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Is Mariner Software (marinersoft.com), makers of Paperless dead?
- Thread starter ryanhunt
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Well yes and no. You get one-year of updates included in the price, and after that you'll need to extend your license for another year. However, the program will continue to work just fine after that year, just no more updates. With a true subscription the program will just stop working after the subscription expires, so this is significantly better.
I used Mariner for a few items, one of which was Paperless. I contacted them and asked something about "what happens when you go out of business?" I honestly don't remember the answer, but it was something I did not care for – so I decided to go back to the manual route.
I believe my method will withstand the test of time.
• Paper receipts are scanned to PDF then OCRed. If a receipt needs more info, I'll add it in a manual text block. I don't like using Adobe's Acrobat because it's expensive, and it still requires Rosetta for Mac. However, its indexing function is great, and no one else offers that, so I'm stuck with it.
• Paper receipts (and other important docs) are scanned and saved as a PDF. I mention PDF a lot because, unlike so many software titles and formats, PDF is going to last a very long time. If I get something in a popular graphic format, I might leave it as is; if it's oddball, I convert it to JPEG or PNG.
• If the file type supports metadata, I add that.
Then there are file names of the format "yyyymmdd-Vendor and info"; for example, "20251003-OfficeDepot Paper Ink Paperclips.pdf". I use yearmonthday (with leading zeros) because that format will sort forever (well, until the year 9999, so I think I have my life covered) and always sorts properly.
Some phone calls include time, as in 20251003_1424-IRS_LarrySmith.m4a. I use a 24-hour clock.
Here is the part very few people believe: A lot of transactions are recorded on green, multi-column ledger paper. Yes, much into software also, but I do have the paper!
I believe my method will withstand the test of time.
• Paper receipts are scanned to PDF then OCRed. If a receipt needs more info, I'll add it in a manual text block. I don't like using Adobe's Acrobat because it's expensive, and it still requires Rosetta for Mac. However, its indexing function is great, and no one else offers that, so I'm stuck with it.
• Paper receipts (and other important docs) are scanned and saved as a PDF. I mention PDF a lot because, unlike so many software titles and formats, PDF is going to last a very long time. If I get something in a popular graphic format, I might leave it as is; if it's oddball, I convert it to JPEG or PNG.
• If the file type supports metadata, I add that.
Then there are file names of the format "yyyymmdd-Vendor and info"; for example, "20251003-OfficeDepot Paper Ink Paperclips.pdf". I use yearmonthday (with leading zeros) because that format will sort forever (well, until the year 9999, so I think I have my life covered) and always sorts properly.
Some phone calls include time, as in 20251003_1424-IRS_LarrySmith.m4a. I use a 24-hour clock.
Here is the part very few people believe: A lot of transactions are recorded on green, multi-column ledger paper. Yes, much into software also, but I do have the paper!