I was writing a post on the weekend about ways to get organized in the New Year. It’s not up yet, in case you’re trying to find it.
How to save money when moving to a paperless office.
During the post, I had included Shoeboxed in my list of suggested services. No, it’s not a service I have personally used yet, but from my research and the reviews I’ve read, I feel safe recommending it. At some point after finishing the post, I had an epiphany.
I’ve been wanting a Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500 for what seems like forever now. Well, that or a NeatDesk. Basically, I really wanted a high powered scanner that would digitize my receipts, business cards, and invoices in a snap. Going through crumpled up receipts is such a large part of my daily routine, and any product or service that would streamline this is a big deal. Unfortunately, these two scanners run somewhere in the neighbourhood of $500. Yikes!
To be fair, these are meant to be business grade products. These aren’t your $99 scanners you get for free when you buy a PC, but that’s still a lot of money. Plus, with all things tech, I don’t really expect it to be useful for anymore than 2 years. Within 24 months, my guess is that it will fall apart, or just stop measuring up to my needs.
My Epiphany:
Shoeboxed IS a ScanSnap 1500. Well, ok, not literally. But is there that much of a difference? For a monthly fee, you send all of your crumpled up papers to them, and they do what the Scansnap does (and maybe even better). Plus, I don’t have to sit next to them while the papers go through. I don’t have to clear up paper jams, and I don’t have to talk to someone trying to sell me an extended warranty on my Shoeboxed.
Based on their prices, I think I’d end up needing either the Lite or Classic plan, which are $9.95 and $29.95 per month respectively. Or, if I pay annually, $99 or $299 per year. Using my 2 year scenario, that would be $600 for 2 years, instead of the $500 for the Scansnap.
This might just be the answer I’ve been looking for. Setting aside $500 for a scanner is tough (at least for me it is), but $30/month is doable. Plus, all the time I would have spent scanning the documents is freed up for other work. If I even bill out 1 extra hour a month due to my extra free time, it just paid for itself.
So, what do you think? Does my epiphany make sense? Is the freed up time worth the extra $50-60/year? Do any of you use Shoeboxed? How about a ScanSnap or a NeatDesk? I’d love to hear your experiences and your opinions.
Thank you for the great post! Glad to hear that Shoeboxed is going to help you get organized and save time in the new year. Contact me if you or your readers have any questions about the service or want more information about why Shoeboxed is a MUCH better solution than a home/office desktop scanner.
Best regards,
Sonny Byrd
Head of Marketing – Shoeboxed.com
888-369-4269
sonny@team.shoeboxed.com
Thank you Sonny for the comment. Although I keep mentioning it, I think 2011 is going to be the year I get started using Shoeboxed. I realize that spending hours scanning and organizing my receipts just isn’t a good use of my time. I will definitely contact you, as I’d love to hear more information about the benefits of your service.
I use the ScanSnap S1300. It is cheaper the the 1500, yet smaller and you can take to business meetings if needed. I did it several times and it worked like a charm. Made quite an impression on some clients too. It sits nicely tucked away on my desk, you can scan to a local folder or many online services.
Plus, now, I scan all my receipts, especially for electronics, regardless if they’re business related or not.
As to Freshbooks, I just export my account transactions and use their new import feature, and done.
Not sure why, but I do look forward to doing my expenses once a month, takes me about 15 minutes now.
Check the video of ScanSnap s1300 with Evernote here http://blog.evernote.com/2009/05/07/scan-to-evernote-fujitsu-scansnap/
Hi Rafal,
Thanks for the comment.
I’m glad the S1300 is working so well for you. That would be good for meetings or travel. That’s also cool that you can tie in Freshbooks and Evernote (both of which I use constantly) together with the scanner.
Now I’m off to watch the video.