Papers, Papers Everywhere! (And Why That’s a GOOD Thing.)

I am inundated with all of these papers – receipts, statements, notes, forms, invoices, bills.  ARGH!  Do I really need keep all of them?!

 

Variety/sketch comedy shows were popular when I was growing up in the 1970s (uh oh, just admitted my age!).  One sketch I clearly remember was the harried husband constantly getting interrupted when trying to complete his tax form, surrounded by piles of documents, receipts and forms.  The audience would laugh as he frantically searched for just the right piece of paper to be able to justify a deduction while his wife would pepper him with random questions, hammer a nail into the wall to hang a picture, or noisily eat a bag of potato chips.

 

Of course, the audience laughed:  It was hilarious!  Mainly because it’s true.  Particularly the part about all the financial papers piled up on whichever surfaces are nearby.

 

But those piles of paper are the proof of your business’s financial income and expenses and are important for tax filing and business reporting.  Believe it or not, as a bookkeeper, I’m actually happier when I have a pile of papers to sift through than when I don’t.  These papers are the essential elements of your business finances, so it’s important to hold to on every paper that has information on a financial transaction so there’s a record on hand in case you need evidence for the expense or revenue.

 

Does that mean we’re doomed to be constantly surrounded by piles of papers?  Thankfully, no.  You can scan them and store them electronically.  Even better, most accounting software applications have an attachment function so you can save a copy of the file directly to the transaction for easy reference if needed.  You can even use your phone to quickly take a photo of a receipt, and if you’re using a cloud file storage application, you can put the photo in the right folder in a matter of seconds.

 

So if you find yourself with a shoe box, or a packing box, or even a steamer trunk full of receipts and records, just remember that overflowing box allows your bookkeeper do the job of managing your finance transactions to help you run your business efficiently.  It may be slightly chaotic (and potentially hilarious), but it’s better than an empty box!