I’m evaluating using DTPO instead of NeatWorks for tracking Receipts. It would be nice in this endeavor if I could create custom columns for scanned receipts, such as Store/Vendor, as well as Purchase Date. I can always do a search for a given Store, but when viewing the list of receipts in my db, it would be nice to see it in the details view as a column.
If I’m scanning older receipts the creation date works, but isn’t perfectly suited. When I imported a multitude of receipts from NeatWorks I chose the preference to skip metadata so I could import them quickly. In that case Creation Date doesn’t apply at all, as the creation date assigned is the date I imported the PDF, not the date of the receipt, and there’s no way for me to go back and edit it after the fact (that would be a nice feature as well…post import edit of creation date).
I really like what I’ve seen in DTPO, as it’s much more powerful than NeatWorks, and I’ll use it for much more than receipts and bills. But, in the case of receipts adding this one feature would be beneficial, while still being generic enough that it’s not a “Receipts” specific feature.
Hey there, you can change the date as a matter of fact. It’s in a separate script that you can install via the Scripts menu. A lot of DT’s potential is made available through scripts. Anyway if you click the Scripts menu and choose the item “More scripts…” you’ll get a window with a bunch of scripts to choose from. The one you want is on Page 2, bottom right corner (at least on my computer right now 
called “Change Date.” When you run that script it pops up a dialog allowing you to set the creation and modified dates.
I don’t understand why that’s not installed by default because it’s very useful and it seems odd to me to be hidden in the corner on the second page of the more scripts menu. But hey.
You might also be interested in the “Rename to creation” script on the first page. After setting the creation date of your documents you can use that to rename them to the date if you like. Follow that up with the Rename->Add Suffix… script (included by default) and you’ve got yourself some tidily named receipts.
I put metadata in the comment usually or an RTF note explaining something if it needs it, linking back to the original receipt (you can use the annotation template to quickly make one). It might not be true metadata to some people but I manage to find what I need. Smart groups are great for keeping track of things without having to search for them.
Definitely check out the more scripts menu because there’s a lot of useful stuff there. Be sure to scan through all the scripts that are preinstalled too because you’ll find a great deal of functionality that you didn’t know DEVONthink could do. Best of all, you can copy and modify those scripts and pull parts from different scripts to get DT to do what you want. If you want to take it that far
That’s very helpful, thanks.