> @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.
Shoeboxed, but they no longer offer the free "DIY" account to new users. If you have an old account with them, they let you email receipts and they use OCR. They are a Wave partner as well, so I think they might import into Wave.
Edit: Shoeboxed's free DIY account no longer offers the free OCR processing either. Sorry, just checked.
It is a bit mixed feeling to me about this "Receipt" changes in WAVE.
First, I understand the decision to make the receipt an "attachment" of Transaction, that makes the workflow much more clear to me personally. Furthermore, the original workflow of "Receipt -> Transaction" was a bit odd to me and it created duplicated transactions if the user had Bank Import feature turned on. By moving the Receipt inside a Transaction, that eliminates the duplicated transaction problem, as well as letting people freely attach receipt to any imported transactions.
Second, I am not quite sure if removing OCR Image Processing feature is a good idea. I would appreciate WAVE to allow the users to upload a receipt on Transaction page to create a draft transaction entry directly with prefilled information from OCR image processing. In that case, for those who still love the "Upload to create Transaction" feature still can keep their workflow even the Receipt Mobile App is gone. In fact, while removing the Receipt Mobile App, I believe it makes more sense to launch "Transaction Mobile App" - where people can view/edit/upload transactions within their mobile phone. Developing and Maintaining a mobile app is super expensive, I get it, so we really need the WAVE webpages to be Responsive and can fit mobile browser view easily.
Third, according to the introduction of this post, the end users will have the Responsive Transaction Web Page to upload a receipt - but they have to create a Transaction first now. It is great. I previously hated using the Mobile browser to view WAVE pages as they were not Responsive or Mobile-friendly. But if those pages now or soon become Responsive, I am happy. However, since the user can get to the Receipt tab and trigger the Camera to take a photo, why not directly give the user the option of "Take a photo of receipt -> create a new Transaction" while still keep the OCR Image Processing? Not every user is using Bank Import, and the "Receipt to Transaction" workflow still has its fans among the users.
Four, some concerns here. Previously, Receipts and Transactions are two separate entities in the system. So if we deleted a Transaction, that linked Receipt still remain in the system. Now, the receipt upload is done inside each Transaction, if we have to delete a transaction, I assume the uploaded receipt will also be deleted? From the screenshot, I can see there is a button to upload receipt within the Receipt tab, but I am wondering can we upload multiple receipts for each transaction? What will happen if we split a transaction into two while the transaction already has a receipt uploaded?
we are up to 8 pages of complaints.. and we have not heard a response from WAVE. 99% of the complaints to some degree echo the same sentiment. Yet we have not heard from WAVE about our concerns?
I second cardfan. Would WAVE please gather the courage to address the complaints brought by their fans? At the end of the day, we complain about it because we care!
I agree with all the complaints. Wave is going to lose a lot of customers, myself included. A step backwards and I don't appreciate their spin to make it seem like an improvement. Sure wish they would respond and leave as is.
After wading through 8 pages of complaints you would think it is blindingly obvious that this change is not what your Wave members want. Personally I use Wave to keep track of my Receipts only and don't use the other features of the website. Losing this simple App on my phone with excellent OCR is a kick in the teeth after setting up my business using this method for years. Can the phone Receipts App not be retained please, its so useful and there really are not many good alternatives out there.
The only other similar Apps worth mentioning for others like me that I have found are:
Smart Receipts
WorkReceipts
Both of these on iOS. Personally they are no where near as good as Wave Receipts App.
@Wave, please reassess your decision on this removal of useful features as its obvious there are a lot of Wave members that don't use this new workflow and would prefer to keep the Receipts App functioning for their needs. You will lose customers if this goes ahead.
Nooooo. The app was so great! Especially for those of us moving on the fly. I could do all the notes, categorization, and detail files as soon as I made the purchase for my business. The bank usually take a few days to process the transaction. This is no an ideal workflow our operation. Very said about this change. The app really set wave a part.
First, Wave removed the capability to process a receipt that was in the body of an email. So many of my online purchase receipts come as an email-only. Now we have to take a few extra steps to save that email as a .pdf, and then email or upload the .pdf file. Never fully understood the reasoning they gave me for that - just made for more work...
Now, Wave is removing the capability to submit and process receipts when away from a computer. My business is providing engineering consulting services, and (pre-COVID) would travel for about three weeks each month. Works out to approx. 15-20 receipts per week. Maybe not a lot compared to some others, but it's just me here... The app-based photo & OCR process saved me a bunch of time. Yes, I have to merge the receipt transactions with imported transactions, but that's also a good error-checking mechanism. Not a big deal...
This new workflow is just going to add a bunch of zero-value work and hassle to my expenses processing. Period.
@Wave, I understand you want to provide more features for your users. But removing existing capabilities that so many of us rely on is the wrong way to go - it's a step backwards! How hard can it be to provide multiple different workflows for this? You can add this new attach receipt workflow, and still retain the existing app photo OCR workflow. And at the same time, the email receipt text workflow used to work just fine, let's bring that back.
@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.
Foreceipt isn't free ($3.25/mo for up to 200 receipts) but it offers the OCR functionality that has made Wave so appealing, especially for cash users such as myself. I have had to aclimate to the $40/year as opposed to free, but I NEED this function!
This may not work for us. We have employees that use credit cards that are not set up in Wave and cash for some purchases on the road that are not going to show up in Wave until the receipt is scanned in. This is a function that we need so we are able to create the transaction without having to go in and and spend a bunch of time doing so before we are able to attach a receipt to it. I believe some of the functions need to still be available for this purpose.
I agree with the many comments and I too would like to hear back from WAVE on this issue. Sounds like most of us would like to retain the current receipt functionality.
THIS IS SO GREAT!!!!
It's been horrendously complicated before to get our receipts attached to our existing transactions with our bank imports. Now, I can scan the receipt to my phone and attach it right to the transaction in Wave without having to import, process to post to GL, then find the resulting duplicate entry and Merge them. It was so much more onerous.
Thank you!!!
And now the "upload a receipt" option doesn't even show on the transactions in the transaction page. So not only is the good way going away, the "new" method isn't working properly. There's no way for me to attach a receipt to an imported transaction now.
I just use my Wave receipts app to take photo of an e-mailed receipt, works same as if it was a paper receipt. I will not accept going backwards to slower method.
Recording receipts when you are on the road is a major convenience of the old system. You're jettisoning that capability.
So what happens if I have a receipt but no transaction (because the bank hasn't recorded it yet and won't for a number of days). Are we suppose to wait until the bank transaction occurs?
Someone clearly hasn't thought through the actual workflow of receipt processing done by your users.
You need to seriously rethink this implementation.
This is a huge loss and obviously many feel the same way.
Unless users want to work from the tiny screen of a mobile phone (which in my past experience with Wave is near impossible), the following steps are now going to be required to do something that used to be as simple as taking a picture on the receipts app:
1. taking pictures of each receipt,
2. emailing them to yourself
3. saving them to your computer
4. RENAMING EACH FILE so you know which receipt the picture corresponds with
5. uploading them to wave.
Yes the current method with the wave app creates duplicates. Simple fix is to delete the duplicate.
For anything paid in cash, I guess we are now forced to manually create a transaction each time.
Also it was a lot easier to find and delete duplicates when the "sort by amount" option existed. Still can't understand why that one went away.
Why not retain the receipts app for the many who clearly find it beneficial?
With the new feature, you’ll simply open up the transaction details for an expense transaction, and then be able to click “Upload a receipt” to attach a file from your device. That’s it! No more image processing. No more receipt statuses. No more duplicates.
For mobile users: Wave’s Transaction and Dashboard pages are fully responsive on mobile, so you can log in to Wave on a mobile browser, and easily navigate to the Transactions page. Locate the relevant expense, open up the transaction details and click “upload a receipt” to snap a photo with your camera app, or select an image from your device. That’s it!
And what are you suppose to do when the relevant expense doesn't exist because the financial institution hasn't processed the transaction yet?
Let me guess. Go ahead and just record the expense as a new transaction and then wait for the bank transaction to be imported and merge them then. And that's so much better than the current system how?
Secondly, I get a 10X number of transactions per day imported into Wave. Some belong there, a great number need to move over to Personal side of the house. What your suggesting is that a user navigates through 10X transactions attempting to find the relevant transaction to upload the receipt against.
No matter how responsive the Wave Transaction Page is that process is going to take an inordinate amount of time in searching for that transaction (and that is assuming the transaction will exist, which it will not). I dare say the same amount of time spent searching for this transaction will be equal to what it currently takes to merge receipt transactions with bank transactions today. Probably more so on responsive device in the field. That is a time that is not acceptable when you are out of the office. I will admit that it is an acceptable time when you are in the office on a big screen with adequate bandwidth to do the searching.
Finally, As a 30+ year software engineer that specialized in GUI and GUI toolkits and who started his career developing accounting software, I'm fairly certain that reliable usability testing was not done before making this decision. If the usability testing was done, the accounting environment and corresponding data were limited to the point that it skewed the results. Did you actually test with users with Receipts At The Moment that didn't have corresponding bank transactions or was it the Shoebox of Receipts kind of testing environment?
In my business, I have both types of receipt recording. When we are traveling it is essential to record the Receipt At The Moment by logging both the expense type and the payment type. This saves me from losing the receipt and knowing exactly if a meal was 100% deductable or 50% deductible (different expense accounts) at the moment of the expense. During the month-ending process, I can merge the expense and transaction together.
The other type of receipt recording occurs most often at months end. Let's call these the Shoebox Receipts. Typically these receipts are reoccurring expenses where I get notified via email. They almost always go to the same expense and payment accounts and recording them certainly isn't time-critical. Currently have to create a copy of the receipt, send it through expenses, and then merge it with an existing transaction. In that type of receipt recording, your new process would be beneficial and potentially time-saving.
I would estimate that in my business there is a 50/50 split of these two types of receipts. Your proposed change sacrifices the quick recording Of Receipts at the Momembt methodology for the benefit of the reoccurring, in-office Shoebox Receipts. Even in my 50/50 split business that is not acceptable. For a business that is 10/90 receipt type split favoring Shoebox of Receipts, your new method could be tolerated, but for a 90/10 split company that favors Receipts At The Moment, it would be an utter disaster.
Look, I get it that you are trying to make it easier to match an expense with a transaction. It is currently a pain. Tolerable, but a pain.
But you have to listen to your customers. There is clearly a large share that is in the Receipts At The Moment it occurs camp. Don't sacrifice those users for the Shoebox Receipt camp. You need a system that can accommodate both or those like me who are in both camps.
I just recently recorded all the receipts related to the building and improvements on our 27-year-old home. Each receipt and there were over 1,000 of them, was entered using the Wave Expense App. A hand full were multiple pages and required a scanner.
Every expense went to the same Home Building and Improvement account and went to one of two financial accounts. There were no bank transactions for these expenses.
While this is just personal use it would have been impossible with the new system. The time it took to record was minimal. I would estimate with the new procedure it would have taken 4 times as long.
Receipt logging is an essential feature. Tying it to a bank transaction is secondary. At least in this case it is.
Like many, I am awaiting a response from Wave. I have never felt ignoring complaints is a good strategy. Certainly, I appreciate Wave must be doing this because it is operationally efficient for themselves, or there is some other benefit that makes sense for them to anger and lose a number of seemingly dedicated users. I understand you are accountable to the bottomline, and sometimes it does not make you popular.
If this is the case, Wave, how about an update and simply state you may regret isolating these users, but you remain committed to making this change. This will allow these users that value this feature to find something else before you pull the plug.
Please confirm you are committed to moving forwards - or not. I think that is only fair.
After reading this discussion several times, I understand the need for a revision for those users that import their transactions automatically. I would logically assume that this would entail adding an "attach to existing transaction" in the drop-down options within the Receipts App. It doesn't seem like the planners at Wave are showing all of their cards with this complete 180 away from the OCR functionality.
Have you considered charging a small fee to keep the OCR functionality if cost is the reason for removing it?
Like Kramguy requested, I would like a response from Wave to let us know if they "remain committed to making this change" or if they are willing to reconsider keeping OCR (even if it's for a fee).
I keep coming back to this growing thread of complaints for your response Wave!! Are you considering keeping the OCR functionality? Also you guys are ignoring emails/chat requests...!! Please! Let your customers know where you are at!
Thank you for all of the input that you’ve provided in this thread. To continue the conversation, we’ve created a new discussion addressing feedback where possible and providing additional details around the upcoming Receipts changes. You can join the new discussion here.
Comments
> 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.
Shoeboxed, but they no longer offer the free "DIY" account to new users. If you have an old account with them, they let you email receipts and they use OCR. They are a Wave partner as well, so I think they might import into Wave.
Edit: Shoeboxed's free DIY account no longer offers the free OCR processing either. Sorry, just checked.
Strongly disapproving of the loss of the OCR functionality via receipts@waveapps.com.
It is a bit mixed feeling to me about this "Receipt" changes in WAVE.
First, I understand the decision to make the receipt an "attachment" of Transaction, that makes the workflow much more clear to me personally. Furthermore, the original workflow of "Receipt -> Transaction" was a bit odd to me and it created duplicated transactions if the user had Bank Import feature turned on. By moving the Receipt inside a Transaction, that eliminates the duplicated transaction problem, as well as letting people freely attach receipt to any imported transactions.
Second, I am not quite sure if removing OCR Image Processing feature is a good idea. I would appreciate WAVE to allow the users to upload a receipt on Transaction page to create a draft transaction entry directly with prefilled information from OCR image processing. In that case, for those who still love the "Upload to create Transaction" feature still can keep their workflow even the Receipt Mobile App is gone. In fact, while removing the Receipt Mobile App, I believe it makes more sense to launch "Transaction Mobile App" - where people can view/edit/upload transactions within their mobile phone. Developing and Maintaining a mobile app is super expensive, I get it, so we really need the WAVE webpages to be Responsive and can fit mobile browser view easily.
Third, according to the introduction of this post, the end users will have the Responsive Transaction Web Page to upload a receipt - but they have to create a Transaction first now. It is great. I previously hated using the Mobile browser to view WAVE pages as they were not Responsive or Mobile-friendly. But if those pages now or soon become Responsive, I am happy. However, since the user can get to the Receipt tab and trigger the Camera to take a photo, why not directly give the user the option of "Take a photo of receipt -> create a new Transaction" while still keep the OCR Image Processing? Not every user is using Bank Import, and the "Receipt to Transaction" workflow still has its fans among the users.
Four, some concerns here. Previously, Receipts and Transactions are two separate entities in the system. So if we deleted a Transaction, that linked Receipt still remain in the system. Now, the receipt upload is done inside each Transaction, if we have to delete a transaction, I assume the uploaded receipt will also be deleted? From the screenshot, I can see there is a button to upload receipt within the Receipt tab, but I am wondering can we upload multiple receipts for each transaction? What will happen if we split a transaction into two while the transaction already has a receipt uploaded?
we are up to 8 pages of complaints.. and we have not heard a response from WAVE. 99% of the complaints to some degree echo the same sentiment. Yet we have not heard from WAVE about our concerns?
I second cardfan. Would WAVE please gather the courage to address the complaints brought by their fans? At the end of the day, we complain about it because we care!
I agree with all the complaints. Wave is going to lose a lot of customers, myself included. A step backwards and I don't appreciate their spin to make it seem like an improvement. Sure wish they would respond and leave as is.
After wading through 8 pages of complaints you would think it is blindingly obvious that this change is not what your Wave members want. Personally I use Wave to keep track of my Receipts only and don't use the other features of the website. Losing this simple App on my phone with excellent OCR is a kick in the teeth after setting up my business using this method for years. Can the phone Receipts App not be retained please, its so useful and there really are not many good alternatives out there.
The only other similar Apps worth mentioning for others like me that I have found are:
Both of these on iOS. Personally they are no where near as good as Wave Receipts App.
@Wave, please reassess your decision on this removal of useful features as its obvious there are a lot of Wave members that don't use this new workflow and would prefer to keep the Receipts App functioning for their needs. You will lose customers if this goes ahead.
First, Wave removed the capability to process a receipt that was in the body of an email. So many of my online purchase receipts come as an email-only. Now we have to take a few extra steps to save that email as a .pdf, and then email or upload the .pdf file. Never fully understood the reasoning they gave me for that - just made for more work...
Now, Wave is removing the capability to submit and process receipts when away from a computer. My business is providing engineering consulting services, and (pre-COVID) would travel for about three weeks each month. Works out to approx. 15-20 receipts per week. Maybe not a lot compared to some others, but it's just me here... The app-based photo & OCR process saved me a bunch of time. Yes, I have to merge the receipt transactions with imported transactions, but that's also a good error-checking mechanism. Not a big deal...
This new workflow is just going to add a bunch of zero-value work and hassle to my expenses processing. Period.
@Wave, I understand you want to provide more features for your users. But removing existing capabilities that so many of us rely on is the wrong way to go - it's a step backwards! How hard can it be to provide multiple different workflows for this? You can add this new attach receipt workflow, and still retain the existing app photo OCR workflow. And at the same time, the email receipt text workflow used to work just fine, let's bring that back.
@Kirk ????
Foreceipt isn't free ($3.25/mo for up to 200 receipts) but it offers the OCR functionality that has made Wave so appealing, especially for cash users such as myself. I have had to aclimate to the $40/year as opposed to free, but I NEED this function!
Thanks @Dave_of_Maine! I will check that out!
I agree with the many comments and I too would like to hear back from WAVE on this issue. Sounds like most of us would like to retain the current receipt functionality.
THIS IS SO GREAT!!!!
It's been horrendously complicated before to get our receipts attached to our existing transactions with our bank imports. Now, I can scan the receipt to my phone and attach it right to the transaction in Wave without having to import, process to post to GL, then find the resulting duplicate entry and Merge them. It was so much more onerous.
Thank you!!!
Hope they reconsider the
" improvement "
One of the only reasons I chose wave
And now the "upload a receipt" option doesn't even show on the transactions in the transaction page. So not only is the good way going away, the "new" method isn't working properly. There's no way for me to attach a receipt to an imported transaction now.
Looks like our complaints flattened out at 8 pages
I do appreciate the free features I get from Wave.
I am a small business man doing home repairs. I am at the hardware store almost every day. Both big box stores email my reciepts.
Here are my simple steps:
This take a few seconds at most.
6
less steps but will take more time. Maybe Wave can add fingerprint recon on their mobile log in
It would be great if someone from Wave can answer our concerns
thank you
I will not accept going backwards to slower method.
Well, that's a bone head move.
Recording receipts when you are on the road is a major convenience of the old system. You're jettisoning that capability.
So what happens if I have a receipt but no transaction (because the bank hasn't recorded it yet and won't for a number of days). Are we suppose to wait until the bank transaction occurs?
Someone clearly hasn't thought through the actual workflow of receipt processing done by your users.
You need to seriously rethink this implementation.
This is a huge loss and obviously many feel the same way.
Unless users want to work from the tiny screen of a mobile phone (which in my past experience with Wave is near impossible), the following steps are now going to be required to do something that used to be as simple as taking a picture on the receipts app:
1. taking pictures of each receipt,
2. emailing them to yourself
3. saving them to your computer
4. RENAMING EACH FILE so you know which receipt the picture corresponds with
5. uploading them to wave.
Yes the current method with the wave app creates duplicates. Simple fix is to delete the duplicate.
For anything paid in cash, I guess we are now forced to manually create a transaction each time.
Also it was a lot easier to find and delete duplicates when the "sort by amount" option existed. Still can't understand why that one went away.
Why not retain the receipts app for the many who clearly find it beneficial?
And what are you suppose to do when the relevant expense doesn't exist because the financial institution hasn't processed the transaction yet?
Let me guess. Go ahead and just record the expense as a new transaction and then wait for the bank transaction to be imported and merge them then. And that's so much better than the current system how?
Secondly, I get a 10X number of transactions per day imported into Wave. Some belong there, a great number need to move over to Personal side of the house. What your suggesting is that a user navigates through 10X transactions attempting to find the relevant transaction to upload the receipt against.
No matter how responsive the Wave Transaction Page is that process is going to take an inordinate amount of time in searching for that transaction (and that is assuming the transaction will exist, which it will not). I dare say the same amount of time spent searching for this transaction will be equal to what it currently takes to merge receipt transactions with bank transactions today. Probably more so on responsive device in the field. That is a time that is not acceptable when you are out of the office. I will admit that it is an acceptable time when you are in the office on a big screen with adequate bandwidth to do the searching.
Finally, As a 30+ year software engineer that specialized in GUI and GUI toolkits and who started his career developing accounting software, I'm fairly certain that reliable usability testing was not done before making this decision. If the usability testing was done, the accounting environment and corresponding data were limited to the point that it skewed the results. Did you actually test with users with Receipts At The Moment that didn't have corresponding bank transactions or was it the Shoebox of Receipts kind of testing environment?
In my business, I have both types of receipt recording. When we are traveling it is essential to record the Receipt At The Moment by logging both the expense type and the payment type. This saves me from losing the receipt and knowing exactly if a meal was 100% deductable or 50% deductible (different expense accounts) at the moment of the expense. During the month-ending process, I can merge the expense and transaction together.
The other type of receipt recording occurs most often at months end. Let's call these the Shoebox Receipts. Typically these receipts are reoccurring expenses where I get notified via email. They almost always go to the same expense and payment accounts and recording them certainly isn't time-critical. Currently have to create a copy of the receipt, send it through expenses, and then merge it with an existing transaction. In that type of receipt recording, your new process would be beneficial and potentially time-saving.
I would estimate that in my business there is a 50/50 split of these two types of receipts. Your proposed change sacrifices the quick recording Of Receipts at the Momembt methodology for the benefit of the reoccurring, in-office Shoebox Receipts. Even in my 50/50 split business that is not acceptable. For a business that is 10/90 receipt type split favoring Shoebox of Receipts, your new method could be tolerated, but for a 90/10 split company that favors Receipts At The Moment, it would be an utter disaster.
Look, I get it that you are trying to make it easier to match an expense with a transaction. It is currently a pain. Tolerable, but a pain.
But you have to listen to your customers. There is clearly a large share that is in the Receipts At The Moment it occurs camp. Don't sacrifice those users for the Shoebox Receipt camp. You need a system that can accommodate both or those like me who are in both camps.
One more thought.
I just recently recorded all the receipts related to the building and improvements on our 27-year-old home. Each receipt and there were over 1,000 of them, was entered using the Wave Expense App. A hand full were multiple pages and required a scanner.
Every expense went to the same Home Building and Improvement account and went to one of two financial accounts. There were no bank transactions for these expenses.
While this is just personal use it would have been impossible with the new system. The time it took to record was minimal. I would estimate with the new procedure it would have taken 4 times as long.
Receipt logging is an essential feature. Tying it to a bank transaction is secondary. At least in this case it is.
Like many, I am awaiting a response from Wave. I have never felt ignoring complaints is a good strategy. Certainly, I appreciate Wave must be doing this because it is operationally efficient for themselves, or there is some other benefit that makes sense for them to anger and lose a number of seemingly dedicated users. I understand you are accountable to the bottomline, and sometimes it does not make you popular.
If this is the case, Wave, how about an update and simply state you may regret isolating these users, but you remain committed to making this change. This will allow these users that value this feature to find something else before you pull the plug.
Please confirm you are committed to moving forwards - or not. I think that is only fair.
After reading this discussion several times, I understand the need for a revision for those users that import their transactions automatically. I would logically assume that this would entail adding an "attach to existing transaction" in the drop-down options within the Receipts App. It doesn't seem like the planners at Wave are showing all of their cards with this complete 180 away from the OCR functionality.
Have you considered charging a small fee to keep the OCR functionality if cost is the reason for removing it?
Like Kramguy requested, I would like a response from Wave to let us know if they "remain committed to making this change" or if they are willing to reconsider keeping OCR (even if it's for a fee).
I keep coming back to this growing thread of complaints for your response Wave!! Are you considering keeping the OCR functionality? Also you guys are ignoring emails/chat requests...!! Please! Let your customers know where you are at!
Guess it is full steam ahead at losing clients.
Dear Wavers,
Thank you for all of the input that you’ve provided in this thread. To continue the conversation, we’ve created a new discussion addressing feedback where possible and providing additional details around the upcoming Receipts changes. You can join the new discussion here.