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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.

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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 guide

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 & SARS

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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Tax

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 & SARS

How to register for VAT in South Africa

The R1 million and R50,000 thresholds, whether to register voluntarily, the documents SARS wants, and the eFiling steps — without the jargon.

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Tax

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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Bookkeeping

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 keeping

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-to

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 keeping

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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Software

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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