Five things we all hate about expenses

Expensing is a soul-crushing process, especially with paper receipts in the mix.

But just what makes the process so dreadful? Here are five reasons we can all agree on.

1. The time wasted

No one ever goes into business with the dream of collecting receipts and writing expense reports. It’s a tedious process that is hated all over the world. In fact, 87% of office workers want their employers to implement technology that automates the manual, repetitive work tasks that drain their time and drive operational inefficiency (research by OnePoll, commissioned by Automation Anywhere, 2020).

2. Storing the dockets

In New Zealand, businesses must keep records of expenses for 7 years if they are claiming them. This acts as proof of purchase if a business gets audited. However, storing receipts and invoices is a tedious, time-consuming task – especially when manually filing and storing the physical copies. Beyond that – what happens when a receipt is actually needed? Most often, it's faded. While it doesn’t take much searching on google to find all the different methods of - potentially - recovering a faded receipt, why not prevent it entirely?

3. The true cost

Many businesses will know that the true cost of a receipt is more than the total on the paper – but how much more? West Virginia Auditor JB McClusky explains, "It costs more than $100 USD to process just one [receipt]." While in New Zealand, Newshub reported, “it costs the Department of Internal Affairs about $55 to process a minister's receipt.” The high cost can arise from the time spent reporting an expense, processing that expense, whether there is information that needs to be corrected and the number of hands the expense goes through. 

4. Receipts are covered in BPA

Most people tend to stay away from items with BPA due to the correlations between the chemical and poor health. However, thermal receipts are an unsuspecting carrier of BPA and they are everywhere. A study found that over 93% of receipts are coated in the toxic chemical. More so, they found that the transmission rate of the chemical is much higher in receipts than the transmission of that found in a plastic drink bottle containing BPA. 

5. The unforgiving impact

Beyond business and health, comes the impact on the earth. Each year, the US alone sees 10 million trees cut down, 21  billion gallons of water consumed, 686 million pounds of waste created and 12 billion pounds of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere – all in the name of receipts. Are these little bits of paper really worth that cost?

A simple change with lasting benefits

RIPA Global provides an expensing experience like no other. By streamlining processes with RIPA Expenses, businesses save time, increase operational efficiency and dedicate resources to what actually matters. It is the only solution of its kind – completely eliminating the need for a physical receipt and automating expenses from the point of purchase.