If you run a business, you manage paper receipts – it’s just what we all have to do. Tracking paper used to be the only option until: photo technology opened up new doors and gave us the gift of more time!
We get paper receipts when we buy gas, take clients to lunch or buy office supplies. Use Evernote to capture that information and store it in the invisible cloud until you need it (around tax time). We’ve posted about Evernote before and receipt management is one of the best ways to leverage its value!
Using your smartphone camera and the free Evernote mobile application, you can simply take a photo of the receipt. You can also email or scan docs into Evernote too. Once you have the picture, tag it or put it into a notebook labeled “receipts”, “2013 receipts”, “tax docs” or whatever you want. Throughout the year, you’ll accumulate all your receipts in one place and when the time comes to review them, everything is easy to find and easy to manage.
If you’re a heavy duty spender with lots of paper already you might want to invest in a scanner that hooks directly into your Evernote account (try the Fujitsu ScanSnap or one of Evernote’s other scanner partners). This will make things super easy.
If you have a monstrous shoebox already filled and don’t want to take the time to go through it yourself, Shoeboxed is a service that can take care of it. Simply mail it to them and they’ll scan and put it into Evernote for you!
Trust me, your accountant will love you for it- they hate boxes full of paper! Also, if your accountant asks to see copies of your receipts, it’s super easy to share your “tax receipt” folder directly with your accountant from right within Evernote. You don’t need to print it all out – they can see what you see online!
** Don’t throw away your original receipts without checking with your accountant or tax professional first. Opinions differ, but you may need to keep them on hand just in case….
Make things easier on yourself by spending less time managing paper and more time building your business. Or better than that, use the extra time to take a vacation!
