Using a photo of a receipt as the record

What matters here

• Fast capture at the moment of payment
• Date and amount survive even if paper fades
• Photos pile up with meaningless filenames
• No link to the project or client it belongs to
• Searching a camera roll is not an index

What the photo solves

It solves decay. Thermal receipts fade within a year, and a photo taken immediately is more legible than the original by the following spring. It also solves loss, since the phone is usually with you.

The naming problem

A camera roll sorted by date tells you when you spent money and nothing else. The useful question is almost always what it was for, and that answer exists only in your head at the till.

Three seconds more

Add a caption with what it was for and who it was for, then file the photo into a note per project or month. That small addition turns a pile into a record you can actually query.

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Support through one shared inboxA shared inbox is the simplest support system and it works for small volumes. It also makes every message equally loud.
• How do I organize meeting notes?Meeting notes are worth keeping when they hold decisions and owners. Everything else is transcript, and it needs a different place.
• Why does planning take so long?Planning takes hours when it is really three jobs at once: cleaning the backlog, deciding priorities and scheduling. Separating them makes each one short.