This is a very very bad mistake by your product team. I assume they don't use the app as a business user and don't have any empathy for their actual users. The primary usage of Receipt app was right after a purchase before you lose the receipt. With retiring the app, now I have to keep the receipt till the transaction shows up in Wave (Credit Card transactions take couple of days to show up). After it shows up, now I have to find the right receipt and then attach it to the transaction. You made it way worse than it was. You could make the receipt smarter by suggesting user which transaction to attach the receipt to. You're going backward, I will switch to another vendor - very disappointed.
Bad move Wave. The Receipts App was one of the great features of Wave. The ability to never lose a receipt by making a purchase, snap a pic with my phone and then process later was invaluable. Now you are forcing me to run the whole process on my phone screen if I want to continue to make sure I get all receipts in.
I would LOVE to see just what "requests" were made for this. I can believe that a majority of your user base actually requested this.
I'm very disappointed with this change. While I'm at a restaurant, supply store, or Lowe's, I will definitely not log into a web page on my phone, go through menus to find the right page, create a bill, fill it out, take a picture, then upload that image. It's too much. All of that could have been filed in with 3 clicks in one app previously.
..... We didn’t ask......... and you obviously didn’t listen!!!!!!! No one asked you to take the receipt app away..... seriously, like so many other ppl, I will have to find a new platform ....... you just lost a whole load of customers ........ congratulations.......
I am very disappointed with this update. This is not an improvement no matter how you spin this.
1) Wave did this major change without considering impacts on our current workflow is causing user backlash and negative publicity...
2) This is a step backward because it's going to cause inconvenience for many users like ourselves. Before we snap a photo of receipt at point of sales and we can discard the receipt. Now we will have to wait for DAYS before the transaction shows up then remember to locate the transaction and MANUALLY matching images to the transaction.... frankly this is ridiculous. There is OCR technology that is working well, now WAVE unilaterally decide to let users to process things manually and spin the whole thing as a major improvement. Some cost saving of removing OCR processing to inconveniences user is NOT the way to go.
It's ridiculous and infuriating to get an email stating "Good news" and then read that you're taking away your best feature. I think this is the first time I've ever left a negative comment on a web site, but the change you're making warrants it. Based on all the comments here, you've clearly missed the mark with this decision. A simple way to fix it and keep ALL your customers happy (not just the ones who asked for the new feature) is to keep both options available.
There have been many cases of companies making bad decisions over the past year (e.g. Microsoft increasing the cost of Xbox Live Gold) and then reversing them shortly after because of customer unhappiness. I suggest you do the same or risk losing many customers over this. The ONLY reason I started using Wave in the first place was for the ability to take a picture of a receipt and then throw it away. Rather than removing this, you should be doing simple improvements, like auto-categorization based on past categorization for the same vendor.
In what way is this an "enhancement"? Removing functionality that so many of us use does not make your product better. I don't use the bank link, but I do use the current receipt functionality. It saves hours. This is a terrible decision. Like many others on here, I'm going to have to look for new accounting software.
I like the optionality of being able to upload a receipt and attach the capture to an existing transaction, but gettting rid of OCR and the sent to : receipts@waveapps feature is counter intuitive. Not everyone's workflow is the same, nor is it done by only one person necessarily. Employees could essentially capture their receipt immediately and send it in, negating the need to store and keep or track the paper, then an office worker could process the receipts when the transactions show up at a later time. Of course, a person can still take a digital image of the receipt and email it to their accounting administrator, but I would think it creates more work for the administrator without the OCR in matching up the details once the transactions show up.
Please reconsider removing the feature which is my primary use of your app. I understand other users have different workflows. Since the features are already there, at least allow users to choose which workflow to use. I am hopeful that you will listen to the numerous users who are disagreeing with you. I will have to find another service offering this feature if you remove it.
As a small business owner that spends far more time in the truck than the office, the receipts app was one of the big reasons I started using Wave. I have even recommended it to several colleagues based on this functionality. This is certainly no improvement, and as another user commented, I might as well just go back to the box of receipts to deal with at the end of the year
Why can you not add the upload feature and keep the app? Are you looking at these comments at all? Most everyone here wants the receipts app. I don't think you are actually listening to your customers.
SO FRUSTRATED! I came to Wave receipts and have recommended to countless others solely for the OCR recognition component. It was slick, it was just what everyone needed. Please recognize that it is a lot of work for businesses to change platforms. Your change is forcing me to look elsewhere again. The OCR recognition was CRITICAL to the decision to use this product. I also use the receipts@waveapps functionality ALL THE TIME when I don't have a scanner handy and a receipt lands in my inbox. PLEASE RECONSIDER!
Echoing the sentiments of many here. This literally "breaks" my accounting work flow now.
Existing:
1. Open Wave Receipts App.
2. Click Camera button
New:
1. Take photo with my camera.
2. Log into photo's on cloud and download image to drop box to be accessed outside of my phone.
3. Log into waveapps.com
4. Create a manual transaction (error prone) on waveapps.
5. Locate photo on drop box and attach to transaction.
6. Delete duplicate bank entry when it appears 72 hours later.
7. Get killed by my accountant for falling behind on receipts because it take 3 times longer to do now and making constant typos creating manual entries.
Terrible news. This was one of the best features of Wave for simply accounting without needing to connect to a bank account for sole proprietor who doesn't have a separate business bank account. Awful.
Oh this is too bad. Transactions have a delay of one or two days. This mean I'll have to keep a receipt in my pocket and most likely lose it before I can attach it. It was better when it was sitting in a queue so that I could make sure to capture it and file it later.
I'm extremely disappointed. OCR processing of receipts is one of the main things that got me using Wave in the beginning. I'm self-employed and sit down to do my accounting once a year so I can file my taxes. The most tedious part of the job is reading small receipts - gas receipts, the occasional meal on the road, office supplies - paid for with my personal debit card, as it's cheaper than paying business banking fees for every little transaction. Finding the date and the amount when every receipt is laid out differently is part of the hassle. Being in Canada, sometimes the date is month-day-year as in the US, and sometimes it is day-month-year as in the UK, and sometimes it's year-month-day as it should be (unambiguous)! Wave's OCR doesn't always get it right, but it's much easier to correct once the receipt has been entered. A minor point, and much easier than trying to find the date in the first place. I hope someone will develop a receipt-reading app that will integrate with Wave, because having to enter every little transaction is a royal pain in the arse.
@Ayoung72 said:
Echoing the sentiments of many here. This literally "breaks" my accounting work flow now.
Existing:
1. Open Wave Receipts App.
2. Click Camera button
New:
1. Take photo with my camera.
2. Log into photo's on cloud and download image to drop box to be accessed outside of my phone.
3. Log into waveapps.com
4. Create a manual transaction (error prone) on waveapps.
5. Locate photo on drop box and attach to transaction.
6. Delete duplicate bank entry when it appears 72 hours later.
7. Get killed by my accountant for falling behind on receipts because it take 3 times longer to do now and making constant typos creating manual entries.
Thank you?
My exact same workflow here. This "new" system adds way too much time now.
Wow this is a terrible idea, like so many others have said this is the reason I chose Wave in the 1st place. Since I don't use the banking feature this will literally take me loads more time. I have tons of paper receipts and rely on the convenience of taking a photo to capture most the information from an easy to use app from my phone. I already found the import receipt option (for my online purchases) to be more cumbersome. I already have a full time job in the Accounting industry don't have a full time bookkeeper on staff for my small family business, this will create loads of more work for us, I don't see how this will benefit our business in anyway. I will have to look at other easier to use software options now as this isn't an improvement at all, this is a downgrade of your offered features. Why oh why wouldn't you allow folks to opt out of the receipt app (those that sync their banking transactions) or couldn't those folks just not use the app? Why force everyone that actively use the app to do more work as if we all suddenly have more time to spend on accounting, I don't have more time. This is a HUGE disappointment.
WHAT!? How is this a "you asked, we listened". This is a HUGE, HUGE loss. The receipt processing was THE sole reason why I picked Wave. The ability to upload receipts and have them processed via OCR. You realize a LOT of people do not sync wave with their bank.
WOW, I am shocked. PLEASE reconsider before this very short lead time.
Whoever sat around the table and said "this is what our customers want" needs to be fired. You have NOT listened to your customers at all. WOW!
I am not a fan of this update. For my businesses I have users who do not touch the accounting side, but make purchases for the business. The convenience for them up just snapping a picture the letting the accountant reconcile the transaction with the receipt is preferred. Now, non-accountants have the ability to impact the general ledger.
It's one thing that you need to manage your business plan by removing a key feature in order to save money and survive, but to spin it like a great new feature is more transparently evasive than a Psaki press conference.
We understand that the OCR and image storage functionality is likely a major cost for you that maybe you didn't account for going forward, especially given that you offer a free product in your lower tier. So why not just be honest about it and give those that use this feature - and by all accounts a fair percentage of your users - the option to pay a few bucks a month for the Receipts app will have less blowback than this feature removal will.
Personally, it's even more frustrating because I just finished the transition to your system and now will have to go looking for another if this doesn't get rectified.
The reason people use your software isn't to save ~$100/yr from the alternatives but because it streamlines the workflow of small businesses that have people on the go. Others in this thread have explained it well enough that I don't need to.
Please reconsider and at least give us the option to pay a couple bucks a month so that we can save hours of our time for out business workflow.
This is horrible news. We do not link to a bank account and thus will have lost an amazing feature with the receipt app on our phone. PLEASE keep this feature. Anyone out there know where to switch to? Wave is letting down members...
Terrible. The ocr and receipts app is the only reason I started using your system. Now I’ll have to look elsewhere. There are improvements that should be made to it, like being able to denote if a recipe is a return, but it was near perfect before. Heaven forbid you give people the option to either use the app or attach recipes or even better allow you two buttons in the recipes app, one to attach and one to create expense.
Who on earth thought this was a good idea? Now I’d have to actually read every single recipes in detail all the time. Zero chance I’m linking all my credit cards to your system, there has never been a need to.
Wow... Just wow. Whoever made this decision should be fired.
"Hey lets take the one thing people really LOVE and get rid of it!"
Foolish, out of touch management. Is management purposefully trying to sabotage this platform??? Because this move sure makes it seem like it. What an absolute joke.
I, and I'm sure many others, will be looking towards a different platform now. Good job Wave... Not.
This is a BAD, POOR decision. You are taking away the ONE feature it made me sign on to Wave to begin with... Please listen to your user community and reconsider.
@GeorgeP said:
If anyone finds an alternate to Wave that still has the OCR functionality, please post it. I don't link to my bank account so this is a major blow, and will add hours to my accounting.
Well this is some good timing, Google has just come out with an app called "Stacks" which will scan receipts and other docs then categorize them using OCR. It's Android-only for now but looks promising.
Comments
This is a very very bad mistake by your product team. I assume they don't use the app as a business user and don't have any empathy for their actual users. The primary usage of Receipt app was right after a purchase before you lose the receipt. With retiring the app, now I have to keep the receipt till the transaction shows up in Wave (Credit Card transactions take couple of days to show up). After it shows up, now I have to find the right receipt and then attach it to the transaction. You made it way worse than it was. You could make the receipt smarter by suggesting user which transaction to attach the receipt to. You're going backward, I will switch to another vendor - very disappointed.
Bad move Wave. The Receipts App was one of the great features of Wave. The ability to never lose a receipt by making a purchase, snap a pic with my phone and then process later was invaluable. Now you are forcing me to run the whole process on my phone screen if I want to continue to make sure I get all receipts in.
I would LOVE to see just what "requests" were made for this. I can believe that a majority of your user base actually requested this.
I'm very disappointed with this change. While I'm at a restaurant, supply store, or Lowe's, I will definitely not log into a web page on my phone, go through menus to find the right page, create a bill, fill it out, take a picture, then upload that image. It's too much. All of that could have been filed in with 3 clicks in one app previously.
I am very disappointed with this update. This is not an improvement no matter how you spin this.
1) Wave did this major change without considering impacts on our current workflow is causing user backlash and negative publicity...
2) This is a step backward because it's going to cause inconvenience for many users like ourselves. Before we snap a photo of receipt at point of sales and we can discard the receipt. Now we will have to wait for DAYS before the transaction shows up then remember to locate the transaction and MANUALLY matching images to the transaction.... frankly this is ridiculous. There is OCR technology that is working well, now WAVE unilaterally decide to let users to process things manually and spin the whole thing as a major improvement. Some cost saving of removing OCR processing to inconveniences user is NOT the way to go.
It's ridiculous and infuriating to get an email stating "Good news" and then read that you're taking away your best feature. I think this is the first time I've ever left a negative comment on a web site, but the change you're making warrants it. Based on all the comments here, you've clearly missed the mark with this decision. A simple way to fix it and keep ALL your customers happy (not just the ones who asked for the new feature) is to keep both options available.
There have been many cases of companies making bad decisions over the past year (e.g. Microsoft increasing the cost of Xbox Live Gold) and then reversing them shortly after because of customer unhappiness. I suggest you do the same or risk losing many customers over this. The ONLY reason I started using Wave in the first place was for the ability to take a picture of a receipt and then throw it away. Rather than removing this, you should be doing simple improvements, like auto-categorization based on past categorization for the same vendor.
In what way is this an "enhancement"? Removing functionality that so many of us use does not make your product better. I don't use the bank link, but I do use the current receipt functionality. It saves hours. This is a terrible decision. Like many others on here, I'm going to have to look for new accounting software.
I like the optionality of being able to upload a receipt and attach the capture to an existing transaction, but gettting rid of OCR and the sent to : receipts@waveapps feature is counter intuitive. Not everyone's workflow is the same, nor is it done by only one person necessarily. Employees could essentially capture their receipt immediately and send it in, negating the need to store and keep or track the paper, then an office worker could process the receipts when the transactions show up at a later time. Of course, a person can still take a digital image of the receipt and email it to their accounting administrator, but I would think it creates more work for the administrator without the OCR in matching up the details once the transactions show up.
In my opinion, you guys will be going backwards if you removed the OCR & receipt postings.
A simple fix for the duplicate transaction is to add the following option when posting a receipt:
And maybe go a little bit extra and allow also to assign a vendor through the receipt posting.
I would ask you to revise your decision, please.
Cheers
Why can you not add the upload feature and keep the app? Are you looking at these comments at all? Most everyone here wants the receipts app. I don't think you are actually listening to your customers.
You are removing the OCR function? That is literally the best function of Wave receipts.
SO FRUSTRATED! I came to Wave receipts and have recommended to countless others solely for the OCR recognition component. It was slick, it was just what everyone needed. Please recognize that it is a lot of work for businesses to change platforms. Your change is forcing me to look elsewhere again. The OCR recognition was CRITICAL to the decision to use this product. I also use the receipts@waveapps functionality ALL THE TIME when I don't have a scanner handy and a receipt lands in my inbox. PLEASE RECONSIDER!
Echoing the sentiments of many here. This literally "breaks" my accounting work flow now.
Existing:
1. Open Wave Receipts App.
2. Click Camera button
New:
1. Take photo with my camera.
2. Log into photo's on cloud and download image to drop box to be accessed outside of my phone.
3. Log into waveapps.com
4. Create a manual transaction (error prone) on waveapps.
5. Locate photo on drop box and attach to transaction.
6. Delete duplicate bank entry when it appears 72 hours later.
7. Get killed by my accountant for falling behind on receipts because it take 3 times longer to do now and making constant typos creating manual entries.
Thank you?
Terrible news. This was one of the best features of Wave for simply accounting without needing to connect to a bank account for sole proprietor who doesn't have a separate business bank account. Awful.
I'm extremely disappointed. OCR processing of receipts is one of the main things that got me using Wave in the beginning. I'm self-employed and sit down to do my accounting once a year so I can file my taxes. The most tedious part of the job is reading small receipts - gas receipts, the occasional meal on the road, office supplies - paid for with my personal debit card, as it's cheaper than paying business banking fees for every little transaction. Finding the date and the amount when every receipt is laid out differently is part of the hassle. Being in Canada, sometimes the date is month-day-year as in the US, and sometimes it is day-month-year as in the UK, and sometimes it's year-month-day as it should be (unambiguous)! Wave's OCR doesn't always get it right, but it's much easier to correct once the receipt has been entered. A minor point, and much easier than trying to find the date in the first place. I hope someone will develop a receipt-reading app that will integrate with Wave, because having to enter every little transaction is a royal pain in the arse.
My exact same workflow here. This "new" system adds way too much time now.
Wow this is a terrible idea, like so many others have said this is the reason I chose Wave in the 1st place. Since I don't use the banking feature this will literally take me loads more time. I have tons of paper receipts and rely on the convenience of taking a photo to capture most the information from an easy to use app from my phone. I already found the import receipt option (for my online purchases) to be more cumbersome. I already have a full time job in the Accounting industry don't have a full time bookkeeper on staff for my small family business, this will create loads of more work for us, I don't see how this will benefit our business in anyway. I will have to look at other easier to use software options now as this isn't an improvement at all, this is a downgrade of your offered features. Why oh why wouldn't you allow folks to opt out of the receipt app (those that sync their banking transactions) or couldn't those folks just not use the app? Why force everyone that actively use the app to do more work as if we all suddenly have more time to spend on accounting, I don't have more time. This is a HUGE disappointment.
WHAT!? How is this a "you asked, we listened". This is a HUGE, HUGE loss. The receipt processing was THE sole reason why I picked Wave. The ability to upload receipts and have them processed via OCR. You realize a LOT of people do not sync wave with their bank.
WOW, I am shocked. PLEASE reconsider before this very short lead time.
Whoever sat around the table and said "this is what our customers want" needs to be fired. You have NOT listened to your customers at all. WOW!
I am not a fan of this update. For my businesses I have users who do not touch the accounting side, but make purchases for the business. The convenience for them up just snapping a picture the letting the accountant reconcile the transaction with the receipt is preferred. Now, non-accountants have the ability to impact the general ledger.
Thanks for recommending! I'll look into Sunrise if Wave doesn't listen to its customers and reverse their decision soon.
Great. Just assume we are all idiots.
It's one thing that you need to manage your business plan by removing a key feature in order to save money and survive, but to spin it like a great new feature is more transparently evasive than a Psaki press conference.
We understand that the OCR and image storage functionality is likely a major cost for you that maybe you didn't account for going forward, especially given that you offer a free product in your lower tier. So why not just be honest about it and give those that use this feature - and by all accounts a fair percentage of your users - the option to pay a few bucks a month for the Receipts app will have less blowback than this feature removal will.
Personally, it's even more frustrating because I just finished the transition to your system and now will have to go looking for another if this doesn't get rectified.
The reason people use your software isn't to save ~$100/yr from the alternatives but because it streamlines the workflow of small businesses that have people on the go. Others in this thread have explained it well enough that I don't need to.
Please reconsider and at least give us the option to pay a couple bucks a month so that we can save hours of our time for out business workflow.
Terrible. The ocr and receipts app is the only reason I started using your system. Now I’ll have to look elsewhere. There are improvements that should be made to it, like being able to denote if a recipe is a return, but it was near perfect before. Heaven forbid you give people the option to either use the app or attach recipes or even better allow you two buttons in the recipes app, one to attach and one to create expense.
Who on earth thought this was a good idea? Now I’d have to actually read every single recipes in detail all the time. Zero chance I’m linking all my credit cards to your system, there has never been a need to.
Wow... Just wow. Whoever made this decision should be fired.
"Hey lets take the one thing people really LOVE and get rid of it!"
Foolish, out of touch management. Is management purposefully trying to sabotage this platform??? Because this move sure makes it seem like it. What an absolute joke.
I, and I'm sure many others, will be looking towards a different platform now. Good job Wave... Not.
This is a BAD, POOR decision. You are taking away the ONE feature it made me sign on to Wave to begin with... Please listen to your user community and reconsider.
Well this is some good timing, Google has just come out with an app called "Stacks" which will scan receipts and other docs then categorize them using OCR. It's Android-only for now but looks promising.
https://blog.google/technology/area-120/stack/
Good Bad News!
Wow.
Takes all the good out of Wave accounting for sure. Makes no sense. Please don't do this.