Today, data security has become critical. We often talk about dematerialization or digitization of expense receipts; employees, however, can be reluctant to change and the adoption of new technologies. Timothée Richard, a Notilus Sales Engineer, discusses in an interview the main reasons why he believes digitized expense receipts are more secure than their paper counterparts.
Errors are avoided
Our OCR (optical character recognition) technology and its excellent recognition rate (over 95%), limit the need for error-prone manual data entry by automatically filling in the relevant fields for expense reporting.
“We go further in Notilus, in which there is for example an algorithm checking for missing receipts. Users will not be able to submit an expense until a receipt is associated with it. This way, they won’t have to wait a week to find out that their charge has been rejected”, adds Timothée RICHARD.
No more fear over losing receipts
Nothing beats a little anecdote to make our point! Timothée RICHARD recalls:
“A client who was a president in his company, once told me that he had lost in the past a whole suitcase worth of paper expense receipts. I’ll let you imagine how much money that meant. Must have been in the thousands.”
It’s simple: paper receipts can be lost. Their dematerialized version can’t.
The risk of non-reimbursement is reduced
Since all data is centralized in an expense management solution, it is almost unthinkable to not be reimbursed. Whether your expenses exceed your company’s limit or your claim is rejected by your superiors, you are always notified, meaning you can check the status of your expense report (being processed, validated, controlled, reimbursed, etc.) at any time.
Time-saving for reimbursement processes
The dematerialization of expense reports also makes it more convenient for end-users to be reimbursed. Some employees can now receive up to four or five reimbursements per month, as, thanks to Notilus’ ease of use, they can report their expenses during their trip and be reimbursed shortly after instead of pushing everything back to the end of the month.
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With our OCR, all fields such as VAT, currency or amount are automatically detected. With the electronic archiving, your expense receipts are stored in a secure cloud, no more paper.
Receipts are centralized
In the event of a tax, URSSAF, or even an internal audit, it is necessary to make archived receipts available quickly, in which case bringing in pallets of archives and folders might not be the most practical solution. In Notilus, we provide an “Audit” function that allows you to search for the expense report of an employee, a department, or a company. Expenses can also be sorted by type or filtered with a combination of up to 12 criteria.
The risk of fraud is reduced
Although it is a bit of a taboo subject in companies, the reality is that expense fraud does exist, whether committed intentionally or not. The main source of fraud is duplication (for example, trying to re-claim a receipt issued a few months ago) and exchange of receipts among employees.
The possibility of having archiving with probative value
“Digital archiving is an excellent way to guarantee the durability and security of one’s receipts. It also protects the receipt information from fading, as cash register paper is often a thermal paper that lasts only a few months,” says Timothée RICHARD.
There was in 2017 a first decree regarding the dematerialization of invoices issued in electronic format. At that time, the legislation was still rather vague regarding paper receipts. Then, a decree on May 23rd, 2019 finally clarified the situation and made it possible to get rid of paper receipts entirely.
For digital archiving with probative value, three core principles must be guaranteed:
- Authenticity,
- Integrity,
- and the durability of the documents.
At Notilus, we have set up a simple process:
- The receipt is dematerialized through our expense report management mobile application and its OCR.
- It is then electronically signed with an RGS 2* stamp issued by CertEurope and is timestamped by Oodrive.
- Finally, the receipt is stored via Arkhinéo for 10 years.
“On the matter of data security, Arkhinéo has nothing left to prove. As a subsidiary of the Caisse des dépôts et consignations since 2001, the company is the most certified and trustworthy service provider in France in the sector of archiving digital data with probative value. To learn more about this, I invite you to read our complete guide”, continues Timothée RICHARD.
How to convince people who are reluctant to dematerialization?
“Today it is indispensable to archive data on remote servers. It is a must for the security of our customers’ data. We have recently seen a fire in a data centre. Accidents like these can just as much occur in cases of physical archiving of documents, which never really guaranteed a high level of security to be fair. With Notilus you have no risk of losing your data because they are hosted in more than one location. Today, security is a priority and our customers appreciate that all their data is safely hosted in France“, explains Timothée RICHARD.
Our solution is dedicated to the moblity management. In addition to the expense reports management you can plan, book and track your business trips. It is also possible to manage your car fleet.
