Shoeboxed
Receipt scanner app and mail-in Magic Envelope service that turns paper and digital receipts into audit-ready, categorized expense data.
By Shoeboxed · HQ Durham, US · 4.4/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Schedule C filers, freelancers and solo proprietors who want receipts and mileage turned into tax deductions
- Bookkeepers and accountants managing receipt piles for many small-business clients
- Small teams of up to 10 users that still collect large volumes of paper receipts
- Businesses that need IRS- and CRA-accepted digital receipt archives for audits
Ideal size: 1–10 people · Solo founders and owner-run SMBs with paper receipts and mileage to track
Not for
- Mid-market or enterprise finance teams needing real-time spend controls, corporate cards or ERP-grade workflows
- Companies wanting automated AP/invoice processing with approval routing
- Teams that only need free receipt capture and will not pay a subscription
- Organisations that require vendor-held SOC 2 or ISO 27001 attestations
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
1–2 weeks
~14 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$297/yr
Starts at $97 · Tiered subscription per account with monthly scan-volume limits; billed monthly or annually, with 11–19% savings on annual billing.
Implementation Friction
1/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Starter 1 user; Pro 3 users; Plus and Paper Plus 10 users; custom plans available.
Add-on costs
- Overage scans: $0.30/$0.15/$0.10 per digital scan and $2.00/$1.50 per paper scan depending on plan
- Additional Magic Envelope: $9 each
- Paper Plus plan for high paper volumes: $1,997/year (500 digital and 200 paper scans per month)
Company & support
Who is behind Shoeboxed, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 2007 · 19 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- Durham, US
How you get support
- PhonePaid plans
- EmailAll plans
- Live chatPlan not stated
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerNot listed
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Business hours
- Response time
- Not stated
US-based team in Durham, NC. Phone support Mon–Fri 9–5 ET (one page states 9–6 ET). Starter lists email support only; Pro, Plus and Paper Plus add phone and priority support.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Shoeboxed sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Shoeboxed
- Spendflo
- Everlance
- ITILITE
- Stamps.com
- Yooz
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Shoeboxed. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What Shoeboxed ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
The vendor states that OCR converts printed receipt text into searchable data and that staff human-verify every extracted record. No copilot, agentic, predictive or governance AI features, and no MCP server, are documented on the vendor pages reviewed.
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Not supported
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Shoeboxed is a receipt-scanning and mileage-tracking service for self-employed filers and small businesses. Users upload receipts through iOS/Android apps, email or Gmail sync, or mail paper receipts in pre-paid Magic Envelopes; OCR plus human verification turns them into categorized, audit-ready data. Plans run $97–$1,997 per year, with QuickBooks Online and Xero integrations on Pro and above. Since 2007 it has served over 550,000 small businesses from Durham, North Carolina.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Shoeboxed cost?
Published list pricing is Starter at $97/year ($9/month) for 30 digital scans and 20 paper scans a year and 1 user; Pro at $297/year ($29/month) for 200 digital and 20 paper scans monthly, Gmail sync and 3 users; Plus at $797/year ($79/month) for 750 digital and 50 paper scans monthly and 10 users; and Paper Plus at $1,997/year for high paper volumes. Annual billing saves 11–19%. Extra scans cost $0.10–$0.30 each and extra Magic Envelopes are $9.
How does Shoeboxed turn paper receipts into data?
Customers either photograph or email receipts, or mail paper receipts to Shoeboxed's Durham, North Carolina facility in a pre-paid Magic Envelope. OCR extracts vendor, total, date, sales tax and payment type, then human data-entry specialists verify each record before it lands in the cloud dashboard, categorized into 15 tax categories and exportable as reports or CSV.
Are Shoeboxed's receipt images accepted in a tax audit?
Yes. The vendor states its legibly scanned, clearly categorized digital images are accepted by the IRS and the Canada Revenue Service, and describes them as meeting the requirements of IRS Rev. Proc. 97-22, provided paper originals can be reproduced. All plans include unlimited online storage, and customers can ask for paper documents to be shredded or returned after scanning.
Which accounting tools does Shoeboxed integrate with?
Pro and Plus plans include direct integrations with QuickBooks Online and Xero, and Gmail receipt sync is included on both. Shoeboxed also exports data to CSV and works with Wave, Evernote, Zoho Expense and Dropbox, and its help centre documents a Salesforce integration and business-card imports into Google Contacts, Outlook and LinkedIn.
What support and guarantees come with Shoeboxed?
Every plan has a 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee, though refunds are excluded once a Magic Envelope has been shipped. Starter includes email support; Pro, Plus and Paper Plus add phone support, with priority support on the higher tiers. Support is staffed by in-house US humans in Durham, Monday to Friday, 9–5 Eastern, with a self-serve help centre and website chat.
Is there an implementation fee or long contract?
No. Sign-up is self-service, with no implementation fee and no long-term contract; plans are month-to-month or annual and can be cancelled by contacting the billing team. Most customers upload receipts and see extracted data within days, and paper-processing value accrues as Magic Envelopes are mailed in.