ABUKAI Expenses - Credit/Purchase Card Reconciliation

Are you spending hours reconciling corporate card statements and tracking down missing receipts? 

How well are employees getting their receipts in on time? 

Want to save time with any of this? 

ABUKAI can help. 

With ABUKAI, it’s so easy for employees to submit expense reports that they will get more receipts submitted even before your card statement is available. Then, ABUKAI does all the work of matching the receipts and the transactions from your corporate card. You get an automated, running list of any missing receipts. ABUKAI can handle international expenses, FX fees, and more. 

With ABUKAI, you can save over 90% of the time you spend on card reconciliation. 

Interested? Contact us at http://abukai.com/?id=contact to learn more.

ABUKAI: Taking Expense Reporting to a New Dimension

ABUKAI is now taking expense reporting to a new dimension! 

 The Apple Vision Pro is an exciting new device with spatial computing capabilities. 

The ABUKAI Application for the Apple Vision Pro allows users to add receipts and create expense reports directly from the Apple Vision Pro.

Contact us to learn more!
 

Happy Holidays from ABUKAI

Why is relying on credit card statements not sufficient for expense reporting?

While a credit card statement can provide a record of expenses charged to a company credit card, it is not sufficient for expense reporting for several reasons:

• Credit card statements do not include sufficient detail: Credit card statements may not provide enough detail about the purpose of the expenses, or the specific items purchased, making it difficult to determine if the expenses are eligible for reimbursement.
• Credit card statements do not include supporting documentation: Credit card statements do not include receipts or other supporting documentation, which are required to verify the validity of the expenses by various entities and regulatory bodies.
• Credit card statements may not include all expenses: Some expenses, such as cash payments or personal expenses, may not appear on a credit card statement.

For these reasons, it is essential to not just rely on credit card data for expense reports. Instead, a proper expense reporting software should be utilized that ideally generates the expense reports automatically for employees from the incoming receipts and invoices. The receipt or invoice data should be the ground truth data, so that expense records in the books match what the supporting documentation says. This helps to ensure that all eligible expenses are properly accounted for and that the expense report is complete and accurate.

At the same time, this data from receipts should be utilized to audit credit card statements. For many companies, a credit card statement may be one of the largest bills received and should not be blindly relied upon. Instead, expense reporting software is needed that can independently audit the credit card statements, detect any deviations and flag possible discrepancies. 

A credit card statement may not be completely accurate:

• Fraud or unauthorized charges: If someone has gained access to an employee’s credit card and made unauthorized charges, these charges will appear on the credit card statement.
• Processing errors: In some cases, a credit card transaction may be improperly processed or recorded, resulting in an incorrect charge appearing on your statement.
• Returns or refunds: If you have returned a purchase or received a refund for an item, this may not be reflected on your credit card statement immediately.

To check the accuracy of a credit card statement, a company should review the statement carefully and compare it to records, such as receipts or account statements from merchants, which can be very time-consuming. With expense reporting services such as ABUKAI, you can automatically detect discrepancies by comparing the card data to what the actual receipts state. Deviations can get highlighted so that issues can be immediately reported to a credit card issuer. ABUKAI’s patented receipt recognition technology enables this level of automation.

You should also be mindful when picking a software vendor that the vendor is not tied up with the credit card provider, so that the expense reporting service can take an independent role in auditing card statements. Services that are tied to a specific card provider may have an incentive to just rely on the credit card feeds as the ground truth and means to all ends, while cutting corners on validating that receipts and card transactions actually match. You will find that some vendors get a reward for the more money spent on your credit cards instead of taking an independent role of an auditor of your bills and statements.

If you are interested to learn more, contact us today discuss your needs and how ABUKAI may be able to assist your business.

It’s official: Business travel is back.

The TSA, airlines, and hotel companies are staffing up to meet the demand.

Now is the time to make sure that you have the right processes in place to support your team’s travel needs!

With ABUKAI Expenses, travelers can finish their expense reports before they are back from their trip, given you real-time visibility on spent.

Business Travel is Back!!!

According to the TSA, January travel is back up, over 2019 levels.

Is your staff ramping up business travel?

Airlines and hotel chains are also reporting a strong return to business travel. We are seeing that conferences and trade shows have returned, and sales teams are eager to get back to face-to-face meetings.

Are you prepared?

Contact us today to learn more.

Do Not Gamble with Expense Reports!

Expense report fraud typically occurs when an employee submits an expense report that contains false or inflated expense claims. This could include claiming reimbursement for personal expenses as business expenses, or claiming reimbursement for a higher amount than was actually spent. Expense report fraud can also involve submitting fake receipts or invoices to support the false claims. In some cases, employees may collude with vendors or contractors to submit false expenses on behalf of the company.

Expense report fraud can be difficult to detect, as it often involves small amounts of money that may not be noticed in the normal course of business. It can also be difficult to prove, as it may require an in-depth review of the employee's expenses and documentation. However, companies can take steps to prevent and detect expense report fraud, such as implementing strict expense reporting policies and procedures, conducting audits of expense reports, and using software to automate the expense reporting process and flag potentially fraudulent activity.

There are several steps that a finance team can take to prevent expense report fraud:

• Implement strict expense reporting policies and procedures: Clearly define what expenses are and are not eligible for reimbursement, and require employees to provide supporting documentation for all expense claims.
• Conduct regular audits of expense reports: Periodically review a sample of expense reports to ensure that they comply with company policies and that the claimed expenses are legitimate.
• Use software to automate the expense reporting process: Expense report software can help to streamline the process and flag potentially fraudulent activity.
• Train employees on proper expense reporting: Educate employees on the importance of accurate expense reporting and the consequences of fraud. 
• Implement internal controls: Establish controls to ensure that expense reports are reviewed and approved by the appropriate individuals within the organization.
• Encourage anonymous reporting: Establish a system for employees to report suspicious activity anonymously, such as a fraud hotline.

By taking these steps, finance teams can help to prevent expense report fraud and protect the company's financial interests.

Expense report software can help finance teams implement these steps and automate the expense reporting process and reduce the risk of fraud in several ways:

• Automated expense report generation: Certain expense report software can automatically generate the expense reports for employees from incoming receipts, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing the opportunity for fraud. Expense report recognition service can act almost like an independent audit, where you have basically a 3rd party review the invoices and receipts, and flag possible issues.
• Utilization of multiple data sources: Some expense report software allows to automatically compare for example credit card or bank feeds with data generated automatically from incoming receipts. This way deviations can be automatically flagged, and escalated to different stakeholders, including finance.
• Streamline the review and approval process: Expense report software can help to streamline the review and approval process by routing reports to the appropriate individuals for review and allowing for electronic approval. Dynamic routing of approvals across multiple levels with escalation under certain conditions can help catch fraud or issues. The fewer steps approvers have to take to review reports, the more easily they will actually review reports.
• Make it easy to capture receipts for employees: Usability is a key consideration. If capturing receipts is very simple and does not require additional data entry, there is simply less desire to commit fraud. Employees are less lightly trying to get back at their employers and are instead delighted by how fast it was for them to complete their expense report. The right software and mobile applications can allow employees to track expenses in real-time already as expenses are incurred, making it easier to identify and correct possible errors and giving a company a more real-time view on expenses.
• Flag potentially fraudulent activity: Some expense report software includes features that can flag potentially fraudulent activity. For example, policies could be set up for you based on your desired business process and expense policy to flag possible deviations or policy violations, or even fully stop an expense report from submission in case of a policy violation.

The right expense report software can help finance teams reduce the risk of fraud and improve the accuracy and efficiency of the expense reporting process!

If you would like to discuss more about your needs and how ABUKAI may be able to help your business, please contact us.

Self-booking for Business Travel a trend?

There are several reasons why self-booking for business travel is becoming ever more popular:

1. Cost savings: Self-booking allows employees to negotiate directly with different hotels and airlines, potentially resulting in lower rates and more favorable terms than a pre-negotiated master agreement with a small set of preferred providers. It also allows employees to choose the most cost-effective options at a given time, considering also budget airlines or booking accommodations with loyalty points, options that are not always available through a TMC.
2. Convenience: Self-booking allows employees to book their own travel arrangements, which can be more convenient than going through a travel agent or company travel department. Employees can book their preferred flights and accommodations, and can make changes to their travel plans as needed. Self-booking is particularly popular with millennials and other digital natives.
3. Control: Self-booking gives employees more control over their travel arrangements, allowing them to tailor their trips to their specific needs and preferences. Companies can still set travel policies and guidelines that employees can follow when booking their own travel.
4. Technology: The availability of online booking tools and travel apps has made it easier for employees to book their own travel and has increased the popularity of self-booking. These tools allow employees to search for and compare flights and accommodations, and to book and manage their travel arrangements online.

Overall, self-booking can provide cost savings, convenience, control, and flexibility for both the company and its employees when it comes to business travel.

Now how can a company easily take advantage of those benefits? 

Companies can make it easy to incorporate self-booked trips into expense reports! In particular,

1. Provide clear guidelines and policies: Make sure employees are aware of the company's travel policies and guidelines, including what expenses are eligible for reimbursement, the required documentation for each expense, and the reimbursement process.
2. Use an expense management tool: Implement an expense management tool that allows employees to easily track and report on their expenses, including self-booked trips. The tool should allow employees to upload receipts and other supporting documentation, and to automatically categorize expenses by type (e.g., airfare, meals, lodging).
3. Set up automated expense report generation: Set up a system that can automatically generates expense reports based on the captured receipts and travel bookings forwarded. Not every system does this, and many require manual data entry. An automated receipt recognition system can greatly save time, improve compliance, and reduce the risk of errors in the expense report.
4. Offer training and support: Provide some training and support to employees to help them understand the expense report process and how to use the expense management tool. Ideally, you might consider deploying a simple expense management tool that does not require a lot of training and is self-explanatory for employees to use.

By using an expense management tool that fully automates the data entry traditionally involved with expense reports, a company can make it easy for employees to incorporate self-booked trips into expense reports. Such a tool should appear self-explanatory and require as little training as possible.

If you are interested in chatting more about current trends and how ABUKAI may be able to help your business, contact us to learn more.

Happy New Year from ABUKAI!

 

Road warriors rejoice!

Hate dealing with expenses while on the road? So do we!

See how ABUKAI Expenses can help make tracking mileage & expenses on the a road a lot easier.

With ABUKAI Expenses there are several ways to enter mileage expenses, saving you from tedious paperwork. 

Congrats to Argentina! Now time for paperwork.

Soccer (OK, football) isn’t all just fun and games. An army of back-office staff is needed to make it all work. These are huge businesses with giant back offices that need to do everything from booking flights to dealing with expenses afterwards. 

Soccer teams generally follow similar procedures to other sports teams when it comes to expense reporting. The team's financial department will gather receipts and other documentation for all expenses incurred by the team, such as travel, equipment, and personnel expenses.

But, imagine a Croatian accounting team trying to decipher Qatari restaurant receipts that are in Arabic???

These expenses may include things like airfare and hotel accommodations for away games, meals for players and staff, and fees for training facilities and equipment rentals. 

To create an expense report, the financial department will first gather receipts and other documentation for all expenses incurred by the team. This may include receipts for airline tickets, hotel stays, meals, and other travel-related expenses, as well as invoices for equipment purchases and salary payments. How is this Croatian back office going to figure out the receipts for a coach’s various receipts if they can’t read the language and can’t get time to ask the coach?

The completed expense report will be reviewed by the team's financial manager or another designated team member to ensure that all expenses are legitimate and properly documented. If the expense report is approved, it will be submitted to the team's leadership for review and payment.

It's important for soccer teams to maintain accurate and thorough expense reports
to manage their finances effectively and ensure that they are in compliance with financial regulations and reporting requirements. This may include following specific rules and guidelines set by the soccer league or governing body in which the team plays.

What a headache. Enter ABUKAI Expenses- ABUKAI automatically reads the receipts in any language for you, generates an expense report and can forward it to your finance staff or other approvers. Players and managers need to spend time training, not dealing with the back office to explain what’s on a particular receipt. 

Don’t create problems for yourself.

As seen with current events, poor expense reporting and accounting can result in criminal charges if it is discovered that the individual or company has engaged in fraudulent or illegal activity. 

If you are unable to provide adequate records during an audit, you could face significant fines and penalties. Additionally, poor record keeping can make it difficult for a company to accurately track and manage their finances, which can lead to financial losses and other problems.

If a company fails to properly report expenses, the company could be charged. It is important to always report expenses accurately in order to avoid legal pitfalls. It is important for companies to maintain accurate and detailed records in order to avoid potential legal problems and financial losses. Poor record keeping can create serious problems for a company, and it is important to address and correct any record-keeping issues as soon as they are discovered. A properly set up software can help you avoid these pitfalls and even save you time and effort in your process!

Do you feel you need to make your expense reporting more rigorous? 

Contact us if you need help to set up a more solid process now and avoid future problems. 

Forbes calls ABUKAI "the best-in-class invoice and expenses management SaaS provider"

Check out this article from Forbes

Here's just a snippet: "The best-in-class invoice and expense management SaaS provider uses machine learning (ML), computer vision, artificial intelligence (AI), and optical character recognition (OCR) to achieve near-perfect recognition of documents, eliminating manual data entry."

Contact us if you want to learn more.

ABUKAI's Reset Approvals Feature - Check it out!

Have you ever wanted to undo an approval? ABUKAI can be configured with the “Reset Approvals” option that gives corporate administrators the option to reset pending reports.

An admin simply clicks “Reset Approvals” in the Corporate Receipt Review module. The admin can provide a quick comment that will get included in a notification back to the submitter. 

Contact us to learn more!

ABUKAI Email-Based Approvals

Have you ever wanted to approve expense reports directly from an email? Check out the ABUKAI Email-Based Approvals Option, which allows chosen approvers to approve expense reports directly from an email.

An approver can directly approve or reject the expense report from the email without having to log in. Receipt details and policy warnings are also visible.

Contact us if you want to learn more.

Check out our new ABUKAI Services web extension

This great new tool allows you to easily jump to different ABUKAI services including ABUKAI Presentations, ABUKAI Expenses, and ABUKAI ToDo. 

For ABUKAI Expenses and ToDo, the extension enables quick access to the services from your browser.

For ABUKAI Presentations, the extension allows for screen sharing and voice connection from your browser:  

• Share screen with attendees

• Share browser tab with attendees

• Share application window with attendees

• Join call with computer microphone

Chrome download 

Edge download

Full press release  

Contact us today so we discuss how to help save time and drive productivity. 

New ABUKAI Expenses Tutorial Video

Want to learn more about ABUKAI Expenses? Check out our new video to see how to add from gallery, send in multi-page receipts and other advanced features. Plus, you’ll see some of ABUKAI's corporate capabilities.

Contact us today so we discuss how to help save time and drive productivity. We want to make sure you can really take advantage of all of the productivity gains available in ABUKAI.

Pending Approvals - Option for Configuration

 ABUKAI Corporate Accounts can be configured in a plethora of ways for you to tailor the workflow exactly to your requirements.  

For example, you can choose for submitters to see the next approver or approvers for their pending reports.

By default, submitters do not see the next approver for maximum privacy. However, if required, the upcoming approvers can get displayed as part of the approval status for approval-pending reports.

Submitters can then follow up directly with approvers in case a report has not been approved. ABUKAI also offers automatic reminders that can be configured on a per approval rule basis.

Contact us for more information.

Product Tip: Summary Reports

Did you know that you can easily pull all your past reports from ABUKAI?

Simply go to the Archive Tab in the ABUKAI User Portal and hit the “Summary Report” button. Select your date range to export the data you need including:

a sheet with key summary statistics such as spend per category and total miles traveled for the period. For customers with VAT recognition enabled, the sheet also lists the amount for each applicable tax % for tax preparation purposes.

a list view sheet of all expense data for easy analysis with pivot tables or other tools, or for easy, flexible transfer to other tools such as accounting, tax or budgeting software.

a summary expense report based on the configured format with all expenses listed for the time period. Company-reimbursable expenses vs. company-paid expense can be distinguished by activating the out-of-pocket feature.

This is available on ABUKAI Individual and Standard Corporate Accounts. For report options in Custom Corporate Accounts, please contact us.

Closing the quarter got you down?

Closing the quarter got you down? Sick of chasing down employee receipts and dealing with crumpled paper, bad scans and late reports? 

 

ABUKAI can help. We can reduce almost all the time you are currently spending on expense reporting. No more nagging emails, tedious data entry, boxes of receipts, etc. ABUKAI can get you streamlined and organized, all while saving you time. 

 

Just contact us and let us show you how we can help!

Close your year out right.

Year end is right around the corner. 

As we all gear up for winter weather and the holiday season, it also brings an accounting milestone- the year end. Don’t chase after things at the end of December like last year. Start using ABUKAI now to get everything in order so that you can close your books quickly. With ABUKAI, you and your staff can simply take pictures of all your receipts or upload your invoices, and let ABUKAI do all of the data entry for you. Save time for yourself to finish more mission critical tasks and enjoy the festive season.  

Free Software Can Have Hidden Costs. Prepare Now For a Successful 2021.

The most popular way to do expenses is still a good old spreadsheet. While it may seem free, it’s actually costing you time in terms of productivity, employee happiness, and even mail costs!

With ABUKAI Expenses, we can help you modernize your processes, improve compliance, save time, and save money. Contact us now to get everything in order for a successful start to 2021.

 

A company with 50 employees, doing monthly reports, may be wasting the equivalent of $18,000 per year in lost productivity alone. With ABUKAI, a company can easily get a 4x Return on Investment while adopting the latest technology.  

ABUKAI Delegates Module Allows Users to Select Others to Complete or Approve Expense Reports

Not all employees do their own expese reports. An administrative assistant may compete reports for an executive. Or a finance person may edit reports for a team of road warriors. 
Some employees may be approvers but need another employee to take over responsibilities when on leave or vacation.

With the ABUKAI Delegates Module, employees can delegate their tasks to another user on ABUKAI on a permanent or temporary basis. The ABUKAI Delegates Module is available as an add-on to ABUKAI Custom Corporate Accounts. To learn more, contact our sales team here.



To learn more about all of ABUKAI's advanced modules, please contact us at sales@abukai.com.

ABUKAI Works for Employees of All Skill Levels


Companies have employees at various levels of comfort with mobile apps. ABUKAI is a solution for all types of users. Companies need a solution they can be easily used be all employees. ABUKAI requires no training for most end users, allowing for pain-free deployment to all kinds of employees.


Check out this video from one of our customers. 




Visit abukai.com or reach out to learn more!

ABUKAI's Client-Based Management Module Helps Accounting Firms Manage Multiple Clients


Some accountants have clients that hand them piles of receipts. Our Client-Based Management Tool can save time and easily help manage all client expenses. Accountants or clients can simply use ABUKAI to take pictures of receipts and minimize all the manual data entry. 

Final data can be posted to all major accounting software like Exact, MYOB, QuickBooks, Sage, Xero and more.  


Visit abukai.com or reach out to learn more!

Congratulations to our CEO!

ABUKAI's CEO, Philipp Schloter, was just named on the of the Top 50 SaaS CEOs by The Software Report.

The rankings are based on a methodology assessing a CEO's integrity, intellect, drive, emotional intelligence, organizational culture and operational skill. 

See why CEOs and CFOs love ABUKAI.

Check out this new video from the CEO of Vortex Surgical. He used ABUKAI at a previous company and chose ABUKAI for his new company. He speaks about how it really helps him and his CFO while also saving the company money.


Let us know if you want to learn more!

Hebrew Expense Reports | דוחות הוצאות בשפה העברית

דוחות הוצאות בשפה העברית

יש לנו משתמשים ביותר מ- 90 מדינות, ואנו תומכים באופן פעיל בלקוחות הגלובליים שלנו.מאז 
ומתמיד זיהינו קבלות בעברית, אולם כעת אנו לוקחים את זה צעד אחד קדימה.
ABUKAI מייצרת כיום דוחות הוצאות בשפה העברית עבור לקוחותינו בישראל 
ועבור כל אחד אחר שחפץ בדוחות בעברית. כמו בעבר, ABUKAI תדע 
לזהות מע"מ ישראלי, המרות מטבע ועוד.

HEBREW EXPENSE REPORTS
We have users in over 90 countries and actively support our global customers.  
While we’ve always recognized Hebrew receipts, we are taking it one step further. ABUKAI now creates expense reports in Hebrew for our customers in Israel and anyone else that would reports in Hebrew. As before, ABUKAI will recognize Israeli VAT, currency conversions and more.

To change the language on your Excel, please log in to the ABUKAI User Portal. Then go to User Profile and scroll down to Language for Excel reports and select from the drop-down menu.

ABUKAI + FreshBooks

ABUKAI Expenses now automatically posts expense management and invoice scan data directly to FreshBooks. 

We know that small businesses and freelancers would rather spend time on productive work and tracking expense reports just takes time away from projects and client work. With ABUKAI, you can just take a picture of a receipt, and hit submit and we extract all the data and post it to FreshBooks for you.

Learn more here: http://abukai.com/?id=freshbooks

Press release: http://abukai.com/?id=21&pr=171003

Business Trip Frenzy

After a frenzied business trip, bouncing across borders, simplify your life with
ABUKAI Expenses.

The last thing you want to do after a long trip is an expense report. Just take pictures of your receipts as you’re on the go, hit “submit” and leave the rest to us!

We will compile all of your travel expenses, recognizing the key data on the receipt including currency, vendor and VAT. We then create transparent reports that can be easily submitted for reimbursement or stored for record-keeping purposes.

Download our mobile application now here to give ABUKAI Expenses a try.

Need to work on multiple expense reports at the same time?

ABUKAI has a handy feature that we call Multi-Activity. You can work on up to 5 expense reports at a time in the mobile application and many more through our User Portal accessible from your PC or mobile anywhere.

Our customers use this to track expense reports for Projects, Customers, Clients, Trip Purposes, or other type of coding.

You can easily enable Multi-Activity in your Free or Individual accounts in our ABUKAI User Portal at http://abukai.com/user in the User Profile section. Please make sure to re-enter your email in the ABUKAI Expenses mobile application settings to update the mobile UI with the new capability.

To add this to your Corporate Account or to discuss other options, please contact us here.

ABUKAI Technology

Have you ever wanted to learn a bit more about ABUKAI’s ground-breaking technology? 

We deliver solutions well beyond our award-winning application.

Check out this video about our auto-magic service below: 

ABUKAI Company Update

Here are some highlights from our CEO speaking at a recent company event.

We have expanded our industry footprints and our accounting partnerships across the globe. We will continue to create new and exiting products aligned with our vision to revolutionize the way companies do business by providing ACTIONABLE BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY solutions.

We look forward to 2017 and hope you do too!

ABUKAI + KashFlow Accounting

ABUKAI integrates with KashFlow Accounting to offer new expense management services to customers in the United Kingdom.

ABUKAI has extended its platform to include support for KashFlow's accounting software. The United Kingdom is an important market to us and we are committed to support different systems and backends as required globally.

For more details or sign up for KashFlow accounting integration, please see here.

ABUKAI + MYOB

ABUKAI joins with MYOB ecosystem to Offer New Expense Management Services to Customers in Australia and New Zealand.

ABUKAI has extended its platform to include MYOB. Our customers in Australia and New Zealand are very important to us and we are committed to extending our services to best serve markets all over the world. 

More details here.

Foreign receipts can be frustrating.We’re here to help.

Most people don’t enjoy expense reporting. Foreign travel can multiply the time required to complete expenses. How many times have you tried figure out what a receipt was for? Receipts can be in another language, and sometimes in another alphabet! After that, you have to go look up exchange rates.

With ABUKAI, you never have to worry about that again.

Taxi receipt in Hong Kong? Easy!

Restaurant in Moscow? Just take a picture!

Dry cleaning in Cairo? Simple!

Rental car in Argentina? Fácil!

Just take pictures of your foreign receipts just like you do with normal receipts. 

We figure out the vendor, category, location (and all the other normal data), plus we calculate the exchange rate and give you the total in your local currency. A London-based user traveling to France would see their expense data in Pounds Sterling, with no extra data entry required.

At ABUKAI, we strive to be the world's quickest and easiest way to create expense reports. 

Our customers have global needs and we want to provide the best possible service for them.

Curious? Give it a try. Just go to abukai.com/install and download our free app and take pictures of a few receipts.