Posts Tagged ‘Hubdoc’

Spending less time searching for what’s lost

Misplaced items produce negative emotions like nothing else. I’ve felt the frustration of not being able to find matches when it’s time to light the birthday cake candles, the anxiety of my eyeglasses falling behind the dresser, and the panic of not knowing where my phone is when it’s time to leave for work (only to realize it was in my pocket the whole time). Over the last few years, technology has helped me quickly and calmly find those things that commonly vanish:
  • For a lost phone that’s nearby, nothing is easier than making it sound right from your wrist. I’ve used my Apple Watch to ping my iPhone countless times. Another trick is to use a skill with an Amazon Echo to call a phone with simply, “Alexa, find my phone.”
    Tiles for finding lost things

    Tiles

  • I have several Tiles (see picture above) I can slip on a key ring to sound upon command from the Tile app on my phone. If a Tile is within Bluetooth range, it will play a tune until I find my keys, wallet, or whatever I’ve tied to the Tile. If the Tile isn’t within Bluetooth range, the app will tell me where it last had contact with the object (for example, that I left my briefcase at the office). Now, if I could just figure out a way to attach a Tile to my TV remote without duct tape…
  • I know people who are constantly forgetting their passwords, or writing them down and losing them. Stop those bad habits and use a secure password manager like LastPass.
  • Receipts are easy to lose, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Since I’m an accountant, it should come as no surprise that I’m ultra-organized and completely digital with my personal finances. This comes in handy when I’m at the auto repair shop and asked when I last replaced the tires. Hubdoc has helped to automatically organize my financial documents, and one of its best features is recognizing the text within receipts. So all I have to do is search my Hubdoc account for “tires” and wallah!
With these tools, I can confidently say with my best Liam Neeson impression, “I will find you.”

Awesome Apps for Accounting: Genius Scan, Hubdoc and Xero

In my search for a fully automated, completely paperless, and mobile-friendly accounting system, I’ve discovered three apps I love that have almost made it a reality. Genius Scan, Hubdoc and Xero Unless I’m near a desktop scanner, every receipt or document enters my virtual file cabinets through Genius Scan.  I don’t know how it does it, but it turns my iPhone’s camera into a high-quality PDF scanner.  I love being able to crop my receipts, make them black and white, and make the PDF file sizes less than 100 KB (while image files from the camera are normally several megabytes).  I then use the app to easily upload documents to programs I use to organize them such as… Hubdoc recognizes the text on the receipts and puts them into a list showing the vendor name, date and amount of each receipt.  It also automatically gives them file names (such as Wal-Mart_20150126_$20.00) when I download the files.  Hubdoc DIETA VEGANA E CARROCERÍA generic zovirax por generic en espana acyclovir bodybuilding – día a díahas some good organizational tools for marking documents as paid, adding tags and notes, and putting documents into folders.  Hubdoc also automatically pulls online statements from my Amazon, credit card and utility accounts and similarly names and organizes those documents.  Hubdoc exports the electronic documents and transactions into online accounting systems such as… Xero has been my personal accounting software for some time now.  I’m a fan of the beautiful web interface and the mobile app that lets me reconcile transactions on my iPhone. I have a wish list that would make the process perfect:
  • Genius Scan can automatically upload to several apps, but Hubdoc is not on that list.  I currently e-mail each receipt to my Hubdoc e-mail address to do the job which isn’t too much of a hassle.
  • I’ve created many bank rules in Xero to automate how it classifies bank transactions it downloads, but they don’t apply to transactions coming from Hubdoc.  Although the two programs do an amazing job auto-categorizing them, I wish I had more control.
  • The Xero reconciliation screen doesn’t show me how the transactions from Hubdoc are categorized, so I have to drill into the reports to find them and make sure they’re categorized right.
Please leave a comment below if you have a different set of accounting apps and processes to share.