If you’re like 95% of the people I know, you probably have a folder or drawer in your kitchen or office that serves as your monthly bill organizer. When bills come in the mail they go straight into the folder and sit there until you have the time to get around to paying them. Sound familiar? This would actually be a really great way of keeping up with your bills and expenses…if you lived in the 50’s.
If you are still using the “folder system” to manage bills, you really are missing out on the wonders of modern technology. The benefits of using a digital filing system to replace your current monthly bill organizer are endless.
Even though you might consider yourself as organized as they come, paper has one universal quality—it gets lost. Losing your grocery list is one thing, but losing an important bill will not only cost you late fees and a higher interest rate, but it could even lead to legal issues with the company who isn’t getting paid.
To avoid these things, I suggest moving to a digital filing system. Going digital will allow you to keep all of your bills and other expenses in a common place which is great because they will never get lost. Additionally, most digital filing services save your information in the cloud which means you can access your paper documents’ information anytime, anywhere, and from any computer or smartphone. These services are relatively cheap and the best part is the transition from your old filing system is a breeze.
Doing away with monthly bill organizers will also decrease the paper clutter you will have to put up with around your home and office. Instead of letting bills pile up, an electronic system will allow you to quickly digitize your documents and get them off of your desk and out of sight. Most digital filing systems will allow you to scan bills into your computer yourself or, if you don’t have a scanner, you can send them to services like Shoeboxed.com who will digitize them for you and extract all of the important information.
Choosing to go digital is also better than using a monthly bill organizer because you can actually cut down on the number of bills that get sent to your home. Most companies nowadays offer electronic billing options which means you never even have to open an envelope. E-bills, as they’re called, will be sent to your email address and then all you have to do is save the bill to your digital filing system or forward it to the filing system service you are using. Bottom line: no more paper clutter, no more lost bills and a complete and searchable database of your billing history.
I should also note that making your expenses digital is extremely useful for importing financial data into accounting and bookkeeping services like Quickbooks, Wave and Turbo Tax.
If you use a digital filing system that you would like to share with other readers, please let us know about it in the comments section below!