Just a few short years ago, the thought of having a paperless business seemed little more than a pipe dream. Desks were littered with documents; waste paper baskets were filled to the brim with crumpled paper balls and lined pads were distributed like they were going out of fashion.
These days all that has changed. The digital revolution has substantially reduced our reliance on paper. Archival, searchable, sortable and transferable documents can be achieved with just a few clicks of a mouse – making businesses considerably transparent and nimble than ever before.
However, certain types of documentation have remained stubbornly resistant to digitisation. The advent of OCR receipt scanning has changed all that.
Below are four examples of how your business will benefit from employing OCR receipt technology.
OCR Receipt Technology for Expense Reporting and Auditing
Businesses are not immune to fraud. Expense reporting is one of the most vulnerable areas that unscrupulous employees can exploit. Even leading news outlet, CNN has previously reported that there are many expense reporting schemes that businesses can fall foul of.
Operating an OCR receipt scanner in a commercial capacity completely eradicates this problem. This can be achieved in several ways.
First off, mobile OCR allows for real-time capture of receipt data and other expense documentation. Any discrepancies can be easily and quickly highlighted, this will reassure businesses that their expense overview is correct. Adding this layer of transparency can dissuade potential fraud attempts.
Second, correctly auditing expense reports is a critical step in identifying and preventing fraud. OCR increases the ease and depth with which audits can be detected, allowing auditors to easily search documents for specific transaction details.
Invoice Processing is Better with OCR Receipt Scanning
OCR receipt and document scanning streamline invoice processing and account payable processes. Traditional manual data entry from electronic or paper invoices to separate documents is repetitive, time-consuming and prone to error.
If you’re only processing one or two invoices a day, that’s fine, but what if your business processes, hundreds a week, or in a single day! Let’s not also forget that the costly expense on your business!
An OCR receipt and document scanner can streamline this process – and remove any mistakes being made. However, any successful OCR-enabled invoice processing system must feature a handful of key conditions.
Number one, you need to have significant volume from repeat vendors to prove the use of an OCR receipt scanner as the invoice processing software must be configured to interpret specific invoice formats.
Number two, the accounts payable module doesn’t natively support OCR document management, you’ll need to use your AP system’s API to import data from the OCR application.
Once these conditions are met, your business can seize a significant labour-saving cost – all by using OCR technology.
Accurate Note Taking
Studiously taking notes of all client interactions is all well and good, but often the detail can be lost – especially if the meeting is a particularly fast-paced one.
Not only that, when communicating with clients as they relay pertinent information or specific requirements can often be juggled with multi-tasking, such as writing an email to a colleague or having another conversation in the office simultaneously, and you may even lose a piece of paper with vital information in the mêlée of trying to do two things at once!
OCR handwriting apps can provide a great solution. Accurately recording information and transferring it to an online application means you don’t have to be concerned with losing information.
Recognising characters in handwritten notes is considerably more complex than in a standard text format. However, with new advances in receipt scanning technology all the time, it won’t be too long before this will be easily achieved – even for those with the messiest of handwriting.
These are just three of the ways that your business can benefit from employing OCR receipt scanning technology. There are many, many more. If you’d like to learn how you can streamline processes and cut costs with OCR technology, contact Tab Scanner today.
