Taxes can induce stress at any time of year, but never more so than when it comes time to file them in April (or possibly more often if you manage your own business operation and file quarterly). In any case, most of us don’t even like to think about taxes when the due date is looming, so when it comes to prep work throughout the year we’d much rather spend our time on literally any other pursuit. The only problem with paying tomorrow for a hamburger today is that you might forget what you had on it. In other words, it behooves you track your expenses as you go so that you make sure you receive credit for all applicable deductions come tax time. Things can definitely get lost in the shuffle and fall through the cracks, which is why shoeboxes full of receipts are a common occurrence. But if you’re looking for an easier and more efficient means of tracking your write-offs, there are certainly apps for your smartphone or tablet that will meet your needs admirably. iDonatedIt is one such application for your favorite iDevices, and as the name suggests it helps you to keep track of your annual donations.

For many people, charitable donations are not only a way to help others and feel good about where your money is going; they also come with a financial bonus by acting as write-offs on an income tax filing. For the average individual, there are limited options when it comes to deductions (unlike self-employed individuals, who can write off all kinds of work-related expenses). But aside from mortgage interest payments and extensive medical costs, most adults have to go digging to find the expenses that will allow them to claim major deductions on their taxes. Charitable donations are therefore an excellent means of ensuring that more of your money goes to a good cause rather than to government coffers (and the pockets of the inept officials that seem to be in charge of our country).

The only problem for most people when it comes to donations is figuring out how to claim these contributions to get optimum value without raising any red flags with the IRS and potentially spurring an audit. iDonatedIt makes this task a little easier with tools that help you to record and save donation information. And with new rules pertaining to common donations like clothing and housewares, it’s in your best interest to note every item. What this app really allows for is a breakdown of items donated. Suppose, for example, that you take a bag of clothing to your local Goodwill store to donate. It used to be that you could get away with estimating the value of the bag and writing on your taxes. Now you must note the number of shirts, pants, and so on, along with estimated value for each based on the condition of the items. Yikes! That’s a lot of work for a donation.

iDonatedIt helps you here by allowing you to enter individual items (simply select from a pre-populated list), note the quality, add a photo, and see the fair market value. Then it adds up all of your donations for the year so that you have an easy-to-access record to turn over to your CPA. You can certainly claim all kinds of deductions related to your personal situation, such as travel expenses for work not covered by your employer and child tax credits 2013. But you can’t necessarily count on your eligibility for many write-offs. However, when you donate to charity you can deduct every penny. Of course, this only really works if you keep track, and iDonatedIt aims to help you do just that.

Editor’s Note

Thanks to Evan Fischer for this guest post. He is a freelance writer and part-time student at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, California.