Receipt Scanner Built My Tax Deduction Database Automatically (7 Nodes) 🔥

Tax season. Accountant asks for deductible receipts. I have a shoebox. She has questions.

Built receipt scanner. Every receipt photographed goes into database. Tax deductible items automatically flagged and organized by quarter.

THE TAX DOCUMENTATION PROBLEM:

Business expense? Personal? Deductible? What category? Which quarter?

Receipt fades. Memory fades. Accountant asks for documentation. You have nothing useful.

THE DISCOVERY:

Document extraction identifies tax deductibility. Boolean field. True or false. Deduction category assigned automatically.

Dual sheet architecture. All receipts logged to one sheet. Tax deductible items copied to separate tax deductions sheet.

THE WORKFLOW:

Google Drive trigger watches receipts folder → Download receipt image → Document extraction pulls store, items, total, tax info, deduction status → Code processes and generates receipt ID → Sheets logs to receipt database → IF checks tax deductible → TRUE: Also logs to Tax Deductions tab.

7 nodes. Automatic tax organization.

THE DEDUCTION LOGIC:

JSON Schema includes deduction categories: Office Supplies, Business Meals, Travel, Equipment, Software, Professional Services, Marketing, Not Deductible.

Code adds: Receipt ID (RCP-timestamp), tax year, quarter (Q1-Q4), items summary.

At tax time: Filter by year. Export deductions. Hand to accountant. Done.

THE TRANSFORMATION:

Before: Shoebox of receipts. Panic in April. Missing documentation. Missed deductions.

After: Continuous logging. Quarterly organization. Complete records. Maximum deductions.

THE NUMBERS:

247 receipts processed this year

$8,400 in documented deductions

4 quarters auto-organized

Receipt lookup: 3 seconds vs 30 minutes

Template in n8n and All templates in Github

How much are you losing in undocumented deductions?