Car and bike papers: the three expiry dates nobody writes down

Every vehicle comes with a small stack of paper, and every piece of it expires on a different day. The insurance renews once a year, the pollution certificate on its own schedule, the licence once in a long while. None of them sends a reminder you can count on, and the day you find out is usually the day someone asks to see it.

Three dates on three documents

• The insurance policy: its end date is on the policy schedule, and the renewal quote usually arrives close to it.
• The pollution under control certificate: its validity is printed on the certificate itself, and it is not the same for every vehicle, so read yours rather than assume.
• The driving licence: its validity is printed on the card, and renewal takes time, so it needs the earliest reminder of the three.

When to be reminded

One reminder on the day is too late for all three. The insurance needs a month to compare quotes and check that the no-claim bonus carried over. The pollution test needs a week to fit a visit in. The licence needs the longest, because the paperwork does.

How EasyDooo keeps them

Add the insurance in Bills and dues on the Budget page from the insurance template. It repeats every year, reminds you 30 days and 7 days before, and carries a checklist: get the renewal quote, check the no-claim bonus. Mark it Paid and the premium is recorded in Budget and next year's reminders are set.

For the certificate and the licence, add a task with the date from the document and fill in Remind me before with up to four days, such as 30, 7 and 1. On each of those days the task is named in a coming-up email, and on Android in a 9 AM list; on the due day it is in the daily reminder. For a document you renew on a fixed cycle, set the task to repeat a number of days after you mark it done, so the next due date is set the day you renew.