Smart Investor magazine, Up To Speed column, April 2008

GIZMO

Allow me to explain to you your correspondent’s system for filing expenses. Step one: stuff all receipts in wallet. Step two: when wallet no longer fits into any of correspondent’s pockets, transfer receipts to envelope and leave in cupboard for five months. Step three: when warned that no further delay is acceptable, make a valiant attempt to remember what the (now-dissolved) receipts were for and plead hopelessly with the accounts department for clemency.

It has worked admirably for your correspondent for 15 years now but a new gizmo suggests a change of approach may be in order. NeatReceipts is a small scanner which scans and reads your receipts, storing them on a computer, upon which you can then add any extra detail you need (such as, perhaps, the date and the purpose of your trip, rather than a scrawled blue biro message that appears to say “bloke” or “fish”). There’s a database system that allows you to keep track of them all too. Using software that comes with the gizmo, you can also use it to manage business cards, bills and letters.

Naturally it doesn’t recognise handwritten receipts, and runs into trouble with faded ones; we’re also not aware of a version that works with a Mac. But most online reviews are positive. We’ve found it on Amazon for US$183.99.

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