While it is never a bad idea to meet with an accountant, there are plenty of other cost effective ways to stay on top of your assets and expenses. Here are a couple of simple ways to manage money that I use every day to keep my spending in order.

Digitize Your Financial Documents – All of Them

I have an uncanny ability to misplace receipts and bills. One minute they’re in my pocket or padfolio and the next they are off in some other universe. This is terrible for my money management, especially if I pay for something in cash.

The best remedy I have found for this problem is digitization.

Scanners are a great option if you have the patience and don’t think you’ll have trouble keeping up with your receipts until you get back to your office. Lots of companies make very reliable scanners which are more than capable of handling the job of digitizing your receipts, bills and invoices. Most of them are even quite affordable as well.

Once you have scanned the documents and made sure that the extracted information is correct, the possibilities are endless. You can enter the data into spreadsheets to make budget graphs, generate monthly expense reports and even track the money you saved by using coupons. You can also categorize your spending so you know which credit cards you use the most often and how much it is costing you in interest. I also find this useful for tax season because I can enter all the data into the virtual accounting programs I use absolutely free. All of the data is searchable too, which makes it extremely easy to find specific purchases.

Even if you can only budget an hour or two per week to scanning your documents, it is well worth the effort considering your receipts are safe and you won’t have to spend time looking for lost ones. When using a scanner though, it is important to make sure that your scanned images are stored in the cloud and not just on your desktop. Local computers should never be the only place where you store your financial information.

Another good and often overlooked part of digitization is how helpful it can be for storing warranties. Warranties help you to keep more money in your pocket because they protect you from the diminishing value of the products you buy. Making sure that your warranties are accessible in the cloud means you will always know what maintenance and repairs are covered by the manufacturer and it will keep you from getting stuck paying for them yourself.

If you’re not the type of person who can keep up with receipts long enough to scan them, then it is a good idea to take pictures of them with your smartphone. While this sounds primitive, many smartphones allow you to email pictures to yourself which will archive the image in the cloud. Once you’re home you can extract the data and save the receipt image with your others. Did you know that the IRS accepts receipt images, even if you took it with your phone? Pretty cool right?

Track Your Card Spending

Although you should make an effort to keep up with receipts from all your transactions, the best thing about using a debit or credit card is that transactions are tracked online. Learning to take advantage of the online banking applications available to you is key to learning how to manage money better.

While not all banks are the same, many online banking features allow you to set up budgets, categorize your expenses, track debits/credits, set spending limits and they can even send automated alerts to your cellphone if your finances are running low. These applications can also be integrated with your savings accounts so you can really get an accurate snapshot of your finances.

Figuring out how to manage money better takes practice, but it is certainly an attainable goal. Using document scanners and online banking tools can help you stick to your budget while also eliminating the unnecessary time of sifting through piles of receipts.

After looking at many document scanning software reviews, we’ve repeatedly come across two main options that sound worth your while to check out.

Shoeboxed

Shoeboxed is an offsite service that will make digitizing your financial data easier than ever. The way it works is this:

• First, your documents must be scanned. You can scan them yourself in any way you choose. But the great thing about Shoeboxed is that, if you don’t want to bother with buying a scanner or doing the work of scanning, you can actually mail them your receipts and they will use their own document scan software to image them for you and then either dispose of them or return them to you, as you wish. They will even provide special tracked envelopes to help you with this mailing process.
• Second, if you scanned the documents yourself, rather than mailing them in, then you need to get the electronic versions to Shoeboxed. You can do that by emailing them the images or by using their web-based uploader. (Obviously, if you have Shoeboxed do the scanning for you, then this step is unnecessary).
• Third, once Shoeboxed has your images, they, along with their information, will be organized in an online account that you can then access and work with securely from anywhere.

TRY SHOEBOXED FOR FREE: Shoebox offers a FREE 30 day trial of its receipt scan software services. Take advantage of it right now by just clicking here.

Neat

If you’re looking for a more complete, integrated receipt scanning software solution, consider using Neat’s products and services.

(Note: Links in this section will show you the products discussed on Amazon)

Neat makes their own scanners, including both desktop and mobile models.

These scanners work seamlessly with Neat’s special “digital filing cabinet” software. When you scan your receipt into this software, it will not only store a digital image of it, but it will automatically recognize the various types of information on the document and input them into the proper fields in its database. This is highly tuned receipt scan software that will save you a tremendous amount of time entering and modifying your electronic financial information.

A nice bonus is that this “digital filing cabinet” also has a special module that allows it to act as business card scanning software. So you can not only store and digitize your financial records, but also your business contacts.

Versions of Neat’s products and services are available for both Windows and Mac users.

Which Option is for You?

If you want to truly outsource this receipt scanning software process and get it out of your hands, Shoeboxed is an excellent choice. They can simplify the process to the point that all you have to do is toss your receipts into an envelope and then periodically drop them in the mailbox. And with a free month-long trial, you have nothing to lose giving them a shot.

On the other hand, if you want more substantial control over all aspects of the digitization process, then you may find it worthwhile to invest in Neat. If you purchase a Neat scanner, as an additional benefit, you can use that scanner to do plenty of other tasks, as well. And their desktop scanner, in particular, can do bulk scanning.

In the end, you can’t really go wrong with either of these receipt scan software solutions. Both will greatly ease the process of documenting and tracking your finances.