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Collating Invoices / Receipts

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mtools

mtools

Free Member
Mar 27, 2013
405
42
Bridgend
Sorry if this is a bit of a boring topic, but i'm sure other people have come across this before...! How do you collate your receipts and invoices / company outgoings. I have an Ikea shelf with 16 cubby holes and i've divided each one by supplier with one cubby hole solely for miscellaneous (i.e. suppliers I buy off once or for fuel receipts). Each cubby hole is then sorted by date with newest on top. In my old company they did it quite similarly though they actually had a filing cabinet and a folder for suppliers rather than a cubby hole, lol. Is this the standard way of doing it or do people only sort by date and not by supplier? The advantage to this would be that you can easily go through your accounts to check things were paid or that they've been recorded but then the disadvantage would be that you'd struggle to find something from a specific supplier unless you knew when it was paid / invoiced. Just want to make sure I'm doing things right! My business is still relatively new at 3 years old and I'm doing everything in the company and i've learnt the hard way with most things!
 
hi david, what do you mean by 'proper backups'. i am not an accountant (i know, I know, you thought i was with my superior grasp of all things accountancy!) so could you spell it out? Do you mean bank statements will suffice? my current accountant wants receipts (at least for fuel / expenses)
 
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You will have the receipts though - they'll just be in digital format.

You should make backups by using something like Dropbox or Cubby.
 
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kevin.doran said:
Honestly, wow [in the nicest possible way].

Input the expense into your bookkeeping software, scan/save the original then shred it - job done.
Click to expand...

Snap
 
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mobilitytools said:
so you don't keep any original paperwork? do you not think that's a little bit dangerous?
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I dont.

If my office burns down tomorrow or is flooded and I only had paper records they'd be gone or pretty messy.

My electronic copies are saved on my PC, I have a back up of that data at home and also have all my data backed up as I go using Live Drive so its actually much more secure than paper records.
 
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mobilitytools said:
so you don't keep any original paperwork? do you not think that's a little bit dangerous?
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As above, getting everything into the likes of Dropbox or whatever and you're good to go. Due dates [if needed] can be monitored via your software. There really is no major need for so much paper these days.
 
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mobilitytools said:
hi david, what do you mean by 'proper backups'. i am not an accountant (i know, I know, you thought i was with my superior grasp of all things accountancy!) so could you spell it out? Do you mean bank statements will suffice? my current accountant wants receipts (at least for fuel / expenses)
Click to expand...

Backup isn't an accountancy term - it's a computing term. If you have any data held in computer files you need to have backups of those files for when things go wrong. Note the use of "when" and not "if!"

If you use a computer and don't make backups, you need to change, rapidly!
 
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We simply use a ring binder with weekly sales/purchases logged, one binder for the year and all receipts stapled to the weekly sheet (with spread sheet for calcs).

Accountant gets the spread sheet, printed bank statement and binder at year end, sorted.

Everything else (stuff I use for data analysis) is kept on the PC with a portable hard drive as backup.

I'm able to track any purchase we've made within minutes and can access the physical receipt if it's needed for a return.
 
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There are really two main options that work quite well.

Storing:

In terms of storing, it depends on preference. Some like to have hard copies of the records and find it easier to look at, others prefer digital.

1) Digital: As mentioned above, if you opt for scanning the documents, ensure you keep a back up (or two) somewhere secure (especially if you intend on shredding them).

2) Tangible: Set up folders for each accounting period. Maintain invoices either (i) in just date order or alternatively, and this works quite well when having to look for specific invoices, (ii) set the file up to file alphabetically according to supplier, with each respective supplier in date order - this isn't too hard to maintain if it is done as you go along.

Recording:

In terms of maintaining a spreadsheet/using software for accounts and monitoring purposes, (i) is better when maintaining the spread sheet as you go along with references, whereas (ii) doesn't work quite so well.

If you are going to maintain a spreadsheet and keep all invoices in date order - providing you reference each invoice with a number on the physical copy and the same on the spreadsheet/software, you can use filters and other methods to easily track down the invoice when needed.

The same can be done when keeping invoices digitally by giving the file an appropriate reference which corresponds with the spreadsheet/software.
 
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we started using Exact online all the suppliers send invoices to the digital inbox. And my clients use a phone app to send receipts and cash invoices to send the info to the digital inbox from where i can post the transactions straight into the system.

The system is very intelligent as it picks up the nominal codes used and now we have been using the system for a few weeks 95% of the time we just need to click post and documents are linked to transactions.

It also has bank feeds which speeds things up

I have a accountants dashboard where i can see everything i need to do we currently have 15 clients on the system and it is working very well.

As i do all the bookkeeping etc for my clients it means i do not even have to bother them and they can get on running their pub.
 
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