At the end of the month, finance teams struggle to consolidate and organize accounts statements, and expense reporting is one such clumsy task. Businesses have evolved into a realm where employees spend on behalf of their company and later get reimbursed for the same, but not without proving their claim. That’s where the major hustle and bustle happens.

Starting from collecting the expense receipts to reimbursing the claim, various processes take place which is handled carefully by the finance and HR departments. This involves the collection of the receipts, verifying them according to the company policy, submitting them to the approval manager, and then the finance team initiates reimbursement. But, it takes days and months to complete this process and involves a lot of unwanted hurdles like sorting and storing physical receipts, verifying and processing receipts’ claims, waiting for approval, tracking application forms, etc.

The receipt scanning software simplifies the receipt management process in a sustainable manner. It automates every step of the process and allows employees to track their claim applications in a transparent manner. From large to small businesses, everyone is shifting their expense management operations to its digital solution as it makes the whole process seamless and efficient.

But, businesses before investing in a receipt scanning software must consider some important points for a sustainable choice.

1. Online Accessibility

The most important expectation from any digital technology is to be able to access the software from any place and at any time. You must understand the consequences of both the cloud or desktop-based software, as the latter restricts the data access to a physical location but keeps your data safe, but, the other one provides easy online access to your data from any location to all of your employees with the chances of a security breach.

Luckily, there are cloud-based receipt scanning softwares available, which provides different security levels along with online access to the data for speedy workflow and secured data. our data is restricted to a physical location, and with the other one, your data is unrestricted but available to all of your employees too.

Therefore, you must look for that receipt scanning software which allows different security levels to ensure both the online accessibility and security of data. This way your workflow speeds up and provides flexibility to your employees.

2. Storage Feasibility

Though, both the desktop and cloud-based receipt scanning softwares provide storage space, you must consider their respective limitations, according to your business needs, with these questions.

• Will your receipt scanning require daily operations – once or multiple times a day?
• Will your operations be restricted to the tax season or also for special occasions?
• How will your expense receipts be tracked and integrated with other systems?

With this, you can easily understand your storage space requirement, whether the cloud storage will be enough or you will need an external hard drive. Whatever your decision may be, make sure the security layers should be multiple and sustainable to protect your data.

3. Portability

There are many options in the market which provide huge storage capacity along with the portability of the device. You can opt for a receipt scanner on the go, to manage expense reports and track receipts of the employees and contractors, easily. The device may be a stand-alone portable scanner or digital software.

But, your choice must be a lightweight and compact device or a small-sized device that fits in your suitcase or bag easily.

4. Speed of Operations

Along with the size, businesses want to complete the least enjoyable receipts scanning task as quickly as possible. For this, you must choose software, which can capture and record your receipt documents in seconds of time. This is important for businesses that need to scan multiple receipts at a time.

Not just the capturing part, but your receipt scanning software should also provide faster navigation and processing of expense reports. This way you can stay ahead of the usual expense reporting cycle.

5. File Format Supportability

After recording and capturing many receipts you realize that your receipts scanning software processes JPEG images but your finance team requires all the documents in PDF format. Of course, you can convert them, but why take all the pain when you’ve invested in software.

For this, make sure you check all the file formats your software supports, and it should align with your business standards for easy and faster operations.

6. Exportability

Once you have recorded and processed your receipts scanning operations, your entire workflow should be supported by your scanner smoothly. Depending upon your requirement – whether you want to upload to the cloud storage, or email them to the stakeholders, the receipt scanning software must be able to export the files quickly, maintaining the same quality as recorded.

7. Pricing

After considering all these features that your receipt scanning software requires, the most important thing to consider before investing is price comparison. There are many softwares which provide free trials, which can give you insight into how your business can align with the receipt scanning software. This way you can test the software compatibility before investing in any.

You can also opt for monthly subscriptions to get the full-featured experience of the software, and then you will be able to decide on further investment easily.

8. Security of Data

Last, and the most important feature to look for in your receipt scanning software is the security of the data. It should have different layers of security like password protection for different levels of designation, time-restricted access to the remote employees, etc., which ensures both transparency and secured data processing.

Conclusion

With the advancing technology, businesses have started resorting to digital solutions for their daily tasks too. And, receipt scanning software is one such investment. But, before investing you must consider some important things like online accessibility, portability, storage availability, efficiency, file formats, security of data, and the most crucial one, the price of the software. These pointers will lead you to a sustainable and prudent choice.