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"Set up receipts@example.com as Google hosted email, automatically parse all Amazon/SaaS subscription/etc emails and update the bookkeeping system" would already save me (or, well, my bookkeeper) 5+ hours a year.



Shouldn't this kind of notifications be handled with the Paypal / Amazon API directly for more reliability?


These are business expenses rather than things I am selling. As such, they're on my corporate credit cards. Regrettably, those don't have API access, and the best way to get information from them is currently "Log in once a month, dump a PDF file, and email it to the bookkeeper."


As a tech guy, I always feel extremely guilty about it, but my Italian accountant is cool with me dumping a big pile of receipts and papers in his office every few months. Even US accountants are often more or less ok with this, even if it makes me a bit sick to my stomach.


> As a tech guy, I always feel extremely guilty about it

As a tech guy, business people routinely dump big piles of raw data in my office every few days. I mutter a bit about how this is why we invented databases and then laugh all the way to the bank.

And I guarantee you the business people don't feel at all guilty about it.




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