Tip of the Week: Shoeboxed.com

I hate to keep up with receipts for tax purposes, and I have large files of all kinds of receipts attached to my tax returns.  Last year I vowed to go paperless with my receipts, so now I convert all of my online receipts to PDF files instead of printing them out and have them sorted into folders that are the same as my expense categories in Quickbooks.  However, I had never resolved the issue of the paper receipts that I accumulate when I buy something in person.  I had looked at a scanner and software called Neat Receipts, but the thought of scanning all of my receipts in myself never appealed to me.

Now I don’t have to.  I just discovered Shoeboxed.com, a receipt scanning service.   Instead of printing out your receipts or losing them in the mass of emails you get, they will be neatly organized in one location.  For a monthly fee, you can send in your paper receipts to them, have the receipts scanned, and the receipts show up in your online account.  You can attach a reminder note to your receipt, view and/or print an image of the original receipt, edit the content of the receipt, categorize the receipt into various "shoeboxes" (expense categories), and export the receipts in a variety of formats.  Additionally, you can scan in receipts you receive by email and upload those as well.  Or, if you want to eliminate email receipts,  you get a personal Shoeboxed email address that you use instead of your regular email every time you purchase something online. Your email receipt is then sent to your Shoeboxed account.

Lastly, if you want to get a sense of how you’re spending your money, you can check your stats for expenditures by month or category.

Subscriptions begin at $9.95/month and is limited to English and US dollars, although you can send in from other countries at the Basic membership level..  Can you imagine how much easier it will be when tax time comes around?  Start to shoebox your receipts here.