I'm setting up my file cabinet and am not sure what to do...

After I reconcile my bank statement, what should I file with it. Just the computer printout & statement from the bank, or the corresponding receipts, etc. that go with the bank statement.

Or should these receipts, payments, etc. be filed on their own.

Think of your file cabinet as a database: you want to set it up so that you can quickly access information when you need it. I'd wager that most of the time when you need to access a receipt or other information associated with a specific company, it will be because an issue has come up with that company. You might consider having a receipts file sorted by company name, in that case, or by date of the receipt. Think about how long you want or need to keep the information: most receipts will be useless after 12 months, so you might want to keep a 12 month file and sort the oldest month as part of your regular clean up tasks.

The exception would be information you need at tax time: donations, business expenses, deductibles, etc. Those you'd want to keep in a tax related file.

Also, if you can easily access information elsewhere (online, the phone), consider not saving the unnecessary paperwork in your files. For example, I can access past bank statements online, so I see no advantage in saving the paper versions. In fact my bank no longer sends me paper statements.

Vasily