How do you manage receipts for multiple clients? Same-day inbox mixes Client A travel, Client B software, and shared supplies. Done is not a folder named Receipts. Done is every slip as a row with client, project, and category, then a CSV or sheet you export.
Tuesday. Alaska Airlines PDF and a Lyft photo for Client A’s Seattle shoot land next to Client B’s Adobe invoice. Staples and Uline hit the same Receipts folder for packing the office ships both accounts. Nothing in that pile is sorted by client until the columns say so. Portals that chase email per client skip this problem. Your shared inbox does not.
Start with a client-first receipt structure
Decide the fields before you trust OCR. At minimum each row needs date, vendor, total, tax, client, project, category, and a source link back to the PDF or photo. Shared costs get an allocation written on the row (50/50, hours, overhead), not left in the folder for month-end guessing. If two people spell the same client three ways, reports split the same work.
Copy this shape for one invented agency day. Amounts are plausible examples for the scene above, not a named case study.
| date | vendor | total | tax | client | project | category | source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-18 | Alaska Airlines | 286.72 | 26.72 | Client A | Seattle brand shoot | Travel - airfare | Vendor PDF |
| 2026-09-18 | Lyft | 42.18 | 3.68 | Client A | Seattle brand shoot | Travel - ground transport | Mobile photo |
| 2026-09-18 | Adobe Creative Cloud | 89.99 | 8.10 | Client B | Product redesign | Software subscription | Vendor invoice PDF |
| 2026-09-18 | Staples | 54.39 | 4.89 | Shared A/B, 50/50 | Agency operations | Office supplies | Mobile photo |
| 2026-09-18 | Uline | 31.47 | 2.83 | Shared A/B, 50/50 | Agency operations | Shipping supplies | Email PDF |
Filter Client A and you get the shoot travel. Filter Client B and you get the seat. Filter Shared and you see the split supplies with the rule already written. That is multi-client receipt management. A generic Receipts folder is not.
Capture receipts immediately, then separate review from entry
Capture is same-day: photo the paper, save the vendor PDF, forward the invoice into one intake. Review is coding: client, project, category, and whether the cost is billable, reimbursable, or overhead. Mixing those steps stalls the day. Daily capture plus a short mid-week coding pass beats a month-end scavenger hunt.
One row equals one slip. If the email PDF and the phone photo are the same purchase, keep one row. Do not double the total. A card statement line is not the merchant receipt. Link the slip.
Use OCR, but keep human review in the loop
OCR pulls digits off the image. It does not know Client A from Client B. That assignment is yours. Tax, vendor string, and total still need a pass when the paper is faded, cropped, or multi-page.
A local Q2 2026 run on n=20 synthetic receipts (Tesseract 5.5.0, dumb OCR / Drive-like extract) is why columns beat a text dump. Vendor hit 95% (19/20). Date and total hit 100%. Tax hit 60% (12/20). All four fields correct on only 55% (11/20). Treating OCR like a searchable folder, every receipt (20/20) still had 2+ currency-like amounts, avg 6.05 matches per receipt. Raw OCR text is not a multi-client ledger. Client and project never come from the scanner.
Create a reimbursement and allocation policy
Software that serves three accounts, meals on a client workshop day, packing supplies used for two shipments: write the rule once. Even split, hours-based, charged to one client, or agency overhead. Put the rule on the row (or in notes) so the export explains itself later. Match client contracts on what proof they need with a reimbursement invoice. Keep the source file linked either way.
Export clean CSVs that match your bookkeeping system
Before export, lock column names and category labels to the chart of accounts you actually use. Do not export half the meals as Food and half as Client dinner. Sort by client, fill blank project cells, check shared-cost notes, then download CSV or open in Sheets. The export is the handoff. The Receipts folder is not.
Slipsheet turns photos and PDFs into rows you review, then a CSV or sheet you own. Photo, PDF, or forward to receipts@slipsheet.app. Soft land only: code client and project on the row, then export what bookkeeping can open.
A few straight answers
What is the best way to manage receipts for multiple clients?
Capture into one place the same day. Put client, project, and category on every row. Review tax and totals. Export CSV or Sheets by client. Folders and portals without those columns leave the mix unsorted.
Should I keep original receipt images after exporting a CSV?
Yes. The CSV is the report. The PDF or photo is the supporting document. Keep a source link on the row.
Can OCR replace assigning the client?
No. OCR fills vendor, date, and amounts when the image is clear. Client and project are coding decisions. Shared costs need an allocation rule you write.
How should I handle one receipt that applies to several clients?
Write the split on the row (for example Shared A/B, 50/50) or split into two rows that sum to the slip total. Do not leave the rule in the inbox.
What columns should a multi-client receipt spreadsheet include?
Date, vendor, total, tax, client, project, category, and source. Add reimbursable or billable flags if your contracts need them.