Receipts

[Bujanda 0]

I am sure that this has been asked but I am trying to either find and app or the best way to get receipts for tax purposes with my android. I go from cpu to my samsung galaxy 3, to my ipad. 

 

I realize that I can just take a pic and then annotate on the photo, but I was wondering if there is a better way and/or is there and app that simplifies that process for you?

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Having my scanned documents synced rapidly between all of my devices and available for annotating on any of them is about as simple as I can imagine... what more are you looking for specifically? 

[JohnDM 122]

... what more are you looking for specifically? 

 

Hey Scott,  I think I might know what he is talking about. I have been doing receipts in Evernote now for 3 years, and i am still not satisfied on the best way I should use it.

 

The biggest thing Evernote does is it SAVES IT -- you can throw the paper way -- you now always have the receipt and that benifit is HUGE. But does Evernote save me any time getting my expensese together? 

 

For Receipts, Not really. 

 

Once you take the picture, you have to name it, tag it correctly (or it will just be lost in the mess) but then you have to, at some later date enter the amount in a spreadsheet or accounting program. Wouldn't it be GREAT if there was an app that lets you take a pic of a receipt, you can text in the amount, have the app grab the date and time (as a default -- which you can change if you are taking the picture much later than the expense) put that date and time and amount in a spreadsheet  then send that info to Evernote AND a spreadsheet which you can later upload into an accounting software. As it is now you still have to manually type in all these numbers in later

 

Bujanda, Nope . . . . there is really not an easier way of doing this.

 

When I first started keeping receipts in evernote I scanned EVERY receipt . . well that didn't last long at all. It just isn't worth it for me. Now I just scan major purchases, and or when I am on Trips I will scan everything -- Gas, toll roads, even Coffee -- just sort of want to know what I'm spending on trips. My every day at home receipts  . . .its just not worth the time to scan them IMOP, I put everything on credit cards and the  numbers are there on the monthly bill -- which I DO scan into Evernote and can search and find it on the credit card bill

 

Major Purches, yes, Job related refundable expenses, yes, All the rest?  not worth the time

 

So how do it?

 

TAKE THE TIME TO NAME AND TAG YOUR RECEIPT CORRECTLY -- it will save you a lot of time later

 

=================

Tagging Receipts

=================

 

Every Receipt I take a picture of gets AT LEAST these tags

1. "Receipt"
2. "Jul" (or whatever month it is I keep my month tags 3 characters)
3. "2014" (or whatever year)

Lets say I get lazy, or busy (because I am on Evernote forum broads writing posts when I should be doing my accounting) and I don't look at my expenses for a month or so. When I finally get doown to doing them a simple search

 

"Tag:jun Tag:receipt: Tag:2014"

 

Will get me ALL of my receipts for the month of June. how about all the Receipts for the YTD search "Tag:2014 tag:Receipt". Planning a trip to the same place you were last year in Aug? Search :"Tag:receipt Tag:aug tag:2013 tag:trip"    BINGO all my expenses from trips in august of last year,  Now once i am at my desktop  I use Hyperlinks "Copy Note Link" and for trips (business or pleasure) I have a master Index page which has all my hyperlinks to the various notes, reservations. Each Trip has its own Master Index page for the  airline tickets, mass transit Maps and a list of all my expenses, At each of the notes I have a hyper link back to the index page. The trip Index pages are linked to my Main Trip Index for all my years. Trips in 20014, trips in 2013 etc. My own personal hyperlinks are the easiest way to get to my related pages on my phone -- works WONDERFULLY in my iPhone but hyperlinks never worked in my windows phone     one of the reason why I finally broke down and bought an iPhone

 

==============

Naming Receipts

==============

 

How do I name my receipts

 

Receipt - Starbucks - 2014-07-23 - $4.85

 

Receipt - HomeDepot - Supplies - 2014-07-23 - $4.85

 

Receipt - Toll Road - 2014-07-23 - $3.00

 

Invoice - CC Contruction Co, - 2014-07-23 - $3,000.00

 

Bill - ATT Phone - 2014-07 - $45.00

 

Bill - Evernote Premium - 2014-07 - $45.00

 

 

Basically I can see most of what I need to know right in the name -- the date or just month and year. I can see is it a bill, receipt, or invoice?  -- and how much was it, the most important thing to read in the title, you don't want to be opening each note to find out how much

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

There are applications that attempt to detect the contents of a receipt upon scanning, and also offer some integration with Evernote. I am thinking of Expensify. It is not cheap, but it does analyze the contents of scanned receipts to try and fill in details automatically. It has its own mobile app, and there are third-party applications that also tie into Expensify AND Evernote.

 https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2011/09/21/trunk-spotlight-expensify-evernote-making-expense-reports-way-easier/

https://www.expensify.com/evernote

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I have a love/hate relationship with NeatReceipts/NeatWorks/Neat/Whatever-their-name-is-today, which I've used for about eight years now.  The love/hate relationship is b/c when it works, it's great.  But when it doesn't, it's a major PITA to get working again.  The problems are always with the software either installing an upgrade or (more recently) something was wonky with my database & even uninstalling, reverting to the previous version & restoring from a backup still didn't fix it.  But I finally got it up & running on a different computer & now I'm a happy camper...until the next time.  Anyway, I use it strictly for thermal receipts & like it b/c I don't have to tag anything, their OCR is pretty good & it's pretty easy to find a receipt by either vendor, date or amount.  I used to put all receipts in there, but now only the thermal types.  The larger receipts or ones a service tech gives you (IE A/C repair guy), stuff like that, I now put in Evernote.  Plus, digital receipts always go in Evernote, simply b/c it's easier than printing the receipt to PDF & then importing into NeatReceipts.  I'm not exactly sure why I segretate it this way.  But certainly, I'm really not all that concerned with having all my Safeway, Walgreens, gasoline & Walmart receipts in Evernote b/c I rarely will need to pull them.  OTOH, the invoice/receipt the A/C repair guy has me sign & then leaves a copy with me, well, I'm going to want to have that in Evernote in case I need to pull it later if/when we're having A/C problems again.  BTW, I don't use the NeatReceipts cloud...just a local database that I backup often.

[DutchPete 247]

 

... what more are you looking for specifically? 

 

Hey Scott,  I think I might know what he is talking about. I have been doing receipts in Evernote now for 3 years, and i am still not satisfied on the best way I should use it.

 

The biggest thing Evernote does is it SAVES IT -- you can throw the paper way -- you now always have the receipt and that benifit is HUGE. But does Evernote save me any time getting my expensese together? 

 

For Receipts, Not really. 

 

Once you take the picture, you have to name it, tag it correctly (or it will just be lost in the mess) but then you have to, at some later date enter the amount in a spreadsheet or accounting program. Wouldn't it be GREAT if there was an app that lets you take a pic of a receipt, you can text in the amount, have the app grab the date and time (as a default -- which you can change if you are taking the picture much later than the expense) put that date and time and amount in a spreadsheet  then send that info to Evernote AND a spreadsheet which you can later upload into an accounting software. As it is now you still have to manually type in all these numbers in later

 

Bujanda, Nope . . . . there is really not an easier way of doing this.

 

When I first started keeping receipts in evernote I scanned EVERY receipt . . well that didn't last long at all. It just isn't worth it for me. Now I just scan major purchases, and or when I am on Trips I will scan everything -- Gas, toll roads, even Coffee -- just sort of want to know what I'm spending on trips. My every day at home receipts  . . .its just not worth the time to scan them IMOP, I put everything on credit cards and the  numbers are there on the monthly bill -- which I DO scan into Evernote and can search and find it on the credit card bill

 

Major Purches, yes, Job related refundable expenses, yes, All the rest?  not worth the time

 

So how do it?

 

TAKE THE TIME TO NAME AND TAG YOUR RECEIPT CORRECTLY -- it will save you a lot of time later

 

=================

Tagging Receipts

=================

 

Every Receipt I take a picture of gets AT LEAST these tags

1. "Receipt"
2. "Jul" (or whatever month it is I keep my month tags 3 characters)
3. "2014" (or whatever year)

Lets say I get lazy, or busy (because I am on Evernote forum broads writing posts when I should be doing my accounting) and I don't look at my expenses for a month or so. When I finally get doown to doing them a simple search

 

"Tag:jun Tag:receipt: Tag:2014"

 

Will get me ALL of my receipts for the month of June. how about all the Receipts for the YTD search "Tag:2014 tag:Receipt". Planning a trip to the same place you were last year in Aug? Search :"Tag:receipt Tag:aug tag:2013 tag:trip"    BINGO all my expenses from trips in august of last year,  Now once i am at my desktop  I use Hyperlinks "Copy Note Link" and for trips (business or pleasure) I have a master Index page which has all my hyperlinks to the various notes, reservations. Each Trip has its own Master Index page for the  airline tickets, mass transit Maps and a list of all my expenses, At each of the notes I have a hyper link back to the index page. The trip Index pages are linked to my Main Trip Index for all my years. Trips in 20014, trips in 2013 etc. My own personal hyperlinks are the easiest way to get to my related pages on my phone -- works WONDERFULLY in my iPhone but hyperlinks never worked in my windows phone     one of the reason why I finally broke down and bought an iPhone

 

==============

Naming Receipts

==============

 

How do I name my receipts

 

Receipt - Starbucks - 2014-07-23 - $4.85

 

Receipt - HomeDepot - Supplies - 2014-07-23 - $4.85

 

Receipt - Toll Road - 2014-07-23 - $3.00

 

Invoice - CC Contruction Co, - 2014-07-23 - $3,000.00

 

Bill - ATT Phone - 2014-07 - $45.00

 

Bill - Evernote Premium - 2014-07 - $45.00

 

 

Basically I can see most of what I need to know right in the name -- the date or just month and year. I can see is it a bill, receipt, or invoice?  -- and how much was it, the most important thing to read in the title, you don't want to be opening each note to find out how much

 

 

You could do away with the date tag by using the created criterion in your search syntax.

[gchamberlin 17]

 

 

... what more are you looking for specifically? 

 

Hey Scott,  I think I might know what he is talking about. I have been doing receipts in Evernote now for 3 years, and i am still not satisfied on the best way I should use it.

 

The biggest thing Evernote does is it SAVES IT -- you can throw the paper way -- you now always have the receipt and that benifit is HUGE. But does Evernote save me any time getting my expensese together? 

 

For Receipts, Not really. 

 

Once you take the picture, you have to name it, tag it correctly (or it will just be lost in the mess) but then you have to, at some later date enter the amount in a spreadsheet or accounting program. Wouldn't it be GREAT if there was an app that lets you take a pic of a receipt, you can text in the amount, have the app grab the date and time (as a default -- which you can change if you are taking the picture much later than the expense) put that date and time and amount in a spreadsheet  then send that info to Evernote AND a spreadsheet which you can later upload into an accounting software. As it is now you still have to manually type in all these numbers in later

 

Bujanda, Nope . . . . there is really not an easier way of doing this.

 

When I first started keeping receipts in evernote I scanned EVERY receipt . . well that didn't last long at all. It just isn't worth it for me. Now I just scan major purchases, and or when I am on Trips I will scan everything -- Gas, toll roads, even Coffee -- just sort of want to know what I'm spending on trips. My every day at home receipts  . . .its just not worth the time to scan them IMOP, I put everything on credit cards and the  numbers are there on the monthly bill -- which I DO scan into Evernote and can search and find it on the credit card bill

 

Major Purches, yes, Job related refundable expenses, yes, All the rest?  not worth the time

 

So how do it?

 

TAKE THE TIME TO NAME AND TAG YOUR RECEIPT CORRECTLY -- it will save you a lot of time later

 

=================

Tagging Receipts

=================

 

Every Receipt I take a picture of gets AT LEAST these tags

1. "Receipt"
2. "Jul" (or whatever month it is I keep my month tags 3 characters)
3. "2014" (or whatever year)

Lets say I get lazy, or busy (because I am on Evernote forum broads writing posts when I should be doing my accounting) and I don't look at my expenses for a month or so. When I finally get doown to doing them a simple search

 

"Tag:jun Tag:receipt: Tag:2014"

 

Will get me ALL of my receipts for the month of June. how about all the Receipts for the YTD search "Tag:2014 tag:Receipt". Planning a trip to the same place you were last year in Aug? Search :"Tag:receipt Tag:aug tag:2013 tag:trip"    BINGO all my expenses from trips in august of last year,  Now once i am at my desktop  I use Hyperlinks "Copy Note Link" and for trips (business or pleasure) I have a master Index page which has all my hyperlinks to the various notes, reservations. Each Trip has its own Master Index page for the  airline tickets, mass transit Maps and a list of all my expenses, At each of the notes I have a hyper link back to the index page. The trip Index pages are linked to my Main Trip Index for all my years. Trips in 20014, trips in 2013 etc. My own personal hyperlinks are the easiest way to get to my related pages on my phone -- works WONDERFULLY in my iPhone but hyperlinks never worked in my windows phone     one of the reason why I finally broke down and bought an iPhone

 

==============

Naming Receipts

==============

 

How do I name my receipts

 

Receipt - Starbucks - 2014-07-23 - $4.85

 

Receipt - HomeDepot - Supplies - 2014-07-23 - $4.85

 

Receipt - Toll Road - 2014-07-23 - $3.00

 

Invoice - CC Contruction Co, - 2014-07-23 - $3,000.00

 

Bill - ATT Phone - 2014-07 - $45.00

 

Bill - Evernote Premium - 2014-07 - $45.00

 

 

Basically I can see most of what I need to know right in the name -- the date or just month and year. I can see is it a bill, receipt, or invoice?  -- and how much was it, the most important thing to read in the title, you don't want to be opening each note to find out how much

 

 

You could do away with the date tag by using the created criterion in your search syntax.

 

 

Using the Created criterion is fine if you are  diligent in imaging the receipt the day it is issued.  Me - I tend to do all this stuff on the weekend when I have a weeks worth piled up in front of me. Call it a character flaw. 

[DutchPete 247]

@ gchamberlin: I understand, it's your right. But you are missing out on an important search possibility. Plus, more generally speaking, you can look at your notes as a timeline of events. Not bothering to match the create date with the date on the receipts messes up your timeline. In addition, whenever there is a discussion about receipts with the erson or company that issued it, they will always refer to the date on the receipt. If your create date does not match the receipt date you will have a hard time finding the note carrying your receipt. So organisationally you are creating (sorry for the pun) search & find problems for yourself down the road.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

To overcome the date problem, some users have taken to prefixing their note titles with a yyyymmdd string. So

 

20140612 Taxi Ride from Train to YOW 

 

If you are consistent you will always have a nice searchable date that is distinct from the Date Created field. 

 

A bit cumbersome to have to manually add that string, but a lot of users have reported significant success with this. 

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Using the Created criterion is fine if you are  diligent in imaging the receipt the day it is issued.  Me - I tend to do all this stuff on the weekend when I have a weeks worth piled up in front of me. Call it a character flaw.

Just change the created date to the date of the receipt.

[DutchPete 247]

 

Using the Created criterion is fine if you are  diligent in imaging the receipt the day it is issued.  Me - I tend to do all this stuff on the weekend when I have a weeks worth piled up in front of me. Call it a character flaw.

Just change the created date to the date of the receipt.

 

 

That is my point too.

@Bujanda: the reason some people add the YYYYMMDD string to the title (as per Scott's reply above) of their notes is to ensure portability. In other words, if ever they would want to ditch Evernote for another app they are sure the dates remain intact, whch is not necessarily the case with the create date if those notes are exported. So, depending on one's take on how committed one is to Evernote, one can decide to add YYYMMDD and/or change the create date. It's your call.

[CalS 5,280]

Here's another method.  I scan all of my receipts, doing them in batches.  The scanner I have separates them into individual OCR'd PDFs.  I do not change the title of the note (most of them look like 2014_07_24_17_19_33.pdf).  I then bulk tag with two tags - Receipt and year (F2014 this year. you can guess prior years).  I then rely on text search to find the "Home Depots".  Works for me and I don't spend much time doing it.

[mexman 1]

Help

I'm new to Evernote.  Been using it about a Month and love it.  I'm dissapointed though, when I have not been able to find a way to do my personal and household accounting.

Evernote is great at keeping copies of my receipts and all my other papers.   But, like the above poster, it more trouble than its worth to make up my own spreadsheet.

With so many developers out there, i thought someone in the five years that Evernote has been out would see the need for a personal accounting app.

I've looked at several app's that are out there now and their main purpose is to handle Business expense reports.  I'm retired now and don't need that.

I downloaded "receipts" and their reports in their advertising looked just what I was looking for.

After paying and downloading the app,  I couldn't figure out how to use it with Evernote.  they import/export to Google drive, Dropbox, Box, etc.  No Evernote listed.

I emailed their support and they replied, Sorry, we dont sync with Evernote.

I'm wondering why Evernote list them as an add-on App.

Does anyone know how I can keep track of my everday expenses in evernote.  Please note.  I mention expenses, not receipts.

Thanks in advance

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Help

I'm new to Evernote.  Been using it about a Month and love it.  I'm dissapointed though, when I have not been able to find a way to do my personal and household accounting.

Evernote is great at keeping copies of my receipts and all my other papers.   But, like the above poster, it more trouble than its worth to make up my own spreadsheet.

With so many developers out there, i thought someone in the five years that Evernote has been out would see the need for a personal accounting app.

I've looked at several app's that are out there now and their main purpose is to handle Business expense reports.  I'm retired now and don't need that.

I downloaded "receipts" and their reports in their advertising looked just what I was looking for.

After paying and downloading the app,  I couldn't figure out how to use it with Evernote.  they import/export to Google drive, Dropbox, Box, etc.  No Evernote listed.

I emailed their support and they replied, Sorry, we dont sync with Evernote.

I'm wondering why Evernote list them as an add-on App.

Does anyone know how I can keep track of my everday expenses in evernote.  Please note.  I mention expenses, not receipts.

Thanks in advance

 

Evernote is good at some things and not others. Personally I use it to store receipts while travelling, but I don't use it to "manage" my expenses. I haven't found it useful for that. 

Some other discussion on the topic, and some discussion about the type of applications you are asking for:

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/65336-evernote-and-receipts/

 

It may just be the case that Evernote is not going to give you what you need for tracking your expenses in a comprehensive way. 

[CalS 5,280]

@mexman

 

I agree with Scott, not likely you will be able to do comprehensive expense tracking with Evernote since there is no way to do arithmetic.  You can capture the receipts for sure, but need something else for tracking and reporting.  I've used Quicken for a long time, but it can be overkill for some.  FWIW.

[DutchPete 247]

Many people try to use Evernote for things it was not developed for. Maybe the best way to look at Evernote is as a digital filing cabinet for documents & records, which not only includes copies of contracts & the like, but also video & audio recordings, web clippings, or even photos. In any case whatever needs to be kept (semi)permanently.

You can also use it for taking notes, although that depends on what types of notes & what features you need with it.

 

For any other activities than these (spreadsheets, word processing, accounting, ......) you cannot and/or should not use Evernote. Even reminders I personally find not worth using Evernote for because it does not offer recurring ones, which in my opinion is an important category of reminders.

 

In any case, do not try to turn Evernote  into something it is not. And if you really don't agree with the way it works or is designed you are better off looking for something else instead of hanging on to something that does not give you what you want, and probably never will.

[mexman 1]

I agree that Evernote was not developed for accounting. It's works great for me the way it is.

I was just hoping some developer saw the need for a simple" add on". App that would help me organize my personal finance.

Expensify works great for doing expense reports. The same type of app seems to me , would work for personal expense.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

My partner and I use Mint for our household budgeting (obligatory cloud service warning here... we're taking our chances with this). In general all of our banking transactions get processed by mint just fine, but in many cases we need to split transactions (we like to separate alcohol from food purchases, and cat food from cat litter, and household goods from groceries, etc). Since credit card transactions take a few days to process, it isn't possible to make this change immediately. So what we do in these cases is scan the receipt into Evernote and tag it "mint". Then, next time we visit mint, we also open Evernote, search for the "mint" tag, displaying all the receipts that need to be "split" in Mint. Once we do the split, we delete the scanned receipt from Evernote, ensuring "mint" tag only ever contains receipts that need to be manually split. Most of these receipts aren't important for long term storage so they aren't kept around any longer than is required for our budgeting purposes.  

 

 

Mint does all of the arithmetic and tracking, and Evernote works to facilitate using Mint more effectively, it could never replace Mint. 

[mexman 1]

I'm not looking for a full blown Acct. System to pay bills, check bank balences etc.

I want something that will just keep track of my personal expenses. Home, auto, grocers , entertainment, etc

[CalS 5,280]

I'm not looking for a full blown Acct. System to pay bills, check bank balences etc.

I want something that will just keep track of my personal expenses. Home, auto, grocers , entertainment, etc

 

It would seem you are aware that EN will let you find personal expense notes through keywords or tags.  The tracking just doesn't exist in EN, not even in a half blown accounting system.  

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

I'm not looking for a full blown Acct. System to pay bills, check bank balences etc.

I want something that will just keep track of my personal expenses. Home, auto, grocers , entertainment, etc

Mint. I don't use it any ore, because I don't feel so comfortable with cloud services that are tied into all of my stuff, but Scott's given you a clear description of how powerful it is. You can use it as little or as much as you want. It just tracks things, if you like.

[mexman 1]

I'm not looking for a full blown Acct. System to pay bills, check bank balences etc.

I want something that will just keep track of my personal expenses. Home, auto, grocers , entertainment, etc

 

It would seem you are aware that EN will let you find personal expense notes through keywords or tags.  The tracking just doesn't exist in EN, not even in a half blown accounting system.

Yes, I'm aware of the lack of tracking.

Am I not correct in assuming that someone could write an Add on App to do some tracking.

I don't use it, but it looks like the App "Expensify" does a lot of tracking

[CalS 5,280]

You are correct someone could develop an app.  Whether or not they will is a different question, and no one on this forum has any insight that it is happening.  You may want to consider the current slate of alternatives as you move forward.

[KBrooks 0]

I, too, am frustrated so far with Evernote's ability to handle receipts... I don't want it to do the actual spreadsheet, just allow copy+paste from the receipt into a spreadsheet. If I upload it via the Evernote app (or Scanner Pro) on my phone, it seems a whole lot of wasted effort to tag and file in a notebook, only to have to "scan" the receipt again myself and then manually type the relevant information into a spreadsheet. I'm thinking I might as well just use Mac Finder to tag and file the receipt images.

 

Copy+paste from images or PDFs would be fantastic. I'm really surprised that since the search function works for specific bits of text -- such as the store name and even the dollar figure of the receipt total -- it's not possible to also copy that same text.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

I, too, am frustrated so far with Evernote's ability to handle receipts... I don't want it to do the actual spreadsheet, just allow copy+paste from the receipt into a spreadsheet. If I upload it via the Evernote app (or Scanner Pro) on my phone, it seems a whole lot of wasted effort to tag and file in a notebook, only to have to "scan" the receipt again myself and then manually type the relevant information into a spreadsheet. I'm thinking I might as well just use Mac Finder to tag and file the receipt images.

 

Copy+paste from images or PDFs would be fantastic. I'm really surprised that since the search function works for specific bits of text -- such as the store name and even the dollar figure of the receipt total -- it's not possible to also copy that same text.

If you are looking for a service that automatically parses the contents of a receipt, at least a few were mentioned earlier in this topic (Expensify would be one). 

Evernote does not perform this highly specialized task unfortunately. 

[CalS 5,280]

I, too, am frustrated so far with Evernote's ability to handle receipts... I don't want it to do the actual spreadsheet, just allow copy+paste from the receipt into a spreadsheet. If I upload it via the Evernote app (or Scanner Pro) on my phone, it seems a whole lot of wasted effort to tag and file in a notebook, only to have to "scan" the receipt again myself and then manually type the relevant information into a spreadsheet. I'm thinking I might as well just use Mac Finder to tag and file the receipt images.

 

Copy+paste from images or PDFs would be fantastic. I'm really surprised that since the search function works for specific bits of text -- such as the store name and even the dollar figure of the receipt total -- it's not possible to also copy that same text.

Copy/paste works from PDF, for me in any case, example right here - $38.70  Trans : Purchase.  Two bits copied from a receipt in EN.  Not something I would do but it does work.

[KBrooks 0]

csihilling, did you copy/paste from the actual PDF, or from your tags? Maybe it only works from PDFs and not from images? (There was another thread or help topic about PDFs vs. images somewhere, can't recall the details...)

 

[ETA] I'm looking into Expensify, as well as just a simple OCR to use with a filing system of my own design + Google Drive.

[CalS 5,280]

ACTUAL PDF viewable in a note in EN.

[KBrooks 0]

Hm, tried with a PDF of a receipt, no dice.

 

Is there something else I need to do besides simply viewing the note -- a button or mode to get a cursor?

[CalS 5,280]

For me, with the PDF of the receipt visible in the note window in EN I

1. Highlight the text

2. Right click and copy

3. Paste

This is Windows 7 and EN 5.7.0.

[ScottLougheed 1,316]

Hm, tried with a PDF of a receipt, no dice.

 

Is there something else I need to do besides simply viewing the note -- a button or mode to get a cursor?

The PDF needs to contain text (not just an image of text). You need a dedicated program to produce PDFs that contain text (or convert existing pdfs). I believe PDF Pen and Prizm are two applications for iOS and Mac, and of course Adobe Acrobat if you feel like taking out a loan. 

 

(Note: Evernote does perform OCR on images, and PDFs that contain images of text, but this is not the same as actually creating a PDF that contains text, and does not create selectable text)

[CalS 5,280]

Should have said this in the earlier post, I scan my receipts into EN as PDFs using a ScanSnap s1300i.  I have the ScanSnap software do the, using the Convert to Searchable PDF setting.  That should complete the picture.

 

EDIT.  Don't know of any special buttons or options anywhere to facilitate this.  Vanilla as far as I know.

[KBrooks 0]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I need some different scanning or OCR capabilities.

[CalS 5,280]

Hope you find it.

[Jonathan Godney 1]

Hi All

I am looking to do the same thing, I have evaluated both IQBoxy and xpenditure, both integrate into Evernote but both don't quite get the job done.

So far the only way I can see receipts\expenses being processed is to use Zapier to send the note to one of the above systems and to then add a TAG "Processed".

Keep me posted if you find a solution.

Thanks

Jonathan

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Godney said:

I am looking to do the same thing

You're posting in a discussion over 2 years old.

What exactly are you looking to do?

[mexman 1]

I really love EN, but cannot find a personal expense app.  Most of everything I found is for recording expense reports.  I want to record household expenses 

[CalS 5,280]

49 minutes ago, mexman said:

I really love EN, but cannot find a personal expense app.  Most of everything I found is for recording expense reports.  I want to record household expenses 

Quicken or Money or Mint or whatever else has entered the personal budget market.

[DTLow 5,736]

3 hours ago, mexman said:

I really love EN, but cannot find a personal expense app.  Most of everything I found is for recording expense reports.  I want to record household expenses 

1. Personal expense service: I use Intuit Mint
2. My receipts are scanned and stored in Evernote (iPhone with Scannable app)
3. My bank transactions are downloaded (csv) and imported to Evernote (Mac with Applescript).  I cross-reference these notes with the scanned receipts
4. I've also scripted an EN > spreadsheet export to produce budget summaries

[Jonathan Godney 1]

On 6/14/2017 at 11:51 PM, DTLow said:

You're posting in a discussion over 2 years old.

What exactly are you looking to do?

Very good point DTLow, Evernote had this requested 2 Years ago already!  What a delayed opportunity to gain the whole accounting industry also!

 

I would like Evernote to:

Offer Meta Data like Date, Amount, Currency, Vendor, for each note,

Use its OCR capability to identify that the item is a receipt,

  - Then to identify Date, Amount, Currency, Vendor, 

Use its OCR capability to identify that the item is a statement,

  - Then to identify the vendor\bank and identify the statement date and also the date range of the statement,

OR if they can't do that then to offer an integration into http://hubdoc.com/ and http://IQBoxy.com (Evernote is being left behind!)

 

I would also like Evernote to integrate into Quickbooks and Xero and to sync the data into Quickbooks or Xero based on TAG or Cabinet location for each integration.  Its important that Evernote allows multiple instance integrations for the same integration so that users who have multiple businesses able to sync different data to different instances of Quickbooks or Xero.

 

Another thing, If Evernote had the ability to fetch invoices from suppliers just like http://getmyinvoices.com and to download Statement PDF's and CSV's like http://hubdoc.com/ that would be a big win and catapult for Evernote. (Here again, Evernote is being left behind!)

 

[DTLow 5,736]

2 hours ago, Jonathan Godney said:

I would like Evernote to:

1. Offer Meta Data like Date, Amount, Currency, Vendor, for each note,
2. Use its OCR capability to identify that the item is a receipt,
   - Then to identify Date, Amount, Currency, Vendor, 
3. Use its OCR capability to identify that the item is a statement
   - Then to identify the vendor\bank and identify the statement date and also the date range of the statement,

These are useful suggestions, but I'm not sure Evernote wants to go beyond generic filing.  I seek out solutions to add value to this filing

Evernote has an OCR process but its only used for search purposes.  I'm not sure it would be useful to tap into that data

My process for meta-data is a manual process to structure the title, and tags.
For example, the title    yyyy-mm-dd <vendor> <details> $999.99
                            tag:Vndr-<vendor> tag:Budget-<category>

I use a script (Mac AppleScript) to extract the data into a spreadsheet
Spreadsheets are my method of recording existing metadata, adding columns, and number crunching

I also download my bank transactions as a csv file and use a script to parse the data into notes

[mexman 1]

When some company comes out with file storage program like EN with the personal expenses app, I will probably leave EN.

they have provision for expense accounts, why not personal.  Right now, I live and work in Mexico.  My secretary is in the US.  She handles all my wife and I taxes, pays bills, etc.  EN works great, because she can access all my records (except personal).  Yes, I know I can use mint and similar programs.

but, I would prefer to use only one program.

[DTLow 5,736]

3 minutes ago, mexman said:

would prefer to use only one program.

I have no problem with multiple apps; the right tool for the job

So, Evernote for filing my data

For personal expenses, I use a spreadsheet.  What features are you looking for in an app?

[Jonathan Godney 1]

On 6/19/2017 at 11:07 PM, DTLow said:

These are useful suggestions, but I'm not sure Evernote wants to go beyond generic filing.  I seek out solutions to add value to this filing

Evernote has an OCR process but its only used for search purposes.  I'm not sure it would be useful to tap into that data

My process for meta-data is a manual process to structure the title, and tags.
For example, the title    yyyy-mm-dd <vendor> <details> $999.99
                            tag:Vndr-<vendor> tag:Budget-<category>

I use a script (Mac AppleScript) to extract the data into a spreadsheet
Spreadsheets are my method of recording existing metadata, adding columns, and number crunching

I also download my bank transactions as a csv file and use a script to parse the data into notes

DTLow, Storage is easy, indexing and search are very important but EN is not going to survive if they don't evolve. Im looking to simplify admin and increase productivity, accounting software has inbox rules and intelligence, it's a natural evolution step and yet Evernote has not taken it in all the years they have had the market.

Hubdoc.com is one to watch as it has just secured another $4.5mil 

Spreadsheeting has been over for a long time, have a look at IQBoxy or receipt-bank. This saves so much time and costs minimal.

I would also look into Bank feeds if I were you, they are amazing and cut out all the effort of CSV's.

[Jonathan Godney 1]

On 6/20/2017 at 4:59 AM, mexman said:

When some company comes out with file storage program like EN with the personal expenses app, I will probably leave EN.

they have provision for expense accounts, why not personal.  Right now, I live and work in Mexico.  My secretary is in the US.  She handles all my wife and I taxes, pays bills, etc.  EN works great, because she can access all my records (except personal).  Yes, I know I can use mint and similar programs.

but, I would prefer to use only one program.

Have a look at Hubdoc for expenses.

In addition, you can also forward expenses automatically using zapier

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, Jonathan Godney said:

EN is not going to survive if they don't evolve. Im looking to simplify admin and increase productivity, accounting software has inbox rules and intelligence, it's a natural evolution step and yet Evernote has not taken it in all the years they have had the market.

I'd question the "natural evolution step", but that doesn't mean Evernote can't move in an accounting direction (revolution step?)

I also wouldn't put much faith in using OCR to parse the receipt scans.  I'd look more to data feeds from banks and credit card companies

imho   The evolution focus, both from users and Evernote seems to be more on enhancing the word processing features in the editor.

 

[Jonathan Godney 1]

18 hours ago, DTLow said:

I'd question the "natural evolution step", but that doesn't mean Evernote can't move in an accounting direction (revolution step?)

I also wouldn't put much faith in using OCR to parse the receipt scans.  I'd look more to data feeds from banks and credit card companies

imho   The evolution focus, both from users and Evernote seems to be more on enhancing the word processing features in the editor.

 

Receipt-bank, IQboxy, Me and a host of other services might have a different opinion  

[mexman 1]

Like I said, I love EN, but, I want to keep track of my household expenses since I scan all receipts into EN anyway, it would be a treat to get a report each Month using the same receipts.

hope someone comes up with such a program

like someone said in an earlier post.  You cannot sit still in today's world.

EN hasn't had any innovations in several years

[DTLow 5,736]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Godney said:

Receipt-bank, IQboxy, Me and a host of other services might have a different opinion  

I didn't get much from the vendor sites but I'm interested in your experience

After scanning a receipt, how accurate did you find the OCR processing at retrieving Date, Amount, Currency, Vendor,