Comments on: Evernote Makeover Series: How to Do Your Taxes With Evernote

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 05:18:22 +0000

Thank you Chuck! I’m a traveling salesman and nearly ever receipt is important . Your explanation is clear and intuitive. Any way to set up totals to integrate with a spreadsheet for totals?

By: Way

Way — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 00:04:31 +0000

Can someone teach me/suggest a solution for me? I am researching my family genealogy. Evernote is wonderful for screenshots of website info that I can later review, save or discard, according to whether applicable to my lineage. I would then like to use selected research and screenshots out of Evernote to attach to my Word documents as sources. But how can I export from Evernote? How do I import the screenshot to my document? Is Evernote designed so that this isn’t possible. Am I limited to using those screenshots only with Evernote documents? If so, I need to find another program for my research? Thanks!

By: Joy

Joy — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:52:46 +0000

I learned this from @MichaelHyatt’s blog but inserted in ALL CAPS how to make it work on a Mac:

Evernote can encrypt sensitive data within a note. If you have something within a note that you want to keep private—passwords, financial information, counseling notes, etc.—you can do so by highlighting the data, right-clicking – CONTROL CLICK ON MAC, and selecting “Encrypt selected text.” You will then be prompted to enter a password. In order to view that information in the future, you (or anyone else) will have to enter the password to do so.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:13:39 +0000

As a CPA, I can tell you that using Evernote to do your Taxes is a no brainer:
1. Connect Evernote to Expensify to make sure you have all your important receipts throughout the year.
2. For cash receipts, use your phone to take snapshots of them before you lose them/throw them away.
3. Use Skitch to “scribble” directly on the receipt’s image as to who was with you, or write notes about it into your Evernote note.
4. Tag everything with what type of expense it is, and by the time you have to do your taxes, everything’s there.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:43:09 +0000

I’ve been using Evernote for taxes the last two years. Couldn’t imagine going back. As well as the receipts themselves, I keep a spreadsheet file in the tagged notes (Salon Receipts, Paint Receipts) to keep a running total. The ability to create note links too is a big help. Attaching a link from receipt to project or purchase is helpful.

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:13:16 +0000

If your scanner does not have a “Scan to Evernote” option embedded in its software, try using the Import Folders feature. Scan anything you want to upload to Evernote into a special folder (called “Upload to Evernote” or whatever you like). In Evernote (Windows) go to Tools >> Import Folders… and tell Evernote what folder to look in for uploads when the software starts. You can tell it to delete the files from the folder once it’s finished uploading or keep them there.

By: Jisoo

Jisoo — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:37:29 +0000

I would like to see something being done for the security issue of putting financial records on the cloud via Evernote. Otherwise I am all for the idea.

By: Trent

Trent — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:29:35 +0000

I started using Evernote only a few months back, but business and tax reporting being the main reason.. since then every expense i’ve had goes through the Cannon MFD (which through some googling I managed to integrate with evernote), but more often I do it on the road using the “Turbo Scan” app on iPhone… i’ve only had one reporting period so far and it has reduced time by about 80%!!!

By: A. User

A. User — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:27:14 +0000

But then what is the point?

If all of your important documents are just sitting on your local computer…why not just scan them and stick them in a folder.

By: A. User

A. User — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:18:13 +0000

Hi -

I signed up for an EN account years ago, and “rediscovered” it recently after reading an article about using EN for your taxes, similar to this one.

I thought to myself…this is great, why didn’t I do this before? I had completely forgotten about the security issue though, and I completely disappointed all over again. I’m surprised they haven’t fixed this by 2012.

EN says that you should NOT store sensitive documents (like financial records) on their servers as they are NOT stored in an encrypted manner. I’m really surprised they would even make an article like this.

Why does this matter?

1. Any computer you sync with has a copy of all your synced data unencrypted on the disk. If you sync with your work computer, your employer could access and read all of those documents. If you lose your smartphone, all of the synced documents could be accessed by the thief, even if they don’t have your pin.

2. Evernote’s servers store your data unencrypted on their disks. If a hard drive fails (which likely happens many times every single day) these drives are removed and replaced. But what happens to these disks with unencrypted data? Are they destroyed? Thrown in the trash? Sold at a yard sale? I’d be interested to hear what someone from EN has to say about this.

This seems way too loose for storing financial data.