How Avanlea Bookkeeper Saves 900 Hours a Year with Shoeboxed

Based in South Carolina, Kimberly Mickel has worked in the legal field for 27 years, handling front- and back-office accounting. Her expertise includes instructing attorneys on how to bill accurately and inculcating the billing process within law firms.

Today, one of the services she offers her clients is as a bookkeeper focusing on tax preparation and tax filing. Kimberly has no website, yet her business continues to grow as most of her clients discover her through word-of-mouth.

The challenge: bookkeepers handle a deluge of receipts

As Kimberly’s client base grew, she found it challenging to keep up with sorting the mountains of business receipts her clients would send in ahead of tax season.

When asked how much time she would spend on receipt and document management before switching to Shoeboxed, she said: “I would say about 900 hours…for the year.”

Kimberly’s time manually documenting and managing receipts also means additional hourly billing that her clients must bear.

She began searching for an alternative to sorting by hand—and she found Shoeboxed.

The solution: simplifying receipt management with Shoeboxed

After discovering Shoeboxed and what it can do, Kimberly asked her clients to use Shoeboxed’s Magic Envelope^TM service for receipt management. Those who agreed to this change subscribed to Shoeboxed directly and Kimberly was added as a sub-user on their accounts.

After Shoeboxed has logged the receipts, Kimberly receives an email that all the documents have been received and uploaded to her client’s Shoeboxed account.

Donyell Weaver, a trucking business owner and one of Kimberly’s clients, remarked on how efficient the switch has been: “Shoeboxed is so much easier for me. One year [before finding Shoeboxed], I handed her a bucket full of receipts. It wasn’t pretty. She was really upset.”

Now, Donyell keeps a Magic Envelope^TM within arm’s reach while on the road, stuffing receipts into the envelope and then sending it in at the end of each month. Shoeboxed’s mailroom staff does the legwork, and Kimberly—as a designated user with Donyell’s account—gets a notification when the receipts are in the system.

Not all of Kimberly’s clients have opted to use Shoeboxed. And for those who haven’t, manual logging continues: “Tax day was yesterday. So basically, for the people who didn’t have Shoeboxed, I’ve been falling asleep sorting receipts in my office over the past few weeks.”

“I think it is a lot more cost-effective to have Shoeboxed. I don’t separate the receipts. My clients put them in an envelope, and they are organized by Shoeboxed.”

—Kimberly Mickel, bookkeeper

The results: reduced risk and greater per-client efficiency

In addition to being able to outsource receipt scanning, other business expenses management features make Shoeboxed ideal for accountants and bookkeepers, which Kimberly highlighted to us:

1. Proof of receipts in case of IRS audits.

Kimberly underlined this point: “I highly recommend my clients to use Shoeboxed because, God forbid, if we ever have an audit, I can go back in, go through the receipts and show proof to the IRS.”

2. Protection against loss or receipt damage.

“I have a backup if I need it. So I have it digitally and physically as well.” Converting clients’ physical receipts into digital documents ensures that none of their business expenses go missing.

3. Expense reports for tax filing.

Shoeboxed helps Kimberly prepare financial reports for her clients—and tax season—with the report exporting feature. “The reports within Shoeboxed, for me, are priceless,” she affirms. Users can filter expenses by categories, vendors, date range, and payment type. The reports are downloadable and shareable as PDF or CSV, with integrations to QuickBooks and other popular accounting software.

4. Easy tallying and summarizing of categories.

“On the Profit & Loss statement, I need to segregate repairs, gas individually…I can go to the right [within Shoeboxed], and I can select the gas, I can select the food, and on the left side, I can tally it. Normally, that would take me a while. Shoeboxed easily totals everything for me and summarizes them. That, to me, is priceless.”

5. Frequent check-ins keep her in tune with her clients.

“I love that I get notified when a Magic Envelope has been received, so I can look and see what each of my clients are doing. I love that notification. [It gives] a good general quarterly impression of what they are doing.”

“Shoeboxed hits all the pain points for me because it helps my organization and is cost-effective. It also helps in case of any IRS audit. I can easily find anything that I need. For me, it solves all the pain points.”

—Kimberly Mickel, bookkeeper

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