HSA Receipt Tracking

Hi Johnny, I use Optum at work for my HSA. It allows me to store receipts online for each transaction I enter to be paid or that I need to get reimbursed on. I should be taking advantage of these features but I'm not that regimented enough to scanning them in (takes too long for me). I just create a folder at home by tax year and store those paper receipts manually. If you are more of a digital person, you could download the Genius Scan app (free) to your iPhone. Then you can scan and email all receipts to your email or download them all to a USB flash drive for safe keeping. This a no frills type of filing system but it works for me. Also, one other thing to note. My HSA at Optum allows me to transfer extra HSA funds to my HSA funded Schwab account. You can then pick how you want to invest that extra money (Money Market, S&P 500 Index Fund, etc.) based upon your risk tolerance. I just turned 55 last year and found out that when you turn 55 (that same calendar year) that you can start contributing an extra $1,000 a year to either the individual HSA (Single) or to the HSA (Family option). 2026 HSA limits are as follows per ChatGPT: Under 55: (Single-$4,400, Family-$8,750). 55 and over: (Single-$5,400, Family-$9,750). Keep in mind the year you turn 55, is the year you can start contributing that extra $1,000 ! One last tip that I follow: If you want to max out your HSA contributions at work here is what I do. Take your max HSA contribution allowed (For me it's the $9,750 family option because I'm 55 or over) and divide it by 52 (if you get paid weekly) and that will be the amount you want to tell HR to take out every week from your paycheck. This way it spreads the HSA funding out over the course of the year and maximizes the amount I'm allowed to contribute.

Just do reimburse one small amount test like $20-30. You will find out what documents you require. 😎

I keep this vreally simple and I just tag those receipts in my Gmail. All the bigger bills are emailed to me and I get electronic receipts by email so I don't see the need to save documents outside of gmail itself. In the rare case a large receipt is not emailed to me, I scan it and email it to myself. Secondly I only worry about large receipts and I don't bother will smaller ones. The way I see it, i will always have future medical expenses that I will use the HSA for, and I doubt I could ever even save enough in my HSA to exceed all my future medical expenses. So basically I think its unlikely I'll ever need to use those receipts from today anyway.

Responded to the Albany group but was curious about my response from other members. Have you considered simply pulling the annual amount spent on eligible medical expenses at the end of the year and using the monies to immediately fund a Roth IRA? Seems like you would retain all the tax benefits without the need to track beyond the normal annual tax accounting. Anything I’m missing from this strategy?

Looks like those of us commenting are doing similar things. I have a "Health" folder in the cloud. In there I have 3 folders for HSA. "Receipts - Future HSA, Receipts - Non-HSA, Receipts - Paid HSA". I'm a bit minimal in my record keeping. Just an invoice and receipt. And then in an ongoing expense google sheet I have the transactions listed with relevant info as planned HSA so I can filter easily. I'm hopeful that in 20 years when I actually start paying myself back and file my taxes that the relatively small dollar amounts (for now) make it so no flags are raised and it can be a stress-free process. TBD...

I've been using both a spreadsheet and a google docs (proton docs now) folder. In the spreadsheet I have a date, amount, brief description, and then most importantly a link to the pdf or image of the receipt. I have the receipt in a separate folder, but I generate a link to it and then add the link to the spreadsheet.

I've found that this system doesn't really need to be fully automated, but rather just an outline. This is because the transactions that are qualified don't happen that often, since I'm also rather healthy. Here is my system: 1. The transaction happens, and I get a receipt 2. I have a folder for each year within my finances folder in Google Drive. I find my "HSA receipts" folder for the current year 3. Add a new photo of the receipt for the transaction (Name it with the date and amount) 4. Log the transaction on a spreadsheet with the headers \[Date, Amount, Merchant, Notes, Reimbursed, Date Reimbursed, Receipt Saved\] 5. Wait for the future reimbursement That's it. The reimbursement and receipt columns are check boxes, so I can mark them as done. I have the receipt saved column as a way to double-check that I have the receipt when I reimburse the expense. I hope that all makes sense! Please reach out if you have any questions or want me to walk you through the process I have.