Get Rid of Your File Cabinet with Manilla

Get Rid of Your File Cabinet with Manilla

I recently compared financial organization site Manilla with financial management and budgeting site Mint.com In my comparison of Mint and Manilla, I suggested that the services are complementary and both would be helpful. Since that time, I have put even more of my accounts on Manilla and have considered using it to dump my file cabinet once and for all.

Automated Digital Filing Cabinet

I used to log into each account once a month to download my account statements. I would file bills, credit card statements, bank statements, and investment account statements on my hard drive and back them up every 3-6 months to an external drive. That took a lot of time.

I am all about saving time, particularly when it is free. As I got more familiar with Manilla, I realized that it is not just a supplement to Mint, it is a replacement for a file cabinet.

I am a Filing Junkie

I will admit something. I am a bit of a nerd (surprise) when it comes to my filing system. I have a file cabinet that I got in high school and have used for filing all of my financial records. I got that cabinet when I opened my first checking account at 16.

Over the years, the contents have grown and changed. I have every tax filing I have ever done in there (despite having a digital backup of each year). I have tons of old bank and loan statements. At one point, I had every monthly bank statement back to 2001. I have since digitized most of those.

Needless to say, my filing system has gotten a bit bloated. I keep tons of hard copies that I don’t really need. Manilla has helped me shrink my filing cabinet and cut out my digital filing system too.

How it Works

When you sign up for a manila account, you are first prompted to add your account information. This is a quick and painless process. I Added my investment account, all of my credit cards, my bank accounts, my retirement accounts, and my cell phone and internet accounts, and all of my travel points and frequent flyer mileage accounts.

From there, Manilla takes care of the hard part. The site establishes a connection to each account, downloads your most recent statements, and gives you a snapshot of your account balances.

Each month, without me having to log in, Manilla downloads the newest statements and files them away in virtual manila folders for me to quickly access.

Their motto, “everything in one place,” is true. It gives you everything in one place that is easy to get to and easy to use.

Save, Secure, and Easy

Manilla uses bank level security to keep your information and data safe. I love automating statement downloads and filing.

I needed to reference a credit card bill for my taxes recently. I just logged into Manilla, clicked on the account, and downloaded a PDF statement for the month I wanted. Had I needed to print it for my accountant, it is easy to do and right there for me.

The Future – Saving You Money

Manilla is growing like crazy right now. As more people sign up, more features are being added. One of my favorite planned features is going to save you money. Based on your current bills and spending habits, Manilla is going to suggest coupons and offers to save you cash.

It is free, easy, saves time, and is going to save money.

I don’t see any downsides of this service. I recommend you join me in ditching the file cabinet for something free, easy, and digital.

Image by Marcin Wichary / flickr

4 thoughts on “Get Rid of Your File Cabinet with Manilla”

  1. Have you had a chance to compare this service with the new File Cabinet feature of Pageonce? I’m a Pageonce + Mint user, and although I’ve tried (and love) Manilla, I couldn’t see a reason to keep all 3 accounts active with the recent Pageonce update. (Although I think Manilla pulls more archived statement copies on startup.)

    1. I have not used PageOnce since the File Cabinet was added. I tried PageOnce a whlie back, and found that it was far inferior to Mint and did not see any value additions to keep that account. I will have to give it another whirl.

      1. Do you use your bank’s bill pay to pay your bills? I wish that Mint would incorporate Bill Pay the way PageOnce has and it would be all that I need between the two. I love my bank’s bill pay feature, but not all vendors participate in sending eBills and PageOnce helps me keep a tab on what I have left to pay (in order by due date) throughout the month.

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