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I scanned a month of receipts in random order. What is the fastest way to sort them by date?

Read the dates on the thumbnails, then press move to end on the earliest receipt, then the next one, and so on. Each receipt you press goes to the back of the line, so after the last press the whole file runs in date order from the start. It is quicker than dragging, and it works on touch screens and from the keyboard.

Published · 3 min read

Why move to end rather than dragging?

When you sort by dragging, each time you have to work out where a receipt belongs among the ones you have already placed, and drop it in exactly the right spot. With 30 receipts, the slips add up. With the move-to-end button there is nothing to work out: find the next receipt by date and press its button. Receipts you have not pressed yet gather at the front of the file, and the sorted ones pile up behind them in order.

Worked example

A file of 3 receipts in scan order: page 3, then 1, then 2, so the dates are jumbled.

Press move to end on page 1, which has the earliest date, then on page 2, then on page 3.

The new order becomes 1, 2, 3, running from oldest to newest.

The steps for a full month

  1. Open Reorder PDF pages and choose the receipts file.
  2. Scroll through the thumbnails and jot down each page number with its receipt date, then sort that list by date. This minute saves you hunting later.
  3. Start at the earliest date on your list and press “Move page … to end” on its page.
  4. Go to the next date on the list and press that page's button the same way, through to the last receipt.
  5. Check the “New order” line matches your list, then press “Download in new order”.

Tips specific to receipts

  • Faded thermal receipts can be hard to read in a thumbnail. Open the file in a PDF reader and zoom into that page to read the date.
  • If two receipts share a day, order them by the printed time if there is one, or leave them as they are.
  • If some receipts are upside down or sideways, reordering does not change page orientation. Rotate them before or after.
  • From the keyboard, Tab to a page's button and press Enter; focus stays on the page after it moves.

After sorting

A file sorted by date is far easier to go through with your accountant or to match against a bank statement receipt by receipt. If you also want a numbers summary, enter the receipts' amounts, dates and categories in Expense summary generator to get totals per month and per category.

Common questions

Does reordering reduce the quality of the scans?

No. Pages move as they are with no recompression, so they keep the scan's resolution.

Can I sort receipts from several files?

Combine the files into one with the PDF merge tool first, then sort it this way.