must manually select the relevant supplier, category, payment method and VAT rate.
Step 5 – Select the radio button for the accounting software to integrate with the Receipt Bot.
Steps to add a new business using Receipt Bot mobile apps
You can add new business to Receipt Bot using the mobile apps as well and it follows the same steps as for the web app.
Step 1 – Navigate to the Add Business page.
Step 2 – Provide the necessary information in the add business form and click the submit button.
Your business will be created in the Receipt Bot and now you can upload documents using the Receipt Bot mobile apps as well.
Note: You can not integrate a business with accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks Online when creating a business from the mobile app. Please use the Receipt Bot web app to integrate your business.
Next Step: Upload Documents
Now you are ready to upload documents and start enjoying automated bookkeeping. To learn about uploading documents, please refer to the Upload documents user guide.
If you plan to set up a custom chart of accounts for your business, you can follow this help article: Create and update accounting categories.