I have been using the "all my reciepts in a box" method for years and I seriously need to get more organized. Tired of dreading going thru all that at tax time and it takes forever.

Any good books or tips? I was even thinking about a neatdesk scanner but I would love some input from some of you here. TIA!

I would just keep it simple and have one area, movable folder holder, filing cabinet, etc with a filing folder organized for each type of receipt, whether it be by store or agriculture use, certain bills, etc. Label them nicely and get in the habit of putting the receipt in the correct folder as soon as you get to that filing area! Putting them down and letting them pile up can be overwhelming. Before you know it, everything will have its place and it'll be right where you need it when you need it. Might be old school but that's how I've been doing it on the farm I was managing. Receipts by fuel, Ag project, company!

This ^.    It's what we do and it makes prepping tax information easy -- getting items into the right 'bucket' immediately makes it much easier. 

i just take the check book and enter the checks into quick books.  once the set up is done its really simple.  each check you can then put to the expense account it should go to and then print off all your financial information.  you can also split checks into multiple catagories like fuel, feed, maintenence or assets. 

I only write one check a month and thats to water bill.  :)

A friend of mine puts all her husbands business on a credit card and somehow it organizes things for her.  Not sure how it works tho 

If you have an Iphone and are wanting to scan everything in and keep it electronic, you can scan documents from the "Notes" app in your phone. From there you can email them or file them or whatever. 

I don't know if Android does this too, but I know there are other scanning apps available. Just to save you a couple hundred bucks on a scanner. :)

You can also take a picture of the receipt and then file the picture in folders on your phone. 

I would also add, that sitting down monthly at the end of the month & making sure that everything is organized into one big brown envelope (staple together reciepts, notes about expenses, maybe a monthly printout from quickbooks, etc.), then at the end of year, you have it mostly done already.

I use quickbooks mobile,a nd take a pic of the reciept as soon as I get it. :)

You can then sort it later. 

Thanks so much for the tips!  I got the Smart Receipts app on my phone so I'm going to give that a shot along with being more diligent about keeping up with everything monthly instead of freaking out at tax time. 

One more question for those that keep everything on your phone. Do you back it up to the cloud or just keep your hard copy of the receipt?

what if your phone get stolen or bottom of lake

back it up to both!! never know what could happen. fire or lost phone. 

I managed our business and our household/farm expenses through Quickbooks.

For receipts I use an app to scan them with my phone and then upload them to Google Drive which syncs with my computer.  Then I attach the file to the expense in Quickbooks.

Thanks for the iPhone notes trick

Be organized from the start. It will be less work come tax time.

I own a fairly large business, and also "farm" on the side, so I will never do my taxes myself, but we've used the same preparer for years so I pretty much know what their form looks like come tax season. I know what amounts/categories they are going to need and where, so once a week, I put all my receipts away in their respective folders and document the amounts in the Excel sheet I made so it adds the math for me. For my business, everything they need is in Quickbooks and I don't have to do anything there except get them a copy. But again, I'm very meticulous throughout the year that everything is put into the correct category and then receipts properly stored for audits.

Takes me only an hour or two to put everything together in the spring, and then I drop it off at the accountant. I've been business owner for 5 years now so I have a pretty good system in place.

So my tip is: Do not throw everything into a box where you have a mess a year later. Organize on the spot. Spend 5 minutes now to organize and it will save you  hours later!