First off… no, this is not a blog about spending during the holidays. Haven’t we got enough of those? 😉
Nah. This is about TAXES!
(Silently watches as everyone leaves the room)
Okay please don’t leave. This is not really about taxes, per se.
So I’ll make this a short one. As a business owner (my husband started Listening House Studios years ago, online/in-person piano lessons & more) I have to constantly keep up with every receipt, every dollar spent, to get as many write-offs as possible. If I don’t, we’ll be paying Uncle Sam instead of him paying us. Aaaaand who wants that?
So I wanted to share with you…
(me: briefly, I promise)
(also me: Sarah, don’t make promises you can’t keep)
… a couple ways that make this super easy!
“Tell me more, tell me more, but you don’t gotta brag”
(10 points for whoever guesses those lyrics)
TINY SCANNER
Scan, Save, Upload.
This thing is a beauty! You can scan and upload anything and if you’re a Mac person? You can have your computer set up to where your desktop is accessible through iCloud.
What does that mean?
You can go on your iPhone and access everything on your Mac’s desktop (thank you, Apple!). And when you scan something on Tiny Scanner? You can upload it straight to your desktop and access it from anywhere!
You are so very welcome.
ICLOUD STORAGE
I currently pay the $2.99/month so I can keep pretty much everything on my laptop and have access to all of it via iCloud. But I DO have a backup! Two backups! I’ll show them to you and then I’m DONE (see? easy!)
…..(you didn’t say it wasn’t easy, Sarah. You said it would be brief.)
…..(oh. right. oops)
TIME MACHINE
Not sure I need to say much as ^^ that explains it. But it is a built-in backup feature of your Mac. Automatically.
SEAGATE
This bad boy is super easy. There’s some slight mods you may have to make in order to use it with your Mac but follow the steps HERE and you should do just fine!
Once set up, you can literally plug it in, open it up, drag and drop anything from your computer to it. Eject it and then store it somewhere safe. I take a LOT of pictures so I store them on here for safe keeping.
BUT IMPORTANTLY: this is where I also store my taxes. I have a system:
1: Add receipts to my budget and then to my taxes spread sheet
2: Scan the receipt to the designated folder on Tiny Scanner.
3: Upload to my desktop
4: Delete off Tiny Scanner once I have confirmed it uploaded safely.
(note: if it is not deleted from Tiny Scanner, that means it is not entered into my tax spreadsheet! A fail-proof system for me.)
5: Drag to my Seagate.
6: Throw away receipt.
(note: if you have scanned and saved the receipt, you do not need to keep a hard copy! Says my tax guy who works with self-employed musicians.)
Sounds like a lot of steps, I get it. But each one is important and tells me where I’m at in the process. You have to find what works for you and after many attempts, this is what works well.
Well, I tried to make it brief & to the point. Hopefully I’ve helped make things easier for some of you! If you need any tips on taxes, write-offs, etc.. please do not hesitate to comment or shoot me an e-mail. I love helping any way I can.
The Nashville Wife 