Guest Post

10 Ways To Organise & Store Printed Receipts

by James Adams

Despite our ever increasing cyber and virtual worlds, it seems that printed, hardcopy items will still always be with us. As much as we loathe the paper mess and paper chase, especially when it comes to printed receipts, it’s just a necessary evil we have to accept. We require them for business reimbursement and for record keeping when it comes to proper accounting for tax purposes. Here are 10 ways to organise and store our printed receipts.

#1. Assort and collect your receipts by their very purpose. Use separate manilla file folders for each category. Put all your restaurant receipts in one file, all your gas receipts in another, all your travel receipts in a third, and all your other shopping related receipts in a fourth. This way, at the drop of a hat, you can quickly locate any subject-specific receipt.

#2. Organise your domestic and foreign receipts separately. You might be taxed differently on these. For travel purposes, for example, have two subfolders: one for domestic flights, cabs, rental cars, gasoline and repairs, and a second for all foreign travel expenses. You will easily be able to differentiate them this way.

#3. Store your receipts by the specific amounts on the tab. A good suggestion is to have one file folder allotted to all receipts under $50 and another for every receipt over $50. You can further subcategorise them by, for example, domestic travel under $50, and domestic travel over $50. Or by flights under $100 and for those over $100. This way you’ll know which are your biggest tax write offs right up front. You’ll be prepared by utilising this method and you’ll be able to pluck each one right out of it’s respective folder.

#4. Organise everything chronologically. Have separate physical files organised by each week or by the month. Pick coloured files for easier recognition. You can select blue for January, red for February, and so on. Simply label each file by month as well for ultra fast chronological recognition.

#5. Use Shoebox.com  to do organise them for you. Since the old shoebox method is not very organised, a company came out with a virtual shoebox. Shoebox.com will allow you to mail them all your receipts in a postage paid envelope. They will then scan and organise all your receipts in any organisational category you desire, Plans start as low as $9.95 per month.

#6. Scan your receipts and store as PDFs. If you have a quality scanner, you can easily scan all your printed receipts into easy to read PDF format for organisational purposes. One top scanner that’s out there is Fujutsu’s ScanSnap. For around $399.95, software included, you can own a state of the art scanner that scans black and white pages at the fast rate of 18 pages per minute. Go to ScanSnap.com for more information. Make sure you immediately name your files the moment you store it. You can easily get into the habit of scanning 40-50 receipts a day for a most effective and efficient organisational approach.

#7. Make sure all your receipts are in one place. Don’t have them scattered all over the place, such as some in your wallet, some on the back seat, some in your suit pockets, others in your desk draw, and so on. Using just one separate file folder or even just an old shoebox is a good start if you’re not in the habit yet of being very organised with your printed receipts.

#8. Keep a fixed routine vis-a-vis how often you organise your receipts. Most organised people perform this task quite frequently, say once a week, on the same day each week, such as a Friday. If you let it stretch too far without any organisational effort and muscle thrown in, you’ll quickly grow overwhelmed, and you’ll probably throw your hands up in the air in frustration and stop trying at all. So stay regular with this.

#9. Use a simple spreadsheet program to help keep track of receipts. The one that comes with your MS Office suite is perfectly fine, such as PowerPoint. Such a free program will allow you to enter information such as date, amount, place, category, and purpose. It can make all the difference in the world, and help your organisational efforts get up and running.

#10. Try a simple filing cabinet. Get a sturdy. locking one with the hanging files and the colour-coded, alphabetised tabs. The best way to go here is to organise alphabetically either by category purpose or geographical place. It’s fast and easy, and you should drop your receipts into each respective file as often as you receive them. Don’t let them pile up.

As you can see, organising your printed receipts is not such an arduous, overwhelming process, after all. Get started today, and feel that peace of mind that comes with being on top of things.

James Adams reviews products for Cartridge Save, the top store in the UK specialising Cheap Ink Refills. James has written articles including this one on 25 of the Best Home Office Mac Set Ups

Your Mission if you chose to take it is: Organize Your Store Receipts

Link up Your Office Mission Post

You can find the linky by clicking on the button above or going to my Organizing Mission Link Party. Feel free to keep linking up your different office projects that you accomplish during this Office Mission. I am ok with also linking up organizing projects that aren’t office related. This link will be up until Feb. 24 so you will have time to add your office projects in. If you aren’t sure how to link up to a link party, be sure to stop by and read my link party tutorial

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Photo by Sandy Jenney

The Shredder – Mission: Office

Mission Office – The Shredder

The mission today is to discuss the shredder. I think every office should have a shredder.  It is just a good idea to get rid of all those papers with account numbers on them etc.  I’m going to share my new shredder experience with you and a little tip that worked for me. But I’m open to hearing your ideas.

I got a new shredder.  I had been using a very small desk top shredder that could only handle 1 piece of paper at a time.  But I kept it out by my “mini office” in the family room, so it worked out great.

After I rearranged my office (you will see in coming posts) I was going to be using my office and had an area underneath the desk and next to my recliner (yes… recliner) that one would work.

I know this isn’t a very pretty picture.  It is under the desk and behind a file cabinet, so not seen from the front of the desk.  The box is all the papers I need to shred, after cleaning out my files.  See how this shredder is long and narrow?  I thought it would work out great in this space.

So…. I started shredding away.  It was working great.  Then it slowed down… ok time to empty

Yes… it was full.  I grabbed a trash bag, and got back behind the chair to empty it.

Ok..I could see this was not going to be pretty.  As careful as I was … the little shreds of paper still went all over.  It reminded me of the big cool shredder we have at work (yes… I think it is fun to use). But every time it gets emptied… it is such a mess.

I moved the box out of the way, vacuumed and then got a black trash bag.  I considered getting a plastic bin to put underneath of it.  But, with this being long and narrow, I would have to pull it all the way out from under the desk…. anyway… logistically that wasn’t going to work. The drawer wouldn’t have pulled out without being out of the bin…

I also knew that putting a trash bag liner wasn’t going to work. The drawer wouldn’t have been able to close, and if it isn’t closed all the way, then the shredder won’t turn on. So.. although it isn’t pretty… it should work.

Let’s see if this is going to work. I filled it again with shredding
Still a little messy, but it is contained in the trash bag now. I got a separate trash bag to empty the bin into and left the one underneath the shredder. I am also going to use a clear trash bag next time underneath the shredder.  Even though no one sees it but me, it will still just look a little nicer.

Some paper dust… but ready to shred some more.  Once the box is empty, I will probably put a nicer basket or plastic bin to the right of it to put the shred pile in. There are times that you have more shredding to do than you have time for, or in my case the shredder heats up enough by lots of shredding and it turns off. Until it cools it won’t work.   So there may be times you have to have a storage area for the shred pile.

Do you have a shredder?  Do you use it?  Do you have problems with it being messy when you empty it?  What do you do to take care of that?  I would love for you to share any shredder posts that you may have… and if you don’t have any yet, why don’t you make one?

Your Mission if you chose to take it is: Show Me Your Shredder!

Link up Your Office Mission Post

If you have a blog post on your shredder or lack there of & how you use it, I’d love for you to link it to my Organizing Mission Monday link party. This link party will be left open for a month to go with the Mission – Office that I am working on with my link party.

I would love it if you could vote for my blog! You can vote up to once per day. Just click the button. Thank you!

I would love it if you could vote for my blog! You can vote up to once per day. Just click the button. Thank you!

I’m linking this post to:

Five Simple Steps to Help Organize Your Christmas Morning Craziness

Paper everywhere….boxes with pieces and parts laying half opened…dog’s wearing bows that got stuck to their fur? Sound like a typical Christmas morning at your house?
So how many Christmas days have you NOT had to try and find something in the trash that probably got thrown out?
Either that card with money from Aunt Ethel or the back of the new toy that Jimmy got. You KNOW it here somewhere but, now it is gone.

There are a few things that might help you cut down on some of the craziness Christmas morning.

1) Get several black trash bags. Station them around the room so that everyone has access to one for their trash. Immediately after opening their gift, have them throw just the paper away.

2) Have one place each person places their opened gifts near them.

3) If you know that your family members are getting gift cards or cash, then have a large colored envelop that they can place their gift cards or money in that has their name on it. You can pass those out after they receive their first one.

4) Have one central bag if you keep the ribbons and bows to recycle. The kids can have fun tossing the bows your way.

5) You can also use white trash bags and have them out in case someone wants to open a new toy that has many pieces and parts. They can put the extra pieces in the bag if the box gets torn apart too much to use. Then make sure that all trash throwing adults KNOW that white trash bags DO NOT go in the trash.

Try these methods and see if your Christmas morning can go a little smoother with clean up being much quicker.

Office Desk Drawers – Can you find a paper clip in yours?

Office desk drawers can often become office junk drawers with everything in them….and you can’t find a thing when you look.
You can easily change out a drawer with just a little organization and some drawer organizers.

There are many places that have drawer organizing units, from The Container Store to Target…but you really don’t need anything elaborate. You can find little baskets at the dollar store. You can use ice cube trays to separate out paper clips, rubber bands, etc. The boxes that your checks come in make great little organizers.

Just use your sorting skills as you go through your things.
1)Keep – Use it, love it, want it
2)Donate – Don’t want it, can’t use it, do not like it (but someone will)
3)Move – Goes into a different room or space
4)Storage – Seasonal
5)Trash/Recycle – Broken, torn, can not donate

Go through the zazillion pens that are in your drawers and test them. Get a piece of scrap paper out of your trash/recycle and test each and every pen. If it doesn’t write right away then pitch it. If it is a marker and is dim..pitch it.
You can make a bag of pens to go in the car, take with you to your office or donate them if you have too many.
Use the baskets and separate your items so they are “like with like”.

Simple as that you can have nice looking desk drawers and will be able to open them and actually find things.

Organize your office with “Zones”

Organize your office with Zones

This is my office. I share it with my husband, his desk is just to the right of mine. The office is small…but I am still happy we do have it.
If you do not have an office or anywhere you can call your office but want to make one you need to consider a few things.

1) Usability/Accessibility – if it is in the back of the basement, will you actually use it? It needs to be some place you will use it.
2) Heating and cooling (if you are thinking of a basement, extra room or so forth).
3) Convenience – Does it work for you and your family?

You may consider these areas -
1) Kitchen – Is there a section of counter in the kitchen that you could call your own and set up a mini office?
2) Family room – Could you set up a mini office by your chair. (post on Thursday will show pictures of my mini office)
3) Corner of a room that you could put a small table or corner desk?

Zones

If you have an office, or an area in the family room that you do your paperwork, or a table in your bedroom….you need to make “Zones”. Zones break down the office into what you need the most and use daily (Zone A) to items you don’t use very often and can store elsewhere in the room. (Zone C)

Ok…so artist I am not! But this gives you the idea of what I am talking about.
You are in the center (of course….isn’t it always about us?…LOL, sorry..goofy mood) and the circle closest to you is your Zone A.

Zone A - Things you use daily and need close at hand. You don’t have to move to get these items.
1) In box for papers
2) Pencils/pens
3) Tape
4) Phone
5) Stapler/Scissors
6) Letter opener
7) Sticky notes
8) Paper
9) Trash can
10) Calculator
11) Computer

Zone B – Items that you may have to roll your chair around to, but are still close and accessible. You do not have to get up out of your chair.
1) File cabinet
2) Printer/copier/fax
3) Shredder

Zone C – In the office, but you have to get up and walk to.
1) Office supplies
2) Extra file cabinet – maybe files you don’t access as often
3) Book shelf with reference books.

This gives you an idea of how I break it down. But you want to be efficient when you sit down to work in your office. You don’t need to jumping up and down or you may not get anything accomplished.

More to come on Office organizing Thursday and Friday of this week. Stay tuned!