Apps & Hacks to keep the Accountant off your Back!

June 18, 2020

Written by Jamie-Lee Currey.

Oh joy! Can you believe its almost tax-time!!

Keep your resting heart rate below 100 this tax time by being organised! Yep, being organised at tax time IS possible.

Paperwork everywhere, mild anxiety because you can’t find that receipt, a hundred questions you don’t know the answer to and the million dollar question; will the tax man be nice to me this year? In the words of the social phenomenon that was Sweet Brown:

So grab a cuppa and have a read of these awesome organisation tips that will make tax time more enjoyable than walking your dog…maybe, but probably not.

What you need to keep:

First things first – Keeping records of all the necessary documents and receipts is a must, not just to make your accountants job easier but to maximise your potential tax return.

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) recommends keeping the following documents for around 5 years:

Payment Summaries
Statements from your bank and other financial institution showing the interest you’ve earned
Dividend statements from companies
Summaries from managed investment funds
Receipts or invoices for equipment or asset purchases and sales
Receipts or invoices for expense claims and repairs
Contracts
Tenant and rental records.

You can read more information here

Say good-bye to these ugly piles! With these apps

But lets be real here people. Sometimes receipts vanish or fade, or maybe your water bottle leaks in your bag and suddenly you have a soggy piece of paper turning to mush resembling that of your tax return. Not ideal, at all.

Getting back on track…here are some useful receipt keeping hacks and apps!

RECEIPT KEEPING HACKS

1- Evernote – is a super handy app used to scan and save documents. Perfect for receipts! You can add tags to scanned items as well and it will group them all together. For example – fuel

2- Google documents and Google Drive – If you go between a bunch of devices, Google may just change your life. Sync your phone with Google drive and if the unfortunate event of losing your phone or not being able to access your computer you just need to sign into your Google drive account and hazzah!

3- Genius Scan – is a app created by Grizzly labs which allows you to take a pic, crop, edit and save your invoices and receipts on the go for Apple and Android users.

4- Receipts app- If you are prepared to spend $9.99 look up a app called receipts, this app keeps a running tally for total amounts within each category which you select after taking a picture of your app.

5- Create a Email Folder – Many retailers and service providers are starting to ask for email addresses to send receipts electronically/ Great idea! Take this to the next step and have a receipts folder ready so you can sort all of these electronic receipts together ready for tax time.

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-best-apps-scan-track-manage-receipts/

This leads me to my next point. Being organised!

One key thing when it comes to being prepared for tax time and keeping all of those documents in some form of order, is finding a system that works for you. While the receipt apps and hacks should help, having a well thought out office space will create a much more user friendly environment.

User friendly environment = a organised worker