Paper receipts which can be damaged, lost or of poor quality are a recurring problem in many companies, according to a new study. Up to a fifth of all paper receipts are missing from the expense reports in some companies.
A brand new study which looks at receipt management across 235 Nordic organisations considers how many companies find that paper receipts increase the risk of fraud and encumber company efforts to ensure legal and regulatory compliance.
“Employees lose receipts, submit the wrong receipts, and sometimes receipts are so crumpled or battered that the finance department is unable to link them back to the right purchase,” says Mads Moesgaard, Nordic Business Manager at Eurocard.
Risk of fraud
A number of companies report that up to 20 percent of receipts are missing from the expense reports that their employees send in for approval. And among the companies which use paper receipts for the bulk of their receipt management, only 24 percent feel that their processes are sufficiently robust to prevent fraud.
“Receipt management is largely a question of trust between employer and employee with the receipt serving as proof that a certain purchase has actually been made. At the same time, many finance departments are under heavy strain due to the large quantity of receipts they have to process. If several expense reports then turn out to be erroneous, the risk of error naturally increases and the processing time per receipt becomes longer,” says Mads Moesgaard.
Digitisation is the solution
The study also shows that these problems are considerably less common in companies which have digitised their receipt management. And it takes very little effort to create a positive effect.
“An app with a built-in receipt capture function, which allows you to scan and photograph receipts on your mobile phone, will reduce the risk of receipts going astray. If a receipt can be matched to the right transaction in the app, this will make it a lot easier to follow up the purchase.
“Companies which go even further down the digitisation route and use direct receipts can largely eliminate all errors related to receipt management.
“Direct receipts mean that a digital receipt is sent straight from the merchant to the customer’s mobile phone, where it is matched to the right transaction and then forwarded to the company’s expense management system, making it practically impossible for receipts to get damaged or disappear before they are approved,” says Mads Moesgaard.
At Eurocard, direct receipts are a part of the solution Smart receipts.
