After eight years of freelancing, my record-keeping is still chaotic. I’ve got half my receipts as phone photos, and the other half are just crumpled up in a shoebox.
My accountant keeps nudging me to sort things out, but I can’t find a system that sticks. Digital records feel like too much, while the paper ones always seem to vanish.
Use a scanner app to digitize receipts right away. Name each file with the date and purpose. Create a folder on your phone for the year. For paper records, get an accordion folder with monthly sections. At the end of each month, put everything in there. Keep it straightforward. This will make tax time a lot easier.
I throw everything in one box and deal with it later.
I just keep it simple. I sort receipts when I have time. It’s not fancy but it does the job.
Pick one method and stick with it. I take photos of everything and dump them in a folder named by month.
Once a week I go through the folder and rename files with what they are. This takes maybe ten minutes. Paper just creates more mess so I toss receipts after taking the photo.
Your accountant will be happy as long as everything is there when they need it.