How Pastors Should Track Housing Allowance Receipts in 2026

The shoebox method

Throw every receipt in a shoebox, sort it in March. It works — until it doesn't. Faded thermal paper, missing receipts, lost categorization. You'll spend a weekend rebuilding what should have taken five minutes a week.

Spreadsheet

A solid step up. The discipline problem is the same: you have to remember to enter things, and most pastors don't. Spreadsheets also don't store the actual receipt image — which is what the IRS actually wants.

Generic expense apps

Apps like Expensify or QuickBooks Self-Employed are powerful but built for small businesses. None of them understand the specific categories, FRV cap, or designation rules that apply to clergy. You'll constantly be translating.

Clergy-specific tools (like My Housing Allowance)

Built around the housing allowance categories the IRS actually expects. Snap a photo, get auto-categorized line items, generate a year-end report ready for your CPA. We built My Housing Allowance because nothing on the market spoke clergy.

Whatever you choose, the rule is: do something. Pastors who track consistently keep more of the housing allowance benefit they're already entitled to.