Receipts are vital to successfully running a business. You need receipts to track your purchases and expenses. Your clients need receipts for tax purposes and to manage their finances. More businesses are moving away from paper to digital receipts.
Here are more reasons why your business should consider eliminating paper receipts all together.
1. Digital receipts decrease costs
Receipts eat into your profits. It costs money to buy the paper and the ink which is more than it costs to simply email receipts to clients. Your business saves money by not printing receipts for every customer. On a per-unit basis, receipts might not seem like a big cost. However, depending on volume and over the course of a year or a few years it can add up to thousands of dollars. Not to mention the cost of replacing or updating the hardware used to print receipts.
2. Digital receipts increase efficiency
It takes time to print out the receipts, change the printer paper, and replace the toner or ink. This is time you or an employee can spend working on other more important tasks.
Beyond that, how often does a client contact you because they’ve lost a receipt and need a copy? Emailing receipts allows the customer to store it in their email or file storage system, rather than searching for a piece of paper they might have lost or filed in the wrong spot. Your team saves time by not having to reprint or redistribute those missing receipts.
Additionally, systems that manage digital receipts can generate better reporting. Consider how easy it would be for employees to take a photo of their expenses on a smartphone and have their expense report automated, rather than filling it out manually. Or have the system automatically tell you how much you’ve spent so far this year on office supplies, without adding up each receipt manually. Divvy is a great example of this type of software. In fact, Liguori Accounting uses this internally.
3. Digital receipts are easier to share
If you have someone doing the bookkeeping or accounting for you, it’s easier to email your digital receipt to that person, rather than having to store, mail or deliver it to them in person. There’s also no risk that the receipt will be crumpled, torn or otherwise unreadable. If you are using a system like Divvy and Bill, this is made even easier with its integration combabilities to cloud-accounting software. Reach out to our team to learn how we help small businesses outsource the bookkeeping and improve current accounting functions with automated systems.
4. Digital receipts add marketing opportunities
Although you can include some marketing with a printed receipt, maybe a coupon or link to your website, digital receipts provide other marketing opportunities. A digital receipt gives you the chance to share individualized product recommendations or new promotions. They also enable you to grow your email list and accumulate customer data, allowing you to follow up with clients and customers. The goal is to convert first time customers into long-term reoccurring customers. Digital receipts can certainly help with that strategy.
5. Systems for digital receipts
Making the decision to go digital can be the easy part. However, finding the right point of sale (POS), expense tracking, or invoicing system to help digitize your receipts can prove challenging. This is due not to the limitation of available systems, but the over saturation of the market. Often times, your bookkeeping software will allow you to produce digital receipts for your clients. There are third party software that can integrate with you bookkeeping system and completely digitizes your accounting processes like account payable to account receivables management. One example of this software is Bill.
Businesses in the restaurant or retail industry need to make sure its POS system integrates with its bookkeeping software and enables them to provide digital receipts. Most if not all of the modern POS systems do both these things. Examples of popular POS systems for restaurants includes companies like Toast or Square. For retail, Square is the most popular system.
Final Thoughts
Even though many people are used to paper receipts, there are many good reasons for your business to switch to digital receipts. There are environmental benefits and practical reasons that can have a positive impact on your business. If you are looking to improve, automate, or digitize your accounting processes reach out to our team to see how we can help.