Harnessing the Power of Cookiebot for Advanced Online Marketing Success

Back to ABBYY Blog

Mobile-driven expense management as an accelerator for finance process automation

August 24, 2017

Automation is fast becoming a buzzword especially among knowledge workers who strive to minimize the need for manual labor in the accounts payable departments. It is easy to see why. Whether in large companies or in small companies and startups, expenses are an annoyance for both employers and employees.

Today, up to 46 percent of businesses still depend on manual tools to manage expenses, according to T&E firm Certify. Among small businesses, that figure has risen to as high as 64 percent, seeming to confirm that the smaller the business, the greater the dependence on manual tools to manage expenses.

With AP departments facing urgent needs to quickly process expense claims or reconcile receipts with accounting systems, the current manual processes has become a drag on costs and resources. Despite the odds, digital receipt processing and expense automation is far from being a standard practice for employees and organisations across the globe.

Turns out there was good reason. On the one hand, expense automation technology is still in its infancy, and many businesses are still learning how and what to adopt. On the other, existing workflow processes required fundamental re-engineering for seamless integration of the new technologies. Add to these the fact that c-suite executives are often far removed from day to day employee tasks like gathering receipts, entering data into spreadsheets and expense systems or assigning business unit coding.

However, all of this is changing thanks to improvements in employee engagement and digital working practices. New mobile apps are popping up allowing companies to deliver a superior customer experience. As the requisite technology becomes smart enough to take on the mainstream market, the barriers to adoption are rapidly disappearing.

Some of the new mobile solutions come with expense management capabilities, enabling them to capture and convert receipts and bills or send digital invoices to company’s expense management systems.

Mobile-driven expense management offers numerous advantages including:

• Anywhere, anytime data processing – new mobile technologies enable instant capture and recognition, giving accuracy and convenience of data entry while eliminating error prone manual processing.
• Cost control – mobile technology eliminates the need to spend on power and hardware while still offering required processing power and storage space
• Niche performance - provides easy-to-access platform for companies to process, manage and control expenses in hybrid clouds, custom services and expense management systems
• Increased performance - more productivity, effortless collaboration, streamlined approval system, automated data transfer to EMS.

Technical Challenges

Despite the obvious advantages offered mobile-driven expense management, some inconvenience is still experienced when using the technology. The first problem is that developing receipt processing technology is anything but simple. Some common challenges that have hampered previous efforts include;

• Poor quality of paper, print and photo
• No well-defined receipt structure or common receipt template
• Local country specifics of receipts
• Failure in keyword search due to OCR errors
• Difficulty in gathering enough receipt samples for machine learning

Check out our technical blog for in-depth analysis of these challenges and why they continue to stall a move towards broader Finance Process Automation (FPA).

By Jonathan Darbey

Accounts Payable Automation Finance & Accounting Mobile OCR Enterprise

Like, share or repost

Share

Subscribe for blog updates

First name*

E-mail*

Сountry*

СountryAfghanistanAland IslandsAlbaniaAlgeriaAmerican SamoaAndorraAngolaAnguillaAntarcticaAntigua and BarbudaArgentinaArmeniaArubaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBarbadosBelgiumBelizeBeninBermudaBhutanBoliviaBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBouvet IslandBrazilBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryBritish Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombiaComorosCongo (Brazzaville)Congo, (Kinshasa)Cook IslandsCosta RicaCroatiaCuraçaoCyprusCzech RepublicCôte d’IvoireDenmarkDjiboutiDominicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEquatorial GuineaEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Faroe IslandsFijiFinlandFranceFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabonGambiaGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGibraltarGreeceGreenlandGrenadaGuadeloupeGuamGuatemalaGuernseyGuineaGuinea-BissauGuyanaHaitiHeard and Mcdonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)HondurasHong Kong, SAR ChinaHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIraqIrelandIsle of ManIsraelITJamaicaJapanJerseyJordanKazakhstanKenyaKiribatiKorea (South)KuwaitKyrgyzstanLao PDRLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLiechtensteinLithuaniaLuxembourgMacao, SAR ChinaMacedonia, Republic ofMadagascarMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaliMaltaMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritaniaMauritiusMayotteMexicoMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldovaMonacoMongoliaMontenegroMontserratMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNamibiaNauruNepalNetherlandsNetherlands AntillesNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNiueNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPalestinian TerritoryPanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPitcairnPolandPortugalPuerto RicoQatarRomaniaRwandaRéunionSaint HelenaSaint Kitts and NevisSaint LuciaSaint Pierre and MiquelonSaint Vincent and GrenadinesSaint-BarthélemySaint-Martin (French part)SamoaSan MarinoSao Tome and PrincipeSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSierra LeoneSingaporeSint Maarten (Dutch part)SlovakiaSloveniaSolomon IslandsSouth AfricaSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSurinameSvalbard and Jan Mayen IslandsSwazilandSwedenSwitzerlandTaiwan, Republic of ChinaTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailandTimor-LesteTogoTokelauTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTurkeyTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited States of AmericaUruguayUS Minor Outlying IslandsUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela (Bolivarian Republic)Viet NamVirgin Islands, USWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaZambiaZimbabwe

• I have read and agree with the Privacy policy and the Cookie policy .

• I agree to receive email updates from ABBYY Solutions Ltd. such as news related to ABBYY Solutions Ltd. products and technologies, invitations to events and webinars, and information about whitepapers and content related to ABBYY Solutions Ltd. products and services.

I am aware that my consent could be revoked at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link inside any email received from ABBYY Solutions Ltd. or via ABBYY Data Subject Access Rights Form .

Referrer

Last name

Query string

Product Interest Temp

UTM Campaign Name

UTM Medium

UTM Source

ITM Source

GA Client ID

UTM Content

GDPR Consent Note

Captcha Score

Page URL

Connect with us