Software recommendation or Excel help.

[prcullen]

I begin grad school (GO BLUE!) in two weeks. My parents paid for my undergrad and I am now responsible for my grad program expenses. I am taking loans out and am looking for a good way to track all of my educational expenses. Ideally, I would like to keep a database with information about my different purchases and was hoping to be able to include receipts in the database for the corresponding expenses for easy access. Is there a good program, preferably free, that would allow me to do this?

If not, is there some way I can do this in either Excel or Numbers? I really want to be able to link the receipts and other information to the payments, and am fairly comfortable with Excel, because I am studying accounting, but do not know how to do this. Thanks in advance!

Phil

 

[prcullen]

*Update- I found out that I can create hyperlinks to documents but they hyperlinks are no longer available if said file moves to a new location. I am looking for a way to embed the file into the database or spreadsheet. Thanks

 

[prcullen]

Nothing?

 

[xstep]

I believe a link can be to a local file. So perhaps create a directory structure with the Excel file at the top level, and subfolders with different types of documents and link to those. Then remember never to move those files. It might be possible to globally change the links if needed in the future.

Of course a proper database would be the best path. For a free one look into something like Open Office.

 

[shades]

Perhaps look at DevonThink Pro.

 

[PapaNoHair]

Instead of Open Office you might try NeoOffice (same thing but runs better). It handles Excel documents and has a built-in database.

 

[lakewoodlady]

NeoOffice works very well and has all the apps that MS Office does, and it's free.