Ireland
Posted to the books your accountant uses
Coded expenses post to Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage or NetSuite with the receipt attached and the VAT in its own account. If your accountant works in other software, expenses export to Excel or CSV.
Smartbills takes the VAT from each receipt line and keeps food, drink and hotel spend categorized apart from what you can reclaim.
VAT read from the receipt, blocked VAT set apart
Every line keeps the rate it was charged, 23%, 13.5%, 9% or 0%, with the supplier's VAT number when the receipt shows it. Food, drink, accommodation and entertainment, where VAT is generally blocked, are set apart from reclaimable spend.
- VAT kept per line at every rate
- Blocked categories set apart
- Supplier VAT number kept with the receipt
Receipts that arrive on their own
Receipts that arrive by email are pulled from a connected Gmail, Outlook or Zoho mailbox, and merchants on the Smartbills network send the itemized receipt at checkout. The month doesn't end with a receipt hunt, and nobody photographs a crumpled receipt on the train.
- Emailed receipts and invoices pulled from the mailbox
- Digital receipts from merchants on the network
- Matched to the card or bank line when it clears
Why teams switch
The tax is on the receipt, not the card statement.
Hotel and restaurant VAT keeps ending up in our reclaim, then comes back out.
Each line keeps its category, so blocked food, drink and accommodation VAT is set apart before the return.
Restaurant bills changed rate in July and our bookkeeping still assumes 13.5%.
VAT comes from each line of the receipt. Each rate is recorded as charged.
Receipts from a week in London come back with UK VAT mixed in.
Foreign receipts keep their own country and rate, apart from Irish input VAT.
Before and after
What changes on an Irish receipt.
Hotel and restaurant VAT is blocked from reclaim, and food service moved to 9% in July 2026. Both slip through when the claim starts from card totals.
| Capability | Card statement and photos | With Smartbills |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel and restaurant VAT | Reclaimed by mistake | Set apart as blocked |
| Food service since July 2026 | Still at 13.5% | 9%, as charged |
| Supplier VAT number | Only if someone kept the paper | Kept with the receipt |
| Getting receipts in | Photos at month end | From the mailbox or the merchant |
Integrations
Works with the tools you already use.
Your accounting software, bank feeds and card program, with data syncing in both directions.
- QuickBooks
- Xero
- Sage
- FreshBooks
- Wave
- MYOB
- Zoho Books
- NetSuite
- SAP
- Oracle
- Dynamics 365
- Square
- Shopify
- Clover
- Toast
- Lightspeed
- WooCommerce
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Adyen
- Wise
- Plaid
- Chase
- Bank of America
- Wells Fargo
- RBC
- TD
- BMO
- Scotiabank
- Desjardins
- Brex
- Ramp
- Float
- Mercury
- Gusto
- ADP
- Deel
- Rippling
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- OneDrive
- Box
- Gmail
- Outlook
- Google Analytics
- Snowflake
- Looker
- Databricks
- Google Cloud
- Metabase
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Notion
- Zapier
- Airtable
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
The products that do the work.
Each product works on its own, and when you run two, the same record carries from the receipt to the ledger entry.
Expense management
Capture receipts, categorize expenses and check policy compliance as expenses are submitted.
Expense reports
Expense report software that attaches the receipts for you, works out mileage, routes the approval and shows each employee when they'll be paid back.
Email receipt capture
Connect Gmail, Outlook, Zoho Mail or IMAP. Automatically collect receipts and invoices from the folders you choose, including Archive and Spam.
Accounting automation
Accounting automation software that codes each transaction and posts the journal entry to your accounting software the day it happens.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before they sign up.
23% standard rate, 13.5% on items such as hotel accommodation, 9% on food and catering services since July 1, 2026, and 0% on items such as most food, oral medicines and children's clothing. Alcohol and soft drinks in restaurants stay at 23%.
Generally no. VAT on food, drink, accommodation and other personal services for staff is blocked, as is VAT on entertainment. The main exception is accommodation for attending a qualifying conference. Smartbills keeps each purchase categorized so blocked VAT is set apart.
No. VAT charged in the UK isn't Irish input VAT, and it can only be recovered through the UK's own refund scheme, if at all. Smartbills keeps foreign receipts apart so they aren't mixed in.
Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage and NetSuite, with two-way sync. If your accountant works in other software, coded expenses export to Excel or CSV.
Yes. You invite your accountant with their own access, and a firm that manages many clients sees them all from one login, entities included.
Your data is stored in Canada, which the European Union recognizes as providing adequate data protection, and we don't sell it. Access is limited to the people you invite.
Get started
Check a month of Irish receipts.
Connect a mailbox and a card. Blocked VAT is set apart before the return, and food service comes in at the 9% it was charged.