Receipt scanning apps like Xpenditure, Shoeboxed or Expensify make your life easier - and actually help you save. Scan and archive your receipts in a snap: It’s never been easier to focus on expenditure. But which one should you use? To save you some time, I did the research. No matter which: They fully integrate with zistemo.
Welcome to 2016!
The first two weeks of the New Year are gone already. You might have broken the first resolutions as daily life is slowly grinding its way back. One thing has changed, though: you can wave your old freelancer’s resolutions good-bye**. Thanks to zistemo, you’re on top of your finances and your invoices now.** Your working time is neatly tracked and broken down onto clients and tasks. And it gets better!
Expenditure and receipt scanning apps
With zistemo, you’ll save money while spending it. No joke: zistemo keeps track of your expenses. And knowing where you’re spending helps you to spend less in time – a theory proven by science, experience and common sense. To make that process even easier, my talented IT people have set up full integration with Xpenditure, Shoeboxed and Expensify. All three of these amazing apps automatically scan, read and archive your receipts. Like magicians, they turn any crumply old receipt into numbers and data any accountant can work with – ideally digital accountants like zistemo.
Image analysis and pattern recognition
Of course it’s not real magic. We all know that image analysis and pattern recognition is the secret of any receipts scanning app– and this is are far from new. Still: I am in awe of them. And if you really think about it, you will be to. To think that I used to type number by number on my typewriter in the olden days… and now I can just snap a picture and – boom – some clever software is able to read it. Brave new world! But I’m digressing again. My sincere apologies.
Back to the topic: These apps are actually able to read and recognize numbers and letters from the image of a receipt with very high accuracy. The numbers then are turned into data that can any system can work with, from the bewitched Excel to, of course, my lovely zistemo. Very well. But which app should you choose? To save you some time, I’ve researched them all.
Xpenditure
Xpenditure manages business expenditure from receipt to accounting. The app has been launched in 2013 and has grown spectacularly ever since. The process is easy: The users scan their receipts with their webcam or the mobile app, Xpenditure then extracts all relevant data as well as organizes and archives them. The app works great for firms and startups with a lot of receipts looking for a quick and easy solution to manage them. Frequent travellers, rejoice! Xpenditure recognizes many currencies and automatically converts them using real time exchange rates. The app is based in Germany and is multi-lingual, which is a huge plus, compared to its contenders from the US.
Shoeboxed
Shoeboxed turns receipts into data and has been offering this service very successfully since 2007. With Shoeboxed, you can literally send in any old shoebox filled with crumply receipts, or rather use one of the Magic Envelopes they provide to snail mail them – free shipping included in the service. The receipts will be scanned and turned into data as well as IRS-accepted receipt images to use for your tax filing. Of course you can choose to skip all that and send in your own digital photo or scan of the receipts. Shoeboxed works with most currencies as well and thus is perfect for travelers and anyone working the internationally. This service is perfect for everyone with a small to mid-sized volume of receipts to manage such as freelancers, startups and small business owners.
Expensify
Expensify is comparable to Shoeboxed as well as Xpenditure. Its strength lies in simplifying the process of filing expenses by creating and streamlining expense forms for employees as well as their admins. It supports many currencies and international taxes. All in all, Expensify provides a solid service at a good price. But it lacks the multilingual capacity of Xpenditure as well as the sending-in service of Shoeboxed.
Save money and focus on your expenditure!
Whichever way you choose to turn your receipts into data: zistemo supports all three of them. It seems obvious how these apps will save you time. Since time is money, especially for us self-employed, you will have more of that, too. The most powerful currency today, though, is data. And this is where these apps are making you rich. Filthy rich.
With zistemo, you can transform these data into reports and statistics that enable you to look deeper into your business than ever before. With our hands-on visualizations of data, even the numerophobes among you get on top of their finances, easily comparing income and expenses. With a few simple clicks, it becomes clear where expenses have been useful – and which ones should be avoided.
We’re here to make your business long lasting and sustainable – so you can spend less time worrying and more time working. And living.
Happy 2016!
Sincerely, zistemo
