Comments on: Ask Unclutterer: What to do with receipts?

By: Aeryn

Aeryn — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:50:34 +0000

I post them to MyThings.com which helps me store the digital copy online without me worrying about losing the file (something I’m quite prone to doing).

By: What are those receipts doing in your drawer? Throw them away with ProOnGo Expense with Receipt Reader. « ProOnGo Blog

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:18:35 +0000

[...] with ProOnGo Expense with Receipt Reader. The Unclutterer siterecently had a great blog about when to save receipts. However, with ProOnGo, you can now always lose your [...]

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:02:36 +0000

First of all, I do not leave the receipt in the bag in case it is stolen. Just a precaution I’ve always used.
To keep track of all my receipts I have a soft plastic seven compartment mini filer (usually used for coupons, recipes, etc.). It has separate sections for each of my credit cards, bank deposits/withdrawals, coupons, and returns. When I have a minute or two to spare in my car I empty my purse/wallet of receipts and file them away. This method keeps them managed and out of my way until I’m ready to reconcile them to my statements–which I highly recommend as someone that has experienced fraudulent charges.

By: David Hacker

David Hacker — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:00:57 +0000

I use ProOnGo (www.ProOnGo.com) to track receipts. It has software that lets you use your phone’s camera to organize\store\track receipts.

By: Shaye

Shaye — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:00:06 +0000

I use a CD cover for receipts. The kind that has two side openings, is made of paper. On one side it says “life” on the other “work”. I enjoy a moment at the end of my purchase to chat with the cashier- or use the counter for a moment before cloing up shop and heading out!

By: gypsy packer

gypsy packer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:28:36 +0000

I may shop for several people at any given time, so all receipts go into the back–least used–compartment of my purse, to be given out when I deliver the merchandise.
Deductible receipts are scanned. Since many stores will not accept a return with a scanned copy of a receipt, I save all warranty-item receipts for the warranty period.
A small trick I learned while living in a pickup truck and sharing space with a laptop and printer: police never believe that a vehicle-dweller owns anything acquired honestly. I laminate receipts for computer equipment and iPod. If you don’t, the ink fades and you no longer have evidence for the Square Trade three-year warranty or for proof of legitimate ownership.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:39:17 +0000

NeatReceipts and NeatDesk are two tools that help individuals and small businesses manage, track and organize receipts (in addition to business cards and documents). Full disclosure: I’m an employee of The Neat Company.

Both products are scanner and software bundles (NeatReceipts is bundled with a portable scanner and NeatDesk is bundled with an automatic document feed scanner) that enable you to scan and manage receipts. The software reads and auto-populates key data from receipts such as vendor, category, date and amount. This makes it easy to track expenses and maintain records without keeping the paper.

Additionally, one of top reasons someone is selected for an audit is due to careless errors on tax returns. The best way to avoid the dreaded audit is to maintain accurate records. You can assign a tax category to each receipt and generate tax reports which provide totals by IRS category. You can also export tax data directly to TurboTax. The IRS accepts digital images of receipts as proof, so this means less clutter in your office or house, not to mention the peace of mind provided because receipts fade and digital images don’t.

PC and Mac versions are available (and the Mac software is compatible with third party scanners, such as the popular Fujitsu ScanSnap).

You can learn more at http://www.neatco.com. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jchoi@neatco.com.

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:51:23 +0000

I had the unfortunate surprise of being audited by the IRS for business expenses in 2003 and 2004. I went to my file cabinet and pulled all my receipts only to find that many of the receipts were so faded as to be unreadable. I found that after 2 years most of the heat activated receipts that come from the Post office, staples, office depot, etc fade and are basically slick empty pages. Fortunately, most of my purchases were on my cash card or credit card so I spend the next 2 months getting old credit card statements and bank statements to justify my expenses. The credit card companies and the bank all charged a fee for pulling statements from 5 years ago.

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:20:57 +0000

I also use my credit card for a lot of mundane purchases, because it gives me cash back. I get a higher percentage at gas stations, drug stores and grocery stores so I use it often for those purchases. Before I got this particular card I paid for those types of purchases with cash.

I have a spot in my wallet where I put the receipts. I have to put the card back in my wallet anyway, so it’s not much more time to stuff the receipt in there as well. I’ve found that putting the receipt in the bag leads to a much higher chance that I’ll misplace it.

Every week or so, I clean out receipts from the wallet. I have a small accordian file labeled by month and I stuff the receipts in there as I clean out the wallet.

When I go to pay the credit card bill (which I pay in full each month – so please don’t judge me just because I’m still using my card), I pull out the receipts and log each and every purchase into Microsoft Money. If I don’t need to keep the receipt for warranty, tax, or other purposes, it gets recycled.

I can then have Microsoft Money track how I’m spending my money each month. I’ve set up my own set of expense categories because the default ones just didn’t cut it.

I’m currently remodeling my kitchen and putting a lot of those expenses on the card. I’ve already received several hundred dollars in bonus cash from the card, and I carry no balance and pay no interest or late fees. Free money for me.

By: timgray

timgray — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:38:36 +0000

I scan them. Neat-receipts works great and is zero effort. all receipts are automatically named the date they were scanned (you can change the name and date to match the receipt) and then I can throw them away.

Receipts from today will be unreadable next march for tax time. so Scanning them is very important. Works great and takes so little time.

Honestly you want to get rid of clutter in the office, scanning them and ALL invoices to get rid of the piles of paper is a big one.

By: kristof

kristof — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:41:41 +0000

I keep receipts in my wallet as I receive them and then scan when I get home — NO MORE ENVELOPES or hunting for receipts at tax time.

Here’s my amazing, time-saving helpers:

ScanSnap S300M portable scanner (Mac and PC versions) Fast and takes up very little space.

RecieptWallet
– ScanSnap scans receipts into PDF format directly into RW which will OCR the info, anything it misses you can fill in. You can view by Name, price, how paid, etc. Great app.

YEP
– For larger documents, ScanSnap will scan directly into YEP. Same as above, you can tag, arrange and view at will.

With those three things, I’m getting closer and closer to being completely paperless.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:52:42 +0000

Don’t forget that saving receipts can come in handy for insurance purposes in case of a flood or fire. Far better then having the original burned in a fire would be to have a scanned copy in a home inventory file with pictures of your homes contents stored off site at a trusted family members home, safe deposit box, or online storage site. Everything from clothes and furniture down to toothbrushes can be replaced by insurance if you have record of them.

By: Michele

Michele — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:14:44 +0000

After looking again at the original question, I’m reminded of what I do when I’m handed my change and a receipt. To tell the truth, I jam it all back into my wallet. Then, usually once a day but maybe every third day at the most, I find 15 seconds of down-time to open my wallet, re-arrange my cash by denomination (and all facing the same way) so that I can keep in mind how much I’m carrying, and decide what to do with receipts.

Then I deal with them much the way described in the answer to the original question: recycle, put in the to-be-filed pile, or keep to reconcile with my credit card statement.

Hope I didn’t come across as a skinflint zealot in my previous post. I meant the comment to be light-hearted and joking!

By: Michele

Michele — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:08:22 +0000

Boy, you people do a lot of shopping! LOL I don’t think I have to handle nearly as many receipts per month as the commenters here.

And one piece of advice I don’t think I’ve seen so far for how to reduce receipt clutter: reduce your number of purchases to begin with. For example, you won’t have any “useless”-category receipts if you bring your own coffee and lunch from home every day.

Also: I’m a person who uses my credit card almost all the time. This is because it’s a rewards card, and points are deposited as cash into my daughter’s college fund. So I echo Erin’s comment that it’s important not to make assumptions about the credit-card users ahead of you in line! Maybe they’re banking up on frequent-flyer miles, or it’s a debit card that rounds up the total and deposits the overage into a savings account. You never know!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:19:04 +0000

Judge Judy taught me years ago to not throw away receipts–even for little things. I bought a small accordion-type check file and file all my receipts in the letter sections by the store name. At the end of the year, I take them all out, bundle them in order, and store them with the previous years’ receipts. It works so well when you need to go back and find something. I ripped the flap off the top of the check file because it was a nuisance.

Of course all receipts are filed AFTER they have made a quick run through my Fujitsu ScanSnap! This was THE best thing I have purchased in years!