(Longtime listener; first-time caller. If I'm doing it wrong, please be kind.)
I've been going through the same issue and have painstakingly scanned/filed a metric crapton of old documents, putting them in a hierarchical directory structure where I can find them if I need them.
But this sucks for a number of obvious reasons. The ones that bother me the most are:
1) A scanned document is larger (*and* less useful than a downloaded PDF).
2) It's a manual process! I'd rather spend ten hours automating something than five hours over the next 5 years trying to remember the filename convention for storing the scanned document.
Anyway, cutting to the chase, I'm now using Ruby/Watir scripts to automate the business of downloading my most common phone/utility bills from the websites and stashing them directly. I used to use Perl and WWW::Mechanize but all the websites are now so contaminated with unecessary javascript that only something which manipulated a browser directly allows automation without pulling my hair out. Ruby/Waitr works pretty well. Recommend. Automated download; priceless. Without automated download, I'd rather return to scanning paper documents mailed to me, otherwise you quickly find how unreliable your service provider is for retaining your statements.
If anybody wants some pre-alpha scripts for grabbing their pg&e, comcast, cigna, at&t, schwab, nvenergy statements, let me know.
Slashdot Mirror
(Longtime listener; first-time caller. If I'm doing it wrong, please be kind.)
I've been going through the same issue and have painstakingly scanned/filed a metric crapton of old documents, putting them in a hierarchical directory structure where I can find them if I need them.
But this sucks for a number of obvious reasons. The ones that bother me the most are:
1) A scanned document is larger (*and* less useful than a downloaded PDF).
2) It's a manual process! I'd rather spend ten hours automating something than five hours over the next 5 years trying to remember the filename convention for storing the scanned document.
Anyway, cutting to the chase, I'm now using Ruby/Watir scripts to automate the business of downloading my most common phone/utility bills from the websites and stashing them directly. I used to use Perl and WWW::Mechanize but all the websites are now so contaminated with unecessary javascript that only something which manipulated a browser directly allows automation without pulling my hair out. Ruby/Waitr works pretty well. Recommend. Automated download; priceless. Without automated download, I'd rather return to scanning paper documents mailed to me, otherwise you quickly find how unreliable your service provider is for retaining your statements.
If anybody wants some pre-alpha scripts for grabbing their pg&e, comcast, cigna, at&t, schwab, nvenergy statements, let me know.