Keeping your financial information organized is a must if you want to stay on top of expense tracking. If you’re like our family this is no easy task because there is daily spending which generates receipts and constant inflow of mail (bills, statements and more).

If you use software that downloads transactions from the bank, you still need to stay on top of what is being downloaded to make sure it matches what you actually spent. There have been a few times we’ve noticed what was on our version of the receipt was different from what was actually charged.

Bill and receipt organizer system

A handy tool you can create that doesn’t require much more than a trip to your local office supply store or Target is a bill and receipt organizer system. We purchased an accordion file from Target. Usually you’ll have somewhere from 6 – 10 folders in the file. Here are the labels and uses for each folder we find helpful.

Receipt inbox

The purpose of this folder is used for all spending receipts from the current day or week. They should stay in this folder until they have been tracked in your financial software, checkbook or tracking tool. My wife and I try to add our receipts at the end of the day.

Receipt outbox

Once tracked, they are added to the outbox to be shredded at the end of the month.

Receipts to keep

This folder is for receipts that need to be kept for a longer period of time such as clothing or larger purchases. We don’t want to shred these receipts in case something needs to be returned or we need to keep a receipt for warranty.

Current year taxes

We add all tax receipts for donations, giving, etc. to this folder as we receive them because we know we’ll need them handy when it’s time to file taxes at the end of the year.

Bills inbox

This is where we keep all of our current bills for the month.

Bills outbox

This is where we move bills once paid for file into a longer term file. We usually keep a history of a one year for statements.

For a minimal amount of money you can be up and running with a file system that helps you stay on top of financial paperwork during your busy weeks of family activities and work. I recommend keeping your file in a convenient place for both you and your spouse to easily deposit your receipts each day.

How do you organize your receipts and bills for the month?

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