Paper to Paperless

In an effort to go paperless I decided I needed to scan in my receipts for my business.

To do this I searched the web to find information about it.  I found that the IRS accepts organized scanned or photocopied receipts. I also found Neat Receipts a scanner and a program (Neat Works) for organizing receipts, business cards, and documents.  It is available for Windows and Macintosh.  I bought the Macintosh version from a seller on eBay.

I am in a long process of scanning years worth of receipts and documents in an effort to free up space in my apartment. I remove any staples.  I scan them in. If I don’t need the original paper copy I shred it.  The shredded paper is then either recycled or reused.

The program uses optical character recognition (OCR) and recognizes certain items from reciepts,  business cards, and documents.  It finds dates, total amount, sales tax, company.   Many times I do need to edit the information to make sure it is correct.  Of course if the paper is in good condition it works better.  It makes a pdf copy and puts it into an organizable, searchable library.  I am also able to import PDFs and Send PDF files  out in an email.

I have had the program crash on me or hang up, mostly when time machine is running.

Overall I like the program, and eventually hope to have a lot less papers.

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