That’s it. I’m making a plan and sticking to it.
I need to get my mess of files under control. They’re driving me bonkers.
I submit an Expense report weekly, and if I don’t print it and attach the hotel bill to it, and they audit me, I can get royally screwed… so I have to keep a copy of all of that but not necessarily a hard copy.
Plus I have medical expenses I submit, notes I need to keep, whatever!
I’m considering buying a portable scanner like the Docupen (seriously.. $400 is a worthwhile investment) and scanning in every document but I haven’t tried this magical scanner in person and I’m wary about any new technology that costs $400 *ouch*…
But I want to scan in EVERYTHING that doesn’t need to be an official hard copy… seriously. This is making me go nuts.
I need an external hard drive only to hold handle my mess of documents, but first I need a plan for categories in my life, before I can figure out what I need to handle it.
So my plan is kind of the following:
Government
- Health
- Taxes
- Driver’s License
- Social Insurance
- Citizenship
- Passport
Work
- Expense Reports
- Health Plan
- Retirement Plan
- Contracts
- Career Path (my yearly reviews, client feedback)
- Training
- Contacts
Life
- Recipes
- Ideas
Finances
- Will/Life Planning
- Retirement Savings as of _______
- Investment Statements
- Debt information
- Credit Card Statements
Bills
- Telephone
- Cellphone
- Cable TV
- Cable Internet
Rewards Programs
- All the different stores that I have points/cards with
I’m sure I’m missing a ton… help!?!? 
Does anyone do this or have a plan on how to tackle this? The mess of papers is driving me bonkers.
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M.
on Dec 7th, 2007
@ 8:18 PM:
Docupen does not work very well, so I hear. A friend and colleague bought one, and complained bitterly about it thereafter–I think his view was that it was worth $50, but not $400, because it wouldn’t scan everything–indeed, it wouldn’t scan quite a lot of things, although I’m a bit fuzzy on what caused it to have fits. However, the normal sort of scanners that are portable in the way that big laptops are portable do tend to work well.
Mrs. Micah
on Dec 7th, 2007
@ 8:35 PM:
It looks like you’re on the right track, at least. I’m not really sure what else to scan. I’d advise making a file or something with the list–maybe something you can check off and add to. That way you can check off what you get done and add anything you come up with.
Living Almost Large
on Dec 7th, 2007
@ 11:56 PM:
You definitely need a scanner. Docupen I’m not sure it’s worth it. And an external harddrive. Everything of ours is scanned in.
Athena
on Dec 8th, 2007
@ 1:32 PM:
I just have a filing cabinet where I have actually most of the folders you’ve listed here. If you make it back to your storage space at least every 2-3 months, maybe you can just store all your hard copies there, keeping them properly sorted while you’re in hotel. .and then once a year or so do a clean up of docs you no longer need. Seems simpler than scanning everything, especially since it would be nearly impossible to lug around a flatbed scanner.
If you could find a reasonably priced handheld scanner, I’d go for that and just keep the filing system on an external drive — why not USB with regular back-ups? I’d still store hard copies though. . but I’m just paranoid about paperwork.
Fabulously Broke in the City
on Dec 8th, 2007
@ 3:08 PM:
M.: THANKS so much for the heads up. I saw other brands online for only $139 so I’m really hemming and hawing on whether I want to scan anything at all.. but paper drives me bonkers.
Mrs. Micah: Great idea.. I’ll keep a notepad and go through my papers and write down all the categories I need, then I’ll sort them into larger categories.
Living almost large: I’m totally on board to do that.. now I just have to weigh and test all the slim flatbed scanners then.
Athena: That’s what I have now, but the system is driving me mad because of how the papers are sitting in there, and how over stuffed they’re getting…. That’s why I want to scan everything in and just carry an external..
I’ll go check out the scanners online and review the super slim ones and see what I come up with
Thanks for all the tips !
boots586
on Dec 9th, 2007
@ 8:43 PM:
Just don’t throw away the originals because any legal activity wants original paperwork, not copies, or printouts.
Fabulously Broke in the City
on Dec 9th, 2007
@ 8:56 PM:
boots586: For the taxes I don’t plan on tossing those..
but for other things like registrations, or expense reports that are normally printed (not even original), I want to scan those in…
But thanks for the ‘eads up!
kevin
on Dec 21st, 2007
@ 6:34 PM:
Some other options you could look at:
http://www.neatreceipts.com – a very specialized scanner with software to actually read what’s scanned (don’t know how good a job it does of that.)
If you just want a simple scanner, you can get a combo printer/scanner/fax at any office store pretty cheaply. They’ll scan most anything into a PDF file.
Or go super simple – use the digital camera in your cell phone and send the pic to yourself.
If you want a super easy way to track the actual transactions, I recently wrote a simple web site for expense tracking to help our firm handle it better (we use QuickBooks.) I just opened it up for other people to use. It’s free if you want to check it out – http://www.paybackable.com
Good luck on getting organized!