Archiving Tax Docs: The Final Step to Trauma-Free Taxes
April 14 2025 | Issue 39 | Link to this issue | Subscribe
Hi Reader –
“Nothing is certain, except death and taxes”
Since we've got to pay them, why not make them as trauma-free as possible? This is why I developed my Evernote-centric tax and financial management system. And, in this newsletter series, I've shown you how it works.
I've shared with you the structure, the habits, and the collaboration skills needed to manage this essential workflow supporting my life and business. You've learned how to:
Organize receipts and financial records in Evernote
Set up and maintain a digital dashboard that keeps tax season manageable
Share crucial information with vendors — whether they use Evernote or not
Perhaps most importantly? You've seen how I keep every deduction fully documented and defendable — even in the event of an audit.
This week, I'm concluding the series by showing you how to archive a previous year's work so you can access it in the case of an audit (even if it comes years later), and set up Evernote to organize the new tax year.
Maintaining My Taxes, Bookkeeping, & LLC Space
This series has shown how my Taxes, Bookkeeping, & LLC Space acts as my financial management dashboard, focused on my active tax projects and processes.
As these projects and processes come to a logical end – for example, the tax year ends and it becomes time to track receipts for the new year, or my tax return is filed and accepted – certain notebooks transition from an active to an archive role.
When a notebook is no longer active, I remove it from this Space and move it to an archive Stack — which serves as a digital filing cabinet that keeps past work searchable, but out of the way. In addition, I create new notebooks in my space to reflect the sub-projects and processes I'm managing for the upcoming tax year.
Here's a screenshot of my Space, followed by the details of the steps I take at the end of the 2024 Tax Year to transition to 2025 tracking.
Step 1: Note Consolidation
I first review the notes that are in my 2024 Tax Preparation Notebook for the year. I will review the note titles for naming consistency, and merge together the notes to create a single note of all the tax documents for that tax year. I then move that note into its 2024 Tax Documents Notebook.
While I find it useful to keep these notes segregated during my tax prep process, consolidating them together for archiving helps me to minimize the number of notebooks I maintain in my account, and keep related tax year information stored together once the project is complete.
Step 2: Notebook Renaming
I adjust the names of 3 notebooks in my Space:
The now empty 2024 Tax Preparation notebook gets renamed to 2025 Tax Preparation. This becomes the project notebook for collecting next tax year's documents as they come in.
My Current Receipts: Business Notebook gets renamed to 2024 Receipts: Business
My Current Receipts: Personal Notebook gets renamed to 2024 Receipts: Personal
You may wonder why I rename my receipts notebooks vs move the notes out of these notebooks to new notebooks. Both are viable options, but one is more efficient.
You can move all the previous tax receipt notes that are in the Current Receipts: Business notebook to a new archive notebook you create titled 2024 Receipts: Business. This would result in an empty Current Receipts: Business notebook that you file incoming, current year receipts into. However, since Evernote limits you to moving 100 notes at a time, this can be tedious when you have hundreds, if not thousands of notes stored there.
I find it more efficient to simply rename the notebook to an archival name, move the notebook (Step 3), and create a new blank notebook with the old name in the Space. The end result is the same but my preferred method is quicker when you've accumulated a lot of notes throughout the year.
Step 3: Remove Notebooks from the Space
My next step is to remove the 3 notebooks related to the previous tax year from the Space. So, I'll move all the 2024 notebooks out.
Evernote Skills Tip: While it's intuitive to move a Notebook into a Space (just go to "Move ->"), moving a notebook out of a Space isn't as clear and trips up a lot of users.
To remove a notebook from a Space, go to Move Notebook from the Notebook overflow menu (...), then click the Remove from Space button that appears in the dialogue box. This screenshot shows you the trick:
Step 4: Update My Tax Archive Stack
The notebooks removed from the Space appear in my Notebook list. I then add them to my Tax Archive Stack.
This Stack serves as a digital filing cabinet. All my past tax documents and receipts live here organized, searchable, and tucked away out of sight.
And, I have access to it from every device. Should I ever need evidence to defend any deductions – even years later – they are here waiting for me.
As an added bonus, I don't accumulate boxes of paper receipts and tax documentation in my home.
Step 5: Create New Notebooks
Back inside my Space, I make sure the notebooks I need to manage next year's tax process are there. If needed, I create the notebooks for:
Current Receipts: Business
Current Receipts: Personal
2025 Tax Documents
2025 Tax Preparation
You can do this from inside the Space by clicking on "New Notebook."
These new notebooks live in the Space, and support the tax preparation and documentation tasks I'll manage throughout the year.
Recap: The Full System
Over this 6-part series, we've covered the complete workflow that makes my taxes trauma-free:
Centralization: Keeping every receipt and tax document in Evernote
Organization: Setting up notebooks with clear naming conventions
Financial Dashboard: Creating a dedicated Space that brings everything together
Digital Documentation: Making every expense audit-proof with saved receipts
Collaboration: Sharing tax information with vendors who don't use Evernote
Archiving: Preserving past tax years and setting up for the new year
This system doesn't just make tax time easier — it gives me peace of mind all year long. I know where everything is, I can access it from anywhere, and I'm prepared if questions ever arise. It makes my taxes....trauma-free.
What's Next?
Are you ready to implement this system for yourself? Join us in the Academy where you'll get the support you need to:
Create your own customized tax management system
Design a Space "Dashboard" that fits your specific tax and financial workflows
Develop the "Title & File" habit that keeps everything organized
If you've enjoyed this series and want to take your Evernote skills to the next level, now is the perfect time to join the Academy. You'll get immediate access to all our training resources, plus a supportive community of Evernote enthusiasts – me included!
“Stacey, I finished my taxes in record time 🙂 It was my first significant use of a Space and it made for a much better workflow and visualization! ”
Wishing you an organized, defendable, and trauma-free tax season –
Stacey
PS: Did you miss any part of this tax series? Here are quick links to catch up:
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