How to Organize Your Receipts

Welcome to our 35 Days to an Organized Home Challenge! Check out ALL of our organizational posts!

Being a business owner, I have TONS of receipts each year that I have to keep track of each month. We also have a Health Savings Account, which means I have to submit receipts on a monthly basis to get reimbursed for medical expenses. This means I have to be very organized in how I keep my receipts filed.  As you will see in the video below, I have labeled baskets for when we come in the door and don’t have time to immediately file.  Once we have more time to file, we tape the receipts to pieces of white printer paper or scan them into the computer and shred the ones we don’t need anymore. Please note, we do NOT scan all of our receipts, just ones we want to keep for long term, business, or the HSA.  Once we tape the receipts to pieces of white paper, these are filed in manila file folders in their correct category. For my business, we file them by month to help reconcile Quickbooks at the end of the month.  Using the piece of paper method also allows us to write descriptions for receipts (especially if they are faded) for our business account.  So, here are our best quick tips on how to organize your receipts!

1. Develop a System– I’ve discussed mine and showed you in the video how I organize my receipts. However, you have to develop an organizing system that works for you. Otherwise, you won’t want to use it.

2. Maintain Your System– No organizational system is worth your time if you’re not going to maintain it.  You MUST work at maintaining your system to make it work (Kind of like the Alcoholics Anonymous motto “Work it because it works”). In other words, don’t quit, keep at it, and you will create a living habit that is hard to break! Developing a habit does take about 6 weeks, and once you’ve maintained your system for two months, it will become a regular part of your routine!

3. File and/or Scan Your Receipts: We prefer the white paper method for taping receipts as well, because it makes them so easy to file, find, and sort. Have you ever sorted through a stack of receipts? It’s a complete pain! Sorting through white pieces of paper is much easier and less time consuming! Obviously, don’t waste your time on receipts that have already been run through your bank account and aren’t needed for records, either pitch or sort them immediately so you aren’t wasting your time. We’re only talking about filing receipts that need to kept for warranty, business, or household purposes.  For example, I keep receipts of ALL major electronics stapled to their warranties in a manila file folder, and this TOTALLY paid off on a car part for us two years ago. It was still under warranty and Auto Zone COMPLETELY replaced the part for FREE! The same thing happened to my iPhone last year, and since we had Apple Care (and I had kept my receipts), I had a new phone in 24 hours! It pays to save your receipts!

4. Take a picture: I actually snap a photo of many receipts with my iPhone. Also, if I’m paying a bill on my iPad or computer, I take a photo on my iPad or snip a photo on my computer and save it. This has DRASTICALLY reduced the amount of physical paperwork I have to deal with each day. Make technology work for you, and use it to your advantage!

5. Switch to Paperless: Does your bank offer a paperless option? If so, selecting paperless as often as possible will really help reduce the amount of receipt and paper clutter you receive on a regular basis.

We hope these tips have helped you! Please comment or share pics on our Facebook page so we can see your new organized reciepts!!!

Check out our other Organizing Posts!

35 Days to an Organized Home (All Lessons on One Blog Post + Our STARTER VIDEOS!!!)

Organizing Your Paperwork (Getting Started)!
Organizing on a Budget + Dollar Store Deals
Create your own Non-Slip Hangers
Organizing Your Batteries
$4.00 Medicine Cabinet Redo
Organize Your Ribbons for $1.00!
Organize Your Jewelry for $3.00 or Less!
Closet Reorganization: Tips & Tricks (Day 1)
Closet Makeover: Day #2
Tablecloth Organization Tip
How to Organize Your Food Containers
Magnetic Cupboard Doors Video (Make sure you subscribe while you’re on our You Tube page!)
How to Organize Your Finances! (We have a TON of FREE resources for this one)!
How to Organize Your Refrigerator
How to Organize Your TIME!
How to Organize Your Child’s Toys! 
How to Organize Your Mail
How to Organize Your Receipts

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