Travel Receipt Workflow

Here is a handy workflow to keep track of your reimbursable / billable expenses on the road.Set-up:

• Evernote Premium
• Evernote Scannable
• If This Then That

I have an Evernote Notebook that is used solely for professional receipts. This notebook is named “Receipts_Work”. I’ve set up an If This Then That (IFTTT) Applet to send an email when the notebook receives a new note.When I receive a receipt on the road, I immediately scan it with Scannable then save it to my Receipts_Work Notebook. IFTTT monitors the Receipts_Work Notebook. When the new note is detected, it automatically sends an email to both my assistant and my Omnifocus Maildrop address (so the item is added to my Omnifocus Inbox).After my trip, I can go back to my Evernote, select all the receipts/notes from my trip and make a “Table of Contents” using a single button push in Evernote.This workflow simplifies management of reimbursement receipts. Hope it works as well for you as it does for me.

TripIt Pro Go Now

I’ve been a long-time subscriber to TripIt Pro. I found the $49 service invaluable when traveling. In 2011 TripIt was acquired by Concur-an integrated expense and travel management service company. Then in 2014, Concur was acquired by SAP. Regardless of who owns TripIt, the application services continue to be improved.

Go Now is a handy feature. Twenty-four hours before any U.S. domestic flight, Go Now becomes available on your flight screen.Go Now suggests a time for you to leave based on on your location, current flight status and local traffic patterns. Two hours before you need to leave, a countdown timer is initiated. Once on your way, Go Now continues to update your arrival time.When you reach your destination airport (and when you’re ready to leave for your trip home), Tripit Navigator makes it easier (and potentially more cost-effective) to find your ground transportation. Navigator shows you the option and cost for your options to get from point A to point B.These two additions are phenomenanal additions to an already powerful travel solution.

Tripit and Flightview - Automating Itinerary Building and Flight Tracking

I often travel for business. I previously blogged about my love of TripIt-a website with an app that extracts flight and travel information from my email. I merely send my airline, hotel, and car rental confirmations to plans@tripit.com and the site builds a peronalized itinerary. The Pro version has all sorts of other great features, like finding and booking alternative flights.A while ago, I discovered another site called FlightView. Flightview publishes up-to-the minute, detailed information on flights and airport traffic. It works great in tandem with TripIt. And just like TripIT Flightview is able to extract the salient details from an email itinerary, then activate tracking the day you travel.Now whenever I reserve a flight, I kill two birds with one stone by simply forwarding my flight itinerary to both Tripit and Flightview at the same time. I use this simple trick literally every time I reserve a flight.

How to Choose an Air Travel Search Site (New York Times)

Seth Kugel, the self-declared “Frugal Traveler” of the New York Times, wrote a piece comparing old and new travel sites, including my favorite, Hipmunk. I love Hipmunk for its visual interface and it’s ranking of flights based on its “Agony Factor” (a combination of ticket price, flight duration, departure, and arrival). For all you travelers responsible for booking your own trips, this article is worth a look. Once you’ve booked your flight, don’t forget to forward your itinerary to Tripit (as I covered in this entry).

My Google Glass Pickup Experience, Chelsea Market, New York City

The Tweet and the Trip-

Last week I received my Tweet telling me my GoogleGlass was ready. I wanted to fly to San Francisco to pick them up, but there were no appointments until mid-July. There were, however, appointments in New York City. I purchased an airline ticket, flying in to LaGuardia. Getting to Chelsea Market was relatively easy by cab.

Taxi Ride

I told the taxi driver the address, 75 Ninth Ave., and off we went. The cabbie was a little confused about the address first taking me to 7th Ave., but eventually, we found the right place.

Shared bikes

It had been years since I'd been to New York. During the cab ride, I shot some photos of Manhattan. Apparently Citibank now sponsors bicycles in the city. Looked tempting.

Chelsea Market

We finally arrived at our final destination,  Chelsea Market. Here is a view of the building from across the street.

Google NYC

Chelsea Market is right across the street from the Google Offices in Manhattan.

Chelsea Clock

I arrived early, so I toured the Market. Chelsea Market is retro-very cool. Because I was early, I set up my computer at a table and got some work done. At 10:30a I set off for the Glass Studio.

Retro Art

The first floor of the Chelsea Market has old looking art--mostly in stone. It was hard to differentiate art from old building. 

Elevator

I walked back to the front of the building and took the elevator to the 8th Floor.

Down the Hallway

When I exited the elevator and looked to my right, this was my view. I headed to the reception area.

Glass Couch

I was greeted by two Glass Customer Experience Representatives--extremely friendly. They looked at my invitation and checked my photo ID, then chatted with me while I waited for my "guide."

The Box

My guide introduced himself and escorted me back to the studio. I was first asked to confirm the color of my device. I chose Slate. We then walked over to a workbench where we spent the next 30-40 minutes.

Pop the Top

Google did a nice job on the Glass packaging. Here is the top layer of the box.

Second Layer of the Box

The second layer had the Glass Satchel, along with instructions. The bottom of the satchel is a hard case, manufactured to protect the Glass lens and camera.

The Bottom Layer

The Bottom Layer had the USB charging cord / plug as well as some extra nose pieces. My guide also went through how to fit the clear and shaded lenses onto the Glass Frame.

Studio

Here is a picture of the studio. Very open. Over the next 30 minutes, my guide fitted the device, showed me how to turn it on and off, how to connect to wireless networks, and tethered the device to my phone. He explained how to shoot pictures and video and introduced me to the few available apps.

Glass navigation is a snap, although it's not truly "hands-free." You navigate using a touchpad on the right side of the frame.

After leaving the studio, I was able to initiate a GoogleHangout with my son from the back of a cab by tethering the device to my phone. Of course, doing this gobbled up a fair amount of data usage.

Backyard and Initial Experience

Since returning home, I've been exploring the Glass software ecosystem. There are currently few apps available--reminiscent of when the iPhone was released. I'm sure there are many developers working feverishly to remedy this. I'm especially enjoying the ability to quickly shoot pictures and video. Below is a picture of our backyard taken with Glass using only voice commands--pretty decent.

My guide told me the battery will last for about an hour of continuous video recording-he typically charges overnight, while he's sleeping. This seems an accurate estimate given my two days of experimentation.

Overall, I'm impressed by the potential of Glass both in personal and professional life.

From a medical standpoint I have two comments derived from my initial use. First, the voice recognition for medical terminology needs some work (as an experiment I tried to find the dosage of several common meds using only voice commands--the only word it recognized was "Furosemide"). I'm sure Glass will improve with time. Second, there is a huge need for a HIPAA compliant GLASS environment for pictures, movies and streaming content. Many of the potential medical applications revolve around patients. Patient information (or images) cannot be sent to consumer web sites (e.g. Google+). Until someone cracks the HIPAA nut, GLASS will fail to reach its full potential in healthcare.

I'm looking forward to experimenting (carefully) with my GLASS over the next few months. I'll report back here.

TripIt: Travel Plans Made Easy

Although I don’t consider myself a road warrior, I do a fair amount of travel for my work. For years, my trusted travel partner has been TripIt.

TripIt is a web site (with apps for your iPhone, iPad, or Android) that aggregates all my travel information. Whenever I receive travel related information, I forward the email to the generic address: plans@tripit.com. TripIt processes the information from airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc., and combines them all into a single, easy-to-read itinerary (with confirmation numbers, phone numbers, times, etc.). The base site is free, but the Pro version is well worth the $49 per year. I’ve been a Pro subscriber for years.

Check out this video for more on TripIt.