Missing receipts are a four-step job. First you search yourself: put the bank statement next to your receipts and, for every payment without one, search your inbox, vendor accounts and scan folder. Then you ask the vendor for a copy of the invoice. Only when that fails do you document the gap with your own written record and whatever other evidence you have, which is the route IRS Publication 463 describes for travel, gift and car expenses. Finally, everything still open goes to your accountant as one list, not as a stream of separate emails. Accounting firms can run the same play in reverse: one list to the client, with no sensitive details in the email itself.
This is not legal or tax advice. The US rules cited come from the IRS, with a short section on Germany at the end; status November 2026. How firms organize their clients' paperwork more broadly is in Accounting Firm Automation: Where AI Fits.
What the IRS expects a receipt to show
The IRS page on business records puts it plainly: purchases, sales and payroll "generate supporting documents", such as "sales slips, paid bills, invoices, receipts, deposit slips, and canceled checks". For expenses, your supporting documents "should identify the payee, the amount paid, proof of payment, the date incurred, and include a description of the item purchased or service received that shows the amount was for a business expense."
The IRS adds: "A combination of supporting documents may be needed to substantiate all elements of the expense." A card statement proves payment, date and payee; the invoice shows what you bought. And Publication 583 notes that "for most small businesses, the business checkbook … is the main source for entries in the business books." So the search starts at the bank.
Request the receipt from the vendor
Most missing receipts still exist on the vendor's side. A good request gives the date and amount of the payment, your customer or order number, what you bought, where the invoice should go and the business name it should be made out to. Leave out bank statements and full card numbers. If nobody answers, follow up once; Follow-Up Email Templates, No Pressure shows how that sounds.
When the receipt is gone: your own record
For travel, gift and car expenses, Publication 463 sets out what happens without complete records. You must prove each element "with: Your own written or oral statement containing specific information about the element, and Other supporting evidence that is sufficient to establish the element." For cost, time, place or date, that supporting evidence has to be direct (for example written statements of witnesses) or documentary (receipts, paid bills or similar).
Three more points from the same publication:
- Small expenses: documentary evidence isn't needed if "your expense, other than lodging, is less than $75." You still record the expense.
- Exceptional circumstances: if the nature of the situation means you can't get a receipt, you can use "other evidence for the element that is the best proof possible under the circumstances."
- Destroyed records: "If you can't produce a receipt because of reasons beyond your control, you can prove a deduction by reconstructing your records or expenses. Reasons beyond your control include fire, flood, and other casualties."
A record made "at or near the time of the expense" counts for more than one prepared later, so write your note when you notice the gap. Whether it is enough is your accountant's call.
Hand your accountant one list
Whatever you can't recover goes to your accountant in one place: date, amount, payee, where you searched, status, next step.
If you run an accounting firm, turn it around. Instead of chasing each gap by email, share one list with the client through the channel you agreed on, such as your client portal. The email only says that the list is ready, when you need it back and how to reply. Amounts next to business partners' names stay in the portal.
On the page of my AI employee Peter, the answer to whether AI will replace the tax accountant reads: "Advice, tax classification and professional responsibility stay with the tax adviser." And: "AI employees can prepare or take over receipt checks, requests for missing documents, format validation and handoffs." What a tracked return flow can look like inside a firm: at a tax advisory firm I built AI employees for, an AI employee sends out the completeness declarations and keeps track of what's been returned. The full case is in AI Agents for Tax Firms: A Real Case. How that return flow works is in Management Representation Letter: Follow-Up.
Template: missing receipts list and request email
Keep the list as a table, in a spreadsheet or a text file. The rows below are examples:
Missing receipts, period [month/quarter year]
As of: [date], kept by [name]
No. | Date | Amount [USD] | Payee | Searched where | Status | Next step
1 | [MM/DD] | [amount] | [Vendor A] | inbox, vendor account | requested [date] | follow up on [date]
2 | [MM/DD] | [amount] | [Vendor B] | inbox, scan folder, paper | not obtainable | own written record, ask accountant
3 | [MM/DD] | [amount] | [Payee] | inbox | found | attached to entry, done
Status: open / requested / found / own record / question for accountant
Questions for the accountant:
- [e.g. no. 2: is the written record plus card statement enough?]
The request to a vendor:
Subject: Invoice for our payment of [amount] on [date]
Hello,
our bookkeeping is missing the invoice for this payment:
Payment date: [MM/DD/YYYY]
Amount: [amount]
Customer / order number: [if available]
What we bought: [e.g. printer service, May]
Please send the invoice to [invoice email address],
made out to:
[Business name]
[Street, City, State ZIP]
If you have already sent it, a short note on where it went is enough.
Thank you and best regards,
[Name]
[Business, phone]
And a firm's note to a client, with no amounts or names in the email:
Subject: [Month/quarter]: open receipts for your books
Hello [name],
for [period] we are still missing a few receipts. The list with date,
amount and payee is waiting for you in [portal/folder, as agreed].
Please upload the receipts there by [date]. If one can't be obtained
anymore, mark the line "not obtainable" and we'll discuss next steps.
Best regards,
[Name, firm]
Answer templates for the question "What do you still need?" are in Client Portal for Accountants: Email and AI.
How long to keep receipts you recovered
Attach a recovered receipt to the entry it belongs to, along with your request email and any written record. The IRS ties retention to the period of limitations: "Keep records for 3 years if situations (4), (5), and (6) below do not apply to you." It is 6 years if you underreport income by more than 25 percent of the gross income shown on your return, 7 years for a loss from worthless securities or a bad debt deduction, and employment tax records "for at least 4 years". Filing that holds up is covered in Digital Receipt Filing That Holds Up.
If your business is in Germany
German rules are stricter on form. The GoBD, the tax authority's bookkeeping principles (version of July 14, 2025), say every business transaction needs a receipt, and: "Ist kein Fremdbeleg vorhanden, muss ein Eigenbeleg erstellt werden" (para. 61), meaning a self-made receipt when there's no third-party one. That self-made receipt does not unlock input VAT: deducting it requires an invoice issued under §§ 14, 14a UStG (§ 15 para. 1 no. 1 UStG). A business that supplies a taxable service to another business must issue the invoice within six months (§ 14 para. 2 UStG). Booking receipts are kept eight years from the end of the calendar year (§ 147 para. 3 and 4 AO). Business meals have their own rules, see Business Meal Receipts in Germany: Template; handing receipts to a German accountant often runs through DATEV, see DATEV Integration: The Basics.
Who does what: Peter, Sonja, Frieda
In my business, Peter, my AI employee for receipts and bookkeeping, matches the credit card statement line by line against the receipts and reports what doesn't add up. When an amount or assignment is ambiguous, the item stays open. In his first run he flagged two receipts as open instead of forcing a match, because the amount search returned several hits. That is the attitude a missing receipts list needs: an open line beats a guessed receipt.
Peter's page lists "Document missing receipts" among the things his approach also works for. You describe the workflow: which accounts, where to search, what counts as a match. He learns it in a mode in which he only reads and takes screenshots, you test it on real cases, and he takes it over after your approval.
Sonja drafts the request in your voice and checks the facts against the list; sending happens only after explicit approval, case by case. When the invoice comes back, Frieda pre-sorts it in the inbox, without any tax judgment.
Does your accountant have to take part? Peter's page says yes: together you define the handoff format, responsibility boundaries and review steps. How you set this up in your business, we can look at together.
Frequently asked questions
What do I do if I lost a receipt?
Search your inbox, vendor accounts and scans, then ask the vendor for a copy. If that fails, write down the details at once and keep the card statement with your note.
Does the IRS accept a bank statement instead of a receipt?
It proves payment, date and payee. The IRS says a combination of documents may be needed to substantiate all elements, so add a description of what was bought.
Do I need receipts for expenses under $75?
For travel, gift and car expenses, Publication 463 waives documentary evidence below $75, except for lodging. You still need a record of the expense.
How long should I keep business receipts?
Generally three years, longer in the cases the IRS lists (six, seven, or four years for employment tax records).
Next steps
Export last month's bank statement and start the list from the template. Whatever stays open after the inbox search becomes your first request emails. AI in bookkeeping today: AI Bookkeeping: What Actually Works Today. More industries are on AI by Industry. What DATEV itself offers is in DATEV AI: Built-in Features and AI Employees. For practices: Medical Practice Bookkeeping With AI.
