How to store receipts for HSA?

[DaMa]

How do you keep records and store receipts for your HSA?  I've noticed some of mine are fading and they're not that old.
Also, I've been using a fairly simple spreadsheet to total each year, but I'm wondering what others do. 

Thanks!

[Nate R]

I take a picture and/or scan mine in, crop it, and then save it to a folder on Dropbox.

[terran]

I take a picture and/or scan mine in, crop it, and then save it to a folder on Dropbox.

Basically the same, but if you have a smartphone or tablet, the dropbox app will do the same thing automatically through its scan feature.

Electronic documents and scans of physical documents are acceptable to the IRS. 

[katsiki]

An app like expensify might help.  It's free.  I use it for monthly expense reports.  I don't see any reason it wouldn't work.  Dropbox, etc might be a better solution.

[SwitchActiveDWG]

As others have said, scanned and into an HSA folder in a cloud service seems to be the easiest approach.

[chuckster]

I scan physical receipts as PDFs, and store them in a Dropbox folder. I also have a separate cloud backup of my dropbox.

I always pay HSA out-of-pocket with a rewards credit card, so that I get cash back or points in addition to the credit card receipt. I also download the PDF of the credit card bill and store it with the receipt as proof of payment as well. For the few items that I pay by check, I download the check image from my bank and store it too. For stuff that gets billed online, I download a PDF of the bill from the medical provider (I have regular shipments of DME, for example, and save those bills). Same with stuff I buy off Amazon (first aid supplies, bandages, and condoms, for example, are reimbursable) or Zenni (eyeglasses). Ideally, for everything reimbursable, I have both a copy of the receipt and a copy of my payment in digital format in addition to the paper receipts.

I also scan as PDFs any prescriptions I get from my doctor. Because he will tell me to take an OTC medication--pill, vitamins, cold medicine, etc--and if he writes a prescription, it's reimbursable from the HSA in the future.


My Excel Budget Spreadsheet has a separate tab for reimbursable medical expenses. I note the date, the vendor, the amount, and the method of payment (which credit card/check/etc). I have a little note in the next two cells for when I save a digital copy of the bill and the payment.

At the top of the page is a running total of everything I've paid out so far which has not been reimbursed. I use that number as part of the calculation of my Emergency Fund, since now that I've paid for items out-of-pocket, if my water heater explodes or I need a new roof or if I'm out of work for a year and need to pay the mortgage, I can take money out of the HSA up to that total at any time, claim reimbursement, and use it like cash to help me out in a pinch (obviously only if I've gone through other accounts first... I think of my HSA as about level 4 or 5 of the Emergency Fund).

[Need2Save]

Wow! @chuckster is very thorough.

I was just going to add that at the end of the calendar year, I log in to my medical insurance plan and download an excel summary of all my claims history for my family.  This will cut down on the amount of work it takes because patient name, date of service, provider, what insurance paid, and what you owed will be summarized for you - saving you time.  Then I add a new column to the right for any claims (if any) that I used my HSA to pay for and a second column for the rest of the claims (the majority if not all) that I did NOT use the HSA to pay for.  This gives me a total for the whole year very easily of unreimbursed claims.  I have a spreadsheet with a tab for each taxable year and just keep a running total on the first tab.

I also download my HSA transaction history from my HSA administrator and any amounts paid out should match the above.  Mostly I just have record of the contributions since I rarely use my HSA for current expenses.  Like @chuckster, I pay with another CC to get reward points/dollars if possible.

Then I scan any related receipts that go along with those unreimbursed claims as mentioned above and keep them in one folder (saved on the cloud). If you've had a major expense like a surgery or hospital trip or something, you may want to also take the time to save a PDF of the EOB from your insurance company. I don't bother with this for small prescriptions and standard office copays of $20 and the like because those are pretty obvious. But if the IRS ever audits my recordkeeping I want to have any large expenses properly documented.  I don't keep hard copies after I have received my tax refund for the year.

All these steps probably takes 20 - 30 minutes at the end of each year, if I have all the reciepts saved and organized for the year which I try to keep up on.  I just do it when I'm preparing for my taxes.

[March]

My plan has a “claims vault” where I enter the expense and upload the receipt. It keeps a running total of eligible expenses.

[BTDretire]

Thanks for the kick, I have my receipts in envelopes, marked with the year.
But, I'm well aware that receipts fade and can be troublesome if you are ever audited.
 Need to make digital copies and find a storage place.

[Rural]

I still haven't been able to bring myself to trust that the laws won't change in the future, so I save the max, pay for medical and dental expenses from the HSA, and invest the remainder. I should probably switch to paying with a rewards card and reimbursing myself. In either case, it means a much shorter timeline for storing receipts.

[Nothlit]

My plan has a “claims vault” where I enter the expense and upload the receipt. It keeps a running total of eligible expenses.

Do you have a way of exporting all that data in the event that you change providers?

[chuckster]

I still haven't been able to bring myself to trust that the laws won't change in the future, so I save the max, pay for medical and dental expenses from the HSA, and invest the remainder. I should probably switch to paying with a rewards card and reimbursing myself. In either case, it means a much shorter timeline for storing receipts.

There tends to be a long lead time (well, at least a few months) when laws change before they go into effect. A new tax bill might be enacted in, say, October and then go into effect for the next tax year. I'd personally feel comfortable holding off on reimbursing myself and then just trusting that if the laws did change, there'd be enough time between them being signed and then going into effect that I'd be able to cash out before any big change happened.

At the least, I'd expect at least a little warning before Congress actually passed the bills, probably some talk before hand, but, you never know.

At the very worst, with what long-term care is expected to cost by the time I'm old... I have little doubt that I'd be able to completely empty the HSA for only medical costs after I'm 65 anyway.

[Padonak]

ptf

[Rural]

I still haven't been able to bring myself to trust that the laws won't change in the future, so I save the max, pay for medical and dental expenses from the HSA, and invest the remainder. I should probably switch to paying with a rewards card and reimbursing myself. In either case, it means a much shorter timeline for storing receipts.

There tends to be a long lead time (well, at least a few months) when laws change before they go into effect. A new tax bill might be enacted in, say, October and then go into effect for the next tax year. I'd personally feel comfortable holding off on reimbursing myself and then just trusting that if the laws did change, there'd be enough time between them being signed and then going into effect that I'd be able to cash out before any big change happened.

At the least, I'd expect at least a little warning before Congress actually passed the bills, probably some talk before hand, but, you never know.

At the very worst, with what long-term care is expected to cost by the time I'm old... I have little doubt that I'd be able to completely empty the HSA for only medical costs after I'm 65 anyway.

Well, you're right about lead time usually happening, but I'd hate to have to take a bunch out in a hurry in a down market. Probably better to assume the medical expenses will be there. For now, at least, they can be used for Medicare premiums, too.