Our recent visit to the tax lady (which, can I just say, was not fun, seeing as how we have to give this year instead of receive) has inspired me to organize a system for tracking receipts.
I just filed a receipt in it and I paused and admired it for quite a few minutes. Then it occurred to me that I might want to share it with you. After all, I write a lot about creativity and craft, but I rarely write about the business side of this profession. That would be because the business side of it does not interest me much. But when I am so clever that I can't stand it, that interests me. And this receipt book falls into the cleverness without end category.
My former system of organizing expense receipts was effective but limited in its overarching organization, seeing as how it consisted of one very large manila envelope with the year scrawled on it. This had the advantage of being convenient. I could simply take a wad of receipts from my wallet and stuff them in the envelope. But it also had one huge disadvantage, and that was that at tax time it took several nights and at least one bottle of wine to sort it all out.
But this year I am all over it. I took a small 7 by 9 inch three-ring binder that I happened to have (you could easily use a larger one, but I didn't have one and I was so excited to get started that I didn't want to wait to buy one) and 7 by 9 inch manila envelopes. I punched holes in the envelopes and put them in the binder, after labeling each one. Et voila! A convenient place to organize all my receipts. Easily accessible, and easy to maintain.
I have to admit that the impetus for this was a photo I saw on an author's blog. I wish I could remember her name, but it escapes me at the moment. Her receipt notebook was organized according to month. I liked the idea, but I felt (somewhat smugly) that organizing receipts by category was smarter. After all, you have to total them up in those categories, so why not make it easy by separating them in that manner?
There are a lot of categories to track, I must say. I have:
- Income (I usually just photocopy checks and throw them in, or print out Paypal receipts)
- Travel
- Books (which will be the bulgiest envelope by the end of the year)
- Office Supplies and Equipment (all those invoices from Friendly Computer, without whom my Vaio and I could not exist)
- Education
- Internet
- Food and Entertainment
- Donations
- Postage
I've probably forgotten something. I always forget something. I have a little list in the front pocket labeled "Don't Forget to Include" and I'm hoping that helps this year.
If anybody has any stellar thoughts on other ways to organize, or especially ways to save on the tax bill, I'm all ears.
