My iPhone is an integral part of my workflow. I use it for emails, project planning, news reading, writing, managing accounts and a hundred other little tasks. It is also my favourite book reader. Today I added a new productivity aid to my growing arsenal of apps: QuickShot with Dropbox.
This little instant-on app allows you to upload photographs immediately to a Dropbox account. It includes support for custom Dropbox folders so it is easy to built in to your system. It is intended primarily for photography, but for me it has an even greater use: As a gatherer of financial information including receipts.
Snap a bill or receipt and it is immediately sent to your Dropbox folder of choice. I have a folder named “Inbox” which I use to collate all information I need to record and keep and which is an integral part of my information workflow.
Back home, the Inbox sits on my desktop and I can review and action expenses and other bills from there. This folder is also linked to my Futjitsu Scanscap scanner which handles all my incoming mail and any documents I need to keep for reference or tax purposes. So QuickShot fits into my system allows me to supplement the scans of material I take at home.
QuickShot photos are filed with an extended date/time stamp to avoid any possibility of overwriting. In this it works in very much the same way as the referencing system used by the Fujitsu ScanSnap software.
Incidentally, my workflow involves DEVONthink Pro, perhaps the most efficient repository for all types of information, including pdfs of bank statements and credit card bills. Evernote does a similar job, without the automatic OCR, but it is not so secure. Since I use DEVONthink for sensitive financial information, I prefer to store it locally (or, in fact, in an encrypted sparsebundle located in Dropbox).
After importing my files and scans to DEVONthink the inbox is cleared automatically while the program scans the documents for OCR filing. I used to go to a lot of trouble moving stuff into discrete folders within DEVONthink Pro. Now I simply use a brief description and leave the sorting and finding to DTP’s engine.
I can find anything, going back for years, and I shred 99 percent of the paper that comes across my desk. Slowly, after 20 years of posturing, we are getting really close to the paperless office.