User Tips

NEAT Receipts - A Great Tax Time Tool

Jenn — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:26:32 GMT

DID YOU KNOW NEAT RECEIPTS IS A GREAT TOOL AT TAX TIME?

Whether you prepare your own taxes or work with an accountant or tax preparer, NEAT Receipts will help maximize your deductions.

With NEAT Receipts, you can scan your tax-related receipts and organize them by the IRS tax categories. Our Tax Reporting feature lets you run reports that total receipt amounts for each category. In many cases, the system can tell you exactly on which line on your 1040 Schedules a given receipt belongs.

NEAT Receipts software supports IRS forms for the 2007 tax year, including 1040, Schedules A, B, C, D, E and F, as well as forms 2106, 2441, 3903, 8829, 8839 and 8863.

Additionally, the IRS accepts digital images, so NEAT Receipts ensures that you have organized and legible proof of your expenses. It eliminates the need to maintain piles and boxes of receipts, many of which fade over time. Click here to download a PDF of IRS Revenue Procedure 97-22.

You can access additional information and tips on how to use NEAT Receipts at tax time by going to www.neatreceipts.com/taxes.

Excel Map Template for Exporting to Quicken

Scoobydeux — Wed, 02 May 2007 09:53:41 GMT

UPDATE!!!!

To all who have written about the NR2Quicken Excel file, I have updated the file to now port the information from the NeatReceipts output DIRECTLY into the Quicken accounts. It works with Quicken 2007 and newer, and it was made in Office 2003, so I cannot guarantee compatibility with older versions, if you try it and it has problems, let me know...

This template will generate a QIF file that:

Keeps split receipts under a common transaction in quicken, and lists the categories under the "split" instead.
Transfer the contents of the "Payment Type" column (or whichever column you choose to map) to the Memo field in Quicken. It also then sets up the QIF file to put the info STRAIGHT into the quicken account, without the need to use a dummy account as before.

Setup and use instructions are located at the "Instructions" tab in the file.

An additional change in this recent version is that it automatically (if you want) will add a split line in Quicken for your sales tax as recorded by NeatReceipts.

Hope it is helpful, if anyone has any questions/suggestions, please drop me a line. Now I just have to figure out how to attach it to this message......

Scoobydeux

Splits in NR4 SP2 and QuickBooks 2009

cuoreesitante — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:02:37 GMT

I see that there is a way to export split transactions into Quicken with the Scooby thread, but I think that was with an older version of NR.

I am using NR4 and we use QuickBooks 2009 at our business, and the fact that NR does not export splits renders it virtually unusable. Is there a template to do?

Batch Exporting Business Card Images

Darkscannedman — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:03:33 GMT

Steps:

1. Select >10 cards at a time and export (image only) to .RTF file, repeat until all cards exported

2. Open RTF file and import up to 5 more rtf files into that file

3. Save RTF file as .DOCX file

4. Rename the saved file.docx to file.zip

5. Open file.zip with winzip of other archiver and unzip only the image files

Repeat 2-5 until all files done

Good luck.

photo organizer

fraleyj — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:42:21 GMT

Has anyone had any luck using neat receipts as a way to scan and organize all your photos? when I scan them they look like newsprint.

An unexpected Error Occured when trying to scan

Leonid Berline — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:58:59 GMT

I've been using NR for over 3 years now and it has been great. Well it is not so great today. When I am trying to scan receipts I keep getting message quoted above. It appears that the software recognizes the scanner, but somehow the scanning process has been broken.

Any suggestions, ideas will be much appreciated

Excel templates

emgun — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:36:11 GMT

Iunderstand that Neat Receipts can print to excel files, that is place the data in the correct cell on a spread sheet so long as it is like a vertical tabulation or something to that effect. I have a sheet my company now wants me to use, but cannot seem to get the data to the correct cells. I had heard that the company, Neat recipts will do a conversion if the spread sheet is vertical tabulation. Ihad heard that NR was working on this. When is this going to be out?

Using NEAT Receipts with foreign currency

douga709 — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:34:40 GMT

I have seen several questions about dealing with foreign currency, and I found a trick that works for me, (and more than half my receipts are foreign)

I create a new expense report for each currency. I scan the receipts into the appropriate report. You do need to be careful that the program reads the date correctly and that it picks the correct amount.

Once done I export to an Excel mapped expense report form. Before printing the Excel expense report. I apply the rate of exchange to the total to come up with the amount in US dollars.

The accounting department loves it because each amount on the expense report has a matching receipt. They may disagree with the rate of exchange, but not the report itself.

Exporting to Excel Issue

J.E.Newton — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:17:20 GMT

I set up some "SumIf" formulas in my template that I want to export my recipt information into.. I discovered that when NetRecipts exports the data the cell ranges are all increased by the number of Rows inserted. So if I do something simple on sheet one like =Sheet2!$A$1 then insert 5 recipts into Sheet2 starting at Row1 (set as Row 2 in the options another bug?) the formula will change to =Sheet2!$A$6

Can anyone tell me if this is Excel trying to hard to be helpful or some issue in the export?

Organizing for Taxes by Joshua Zerkel

Jenn — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:34:21 GMT

ORGANIZING FOR TAXES:

TAKE THE STRESS OUT OF TAX TIME WITH A FEW SIMPLE TIPS!

By Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer

Preparing for tax time can make anyone stressed out – but there’s hope! By using a few easy organizing techniques, you can sail through your taxes come April.

Who’s preparing your taxes? Think about who will be preparing your taxes, and what sort of information they’ll need. Preparing your own taxes is a lot easier if you make a checklist of what documents (W2s, bank statements, etc.) are needed. With a checklist, you’ll know if any important information is missing when you sit down to prepare your taxes. If you’re going to be giving your information to a tax preparer or CPA, ask them how they would like to receive your information. Some tax preparers want a list of expenses, while others are happy to take receipts and do the totaling for you.

Plan in advance. If your system thus far has been to toss all your receipts into a shoe-box, now’s the time to spend one or two hours a week (or just 15 minutes a day) gathering and sorting your documentation. This will save you lots of time and stress when you or a professional are actually preparing your taxes.

Record your expenses. If you don’t have an organized way of keeping track of your deductible expenses, you may be missing out on big savings come tax time. Create a list of your expense categories using a simple list, a ledger, or a computer-based system, such as NEAT Receipts. A great benefit of using NEAT Receipts is that not only will the system assign tax categories to your expenses; it will also store a digital copy of your receipts, statements, and other supporting documentation. That way, if you ever get audited, all your information will be safely stored in one place.

Keep everything together. Scattered receipts and expenses can lead to lost deductions – and lost money. Instead of losing your receipts or keeping them in a shoebox, purchase an inexpensive accordion folder or scan them into NEAT Receipts. If you choose an accordion, label the folder’s slots with your expense categories, and as you get a receipt, drop it into the corresponding slot. If you’re using NEAT Receipts, your receipts will automatically be categorized. Either way, totaling your expenses for each category at tax time will be a breeze!

What about next year? Don’t wait until next year’s tax time rolls around to start thinking about your 2008 taxes. Start using your new, more organized strategy for keeping track of your receipts and expenses now! Staying on top of receipts and expenses throughout the year can eliminate tax-prep related stress.

Paying taxes is a fact of life, but the stress surrounding tax preparation and keeping track of your receipts doesn’t have to be! Use some of these simple strategies, and when the taxman cometh this April, you’ll be more than ready.

Joshua Zerkel, Certified Professional Organizer
Custom Living Solutions

www.customlivingsolutions.com
joshua@customlivingsolutions.com
Tel. 415-830-8297

Tax Tips by Peter Welch

Jenn — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:28:50 GMT

Peter serves on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP), which was established in October 2002 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act as a way of improving IRS responsiveness to taxpayers needs. The panel offers a unique opportunity for citizens to participate in the improvement of both the American tax administration system and the organization of the IRS. Panel members from every state provide input on the IRS’s strategic initiatives as well as provide a venue for raising issues identified by citizens.

Tax payers can contact Peter Welch by calling 704-799-0027 or the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel at www.improveirs.org.

Tip #1 – New Home

If you bought a home in 2007, go through your Closing Statement carefully and don’t forget to consider ‘points’ and any taxes paid.

Tip #2 – Moving Expenses

Moving expenses that are job related may be deductible, subject to distance (miles from previous tax-home).

Tip #3 – Donated Property

If you’ve donated property, then you may have a legitimate deductible for a reasonable amount.

Tip #4 – Medical and Dental expenses

If you’ve used a debit/credit card to pay for any type of medical or dental expense, then you have a record (evidence) that can be used to support the deduction; go through each and every statement very carefully as they do add-up over time (use Neat Receipts to keep track of these expenses) – first, make the list (including date/ source of payments) and then summarize similar type expenses, second, cross-reference to publications/software what can and cannot be deducted.

Don’t forget the IRS limit for medical/dental deductions (excess over % gross income), do the calculation first and then consider whether any effort to add-up everything is worth the time.

Tip #5 – Job Search

If you’ve been job-searching, some of these expenses are deductible.

Tip #6 – Charitable Contributions

Deduct charitable contributions if you have a record of payment. Be careful about cash-contributions to Churches, etc unless clearly immaterial and reasonable (excess charitable contributions relative to income are a red-flag).

Tip #7 – Be Intelligent!

Don’t play games and try deducting what cannot be legitimately supported (chances of an audit are low but people do get caught and can be financially ruined). Be intelligent!!!

How to Deal with Airline Receipts that are emailed....

TechMarc — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:02:42 GMT

Hello,

I just received my Neat Receipts Scanalizer and Software, and so far I am very impressed with the Neat Receipts product. I am wondering, though, my airline receipts are emailed to me as HTML. What is the best method for taking this format and getting it imported into Neat Receipts? I have been messing around with Paint and stuff, and am not inclined to go through alot of machinations just to do this. As a last resort I suppose I can print it out and scan it in....but I thought we were going paperless......

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Marc

Printing problem

pelicn — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:55:50 GMT

I used Neat Receipts with Windows XP on our old laptop. We ended up replacing the laptop and the new one has Vista on it. Purchased the new Neat Receipts got it all set up and it works great except for printing.

We have to scan documents for the job we do, after scanning, when I print the documents they are a "shrunkin" version of the document. I just need an image of the document so I've got that checked. I only need one image per page, so that is checked. I'm using the same printer as previously, and never had trouble with it.

The only way I can get a document to print at a somewhat comparable size as the original is to enlarge the document in my printer settings to 125% Help

Adding tips to dining receipts

Golfndiver — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:51:26 GMT

As a frequent traveler I dine out often. Neatreceipts reads the restaurant receipts well, but the handwritten tips are not. How am I able to add these?

Possible to copy a bunch of receipt rows from one folder to another?

dasaunders — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:40:47 GMT

Hi,

I'd like to be able to copy rows from one folder to another. How do I do this? Right now, I seem only able to copy individual fields of each row which would take me forever to move over an group of rows. Also, is there a way to add a Memo column to the receipts?

Printing Receipts

fedora — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:24:08 GMT

How can I print the actual receipt after I have scanned it?

Poor print quality

jbeechii — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:35:59 GMT

I have some documents that I needed to print back out to submite to work. When I print them [File] [Print] * Selected images

The are barely ledgable, but they look fine on screen even when zoomX500%.

Anyone have any luck printing out receipts / Documents you have scanned?

receipts grid problems

tomw — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:34:49 GMT

I am a new user (v2.8)

2 problems so far

1. when I try to use an existing vendor name from the pulldown menufor a new receipt, I get an error message and no vendor.

2. when I add a comment to a receipt, the comment is applied to all fields of all receipts.

what am I doing wrong?

Receipt Folders

xnman — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:29:42 GMT

Maybe I am not understanding version 3 enough. but....

Question 1. --- In version 1.5, I could create folders in the receipt window and put receipts in the folders.

For example: I had folder: Taxes ->Business Lunches. I had another folder: Taxes->Car expense. All of these were in the receipts window.

Now it appears I have to create a Expense folder for all these items and put receipts in the proper Expense folder.

Question 2. --- And I have found no way to move a receipt from one Expense line to another Expense line in the Expense window.

Question 3. --- Is there some kind of update I need to do to get the tax fields for 2007? I have 2005 and 2006... but cannot find 2007. If there is please tell me where I can get them....

Thanks

How To Get Organized - A Three Part Series

Jenn — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:01:18 GMT

Today we introduce the first in a three-part series about getting your finances organized. The NeatReceipts staff has compiled this tutorial as a way to help you control and organize your spending to make next year’s tax-time hassle free.

PART 1

Money Spending Plan
Everyone wants to control their spending. We all realize that until we know, in detail, exactly how much is coming in and how much is going out, we don’t have control. When we don’t control our money, our money controls us; not a good feeling.

The value of a plan
Because a firm understanding of our income and expenses is the first step in formulating a personal financial plan, it’s best to have as much detailed information as possible.

A Money Spending Plan is an organized approach to the flow of our money. It’s easy to determine the amount of money coming in; our paychecks.

The big payoff of our plan is tracking down our outgoing money.

Once you have established where your money is going (and why), you have a handle on the relative importance of each purchase. The new car you have been wanting to purchase is now seen in the relative terms of dining out 20 times a month. It’s all about choices, but you have to know all the facts first.

How much am I spending?

OK, then. How much am I spending? When we sit down and try to add up the costs of all our purchases, we always miss a large proportion of the cash flow. Herein lies the dilemma. Missing purchases. NeatReceipts can help.

The large purchases
We plan for the large purchases in our lives. The car, boat, home, vacation, college tuition. These items are big enough that we cannot buy them on impulse. And we don’t forget the cost or the date of these items for a long time either.

What are the Five largest purchases in the last year that you made? And Why?

That was easy. The items come right to mind and you are thinking, “. . . and I’d do it again!” These were well planned purchases that were timed to minimize the impact on your total spending. You probably thought about the pros and cons of the purchase, talked to friends and neighbors, and perhaps the banker.

The many small purchases
But we don’t take the time to scrutinize every little purchase we make. NeatReceipts offers a solution for effortlessly tracking these smaller purchases.

What are the last fifty small purchases you made in the past year? And Why?

Can only remember a few? Since there are so many and insignificant at the time, we tend to overlook the impact they have on our budget and our lives. If only we knew what these little items were, we might be able to modify our spending.

Is There a Solution?
We need a simple and effective method to capture the day-to-day spending of the small items we are constantly buying. We think that there are no consequences for these purchases, but there is power in numbers, and the numbers don’t lie.

Electronic Checking method
Many of our expenditures are paid for with checks. The bank sends us a statement once a month and we get to see an overall picture of our spending. But checks don’t give us the complete picture. Credit card statements give us more information, but we know that there is still missing data.

It is estimated that more than half our spending is done in small increments. This spending is not traceable. Methods have been devised that promise to track and report these small items, but they are clumsy, time-consuming, and difficult to maintain, even with modern software support.

Cash Method
One solution for capturing these incidental items is to allocate a set amount of cash each week or two. If the cash runs out before the allotted time, then we have spent more money than we thought we needed.

Envelope Method
To get a more detailed picture of this spending, we can put set amounts of cash into envelopes marked for categories of spending, like groceries, dining, gasoline, entertainment, etc. As these envelopes empty, we get a clearer picture of which categories are under-funded. This is a time-consuming method for capturing spending habits and few people stay with the system for more than a few months.
Most people don’t like having large sums of cash lying around, not making interest. It’s not safe and it’s inefficient.

Software Tracking Method
There is very good expense tracking software on the market. These programs can tell you much about your spending habits. But these programs must first have all the information about your spending. As we have already seen, much of this data is missing because we have no way of easily capturing it.

The NeatReceipts Method
NeatReceipts captures and creates a detailed report of these items. Imagine, sitting down and looking over your personal spending report for the last week or month. All your food, car, house, and entertainment expenditures. NeatReceipts even designs different reports to support your varying lifestyles. For example, personal, business, entertainment, or charity.

All the insignificant charges from the newspaper to the cup of coffee will now be under your control. Visualize knowing where every single penny went last month! Just knowing is a giant part of being financially organized.

Next week: How does NeatReceipts accomplish all this with no effort on your part?

Useful NeatReceipts and Tax Information

Micah — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:27:30 GMT

In preparation for the coming tax season, here are a number of tidbits to help with using Neat Receipts. If you have any questions or comments regarding this topic, just post them here.

- If you travel for business, keep track of everything – tolls, meals, even gas. Make sure to scan the receipts.

- If you own your own business or rental property, you should keep track of all expenses regarding them. These are almost all deductible.

- There are 116 different categories, but no one will use them all. Don’t be concerned if you find yourself using the same fifteen or twenty categories for all your receipts.

- Pay attention to the years next to the categories. The tax law changes from year to year, so what is a deduction in one year may not be a deduction in another year.

- You can easily move or re-size the categories for easier use and a better display. You can click and drag the categories to move them around. Or, you can double-click the space in between two categories to auto-size them.

- The Quick Tips at the bottom of the Neat Receipts screen are invaluable in distinguishing the individual tax categories. If you need more information, click the link and you will be directed to the IRS directions.

Sharing file

stac04 — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:46:14 GMT

Anyone has suggestion of how to share the same NeatReceipt data between two users? My spouse and I want to share the same database but we travel for business separately. We both scan in receipts.

Pending New Year

dntdab — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:47:33 GMT

As 2008 is fast approaching I am wondering the best was to archive 2007 receipts.

HOWTO: Scanning Digital Receipts

triz — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 14:36:06 GMT

Here is a quick, easy and free way to get your web or email receipts into NeatReceipts.

Install PDFCreater (Free from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
Print the receipt from the website or Email Application using File|Print and selecting PDFCreator as the printer.
When the PDFCreator Window appears, select "Save"
When the "Save as" dialog appears, type a temporary filename that describes what you are printing and select a location you will be able to find again. Change the "Save as type" to "TIFF" and press Save. (You could also use GIF, JPG or BMP). A preview may open, you can close this.
Open NeatReceipts Professional and verify you are in the Receipt Organizer.
Select File|Import From|Digital Image|Import as a New Receipt
Browse to the temporary file you created in step 4 and press Open.
You're done! You may now delete the file you created in step 4.

Hope this helps everyone! Neatreceipts, you owe me!

Making effective use of Folder Type

Mike L — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:05:33 GMT

The Folder Type column in the Folder grid is one of the most powerful tools in the NeatReceipts software. If used properly, it will help you separate receipts for different businesses, different people, or different years. NeatReceipts ships with four pre-made Folder Type values, but you can always add more. Spending a little time setting up a good set of folders before you start scanning can really improve your NeatReceipts experience.

For example, let's consider a guy named Fred, who runs a place named Fred's Deli. On the side, he also runs Bob's Petfood. The relationship between these businesses is, perhaps, best left unexamined.

If Fred scans all his receipts into one single folder in NeatReceipts, he's going to be in trouble for tax time. He'll have a very hard time determining how much he's spending on each business, particularly in those areas where his vendors overlap. For example, he can very easily see how much money he's spent at Staples over the year, but he doesn't have a good way to determine how much of that money went towards office supplies at the Deli, and how much went towards binders for his pet store. Poor Fred!

If, on the other hand, Fred creates two different folders in NeatReceipts, he's in much better shape. If he assigns one the name Deli and one the name Pet Store, he can maintain an easy visual separation of receipts, and he'll also be able to run reports on each business without worrying that he's mixing up his information. When he uses the Run Report option to check up on how much he's paying his vendors, he'll just make sure that he includes only one of the two types of folders at any given time. At the end of the year, he can also use the same method to run tax reports that are specific to each establishment. Fred can even run those reports for both companies at the same time if he wants to, but now he has a choice in the matter.

If you're geared more towards personal finances, you can use a similar approach and create a different Folder Type for each member of your family. This will let you track your own spending, but also see an overall pattern for the whole family.