Best Receipt and Deduction Apps for Tradies in Australia (2026)

Published 27 July 2026 · About a 6 minute read

Tradies generate more deductible receipts than almost anyone: tools, materials, PPE, ute costs, licences, insurance. And most of those receipts are thermal paper that fades to blank within months. This is an honest look at the apps Australians actually use to keep those records, including where each one is the wrong choice. Yes, we make one of them. We have tried to be straight about the others.

The short version

• ATO myDeductions: best free official option if you are happy doing everything by hand.
• Recpt (that's us): best if you want to snap a receipt once and have it sorted into ATO categories automatically, then export one file for your accountant.
• Hnry: best for sole traders who want tax calculated, paid and lodged for them, and are happy paying a percentage of income for it.
• Dext: best for businesses with a bookkeeper and accounting software, not individuals.
• Expensify: best for employees submitting expense reports to an employer, not tax records.

ATO myDeductions (free, official, manual)

The ATO's own record-keeping tool inside the ATO app. It is free, it is official, and at tax time the records can be pushed into your return or sent to your agent.

Where it works: nothing to pay, nothing to sign up for beyond myGov, and it is the ATO's own definition of an acceptable record.

Where it hurts: everything is manual. You photograph the receipt, then type the vendor, amount, date and category yourself, every time. There is no automatic reading of the receipt, no learning of your regular vendors, and the categories are on you to get right. Fine for a handful of receipts a year; painful at tradie volume.

Recpt (AI sorting into ATO categories)

Recpt is built for exactly one job: you photograph the receipt, AI reads the vendor, amount and date and files it under the right ATO category, and at tax time you export one categorised summary (PDF for your accountant to read, CSV for their software). It learns your vendors, so the Bunnings run gets filed the same way every time. There is also bill watch (it notices when a recurring receipt has not turned up) and bank statement import on the web for catching the expenses you never got a receipt for.

Where it works: high receipt volume with no data entry. Australian ATO categories are native, not an afterthought. Free tier with no card. iPhone app plus web.

Where it hurts: it is a record-keeping tool, not tax software. It does not lodge your return, calculate your tax, or give advice, and it is Australia-only by design. Android is on the way but not out yet.

Hnry (does the tax for you, for a fee)

Hnry is a different animal: it is a service for sole traders that takes your income, withholds and pays your tax as you earn, claims expenses you raise through the app, and lodges your return through its own accountants. You pay a percentage of the income that flows through it.

Where it works: ABN sole traders who want to never think about tax, BAS or lodgment again.

Where it hurts: the percentage fee adds up on real income, you route your invoicing through them to get the value, and it is overkill if you are a PAYG employee tradie who just needs work-related deductions tracked.

Dext (for bookkeepers, priced like it)

Dext (the old Receipt Bank) is receipt and invoice capture that feeds accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks. It is very good at what it does, and what it does is business bookkeeping.

Where it works: a business with an accountant or bookkeeper who lives in Xero and wants clean source documents flowing in.

Where it hurts: pricing starts around what a tradie would consider real money every month, the categories are chart-of-accounts, not ATO deduction labels, and solo users are not who it is built for.

Expensify (expense reports, not tax records)

Expensify scans receipts well, but it is organised around submitting expense reports for reimbursement: employee spends, manager approves, finance pays back. It is also a US product at heart; the ATO's D categories are not in its vocabulary.

Where it works: you are an employee whose boss reimburses expenses and wants reports.

Where it hurts: using it for Australian tax deductions means re-mapping everything yourself at tax time.

What actually matters for a tradie

• Capture speed. If it takes more than a few seconds at the ute, you will stop doing it by August. The apps that make you type the details lose here.
• Thermal receipts fade. Bunnings, servo and hardware receipts are unreadable within months. Whatever app you pick, photograph the receipt the day you get it. The ATO five-year rule is about having a clear copy, and a faded original is not one.
• ATO categories, not accounting categories. Your accountant wants work-related expenses grouped the way the return is structured. A tool that speaks chart-of-accounts gives you a second sorting job later.
• One clean export. The end goal is handing your accountant a single categorised file, not a shared login and an apology.

Bottom line

Happy typing every receipt in by hand? myDeductions is free and official. Want the recording done for you but your accountant still doing the tax? That is the exact gap Recpt fills. Want to outsource tax entirely as a sole trader? Price up Hnry against what your accountant charges. And if a tool's homepage talks about bookkeepers or expense reports, it is answering a different question than the one a tradie at a trade counter is asking.

Competitor details checked July 2026. Their pricing and features change, so check their sites before deciding.