It's 2013. Why are we still using paper receipts? Part 2 of 2

To summarize part 1, paper-based receipts are a necessary evil-- inconvenient and archaic, but still necessary for a variety of important transactions. For anyone who has been in a situation where a receipt was necessary, only to find it inaccessible, or worse, misplaced, read on!

What you need

• Evernote
• Smartphone
• Receipts

How to get started

• If you don't already have an Evernote account, sign up here
• Install the Evernote app on your mobile device
• [Optional] Create a notebooks named "Receipts"
• [Recommended] Allow location services

Getting receipts into Evernote

• Open the Evernote app
• Select the notebook for receipts
• Select the add note button in the upper right hand corner
• Select the camera icon on the top menu bar
• Capture an image of the receipt

Using Evernote for receipt management

• Multi-channel access - access an image of any receipt via mobile, web, or desktop application
• Search - Evernote will scan all the text in the receipt and enable searching on the text. So if you purchase a plush toy from Toys 'R Us, simply search keywords such as "plush" or "toys."
• Geo-tagging - as long as location services are enabled, Evernote will automatically tag the address and city where the receipt was photographed.
• Organization - use tags to organize receipts. Sample tags include: "tax deduction," "share," "2012," "claim for HSA," etc.
• Sharing - share receipts with family and friends. This is useful when a spouse is trying to return an item you purchased or for comparison shopping.
• Consolidation - forward all online receipts to your Evernote email to store all receipts in a single repository.

Conclusion

At some point in the future, most receipts will be full functional eReceipts. In the interim, we're stuck with paper-based receipts that harm the environment, damage our health, clutter our wallets, and disappear when they're actually needed. While it requires a bit of extra effort on our side, digitizing receipts using tools like Evernote represent a step in the right direction.

Also consider

• Neat.com
• Expensify
• Piikki
• Shoeboxed
• Lemon
• Slice
• One Receipt
• JotNot
• Receipt-Bank