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Keeping receipts for documentation is always a pain. I know it, I’ve been there, done that. But I’m going to tell you how technology can help you make this not be such a tedious task and maybe even fun. Records from an IRS perspective, you’re going to need to keep those receipts and documentation showing where you spent money and you’re where you, you’re receiving money even for at least three years and that is three tax filing years. So that’s really four years. Also, you may want to keep them longer, if it’s not a pain to keep it. It may come in handy one day. Not only for the case of income tax but also sales and use tax audits and property tax audits. Anytime you buy something big like a fixed asset, a piece of property, a piece of equipment, you definitely want to keep that information.
Sometimes three years isn’t even enough. So let’s talk about what you can do first. If you’ve ever looked at a thermal printed receipt, which is what you get at the grocery store or Walgreens, take a look at those after they are six months to a year old. They vaporize, they’re gone, they disappear, there’s nothing left of them. So how do you think that looks in three years. I once had a client who had an IRS audit and she said, no problem. I have my receipts all in one place. They’re all in this nice filing system. I’ve got them all sorted out by vendor and I’ll get those to you. She got those to me and they were about three years old and I had just blank pieces of paper. I don’t want to put you through that.
So I’m going to tell you from a technology aspect, you need to be taking pictures of your receipts. Now if you take a picture of your receipt using an app, and we have a great tool that we use along with our clients that can help streamline this process. There are several choices out there. If you take a picture of those receipts as you get them, you can do a lot of fun things with them. They can link to your accounting system. In our case, they’ll flow right through with the transaction that we record. We also can see better what you’ve purchased to make sure that we’re coding appropriately for you too, but that receipt then does not need to have all the labor and time-intensive process of being filed away. Guess what you can do with the receipt, crinkle it up and throw it away.
You don’t even need it. Once you snap the picture of it and that is a part of your record system, you don’t need to worry about the paper anymore. It’s such a relief. No storage, no filing, no finding out where you put that box in the attic or in that back closet where the spiders are going to be in the box too. You don’t have to worry about that anymore. So if you’re not using a receipt capture system and you’re working with me, you let me know and I will hook you up. If you aren’t working with me yet, maybe that’s a good reason to start. There are also some alternative products. Shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to help lead you in the right direction for how you can accomplish this task and not have to worry about being audit proofed and not have to worry about where all those pieces of paper are going to be.
Donna Bordeaux, CPA with Calculated Moves
Creativity and CPAs don’t generally go together. Most people think of CPAs as nerdy accountants who can’t talk with people. Well, it’s time to break that stereotype. Lively, friendly and knowledgeable can be a part of your relationship with your CPA as demonstrated by Donna and Chad Bordeaux. They have over 50 years of combined experience as entrepreneurial CPAs. They’ve owned businesses and helped business owners exceed their wildest dreams. They have been able to help businesses earn many times more profit than the average business in the same industry and are passionate about helping industries that help families build great memories.