The Girly Anti-Geek

So today is the day I slowly kill my husband prepare our taxes.

As the wife of a self-employed truck driver that is not the easiest task.  There are self-employed people out there everywhere, and to all of you I applaud you AND your spouses. 

Every year I get a little smarter about the whole process.  Our first year, I spent 2 weeks getting all the documents into different categories and took FOREVER to figure out what categories were what.  The following year, I had a better system set up and the hardest part was still gathering all the documentation. The next year I tried my best to categorize things intermittently throughout the year, I had the envelopes done early.  What I realized though was that HE doesn’t follow that system.

This year I was smarter.  I would put everything in a stack.  I gave him a bowl for his receipts as he got them, and throughout the year I would just dump them into a big bag.  Yep…it was a trash bag folks.  My husband’s entire 2008 business documents were trashed. 

I may try to get a designated bag for next year, since the thought that it wasn’t accidentally thrown out is a small miracle.  But it did help!!  I sat down last night and sorted every tiny receipt and invoice from 2008 for his business.  This is a better alternative to spending 2 weeks tearing through every paper in the house. I really DO try to get more efficient.

Today is the day I put it all in my Excel Notebook. 

Friends have told me I should use Quicken or Quickbooks.  I found a Quickbooks free application on my laptop and downloaded and got it all set up.  Guess what…it has everything I DON’T need.  It gives me Payroll, Sales Invoices, and I forget what else…but it wasn’t what I need for what we do.

Is there a program out there people that would make my life easier for when I do 2009 taxes next year?  This year is shot, and I’m keying the excel as we speak, but is there a program that will help?  

What do you use?  Any ideas??

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