Thread: Do you keep your printed records?

You should keep all of your post office receipts, purchasing receipts, delivery receipts, etc. I personally do not print copies of anything I do electronically.

If you are solely taking money through PayPal, I have been told that you do not have to print every invoice you receive. There should be a tool in PayPal that lets you print a monthly statement showing money going into your account. Just print the monthly statements every month as it tells the same story using less paperwork.

I store all of my invoices on external hard drives. That way if any of them dies on me, I have plenty of redundant backups.

Thanks!!! You guys are the best.

Everyone says we are going paperless these days. I like to have copies, so I will burn them to a disc or save them to the computer. The only problem with saving them to the computer is if your computer crashes, then all you records are gone too.

Often the law requires that some documents are kept in paper format (for example, invoices for purchases you are deducting from your business expenses), check with your accountant for details on your local laws.

Great tip- I know a lot of places keep things for at least 7 years. You can be audited anytime up to so many years, so you need to be sure you can either print a copy of have a paper copy already. I'm interested to know how it differs from state to state.

I do like having the ability to go back and look at my documents online, and the risk is always there that if you print and rely on paper documents that you could lose them to disaster. But again, law local to where I am requires that certain things are in printed format so I have to keep both.