How Receipt Scanners Increase Financial Efficiency

In the fast-paced realm of modern business, embracing digital transformation is essential for sustained success. Transitioning to paperless processes and leveraging automation not only streamlines operations but also minimizes errors, yielding a host of benefits.  The receipt scanner is a critical tool in this transformation, especially for business expense management.

Receipt scanners are powerhouses of automation and efficiency, elevating expense reporting and other financial processes. Below we cover everything you need to know when considering a receipt scanner solution for your organization.

What Are Receipt Scanners?

A receipt scanner is a versatile technology tool — either in the form of hardware or software — designed to convert paper receipts into digital documents through image capture or scanning. For example, mobile receipt scanning software uses smartphone or tablet cameras for seamless receipt image capture.

What Are the Benefits of Receipt Scanners?

Receipt scanners offer a number of benefits for businesses, financial teams, and employees alike. These advantages range from cost savings and enhanced efficiencies that can boost a business’s bottom line to convenience and ease that can drive employee satisfaction.

Improved Data Accuracy

Receipt scanners facilitate comprehensive and accurate record-keeping and expense reporting by enabling employees to swiftly scan receipts, significantly reducing the risk of loss or damage.

Receipt scanners equipped with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities further reduce the need for manual data entry, minimizing errors stemming from typos or misreadings.

Greater Efficiencies and Productivity

Digital receipt processes outshine manual methods in terms of efficiency, allowing for seamless receipt submission from anywhere and expediting approval processes through cloud-based workflows and automation.

Processing an expense report via a cloud-based system has numerous production advantages over working with paper. For example:

• Employees can scan and submit receipts from anywhere. They don't have to wait until they're in the office or mail hardcopy receipts.
• Approval processes happen in cloud-based workflows, which means multiple people can process and approve receipts or expense reimbursement requests at the same time. This speeds up accounting processes.
• Digital workflows can use AI and automation to boost productivity. For example, you might program a solution to automate first-level approval of expense reports if the software detects that a receipt is uploaded for each expense.

Increased Employee Satisfaction

Receipt scanning enhances employee satisfaction with expense reporting and reimbursement processes, eliminating the inconvenience and stress associated with managing physical receipts.

Traditional paper processes require employees to manage receipts until they can submit an expense report, causing inconvenience and stress, especially during business travel. With portable receipt scanners or mobile receipt scanning software, employees can capture receipts instantly, so they don’t have to worry about physically storing receipts (which can be easily misplaced) throughout the trip.

Integration with Financial Systems

Receipt scanners that integrate with other financial management solutions, such as the SAP Concur mobile app, offer additional benefits by providing a unified mobile experience for comprehensive trip and expense management.

A receipt scanner that serves additional functions for expense management automation or helps drive other financial work through invoice automation can be especially beneficial. For example, the SAP Concur mobile app not only provides receipt scanning and tracking but also offers expense reporting, mileage tracking, and seamless integration with other solutions, creating a unified mobile experience for comprehensive trip and expense management.

Enhanced Compliance and Auditing

Receipt scanners enhance compliance and auditing capabilities by increasing the likelihood of backed-up expenses, ensuring receipt security, and facilitating document organization.

A receipt tracker that allows employees to capture original receipt data and submit digital copies enhances compliance and auditing capabilities in many ways, including:

• Increasing the likelihood that every expense is backed by a receipt
• Ensuring receipts are secured long-term, as paper receipts can degrade over time and be difficult to read in later audits
• Creating a repository of receipts organized by date to make it easier to find the document backup you need for a specific case or audit

More Sustainable Processes

Receipt scanners contribute to sustainability efforts by reducing paper usage and establishing a foundation for effective paperless receipt handling. Sure, receipt scanners start with paper receipts, but those paper receipts are then transformed into digital receipts, paving the way for more sustainable processes.

Because they facilitate electronic expense reimbursement, receipt scanners reduce the use of paper in organizations and establish a foundation for handling future paperless receipts effectively.

What to Look for in a Receipt Scanner

When choosing the right receipt scanner for your business, consider the following:

• Hardware versus software. Do you want a separate piece of hardware, such as a scanner you can physically pass receipts through, or software that you can equip various devices with? If you want to allow employees to capture receipts as they travel, receipt scanning software is probably the better choice.
• Resolution. Look into the potential output of the scanner. What resolution will the receipt images have, and what file type will they be? Will they support your downline financial processes?
• Portability. How portable does your solution need to be? Some scanners are desktop devices meant to sit at a computer station while mobile receipt scanning software can go anywhere a cell phone does.
• Integration. Does the solution offer appropriate integrations with your existing financial solutions and expense tracking software?

Mobile Receipt Scanning

Mobile phone receipt scanning technology emerges as a preferred choice for many organizations due to its portability and ease of use, offering a strategic approach to enhancing financial efficiency, minimizing errors, and embracing sustainable, paperless processes.

Explore how SAP Concur solutions support on-the-go receipt scanning, elevating your expense management processes and driving financial efficiency within your organization.