Easy way to scan and manage receipts and bills? | FerrariChat
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Easy way to scan and manage receipts and bills?

Discussion in 'Technology' started by GTHill, Dec 23, 2010.

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  1. GTHill

    GTHill F1 World Champ
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    GT Hill
    #1 GTHill, Dec 23, 2010
    I'd like to get something set up for my wife to manage our ever increasing pile of paper. She likes to keep and categorize receipts, bills etc. For example, I'll bring home receipts for "hobby" projects and she wants to separate them. Also, we get paper bills (not everyone will email paperless) that she would like to scan those as well.

    Here are some things that I'd like to have with this system.

    - iPad based if possible.
    - Camera can substitute for a scanner. We don't need photo quality.
    - Simple to use
    - Touch to scan (or take pic)
    - Crop pic to desired portion of the paper
    - Once scanned, drag and drop to a folder appropriately named by category

    I foresee this as some type of appliance. For example, the iPad is on the wall of the kitchen or embedded in a cabinet door. The camera is mounted under the cabinet pointed down. Under cabinet lighting provides light for the paper.

    After writing this... I can almost guarantee that it hasn't been built yet. However, I think something like this would be cool. Any direction on this project would be appreciated!

    GT
     
  2. Wade

    Wade Three Time F1 World Champ
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    #2 Wade, Dec 23, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2010
  3. GTHill

    GTHill F1 World Champ
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    #3 GTHill, Dec 23, 2010
    I know of programs that are suited for expense reporting, but I just need to archive the images (receipts and bills) themselves. I didn't see anything that was a entire solution; just pieces of it. I really want it super easy for my wife to use so there are no excuses for not keeping up with these things.

    GT
     
  4. Wade

    Wade Three Time F1 World Champ
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    #4 Wade, Dec 23, 2010
  5. 410SA

    410SA F1 Veteran

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    #5 410SA, Dec 24, 2010
    The simplest way IMO is to use a laptop and an All-in-one printer scanner fax, preferably wireless so it does not need to be physically connected to the computer.

    I use an HP 6500 wireless and a macbook air

    The HP scan software is set up as an icon in the Mac's desktop dock and scanning any doc is a breeze. We have several different folders on the desktop of the Mac, and as a doc is scanned it shows up on the desktop. It is named and it is dragged into its appropriate folder.

    We have thrown out years of holiday cards, invoices, letters etc, that all took up filing space.
     
  6. FarmerDave

    FarmerDave F1 World Champ
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    #6 FarmerDave, Dec 27, 2010
    Last edited: Dec 27, 2010
    Why not use the Ipad or Iphone (I use Android) and a service like Picasa.

    Picasa allows me to take a pic and "share" it, but I don't have all albums public. My android phone asks me which album I want to upload to, drop box or a user defined folder. And the "Share" option is native so no programming, etc. Just don't accidentally tweet the pic. :)

    I can see for expense reciepts that you could take the picture and upload it to a pre-defined folder such as "December Expenses - Reimburseable" or "Hobby Expenses" Folder

    Then if your wife is doing bookkeeping from home while you are on the road, you both have access to the scanned reciepts.

    Since you would be uploading to free cloud storage provided by Google/PicasaMight not be practical for bills that have personal information, but for expense reciepts, why not?
     

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