Resources & Guides — Expenses, VAT & Receipts for Small Business | SlipStack
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Run the money side of your business with less stress.

Plain-English guides on tracking expenses, claiming VAT back from SARS, keeping receipts the right way, and choosing the tools that fit. No jargon — just what a small business actually needs to know.

How-to · New21 Jul 2026

How to send receipts to Sage Accounting from WhatsApp

Photograph a slip, confirm the figures on WhatsApp, and it posts straight into Sage with VAT split and the receipt attached. The four steps, plainly.

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Guide · New21 Jul 2026

Sage receipt capture: how to automate expenses into Sage

Your options, how to connect it once, the one habit that makes it stick, and keeping every slip SARS-ready without typing.

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For accountants · New21 Jul 2026

How accountants can get client receipts into Sage — without chasing

The real bottleneck in a Sage clean-up isn't the bookkeeping, it's the collection. How WhatsApp capture fits against Dext and AutoEntry.

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Compare · New21 Jul 2026

Sage vs Xero for South African small business

An honest comparison — local presence, accountant support, receipt capture and VAT handling — plus how to feed either one without typing.

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VAT & SARS · New17 Jul 2026

Turnover tax moved to R2.3m. Is it actually cheaper?

It taxes revenue, not profit — so for roughly half the businesses now eligible it's a tax increase. The brackets, the break-even margin, and the one-way door.

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VAT & SARS · New14 Jul 2026

SARS asked for supporting documents. What to do.

Verification is a check, not an accusation — but you get one upload, capped at 20 documents and 5MB each. The process, the traps, and what ignoring it costs.

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VAT & SARS · New13 Jul 2026

The VAT threshold moved to R2.3m. Should you deregister?

A whole band of businesses no longer have to be registered. The obvious move is often wrong — deemed exit VAT on your stock and assets is the catch.

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VAT & SARS · New13 Jul 2026

SARS Filing Season 2026: five changes that matter

Provisional taxpayers are being auto-assessed at scale, loss ring-fencing now bites at 39%, and SARS takes supporting documents over WhatsApp.

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Tax & SARS12 Jul 2026

SARS travel allowance & the new R4.95/km rate (2026/27)

The prescribed rate just went up. What changed, the 80/20 rule, the logbook SARS requires, the two ways to claim, and a worked example in rand.

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Start here · Guide19 Jun 2026

How to track business expenses in South Africa (2026 guide)

A complete, practical walkthrough — what counts as an expense, how to capture receipts, the categories that matter for SARS, and how to keep it all without drowning in admin.

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Buyer's guide19 Jun 2026

How to choose a receipt app in South Africa

The six criteria that actually separate WhatsApp receipt apps — accounting integration, data ownership, VAT, price — with a checklist to judge any tool.

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VAT & SARS19 Jun 2026

How to claim VAT back on business expenses

What input VAT is, which receipts qualify, the tax-invoice rules SARS expects, and how to keep your claimable VAT tallied all year.

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Tax19 Jun 2026

What business expenses are tax deductible?

The plain-English list of SARS-allowable deductions — rent, fuel, phone, home office and more — the production-of-income test, and what you can't claim.

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VAT & SARS19 Jun 2026

VAT in South Africa: the complete guide

How VAT works end to end — the 15% rate, output vs input VAT, zero-rated vs exempt, registration, tax invoices, VAT periods and filing the VAT201.

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VAT & SARS19 Jun 2026

How to register for VAT in South Africa

The R2.3 million and R120,000 thresholds, whether to register voluntarily, the documents SARS wants, and the eFiling steps — without the jargon.

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Money & growth19 Jun 2026

Cash flow management for small business

Why profit isn't cash, how to forecast it, getting paid faster, building a buffer, and keeping VAT and provisional tax from catching you out.

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Tax19 Jun 2026

Provisional tax explained (sole proprietors)

Who pays, the two payment dates, how to estimate your taxable income, the optional third payment, and how to dodge SARS under-estimation penalties.

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Bookkeeping19 Jun 2026

Small business bookkeeping: a beginner's guide

What bookkeeping really is, the records SARS expects, separating business and personal money, and a simple monthly routine that keeps you audit-ready.

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Record keeping19 Jun 2026

How to digitise & store receipts

Why thermal slips fade, whether SARS accepts digital copies, how to scan and back up, and a folder structure that scales for years.

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How-to19 Jun 2026

How to scan receipts with your phone

Get a clean scan every time, skip the extra app, and turn each photo into a filed, categorised, VAT-split record straight from WhatsApp.

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Record keeping19 Jun 2026

How long must you keep receipts & records for SARS?

The five-year rule, what counts as a record, whether digital copies are allowed, and how to store them so an audit is a non-event.

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Software19 Jun 2026

QuickBooks vs Xero for South African businesses

An honest look at the two big cloud accounting options for SA — pricing, VAT handling, support and which suits which kind of business.

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Compare

SlipStack vs Dext

How WhatsApp receipt capture stacks up against Dext — on price, setup, data ownership and whether you need to install a new app at all.

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Compare

SlipStack vs Hubdoc

Hubdoc comes free with Xero — so when is a WhatsApp-first tool the better fit? An honest side-by-side for South African businesses.

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Tool

The WhatsApp expense tracker

See how SlipStack tracks every expense from a single WhatsApp photo — with or without accounting software.

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Tool

Track expenses without accounting software

A live Google Sheet cost dashboard built from your receipts — no Xero, no Sage, no bookkeeping app required.

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Put the guides into practice

SlipStack handles the capturing, filing and VAT-tallying for you — straight from WhatsApp.

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