Bills! Sigh.
There’s no getting around it: finances are one of the many things we have to keep track of. Fortunately, there are tools that help keep us organized and on top of things. Heather’s covered personal finance software, Erin’s suggested ways to check in on your insurance, and Adeline’s looked at a helpful tool for reorganizing your finances.
I recently learned about another tool that may be helpful to some: FileThis. Using the service is simple: you connect your online accounts (including, in addition to banks and credit unions, accounts such as Amazon, Paypal, your mobile phone carrier, etc.). FileThis will then pull in the documents associated with each of these accounts; if there’s a payment coming due, it will show you that on your calendar (and will even, helpfully, send an email to remind you).
What’s to like? The document repository is very helpful. If I can’t recall just what an expense was as I’m looking at my finances, but I know it was something from Amazon, I can quickly find it in the document repository. What’s really helpful is that documents are searchable, which makes searching across multiple accounts at once a breeze. You can also filter the document list by account, and FileThis helpfully adds labels according to document type. Finding all of my phone bills for the past year took just one click.
Plans are reasonably priced, too. The free plan allows you to connect up to six accounts, and runs a check on those accounts once a week. You’ll also get 500 MB of storage on their servers (they explain their security features here), but if you prefer, you can store your documents in whatever storage space you prefer: Evernote, Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive are all options. If that’s not sufficient to meet your needs, their Premium and Ultimate plans are reasonably priced ($2/month and $5/month, respectively), with good discounts for paying in advance.
What’s not to like? Well, FileThis is only helpful if it works with the accounts you have. While most of my accounts can be connected to FileThis, the one that’s most important can’t. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a way to check which financial institutions and services will work prior to creating an account. If your accounts will work, though, FileThis might be worth checking out.
What’s your experience been with FileThis or similar services? Do you have a favorite to recommend? Let us know in the comments.
Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user lobsterstew.
