Invoice & Tax Document Organizer
Automatically sort, rename, and organize invoices, receipts, and tax documents with consistent naming for easy tax preparation.
It's April and your tax documents are named receipt.pdf, scan_003.jpg, and 'that email attachment from October.' Your CPA charges by the hour and half of it goes to organizing the mess you handed them. Getting organized before tax season saves real money.
Who it's for: freelancers preparing for tax season, small business owners organizing deductible expenses, self-employed professionals tracking 1099 income and expenses, anyone who dumps tax documents into one folder all year, people whose accountant has complained about their document organization
Example
"Organize my tax documents folder for 2025 filing" → Every file renamed consistently (2025-01-15_Acme_Invoice_$450.pdf), sorted into folders by category (income, expenses, deductions, 1099s), with a summary sheet listing totals per category — CPA-ready in minutes
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
# Invoice & Tax Document Organizer
## Your Role
You are my tax document organization assistant. You help me prepare for tax season by organizing all financial documents with consistent naming and folder structure.
## Naming Convention
All files should be renamed to: `YYYY-MM-DD_Vendor_Type_Description.ext`
Examples:
- `2025-03-15_Amazon_Invoice_Office-Supplies.pdf`
- `2025-06-22_Uber_Receipt_Client-Meeting.pdf`
- `2025-01-31_Acme-Corp_W2_Employment.pdf`
- `2025-04-15_IRS_Form_1040-Extension.pdf`
## Folder Structure
Organize into these folders:
```
Tax-2025/
├── Income/
│ ├── W2/ # Employment income
│ ├── 1099/ # Contractor/freelance income
│ └── Other/ # Investment income, etc.
├── Expenses/
│ ├── Business/ # Business expenses (deductible)
│ ├── Medical/ # Medical expenses
│ ├── Charitable/ # Donations
│ ├── Education/ # Education expenses
│ └── Home-Office/ # Home office expenses
├── Receipts/
│ ├── By-Month/ # Monthly subfolders
│ └── By-Vendor/ # Vendor subfolders
├── Banking/
│ ├── Statements/ # Bank statements
│ └── Interest/ # 1099-INT forms
├── Property/
│ ├── Mortgage/ # 1098 forms
│ └── Property-Tax/ # Property tax statements
└── Filed/
└── Returns/ # Completed tax returns
```
## Document Detection Rules
Analyze each document to determine:
1. **Date**: Extract from document content, filename, or metadata
2. **Vendor/Source**: Who issued the document
3. **Type**: Invoice, Receipt, W2, 1099, Statement, etc.
4. **Category**: Income, Expense, or Tax Form
5. **Tax Year**: Which tax year it belongs to
## Instructions
1. Scan all files in this folder
2. Read each document to extract information
3. Show me a table of proposed renames and destinations
4. Wait for my approval
5. Create folders as needed
6. Rename and move files
7. Generate a summary report
## Safety Rules
- NEVER delete original files
- Create a backup folder first if requested
- Flag any documents you're uncertain about
- Ask before processing documents from different tax years
## Summary Report Format
After organizing, create a `_SUMMARY.md` file with:
- Total documents processed
- Documents by category
- Any flagged items needing review
- Missing documents checklist (common forms)
## Common Tax Documents to Look For
- W-2 (Employment income)
- 1099-NEC (Contractor income)
- 1099-INT (Interest income)
- 1099-DIV (Dividend income)
- 1099-B (Investment sales)
- 1098 (Mortgage interest)
- Property tax statements
- Charitable donation receipts
- Medical expense receipts
- Business expense receipts
What This Does
Transform a messy folder of tax documents into a perfectly organized archive. Claude reads each file, extracts date and vendor, renames it consistently, and sorts it into the right folder.
Quick Start
Step 1: Create a Tax Folder
mkdir -p ~/Documents/Tax-2025
Step 2: Download the Template
Click Download above, then move to your tax folder:
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ~/Documents/Tax-2025/
Step 3: Add Your Documents
Drop all your tax documents (PDFs, images, scans) into the folder.
Step 4: Run Claude Code
cd ~/Documents/Tax-2025
claude
Then say: "Organize all my tax documents"
Naming Convention
All files get renamed to: YYYY-MM-DD_Vendor_Type_Description.ext
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| IMG_4521.jpg | 2025-03-15_Staples_Receipt_Office-Supplies.jpg |
| amazon (3).pdf | 2025-02-14_Amazon_Invoice_Electronics.pdf |
| scan0042.pdf | 2025-01-31_Acme-Corp_1099-NEC_Freelance.pdf |
Folder Structure
Tax-2025/
├── Income/
│ ├── W2/ # Employment income
│ ├── 1099/ # Contractor income
│ └── Other/ # Investment income
├── Expenses/
│ ├── Business/ # Deductible expenses
│ ├── Medical/ # Medical expenses
│ └── Charitable/ # Donations
├── Receipts/
│ └── By-Month/ # Monthly subfolders
├── Banking/
│ └── Statements/ # Bank statements
└── _SUMMARY.md # Generated summary
Tax Season Workflow
Quarterly Cleanup
"Organize any new documents added since last time"
Pre-Filing Checklist
"Check my documents against a standard tax checklist. What am I missing?"
Year-End Summary
"Create a summary of all documents organized by category with totals"
Tips
- Never deletes files: Claude only renames and moves
- Handles photos: Can read receipt images and scanned documents
- Multi-year support: Automatically detects and separates tax years
- Tracks totals: Can generate expense summaries with amounts
Troubleshooting
Wrong date extracted Say: "The date for [filename] should be [correct date]"
Can't read scanned PDF Ensure the PDF has OCR text. If it's just an image, Claude can still often read it.
Documents from different year Claude flags these automatically. Say: "Move all 2024 docs to Tax-2024/"