If there’s a time of the year that I dread it’s not the holidays, or the heat waves of summer, or the blizzards of a New York winter.
It’s the season of the taxman. Whether I have to pay, wait for a refund check, or just about break even, doing taxes is not fun. In the past, my method of choice was to dump receipts and checks into an empty copier paper box. This year I’m going digital.
The Digital Receipt Box
Thanks to Quicken, iBank, MoneyWell, and a host of other very capable Mac money management and financial apps, we have choices to manage the numbers.
Here’s the problem. Numbers are digital. Receipts are not. True, I can buy something at the Apple Store and have an email receipt in seconds, so there’s no need for paper.
But that’s not the case everywhere (Target, Fry’s, Best Buy, or Macy’s for example). Paper still rules.
Even when I added the ReceiptBox app to my Mac there’s still a need to keep the taxman’s copier paper box of receipts on hand.
ReceiptBox is basically a receipt organizer with a dirt cheap price. Receipts are entered manually (manual doesn’t care whether the receipt is digital or paper).
Enter receipts into multiple accounts and in different expense categories. Manual isn’t that bad because there’s also autocomplete, but search is much easier than digging into a copier paper box full of receipts.
ReceiptBox is visually attractive, considering the low price.
The pie charts and bar graphs make it easy for you to see where the money went, and how much of it went.
Just having a nice digital list of all your personal or business receipts is a plus, but where ReceiptBox excels, other than simplicity, is the option to capture a snapshot of the actual physical receipt.
That’s right, kids. ReceiptBox uses the iMac or MacBook’s built-in iSight camera to capture a photo of the actual receipt (the one you still need to save in the copier paper box or a file cabinet).
What a clever feature.
Each line item of receipts in the database has plenty of detail, including invoice number, company name, amount of receipt, tax rate and amount paid, product description, and a spot for the photo.
Each record can also attach photos (if you need proof of the product purchased, take a photo of the product).
Beyond those basics, ReceiptBox also makes it easy to search for receipts, and it’s just a click to begin printing the entire list (or a portion of the list).
The app comes with templates for specific categories, too. Bills, clothing, fuel, household items, medical or dental information, and much more. There’s a bit of manual work involved, but the end result is a detailed record of receipts that’s far more valuable than the $1.99 price tag.




