Sensible Organizing Solutions

Look familiar?

It’s tax prep time and one of the most annoying details to deal with can be gathering and organizing all of your RECEIPTS.

Most of my clients have receipts laying around (usually folded or crumpled) in many different places. In the purse, wallet, car, kitchen or bathroom counters, bedstands, junk drawers, top of dresser, mixed with piles of other papers, inside shopping bags, in pockets of clothing or suitcases, etc.

And at tax time, do you stuff them all in a small shoebox or bag and bring them to your Accountant to sort?

To avoid having to gather receipts from all over the house and car during tax-prep time, here are some tips for handling your receipts as they come in:1) Designate a central place in your home or office to store your receipts.2) Make sure the container is large enough and wide enough to handle all receipts for the year (the box shown above is clearly not large enough for those receipts).3) Label the container “Tax-Deductible Receipts”.

4) Provide separate containers for receipts not related to your taxes (e.g., “Returns” or “Rebates” or “?? Receipts”.

5) Before placing a receipt in your designated container, unfold it and determine if it is tax-deductible.

6) If the receipt is not tax-deductible, do not place it in the receipt container (throw it away immediately or place it in a separate container).

7) To make it easier to enter receipt info into your money-management database (i.e., Quicken, Quickbooks, Excel), circle the date and amount on each receipt with a pen.

8) At least once a month, enter receipt info into your database system. Once receipts have been entered, place them in 9 x 12 envelopes and label them by the month/year or by the quarter.

When tax time rolls around, all of your receipts will have already been separated, entered in your database and organized by months of the year!

This will save you hours or even days during tax-prep time.

Jana Hartwell, CPO^®