Looking at a prospect who would hand over 800 receipts per quarter in order for us to do the bookkeeping, bank recon, vat and also scan and file those receipts.
Do you know of any tools( hardware and software) which can handle high volume scanning, some character recognition so we can label or tag the images as well as ideally linking the image to an entry in an online accounts package (not xero)?
The receipts are all shapes and quality so a good scanner which does not get jammed is essential.
I am planning on using clearbooks for entries but if you know of others that can handle this pls let me know your views.
Many thanks.
Replies (32)
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@neutru
... that's a shame because Receipt Bank has transformed my practice - it works like a dream for me and my clients love it - but each to their own!
datamolino
Not sure why Receipt Bank isn't the answer as if you are doing it the problems experienced before shouldn't re occur.
datamolino does similar to receipt but only works Sage one and Xero.
@neutru
... no problem, all of my clients have the Receipt Bank app on their smartphone so they literally snap their invoices/receipts on that then they all get automatically fed through into Receipt Bank - then a scanned copy is kept in Receipt Bank plus another scanned copy is kept in whatever software you're publishing to - in my case Xero.
@neutru
I get the bank entries imported too then simply 'match' them to the RB entries - but no worries, good luck!
Scanner
I use a Canon DR-C130 scanner and am very pleased with it. It does not have a flat bed but it copes with lots of different shapes and sizes of invoices etc. I also have a Epson scanner/ printer (mainly used as a printer) that I use for the odd thing that cannot go through the scanner (about once every three months).
The scanner sits on my desk so I scan documents as I get them and a flat bed scanner would be too large.
We have never found an easy solution
we use a Cannonir2570ci but thye same problem always arises. This is that one has to scan the documents and then get them posted manually.
You have not said why receipt bank does not work. Is it the client? If it is then it could be quicker for you to have a smart phone in a cradle (like in the car) pointing down at a black sheet photgraph each sheet and then use receipt bank to do the next bit.
fujitsu
scansnap ix500 series is a very fast reliable sheet feed scanner , scans both sides on only one pass through, ignores blanks, its best for approx a4 size and smaller , but will also do larger eg a3 folded which is displayed as a4 side by side
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500
We use a Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500. It has a sheet feeder and does about 50 pages at at time, so you would need few batches to get through your 800 scans. It is a great scanner though; very fast and comes with OCR software, so you can OCR the documents as they are scanned, or do them afterwards (as it slows down the scanning if you do it whilst scanning). There's probably a later model out now; we bought ours years ago.
EDIT: qad999's recommendation is probably the later version of this, and (s) he remembered to mention the double-sided scanning, ignoring blanks etc.
chatman's right
We use a Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500. It has a sheet feeder and does about 50 pages at at time, so you would need few batches to get through your 800 scans. It is a great scanner though; very fast and comes with OCR software, so you can OCR the documents as they are scanned, or do them afterwards (as it slows down the scanning if you do it whilst scanning). There's probably a later model out now; we bought ours years ago.
EDIT: qad999's recommendation is probably the later version of this, and (s) he remembered to mention the double-sided scanning, ignoring blanks etc.
you are 100% correct the ix series is the later one , I still have a couple of 1500's going strong - they have been seriously abused and none of the rollers/consumables have needed replacing , even when you forget to remove staples and it jams , just clear/remove staple and carry on. I usually set tools/settings to carry on scanning after the current scan , so if the batch is large than the feeder capacity you still get one pdf
it also came with free adobe acrobat , so you can create pdf from other applications and edit pdf/ password protect etc etc
Receipt Bank
When Receipt Bank works, it's great, but I have had some problems with it (receipts lost; multi-page receipts booked as a single one; incorrect bookings) and the portal is not very user friendly.
Any receipts that span more than one page must be uploaded separately or they will be booked as a separate receipt for each page (and you will be charged accordingly).
My preference would be to send them paper receipts,instead of scanning them, but since they lost a couple of bags of receipts I have lost confidence. To be fair, I made a big fuss and Tosca (who is very nice and helpful) found them within a few weeks but, before they were found, my account manager rang me and told me (i) it was my fault, and (ii) they could not have been lost! It has, however, made me aware of the risks of committing a large bag of receipts to the post or a courier firm, especially as they have no intrinsic value to insure.
I think the app is good but you wouldn't want to be using it for a large number of receipts.
@neutru - You could scan themselves and get Receipt Bank to transcribe them. The only time-consuming bit would be separating out the multi-page receipts and scanning them all as individual files. Mind you, you could scan them directly to a Dropbox folder from which Receipt bank takes them automatically, which might save a bit of time. The funny thing is that they don't charge any extra for doing the scanning themselves but they won't take the time to sort out the pre-scanned multi-page invoices, which they must have to do anyway if they do the scanning themselves.
Have a look at Docurec from Ocrex - will scan and create file for xero, sage etc to be imported or taken in direct (xero) - any high volume scanner will do
Docurec
@anony scot - Docurec looks interesting, and quite cheap. Do you know how it handles multi-page invoices? Do they have to be submitted as separate files? And can it import the receipt images to online accounting programmes like Xero?
Does that include the invoice/receipt image?
Re Xero, you set up a link to the relevant company and click on the import button and the data goes in automatically
Does that include the invoice/receipt image?
Go back to the beginning
In order to get the system working, I think you need to look right at the start of the process before going any further - the hand over by the client of the information to you.
How does the client receive the receipts etc themselves? Presumably in this day and age, some of them will be emailed. Therefore, your client could give their supplier their Receipt Bank email address as well as their own email address so the supplier purchase invoices automatically arrive at Receipt Bank with no intervention.
If they purchase from the internet then they can just forward the emailed invoices as they arrive to Receipt Bank rather than print them out for you. If they regularly use their Paypal account then that can be integrated into Receipt Bank too so any transactions paid by Paypal appear in Receipt Bank.
If there are employee expenses, then we would set up an app on each employee's phone so they can photograph their own expenses into Receipt Bank. These receipts can then be authorised by the company accountant in Receipt Bank before they are added to the accounts software.
Any remaining receipts we would post into Receipt Bank using the envelope. These receipts would normally have been put in an intray prior to being sent to you so they should be placed directly into the Receipt Bank envelope instead with the envelope sent off once it is full. Multi page invoices are scanned as a single file provided the pages are stapled together.
Once everything is in the Receipt Bank intray then you can make use of all the great rules that can be set up to enter the data consistently into your accounts software. You will need a bit of training on the rules probably to make best use of them - a facility Receipt Bank are happy to offer by coming out to your office to train your team. Good use of the rules minimises manual review of the receipts prior to entry in the accounting software.
Whether the entries in your accounting software will match directly with your bank feed entries depends on the software that you use. Xero accounting software will directly match purchase invoices to the relevant bank entries.
If you do hit problems then you receive exceptional support from the Receipt Bank team. It is extremely unlikely that any data will get lost, it may just have gone to the wrong place. I`ve recently visited Receipt Bank's offices and seen the systems that they have in place to track the customer receipts and back-up the data. They are impressive and I know that Receipt Bank would welcome you to their offices to show you around their systems too.
If you would like to talk further about the use of Receipt Bank, please do drop me a line. We`ve been using Receipt Bank with our clients for the past three and a half years and they love it. But you do have to get the client involved!
Problems with Receipt Bank support
If you do hit problems then you receive exceptional support from the Receipt Bank team.
My experience is exactly the opposite (except when Tosca gets involved). Receipt Bank has one of those systems whereby a support ticket is not allocated to a particular person, so you get a different person responding each time on the same issue, and they do not know the history of the support issue so you you have to explain it to them again every time. It is extremely frustrating. Our recent requests for help have been met with the slow no.
Receipt Bank - but set it up properly
I see the comments on Receipt Bank not working but I disagree completely. We've been using it for a couple of years, and we and ourclients love it and it does save a great deal of time. We have also found the support to be great.
BUT be completely clear on your processes and take time to set the integration up properly (we link to Xero). It isn't going to work by itself, you need be clear on what you want it to do, and adjust the settings accordingly. There is also Receipt Bank 101 training, took us all less than an hour but absolutely essential.
Also support and guide your clients with what they need to do.
In terms of lost receipts - if clients are posting we always advise using the Receipt Bank envelopes and ALWAYS send special delivery, so you're not at the mercy of the post office!
You don't have to send each invoice/receipt separately either. If you upload directly into Receipt Bank you can choose to upload multiple receipts as 1 pdf.
Do invest in a good scanner, this will help, but you've still got all the work to do with extracting data. Receipt Bank are experts at this, so let them do it!
Happy to answer any questions.
Receipt Bank 101 training
There is also Receipt Bank 101 training
How can I find this Sharon?
Receipt Bank
Hi - this is Michael from Receipt Bank.
To respond to some of the comments above:
- OCR is good tech and we at RB use it extensively. Unfortunately the tech is not yet sufficiently developed to be able to create accounting entries without manual assistance
- creating accounting entries and matching with existing bank entries is effectively the same task - you need to have the data to create an entry or match an entry.
- using a scanner for this work means that the client is looking in a backward process that will fail to take advantage of cloud accounting (whether it be Clearbooks or another package). This is because this workflow is a backward looking batch process. I (or a member of the team would be happy to talk through this in more detail if required).
- An early comment suggested that RB didn't work for the client - did she/he get in touch? We are always happy to help with set up.
- It's also worth mentioning that setting up a new workflow process like this for one client rarely works and is often unprofitable. The reason I founded RB was to help firms build profitable and scalable bookkeeping workflows.
Thanks,
M
Receipt Bank Support System Failure.
An early comment suggested that RB didn't work for the client - did she/he get in touch?
Yes - as the comment explained.
I mentioned the issue with the system whereby support tickets are dealt with by several different people, none of whom (consequently) have the whole story. It's all there in the comment.
I did say my experience wasn't all bad as Tosca is very helpful. Having said that, she seems to have moved on from first-line support now.
Has to be RB
Would completely agree with Sharon above - we've used Receipt Bank for 3-4 years and have never had problems or issues.
Clunkly OCR software and a flatbed scanner can't be the answer in 2015! I've used this type of software before and the errors were multiple and sometimes difficult to spot.
You must however take the time to understand RB, have a set process with all clients which may be specific to their line of business and talk to RB about their huge knowledge on 'best practice' using their system. They are always happy to help and have both basic and advanced training available to Partners.
You need to also continue to work on the setup of the system once you get the client going as you need to keep feeding it for it to start learning.
The time we've saved on bookkeeping, scanning and data entry has been phenomenal; to the extent that we don't do bookkeeping now without RB.
Xero and RB
We looked at RB and found that if you don't want to send the paper to someone to process, that Xero has added a lot of the functionality (Files, side by side display of the document and entry screen, Spend Money from the Xero Touch app) that you used to need something like RB for. Except the limited (but good) OCR.
If you have old fashioned clients you'll never get them to change their processes and in any case if you scan to a cloud service (Xero, RB or whatever) if you can't either backup locally or download in bulk, you are a bit stuck if you want to move provider, or they aren't there one day.