What to Keep From a Month of Truck Paperwork (and What You Can Toss)

Open the glovebox, the door pocket and the console. There is a month of paper in there: fuel slips, supplier receipts, crumpled statements, and a few things you cannot identify. Every trade owner has a pile like it, and so does the spouse who ends up sorting it.

The big question is what you need and what is just clutter. This post gives you a general way to sort it. It is not tax advice, and the rules depend on your business and where you work, so read the note near the end and check with your accountant.

Start With Three Piles

Do not try to decide on each scrap one at a time. Sort fast into three piles first.

• Keep: anything that proves you spent money on the business, or that shows tax you paid or collected.
• Match and decide: things that might be covered by something else, like a receipt that is also on a statement.
• Toss: duplicates, quotes you did not take, and slips with nothing tied to the business.

Once the piles exist, the sorting goes quickly.

Receipts: What Usually Stays

Receipts for things you bought for the business are the heart of your paperwork. That means materials, tools, fuel for the work truck, safety gear, parking, permits, and similar costs. A good receipt shows the date, the seller, what you bought, and the amount. If the ink is fading, take a photo now, because thermal paper can go blank within months.

Anything you bought for a customer job is worth holding on to with that job, so the cost and the invoice can be matched later. If you paid for something yourself and never billed it back, that is worth knowing too.

Mixed-use purchases need a second look. A fuel receipt from a day you drove the truck for both work and family is not the same as one from a pure job day. Keep it, note the purpose, and let your accountant tell you how to treat it.

Supplier Statements: Keep the Month-End

Many suppliers send a monthly statement that lists everything you bought on account. These are useful for two reasons. They help you check that every purchase slip matches what they charged, and they show what you still owe.

Good habit: compare the statement against your slips before you pay it. If a charge has no slip, ask about it. If you have a slip that is not on the statement, it may show up next month.

Once the statement is paid and matched, it is usually the month-end one that you hold on to, since it sums up the month. Your accountant can tell you whether the individual slips behind it also need to stay.

HST/GST Paperwork: Be Careful Here

If you are registered for HST or GST, the receipts and invoices that show the tax you paid on business purchases matter more than most. They are the paperwork behind what you may be able to claim back. The same goes for the invoices you send out, since they show the tax you collected.

Generally, for those purchases, the receipt should show the seller, the date, and the tax in some form. If a receipt is missing those details, ask the seller for a proper copy while it is easy. Getting one six months later is a headache.

Do not toss tax-related paperwork just because the month is over. Filing periods, reviews and audits can look back well beyond one month.

What You Can Usually Toss

After you have checked with your accountant on what applies to you, these are the kinds of things many owners let go:

• Duplicate copies of the same receipt or invoice
• Quotes you sent or received that did not turn into a job, unless you want them for reference
• Slips for purely personal purchases that ended up in the truck
• Junk mail, flyers and supplier brochures
• Receipts that are already captured in a clear photo or scan, if your accountant is fine with that

When in doubt, hold it for now. A small box of "not sure" paper costs you a little space. A missing record can cost you much more.

A Ten-Minute Monthly Routine

• Empty the truck once a week. Do not let a month build up.
• Photograph receipts the same day and drop them in one folder per month.
• Write the job on the slip if it was for a customer.
• Match the supplier statement before you pay it.
• Hand one tidy folder to whoever does the books.

For a deeper look at receipts themselves, see how to organize contractor receipts.