Managing and storing receipts traditionally was a task completely riddled with manual labour and human intervention. That made the entire process vulnerable and prone to errors or mismanagement. However, with the improvement in technology, we have been presented with different tools and solutions to simplify most of our manual labour, in day-to-day contexts. Automation has been the most useful innovation in this aspect. Even on the receipt scanning front, numerous receipt scanning software available today help you streamline your receipt scanning and management procedure. Each of these software comes with its own set of features, benefits, and use cases – and you should keep in mind that all businesses require not all features. So, you should know the features you are looking for – the ones that will make your receipt scanning process easier are.
With so many tools available, you should know what some indications or markers in a good receipt scanning software are. Let’s look at some such indicators that you must look for in any receipt scanning software:
Easy to use: The software must be easy to install and use. The learning curve for you or your team when it comes to getting started with receipt scanning software should not be steep. Ideally, there should be no learning curve at all, and the software should be as intuitive as possible.
Support for different types of documents: The best receipt scanning software will be the one that will support different types of documents. That way, you will be able to scan any type of receipt and store it in any format that you deem fit, or that goes well with your entire business documentation.
Automatic file naming: The software should automatically name the scanned documents according to the receipt information. This will save you a lot of time in organizing your receipts, and this will also make the process of receipt organization fairly streamlined and automated. Imagine you just have to scan the receipt on the go or wherever you want, and the software will itself automatically name the file for you, using keywords from the receipt itself, to ensure that you can easily search and retrieve the file whenever required.
Anytime access using cloud storage: The software should allow you to store your scanned receipts in the cloud so that you can access them from anywhere. Further, by storing your scanned receipts on the cloud, the receipt scanning software will also ensure that your receipts are away from any harm or physical damage, and can be accessed anytime you want, with just a device and an internet connection.
Multi-user support: The best receipt scanning software will be the one that different users of your organization can easily share. After all, different departments from your organization might be needing the information on some or many receipts during any point of their day. Now, if the tool doesn’t have multi-user support, they will have to talk to the tool’s admin again and again in order to get the file they need. To remove this unnecessary friction, good receipt scanning software comes inbuilt with multi-user support, using which, you can share access with your teammates and allow them to store, retrieve, and manage receipts, too.
Simplified third-party integrations: Your business uses a number of tools. Ideally, you would want all of those tools to be able to easily communicate with one another and get you a holistic picture of how things are moving in your organization. For that, you would want the ability to connect your tools with different third-party tools. A good receipt scanning software should, therefore, come with simplified third-party integrations. This will make it easy to connect and use the different software that you need. Third-party software includes all the other software that you use for your day-to-day business tasks like HR software, accounts software, and so on.
Automated report and chart generation: The software you choose should be able to generate reports and charts. This will make it easy to track your business’ progress and see where you need to make changes. It can also help you to identify any areas that are doing well so that you can replicate their success. Further, charts and graphs simplify your communication
with investors, stakeholders, and employees.
Robust error handling mechanisms: Receipt scanning software works on data. So, bad quality data can inadvertently ruin the output of the software, and can cause a lot of problems in the long run. The best receipt scanning software should come with robust error handling mechanisms to ensure that doesn’t happen. With these mechanisms in place, you will be able to not only rectify the errors in time, but also find out the source of these errors, so that you stop them from happening ever again.
User-friendly and highly-intuitive interface: The idea is simple. If your tools are highly complex and difficult to use, they are not really helping your cause much. You want tools that are highly user-friendly and intuitive to use, so that you can get onboarded with it in a blink of an eye, and can then spend your time analyzing business data, and not worrying about how to use a particular software. In that regard, the best receipt scanning software for your cause should be very intuitive to use.
In conclusion, with so many receipt scanning software present in the market today – it’s easy to get overwhelmed by choices. However, you have to keep things very simple. Just know your precise requirements, and ensure that whatever software you use controls your requirements. Apart from that, the pointers we discussed above will also give you a good idea of what an ideal receipt scanning software should look like and its capabilities. Remember, your goal is to simplify your receipt scanning process, and automate it as much as is possible. So, your receipt scanning software should ideally act as an aid, not as a hindrance requiring an altogether different learning curve. Keep these things in mind while researching receipt scanning software, and you will definitely come across the perfect one for your business requirements and goals!