How do I make a digital receipt?

There are two scenarios where you might need to create a digital receipt: issuing one to a customer for your business, or creating a record of an expense for your own records.

For businesses: issuing digital receipts to customers

Via your POS system

Most modern point-of-sale systems — Square, Shopify POS, Lightspeed, and others — can send email or SMS receipts automatically when a customer provides their contact details. Enable this in your POS settings and customers can opt for digital receipts at checkout.

Invoice and accounting software

Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks all generate professional digital invoices and receipts that can be emailed directly to customers as PDFs. For service businesses, this is the most common approach.

Free receipt generators

Several free tools (Invoice Ninja, Wave, Zoho Invoice free tier) let you create one-off receipts to send to customers. For occasional use, these are perfectly adequate.

What to include

A valid tax invoice must include: "Tax Invoice" heading, your business name and ABN, date, description of goods/services, amount, and GST breakdown. See the ATO's guidance for the full requirements.

For individuals: creating a record of your own expenses

If you have a paper receipt you want to convert to a digital record, photograph it with your phone and upload it to a receipt app like rct-keep. The app extracts the details automatically, creating a structured digital record. If you paid cash and have no paper receipt, most expense apps allow you to create a manual entry — note the merchant, date, amount, and business purpose.