Reply to: Receipt Management

[Sausage Surprise]

Christ - are times really that hard ?!! Fish under the mattress and treat yourself to some new ones.

It's called recycling man.....

[kaiser78]

I went on Freecycle. There's usually someone giving away folders. Of course they wont be pristine, but they're only holding receipts (or other bits of paperwork I don't reference too frequently).

About 3mths ago there was a chap on there who was shutting down an office and had hundreds of lever arch folders to go. I picked up about 100 - should keep me going for a while (plus if I decide I don't want them I'll just relist and someone'll come take them off my hands).

Christ - are times really that hard ?!! Fish under the mattress and treat yourself to some new ones.

[infosec]

I use crunch for accounting and just signed up to this extra service from them: Snap | Expense tracking | Crunch

I'm badly organised at things like expenses, so the snap service is brilliant for me at least - all I have to do is train myself to take a picture using the app as soon as I have the receipt in hand. It will save me money as I now claim for many smaller items I wouldn't previously have been bothered to claim. A digital copy is stored so I can be unorganised with the actual receipts to some extent which suits my 'style' ;-)

[SpontaneousOrder]

Not that I have many anyway, but I've not been bothered about keeping physical receipts. Surely a scan is as good as the original? The originals will be unreadable within a year anyway, and I could fake an original as easy as i could fake the scan.

[darrylmg]

Not even broken down by month?

I don't know but it's been less than two month and I already have near 70 receipts. Granted the first month got things like limited company formation and accountancy fees etc. So assuming it is nearer to 30 in a month, then over a year that's 360, it will be tough to go through all these looking for a specific month. And especially that most receipts are small.

I think the point here is that you are building a framework so that it continues to work 5 or 10 years in the future. Maybe I just think too far head, but hey, I'm a BA after all, its my job!

Thought you only need to keep them for 6 years (if you're not under investigation)...

[KayMan]

Bejeezes, I don't get 70 in two years, what are you doing? Buying single paperclips or single staples?

travel, accomodation and food mostly, it is the type of contract where I have to go to client's client sites 2-3 times a week. that means food and subsistence on the road. taxis, trains, airplanes, hotels, these things add up.

[GettingBy]

Which ever ones the clients have in the stationary cupboard....

I went on Freecycle. There's usually someone giving away folders. Of course they wont be pristine, but they're only holding receipts (or other bits of paperwork I don't reference too frequently).

About 3mths ago there was a chap on there who was shutting down an office and had hundreds of lever arch folders to go. I picked up about 100 - should keep me going for a while (plus if I decide I don't want them I'll just relist and someone'll come take them off my hands).

[vwdan]

Benchmark scale rates and a dispensation. Eliminates 36 of those.

Do you have one?

Edit: £15 for a "meal" - uh, think I'll stick to my receipts for London travel.

[tractor]

Can you like, do caviar, oysters and champers on that, or is it capped at pie and mash rate?

Only if you consider it passes the 'reasonableness' test and HMRC agree otherwise yes, it is capped at pie and mash rate.

[CheeseSlice]

Benchmark scale rates and a dispensation. Eliminates 36 of those.

Can you like, do caviar, oysters and champers on that, or is it capped at pie and mash rate?

[tractor]

...

easy enough when you're staying in hotels mid-week.
1 hotel invoice per week, so say 4 per month
4 meals out of an evening per week (mon-thur)
4 lunches per week (tue-fri: cause you're able to make your own for Monday right?)
=36 receipts
* 2 months = 72 receipts

Benchmark scale rates and a dispensation. Eliminates 36 of those.

[kaiser78]

Not even broken down by month?

I don't know but it's been less than two month and I already have near 70 receipts. Granted the first month got things like limited company formation and accountancy fees etc. So assuming it is nearer to 30 in a month, then over a year that's 360, it will be tough to go through all these looking for a specific month. And especially that most receipts are small.

I think the point here is that you are building a framework so that it continues to work 5 or 10 years in the future. Maybe I just think too far head, but hey, I'm a BA after all, its my job!

My expenses records are broken down by month - receipts are stored together but virtue that they have a date on them if required. Why separate if I don't need to ? Keep things simple is what I say.

[CheeseSlice]

Bejeezes, I don't get 70 in two years, what are you doing? Buying single paperclips or single staples?

easy enough when you're staying in hotels mid-week.
1 hotel invoice per week, so say 4 per month
4 meals out of an evening per week (mon-thur)
4 lunches per week (tue-fri: cause you're able to make your own for Monday right?)
=36 receipts
* 2 months = 72 receipts

[tractor]

Not even broken down by month?

I don't know but it's been less than two month and I already have near 70 receipts. Granted the first month got things like limited company formation and accountancy fees etc. So assuming it is nearer to 30 in a month, then over a year that's 360, it will be tough to go through all these looking for a specific month. And especially that most receipts are small.

I think the point here is that you are building a framework so that it continues to work 5 or 10 years in the future. Maybe I just think too far head, but hey, I'm a BA after all, its my job!

Bejeezes, I don't get 70 in two years, what are you doing? Buying single paperclips or single staples?

[CheeseSlice]

Scanned, stapled together with the total amount written on the back of the last one, then "filed" in the current tax year's shoe box.

Nice. You deserve some sort of green carbon credits for doing that.