Keeping Records of Receipts and Purchases

by Tekeyna
(Columbus, GA)

Hi, my name is Tekeyna and I am 26 years old. My husband is a truck driver and we are about to purchase an 18 wheeler. Along with owning this truck we will be responsible for all of the purchases to include gas, maintenance, and food.

I know that we will have to save all receipts of purchases but am unsure of a good method of organization. I thought of a money box but figured that would be messy.

I then considered an accordion folder but am unsure of how to label each tab. Should there be tabs for different categories or monthly tabs? Is that even a good idea?

I also don't know how to budget the income. We know that we will have to set money aside for taxes, truck maintenance, and insurance. But I haven't quite figured out whether we should open a whole new separate account or what.

Please HELP!

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Keeping Records of Receipts and Purchases

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Feb 23, 2010
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Organizing Receipts NEW
by: Tracy

I would suggest that you start with some file folders inside a small file box. Since this situation is all brand new for you, you will learn as you go along so you don't want to start with something overly expensive in case you realize that you need to change your system down the road.

You do not have to come up with the perfect system right off the bat. This is all new for you. Cut yourself a little slack and allow yourself the wiggle room to tweak the system to your needs as you go along.

Start with some file folders and label each one according to the types of receipts that you know right now that you will need to save...gas, truck repairs, food, etc.

As you think of new folders that you need, just make one and add it to your file box.

Keep the receipts in date order inside each folder so that you will be able to find what you need easily.

With regard to your budget, you might want to consult with a tax professional to find out if it is necessary for you to create a separate business bank account. If not, I wouldn't bother. Just keep things as simple as possible.

Use a budget to keep track of what every dollar in your bank account is assigned to do. If you have $500 designated for truck repairs, you know you can't spend that $500 on anything else.

Set up your budget categories to match your file folders and set aside a certain amount of money each month toward each category so that you will be prepared when those expenses come up.

Mar 01, 2010
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Organizing Receipts NEW
by: Laura

I have very paper intensive businesses (4) including a business start up group, and spend a lot of time on the road, so here are some additional comments for the couple purchasing the 18 wheeler:

1-- Even if you don't set up a separate business account, you can set up multiple savings accounts. These will be your "reserve" accounts: one for long term maintenance (annual overhaul etc), and one for taxes (permits, AND your self employment taxes). Most banks will waive any fees for a savings account if you set up a monthly automatic transfer even if it's only $50/month.

2. Set aside 1 or 2 credit cards (or debit if you do a business account) ) that are for business ONLY. That way you can download the expenses into a spreadsheet and label each line. Keep those file folders going with the receipts. But, if a receipt goes missing, you now have a clean electronic record.

3. Cash -- there are a lot of small cash expenses that go missing while on the road. Keep a small notebook or set up a "note" in your cell phone. All your incidental cash items go into this log.

4 Twice a month, update your expenses. Until you get a feel for it you won't be able to tell how much number crunching is involved. You may be able to go to once a month. However, if you get behind it's very hard to catch up and you'll end up having to estimate items.

5. You can use a simple bookkeeping program such as Quicken for this (you don't really need to spend the money for the business version of the accounting programs. ). Just set up categories for each type of expense; you can always change then. Or create a plain spreadsheet with categories across the top and the trip down the left side.

Good Luck!

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