Excel Export Format

When you finish a batch of receipts, the next step is handing clean data to whoever does the books. Most small businesses still live in Excel, so SlipSheet exports directly to the .xlsx format that Excel reads natively. One click, no CSV imports, no column-shuffling in Numbers, no copying headers into a new sheet.

What the Excel export format actually is

The export is a single workbook file with one row per receipt. The first row contains column headers, and every receipt occupies exactly one line below it. SlipSheet writes a real Excel file, not a renamed CSV, so formulas, number formatting, and column widths survive the round trip.

Columns included in every export:

• Date in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD), which Excel sorts correctly without manual cleanup
• Merchant as a single text field
• Category, either from SlipSheet's suggestion or your manual override
• Subtotal, Tax, and Total as numbers, not strings
• Currency as a three-letter code (USD, CAD, EUR, and so on)
• Notes for anything you added during review
• Source file, the original receipt filename, useful for audits

How to use it step by step

1. Open SlipSheet and process a batch of receipts, either by uploading photos, PDFs, or forwarding email receipts.
2. Review the extracted rows on the SlipSheet review page. Fix anything that looks wrong, add notes for oddball charges, and confirm categories.
3. Click Export and choose Excel (.xlsx). SlipSheet prepares the workbook on the server, usually in a few seconds for batches under 500 receipts.
4. The browser downloads slipsheet-export-YYYY-MM-DD.xlsx. Open it in Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice Calc.
5. Apply a pivot table, a SUMIFS by category, or hand the file to your bookkeeper. The headers are stable across exports, so you can build a template once and reuse it.

For recurring exports, the same column order is preserved every time. That matters when your bookkeeper already has formulas pointing at column F.

Technical notes worth knowing

The file uses the Office Open XML schema, the same format Excel 2007 and later produce natively. Numbers display as numbers, dates display as dates, and currency codes remain as plain text so you can run a VLOOKUP against a currency reference table.

Empty fields stay empty. There are no placeholder strings like N/A or --, so SUMIFS and AVERAGEIFS ignore them the way you expect. Long merchant names are not truncated. Notes are exported as plain text without HTML, so quotes, ampersands, and Unicode characters survive intact.

If a receipt was processed in a non-default currency, the row keeps that currency code in its own column. You can convert later in Excel with a single formula referencing a rate sheet.

Numeric fields preserve two decimal places. Tax and total columns round the same way the receipt printed them, so a $42.17 total stays $42.17 instead of drifting to $42.16999998. Excel renders these as plain numbers, which means your pivot tables, charts, and formulas treat them like any other numeric column.

Files are written without password protection and without macros, so they open cleanly in every spreadsheet program on the market. Google Sheets imports them in seconds, Numbers on macOS reads them without complaint, and QuickBooks can attach them as receipts for matched transactions.

Common use cases

• Monthly expense handoff to a bookkeeper. Send one workbook per month. The bookkeeper drops it into their existing template and posts entries.
• Quarterly tax prep. Filter by category in Excel, total deductible meals, supplies, and travel separately, then paste the totals into Schedule C.
• Client billing for reimbursable expenses. Tally project expenses per client with a pivot table, then invoice with a per-line attachment list.
• Year-end reconciliation. Compare SlipSheet exports against your bank statement by date and merchant. Mismatches surface in seconds.
• Multi-currency reporting. Group by currency, then by category, when you travel for work and want one clean report at the end of the quarter.

When CSV is a better fit

Excel is the right choice when a person needs to read or pivot the data. CSV is lighter weight for software pipelines, accountant portals that only accept text, or systems with a strict upload size cap. SlipSheet offers both, and you can switch formats without re-processing the receipts.

Tips for keeping the workbook usable over time

Save one master template with your formulas, conditional formatting, and pivot tables already wired up. Each new monthly export pastes cleanly into the same row range because the columns never shift position. Add a date header at the top of the master sheet so each month's tab stays chronologically ordered.

Freeze the top row in Excel or Google Sheets so the headers stay visible while you scroll through hundreds of receipts. Apply a number format with two decimal places to the Subtotal, Tax, and Total columns on day one; once set, every future paste inherits the format.

For multi-year retention, name files with the year and month in the filename (expenses-2026-07.xlsx) instead of the auto-generated export date. That keeps your archive folder browsable without opening every file.

Ready to skip the manual data entry? Try SlipSheet and export your first batch of receipts straight into a clean Excel workbook your bookkeeper will actually open without a sigh.