As one who runs his own home based business, I accumulate a ton or receipts each year. Not only do the receipts take up their fair share of space, but they also, thanks to thermal paper, seem to “disappear” as time goes on. OK, maybe the paper doesn’t disappear, but the writing on the paper does. And what good is a receipt that can’t be read at tax time?
I began using the Neat Receipts Pro in late 2006 and haven’t looked back since.
The software is intuitive. You create a category (let’s say “Office Supplies” or “Fuel” or “Client Entertainment”) and then just scan the receipts after hooking up the scanner via your PC’s USB port. Scanning involves feeding the receipt into the scanner, waiting a few seconds and then seeing the receipt on-screen. For the most part, the software is pretty good at deciphering what the receipt says, including the sales tax and the total. It does have issues with the vendor at times, since many stores like to use their logo instead of writing out their store name. If there is any information that the software didn’t “read”, it’s just a matter of typing it in manually, which takes no time at all.
Once you have created all of your categories (and you can create both business and personal categories, and label them as such), and you’ve scanned your first batch of receipts, looking up a receipt takes no time at all. Simply highlight the category and look for the receipt, which is arranged chronologically. If you need a reprint of the receipt, simply select “Print” and it will print it out original size. You can also export to PDF, which is a feature added in the latest software release.
In addition to receipts, you can also scan in documents for putting into a “digital safe”. The software categorizes those items also.
I save up my receipts for the week and scan them on Sundays. Once I’m done with the scanning, the best part is coming up: the big pile of receipts gets shredded! Everything is stored on the PC. Obviously its a good idea to create a backup of your receipts and the program has that feature built in also. Since all of the receipts and documents are stored in a database, you simply select “Tools” from the menu, then “Database”, then “Backup” and it backs up everything into your My Documents\NeatReceipts folder. I then backup to an external drive nightly. Quarterly I copy the backup to a DVD and place it into a safe.
The Neat Receipts program also scans business cards and transfers the contact information, another neat feature (I see where they get their name now!).
The IRS accepts the receipts in digital format, so there is no issue come tax time.
Bottom line, if you like to have your life organized, and you don’t like to have a ton of receipts taking up space, this is one of the best investments you can make.