How did I live without Pinterest? I spent 10 mins (or was it hours) yesterday looking at “organising paperwork/receipts” and I found some great ideas. I have to say though that I was amazed at the level some people go to – definite A types.
However, one of my big issues is receipts! I co-run a Community Interest Company (Kent PEPS) and we get a small grant each year from the Department for Education. We do everything on a voluntary basis but all expenses have to be accounted for. This year, when it came time to send our monitoring form in, I had to find 45 receipts. I had over 22 places to look – handbags, drawers, tables, shelves, files and even the room under the stairs! It took me almost 8 hours and I was almost in tears at the end – promising myself I would never get into that state again.
I asked friends and some A types used scrapbooks they updated daily, others used a folder behind the kettle where they shoved receipts in until it was so full, they had to do paperwork and others paid someone to do this on their behalf. Now that sounded like a nice option except we don’t have the funding for it and also, it would still mean keeping my receipts safe until I handed them over.
So I now am looking at two new methods.
The first came from Snapguide and uses a small photo album to store receipts. Amazingly, when I called into Paperchase today, they did have the same photo album used in the blog and was the grand price of £1.50. This fits nicely into any handbag so I intend to pack that with my purse every time I change handbags. This was one of the big issues when I was searching for receipts – I like handbags and change them frequently.
The second one came from my absolute passion for apps. I have taken photos of some receipts on my phone and added them to a Dropbox folder and thought “this is it – fab” But I have just read a blog where someone took images of receipts and tagged them in Evernote and then linked them to something called Expensify and well, what can I say – that looks great too.
So watch this space and I will let you know which, if any, of the above is something I can maintain. If it is anything like my diet, this will last for a day or two and then a bad day will mean a change of handbags and another year of searching for receipts.
What do you do to keep on top of receipts and finances? What works for you? All ideas and tips welcome.
3 Comments
I liked reading this because I too tried EVERYTHING to manage receipts as a self-employed trainer/consultant, having been previously ruined working in a charity when I simply passed them over to an admin team. After envelopes, folders, apps and all sorts… what’s worked best for me is an expandable file (concertina I think), just a few quid from Staples with a section for each month and I bung them all in there. If I’m really busy “on the road”, then I take it with me and pop it in the boot or my bag. It still takes some sorting out at a later stage, but at least gives me peace of mind that they’re all in the same place…
(I’m slightly embarrassed to be responding so enthusiastically about how I store receipts!!!).
Lol Steve – I did consider a concertina file but I needed something to fit in my handbag. The “idea” is that I can put receipts in the album in my bag as I get them. Will this work? Well, that’s another post isn’t it!?
A handbag. Maybe I should’ve tried that 🙂