For 1099 contractors
Tools, supplies, phone, parking, materials. Nobody is expensing this for you and nobody is filing it. Photograph each one and it is kept.
Download Free on AndroidFree to download.
Android only. iPhone version in development.
What you're carrying
The drill, the bits, the thing you replaced twice this year
Consumables bought a few at a time, all year long
The line you run the work on, and the gear that goes with it
Meters, garages, lots — small slips that never make it home
Bought at the counter, sometimes fronted for the client
Every one of those came out of your own pocket. The only question is whether you can still show it eleven months from now.
What goes wrong
Nearly every expense tool is built around a workflow that ends in someone approving a report and paying you back. Take away the employer and most of that machinery is doing nothing except adding steps.
What is left is the part that actually matters: does the receipt still exist? Most of them are thermal paper and most of them are in a van, a pocket, or a tool bag. A photograph taken the day you got it does not fade.
How it works
At the counter, in the van, before it goes in a pocket.
Vendor, date, and total pulled off the paper. No typing.
Filed and searchable, with the original photo alongside it.
Why a photo counts
You don't have to keep the paper. The IRS has accepted electronic records since 1997, as long as the copies meet a few basic conditions.
Source: IRS Rev. Proc. 97-22, Recordkeeping — Electronic Storage Systems. CabSnap is a recordkeeping tool, not a tax advisor.
Questions
Yes. Under Rev. Proc. 97-22 the IRS accepts electronic copies of paper records, provided the image is legible, matches the original, can be printed on request, and is stored securely. This is a recordkeeping answer, not tax advice — talk to your tax preparer about your own situation.
It changes who is responsible for the paper: you, entirely. Expense-report apps are built around submitting to a company and getting reimbursed. With no company in the loop, the receipt is not a claim — it is just a record you either have or do not have.
They are records of money that moved, so most contractors keep them. How they are treated at tax time is a question for your tax professional — what CabSnap does is make sure the paper still exists when you need to answer that question.
You can correct any field yourself. The original photo is always kept alongside the data, so even if a number is off, the actual receipt image is still there as your record.
No. CabSnap captures and keeps receipts, and that is the whole job. If you need mileage tracking you will want a separate app for it.
Not yet — CabSnap is Android only. An iPhone version is in development. There's no release date I can promise you yet. More on the iPhone version
Free to download.
Android only. iPhone version in development.