Missing receipts don’t automatically mean you lose the deduction, but they do make things harder if you’re ever audited. The IRS requires documentation for business expenses. Without receipts, you’re relying on secondary evidence that may or may not hold up under scrutiny.

Bank and credit card statements prove that a transaction happened, but they don’t always show what you bought or confirm it was for business purposes. A $47 charge at Office Depot on your business card looks legitimate. A $200 charge at a restaurant needs context to prove it was a client meeting, not a family dinner.

The $75 rule helps with smaller expenses. The IRS doesn’t require receipts for business expenses under $75, except for lodging which always needs documentation regardless of amount. You still need some record of the expense including date, amount, and business purpose. A lost receipt for a $30 lunch meeting isn’t a crisis if you have a note about who you met with and why.

For missing receipts on larger purchases, try to get duplicates. Most vendors can reprint receipts if you know the approximate date and payment method. Credit card companies often have more detail in your online account than shows on the paper statement. Check your email for order confirmations from online purchases since those serve as valid documentation.

If you can’t get duplicates, document what you can. Write down what you remember about the purchase including the date, vendor, amount, and business purpose. This reconstruction won’t be as strong as an original receipt, but it’s better than nothing if the expense is legitimate and you can support it with a bank or credit card record.

Your bookkeeper needs reasonable documentation to categorize expenses correctly, but that doesn’t always mean original receipts. Bank statements, credit card details, and vendor invoices all work for monthly bookkeeping purposes. The goal is having enough information to know what the expense was and where it belongs in your books.

Going forward, photograph receipts immediately using your phone. Apps like Dext or Hubdoc automatically capture receipt data and sync with QuickBooks. Waiting until the end of the month means faded thermal paper, lost receipts crumpled in your truck, and forgotten details about what you actually bought.

The real cost of missing receipts usually isn’t the lost deduction. It’s the time spent hunting down documentation, reconstructing records, and the stress of knowing your records are incomplete. A good bookkeeping service can set up systems that make receipt management automatic instead of something you scramble to fix after the fact.