Organizing and Simplifying Bill Paying

There are lots of ways to simplify your bill paying and keeping it organized. First let’s get everything organized.
Here’s how:

Keep all pending bills together in one designated area or folder.  The best thing to do to keep this task from getting out of hand is to do it as soon as you get your bill.  Place it where it needs to go. It will only take a minute of your time.  Keeping everything together will save you time in having to search through several areas where you could have placed them.  Once the bills have been paid place them in another folder labeled “Paid” so they will be readily available should you need to refer back to them.

Set up a weekly or monthly schedule for bill paying.  If you receive you paycheck weekly consider doing it the day you receive your paycheck or if you get paid monthly do it on that day or you can schedule two days a month whichever works best so you meet all your payment due dates.

Create an area for bill paying.  Keeping all of your bill paying essentials, such as stamps, checks, pens, envelopes, and bills of course together in one spot will speed up your bill paying process as you won’t have to keep stopping and getting up to go get things.  Just a few things you might want to keep in your bill paying area are your bill paying filing system, checkbook, envelopes, stamps, pens, pencils, a calculator, tape, a stapler and return address labels.  Take an hour or so and if you have recurring bills which you create envelopes for consider taking the time to prepare the years envelopes all at one time.  That way when you need it, it will already be prepared and ready for use.

Record your payments immediately.  As soon as you pay your bills mark them down in your checkbook register or computer software register so you won’t have to waste time looking for it later or worse get charged overdrawn account fees.

Immediately file your payment receipts and invoices.  Once you’ve paid your bills, marked them in your register and made the necessary notes such as date paid, check number and amount paid on them, file them.  Set up a category for each such as utilities, insurance, credit card, house payments, etc. for easier filing and locating of receipts should you need to locate them.

Reconcile your checkbook and file the cancelled checks just in case you need a copy of one later on down the road or for tax purposes.  To prevent those cancelled checks from piling up, store bank statements and cancelled checks that are more than one year in a separate area or box.

Limit the number of credit cards used.  Consolidating multiple credit card payments into fewer ones, not only help reduce the amount of paperwork, time needed to make and track these payments but you will also be able to pay them off earlier and reduce your interest paid on them over time.  Try limiting consolidating your credit card bills to two or three and dispose of the rest.

Simplify bill paying with online banking or inexpensive money management software.  Money management software can reduce the time it takes to pay your bills and come tax time it can make tracking expenses and creating reports for your accountant much easier.