What “audit-proof” receipts actually mean for freelancers

Every freelancer has heard the advice: “keep your receipts.” But keeping a shoebox of fading thermal paper isn’t the same as keeping records that survive an audit.

Under IRS Rev. Proc. 97-22, a digital copy is equivalent to the paper original when it’s a legible, accurate reproduction you can produce on demand. That means the goal isn’t hoarding paper — it’s substantiation: who you paid, when, how much, and what it was for.

Proofly captures exactly those fields with its AI extraction, maps each expense to the right Schedule C line, and bundles everything into an audit pack — a single PDF of every receipt plus a ledger — so if the questions ever come, the answers are already assembled.