Filing receipts digitally: folder structure and file names anyone can follow

In short: Digital receipt filing works best with a flat folder structure (one folder per year, inside it one folder per month) and a fixed file name in the pattern YYYY-MM-DD_Merchant_Amount.pdf. The category does not belong in the folder name but in a CSV list, otherwise you have to decide where every single receipt goes.

Digital receipts have a problem paper receipts never had: they are called IMG_4821.jpg and sit somewhere between your holiday photos. A scan you cannot find is as useful as a receipt that went through the washing machine. So what makes a usable archive is not the scanning, but how the files are named and where they live.

This article shows a folder structure and a naming scheme that work without explanation: for you in three years, for your accountant, and for the tax office if it ever asks.

Why do you need a fixed structure at all?

Because you rarely look for a receipt at the moment you file it. You look for it months later, usually under time pressure. A fixed structure makes three things possible: you can find a receipt by date without knowing the merchant, you can find it by merchant without knowing the date, and someone else can find it without asking you.

The second reason is retention. In Switzerland, businesses must keep accounting documents for ten years (Art. 958f OR), and digital storage is allowed as long as the documents stay readable and unaltered. Ten years is a long time. A scheme you do not have to change in that period saves you renaming thousands of files. More on this in the article on retention rules in Switzerland.

The folder structure: one year, twelve months, done

The best receipt folder structure is flat. One folder per year, inside it one folder per month, inside that the receipts. Nothing more.

• Receipts
• Receipts/2026
• Receipts/2026/01
• Receipts/2026/02
• and so on up to Receipts/2026/12

What you deliberately leave out: folders by category (materials, expenses, office), by client, or by payment method. That kind of structure looks tidy at first but fails in daily use. For every receipt you have to decide which folder it belongs in, and many receipts fit two. A laptop is "office" and "investment", a client lunch is "expenses" and "client Meier". The category therefore belongs in a list, not in the folder name. Which categories make sense at all is covered in receipt categories that make sense.

If you have very few receipts (under 100 a year), you can skip the month folders. The file name starts with the date anyway, so the sort order takes care of itself.

Receipt file naming: the pattern anyone can read

The file name contains exactly three pieces of information in a fixed order: date, merchant, amount. The date in YYYY-MM-DD format, so that files sort chronologically in Explorer or Finder by themselves. Examples:

• 2026-03-14_Migros_47.85.pdf
• 2026-03-14_SBB_86.00.pdf
• 2026-03-17_Digitec_1249.00.pdf
• 2026-03-20_Restaurant-Roessli_112.50.pdf

Naming rules that have proven themselves:

1. Date first, always with a four-digit year and leading zeros for month and day.
2. Underscore as the separator between the three blocks, hyphen within a block.
3. No umlauts, no spaces, no special characters like slashes or colons. They cause problems when moving files between Windows, macOS and cloud storage.
4. Amount with a dot as the decimal separator and without currency, unless you regularly deal with several currencies (then 2026-03-14_Amazon_EUR-39.90.pdf).
5. No category name, no running number. Both change over time, the file name should not.

If you scan receipts with Belego, you get this scheme automatically: on export, every PDF is named by date, merchant and amount, exactly as the app read them. Anything the app could not read with confidence you fill in by hand beforehand so the file name is correct.

Which file format for digital receipts?

PDF, not JPG. A PDF opens everywhere, stays stable when forwarded, can hold multi-page invoices and is accepted directly as a supporting document by accounting tools such as bexio. A JPG is a photo: it can be edited without trace, gets compressed when sent via messenger, and cannot hold a second page. Why PDF is the standard is explained in converting receipts to PDF.

Receipts that already arrive digitally (email invoices, online orders) go straight into the same month folder as PDFs, using the same naming scheme. A screenshot of the order confirmation is not enough, because it lacks the invoice number and VAT details.

The CSV list as your table of contents

The folder structure answers "Where is the receipt?". It does not answer "How much did I spend on materials in March?". For that you need a list with one row per receipt: date, merchant, amount, currency, category, note, file name. That list is a CSV file that sits in the year folder and opens in Excel, Banana or CashCtrl.

You can maintain that list by hand, but that is exactly where most systems break down. It is more practical if the list comes from the same source as the PDFs. Belego exports a ZIP for any period you choose, containing the named PDFs, a CSV list with category and note, and a README file. You unzip it into the year folder and you are done. Which columns are useful and how the import into accounting tools works is described in the article on exporting receipts as CSV.

Where do the files live: local, cloud or both?

Your archive has to meet two conditions: it must have a backup, and you must know who has access. Receipts contain names, amounts and sometimes account numbers. A folder on your computer plus a copy on an external drive meets both. A cloud folder is convenient, but you should know where the data is stored and who can see it. The considerations are laid out in a receipt app without the cloud.

A simple approach: receipts live on your phone in the app, where you capture and search them. Once a month or once a quarter you export the ZIP and drop it into the year folder on your computer. That folder is covered by your normal backup. That gives you two copies in two places, without a third party ever receiving your receipts.

Frequently asked questions

How do I name receipts when I do not know the date or amount?

Use the date you received the receipt and note in the CSV list that the date is estimated. If the amount is missing because the receipt has faded, take the amount from your bank statement. What matters is that every file follows the pattern, otherwise the sort order breaks. A receipt with an estimated date is better than a file called Unknown.pdf.

Should I file receipts by client or project?

Not in the folder structure. If you need to assign receipts to a project, write the project name in the note or in a separate column of the CSV list. Then you can filter by project without moving files. Folders by client lead to a receipt for two projects being filed twice or ending up in neither folder.

Do I have to rename old scans with bad file names?

Only if they are still relevant: for running warranties, open tax years or the retention period. Start with the current year and work backwards. Anything older than the retention period you can leave as it is or delete. A few hundred files take an afternoon if you read the date off the receipt and leave the rest.

How do I make sure digital receipts stay unaltered?

Save receipts as PDFs rather than editable images, and store the export ZIP as a whole without opening and re-saving individual files afterwards. A backup on a second drive that you never touch again documents the state at the time of export. If you need something stricter, for example for the books of a GmbH, agree the procedure with your Treuhänder (the Swiss term for a trustee or accountant).