Tax Time

Thank you to everyone for your kind words in response to my last post.  So I have noticed people randomly posting pics of them doing their taxes, with pictures of course. When I see the pictures it makes me chuckle; all the pictures I have seen seem to be of two maybe three manila folders and a small stalk of receipts. Now I could be wrong maybe they just wanted to make the photos look nice, I don't know.  What I do know is their stacks look nothing like mine.  So I thought since I'm going to be keeping it real, I dragged myself out to take a picture of my receipt organizing system. Maybe it will help some other planners out there, who like me seem to acquire a LOT of receipts and aren't quite sure how to store them. 

We all know that receipt ink can disappear in a few days in the bottom of our purses; so my system is that I make a copy of the receipt and staple the original to it, enter it in quickbooks and put it in a folder. Each folder is divided up by month, makes it easier if I have to go look for something or do a price comp.  I rarely have to look through the "actual receipts" since my Quickbooks system allows me to be really accurate in the breakdown of purchases and what account they belong in. Now I know there are bookkeeping systems out there that you can scan your receipts into and don't need to save the papers; but my accountant doesn't recommend it for me.

You see I buy all different kinds of things that are for work, and my categories are so weird that my accountant  recommends I keep everything. So this is how I do it.  Of course these folders are only the receipts they are not the bank statement folders, employee tax documents, sales tax folders, insurance folders etc... you get the idea.  I love you all but really didn't feel like digging all that out :)

I hope this tip helps at least one person, it sure saves me.