Get Organized!

Every once in a while, something related to technology and personal finance lands on my desk that makes me go "wow." I have accumulated a small stack, so now I have a collection of neat things to tell you about -- Web sites and tools that can help you become more organized and efficient, if you’re willing to take the time to start using them.

Keeping Track

The first product is, in fact, so "neat" that it comes from a company named NeatReceipts. It's called the Scanalizer, and is a little scanner bar, about the size of a very thick ruler, that plugs into your computer. But it has the power to reorganize all the significant pieces of paper that clutter your life.

The Scanalizer converts all types of paper documents to digital format and allows you to store them on your computer, where you can sort them, organize them in categories and bring order to everything from business cards to credit card receipts to documents like warranties for your electronic products.

Card scanners have been around for a while, but this one is impressive, as it scans both sides of a business card, in color, including the notes you wrote on the cards to remind yourself why you kept them in the first place. Then you can import the cards into programs such as Outlook, Plaxo or vCard.

But the real value of the Scanalizer is its ability to "copy" all those small receipts for credit cards, airline tickets and taxicabs. (I’ve been sorting mine in plastic baggies.) How amazing to scan even the blurry, faded receipts clearly -- and then sort and categorize them for your expense accounting, as well as for tax purposes according to the form or line on the tax return where they’ll be used.