Canada This may be a dumb beginner's question

[Mary S]

I'm retired now, but had a small business for 40+ years in which I did all the bookkeeping and accounting, by hand, in ledgers. Taxes were done by hand, too, and without a calculator when we first started, so I am amazed/impressed/bedazzled with the impact of technology over time on these tasks. One of the most tedious tasks was pulling out all those receipts, and adding them together to put into columns and then adding columns to put into the tax form. So now, I am told there are scanners that will take a receipt, scan it into an accounting program from which you import to your tax forms online. All this without ever having to make an entry by pencil or keyboard. Is this correct? I have seen several devices and several software products touting this in their advertising copy and I find it almost hard to believe. Does this mean I could take a shoebox (or a grocery bag) of receipts, scan them in to an accounting program and go over to the government website and e-file. Was I really born too soon??