Organize your receipts for free on the Web

Keeping track of paper receipts can be a real pain. You can enter the information into a spreadsheet yourself or spend $200 on software that makes you scan and file receipts. A better solution might be Shoeboxed (shoeboxed.com).

Conceived three years ago, when founder Taylor Mingos was still a student at Duke, Shoeboxed organizes your receipts and business cards online. It's free to users who scan their own receipts and upload them to the site.

People who prefer that Shoeboxed handle everything can subscribe to the service and mail in their receipts (some plans provide a large prepaid envelope). Shoeboxed scans the receipts and turns them into records sortable by store name, date or dollar amount. Those monthly plans start at $9.95 for 50 paper items and unlimited e-mail receipts.

I signed up for a free 30-day trial and mailed in six receipts and 25 business cards. In two days, the items appeared on the site, in a detailed table. Hovering my mouse over a magnifying glass icon let me see the scanned document behind the record. Even faint receipts were legible.