How you get a McDonald's receipt depends on how you ordered. An order placed with Mobile Ordering in the McDonald's app comes with an email receipt. An order placed at the counter, a kiosk or the drive-thru without the app comes with a printed receipt, and that slip is the only copy you'll get.
Mobile orders: the receipt comes by email
McDonald's Canada sends an email receipt once the transaction is complete and you've picked up the order. If you checked in with a crew member at the drive-thru, you may also get a printed receipt on top of the email.
The app keeps your order history, but McDonald's presents it as a way to reorder past or favourite meals, not as a receipt archive. For an expense claim, keep the email. If it isn't in your inbox, search for McDonald's and look in Spam and Promotions before assuming it was never sent.
Counter, kiosk and drive-thru orders
McDonald's doesn't publish any way to look up or reprint a receipt for an order paid without the app. If the cashier or the kiosk didn't print one, ask for it before you drive off. Once you leave, a card statement is all that's left, and it shows a single total with no items and no tax.
Claiming missed MyMcDonald's Rewards points
The printed receipt matters for one more reason. If you forgot to scan the app when you ordered, McDonald's Canada lets you use the restaurant receipt to collect the points afterwards. The details on the slip are what McDonald's uses to find and validate the transaction. A claim can't be made without the receipt, and the system only validates receipts up to 7 days after the purchase.
McDonald's US help pages describe where those details sit: the restaurant number is printed as "McDonald's Restaurant #" above the address, the visit date and time are on the right, the two-digit order number is just below them, and the order total is labelled "Take-Out Total". The US page also says only information from a physical receipt is accepted.
Wrong or duplicate charges
For a duplicate charge on your card, McDonald's Canada asks you to go through your card provider, who will research it. Other questions about a mobile order go through the Contact Us section of the app, under "About, Contact & Legal".
A McDonald's meal as a business expense
A meal bought while travelling for work or with a client is a meals expense. In Canada, the deductible share of meals is generally 50%, and the GST/HST you can claim back is limited the same way. Keep the itemized receipt, not the card slip, and note who was there and the reason.
Turning McDonald's receipts into expense lines
Mobile-order receipts arrive as emails, and email receipt capture picks them out of your inbox with the restaurant, the items and the tax split already read. Drive-thru slips are the ones that go missing in a cup holder: snap them in the Smartbills app while you're still parked, and both kinds land on the same expense report.