Changes to Receipts by Wave for some customers
Charlotte
Member Posts: 671 admin
Dear Wavers,
Thank you so much for taking the time to voice your feedback in this discussion. We appreciate you, we’ve heard you, and we’ll be making some changes to the updates described in the email you received on Monday.
First and foremost, we apologize for the lack of clarity in our initial message.
As evidenced by the feedback we’ve received in this forum, the OCR technology utilized by Receipts by Wave does not always provide an ideal experience, particularly for non-English characters. We partner with a provider for this service, and this is the best experience that we’re able to offer at this time. For this reason, we’re going to be making OCR optional for all Wave users. If you are an existing Wave customer, this service will be turned on by default. You’ll have the option to turn it off if you would prefer to bypass processing as you upload your receipts This service will be optional across all three means of uploading your receipts.
We’ll continue our efforts to provide the best products and services to support you and your business.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your feedback.
The previous messaging is below. Please note this is no longer applicable.
If you received a link to this post in an email, your experience using Receipts by Wave will be changing on February 21. If you didn't receive an email, your experience is likely to remain the same. If you aren't sure whether this is applicable to you, or you aren't receiving email from Wave, please let us know and we'd be happy to confirm for you.
On February 21, we are making a change to Receipts by Wave to address recent feedback from users in your region. Our focus here is improved speed, allowing you to manage your business' expenses more quickly.
What’s changing?
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology will be removed, meaning your receipts will not go through a processing period, and instead you'll be able to add details right away. You will still be able to take advantage of different methods to upload your receipts, including sending by email or using our mobile app to upload your receipts and post them to your accounting.
To reiterate, our intention is to provide a more seamless experience for you while we continually invest in research and development to better support the needs of Wave users across the globe.
As always, we welcome and appreciate any feedback you'd like to offer. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to address them below.
Comments
No more OCR? Why are you doing this to us or am I missing something?
Without OCR I will have to MANUALLY categorize and fill in all the fields myself right?
That is a pain...
I appreciate that you're trying to give us fair warning about the change, but please be clearer. There is no harm in being clearer about the downside of what you are proposing. If the effect is that users have to manually type in the vendor and total, then just be clear about that and say so please!
Hi, OCR is the main added value of wave. Removing it means that we'd need to manually type (right away, yes) the ticket information. I'd be happy to continue having OCR even if I'd need to pay for a subscription.
I agree with the other comments above - OCR is the main reason I'm using the app. I simply wouldn't bother without it as I can manually enter the details directly onto Wave and put my receipts in a paper file - why would I use the app to manually enter my receipt details?
OCR is the main appeal of Receipts. I even showed it to an accountant friend of mine recently and he was amazed at how well it worked. Definitely a significant downgrade.
I'm happy to wait a while to get the info into the accounts system. I'm not happy to have to type it all myself,
The message should have been:
We apologise that from 21 February 2019 onwards we are no longer able to provide you with OCR-tracing in your region. This means you will have to type all receipt details manually. We will make efforts to find a new solution as soon as possible.
This is a massive step BACKWARDS and just increased my workload substantially. One of the biggest features of Wave is the ease of which I can scan and consolidate receipts on the go.
The reason given that this is something that customers in our region requested sounds extreamly far fetched... why not give those customers the option to opt out and for those of us who use this feature the option to opt in? I am really upset with this move, Wave just took away the one feature I value most on your platform.
I reiterate, how do I opt out of this change?
I do not want to loose this feature, if I do I will need to look for a service provider that offers this feature which is totally counterproductive at this point. :/
Sorry, this PR spin just doesn’t fly.
This will make using the app far more time consuming and as such less convenient. Would love to know how many users actually voted for this as you claim. Would guess that this suits you far more than actual users needs.
If this is a cost issue it’s better to be honest and say so rather than try cover to cover it up. Your users are not stupid. This could even work out to be a new revenue stream - we’d be happy to pay a small fee to keep the service.
A very misleading change. I almost thought that Wave is improving the OCR, but you are removing it altogether!
OCR is a feature that plays a huge role in expenses recording.
Seamless? NO!
I ditto the users above. The OCR service may not be perfect 100% of the time but it still speeds up my receipt entering process! I don't see why this would improve speed. Please keep OCR and allow people to opt in or out the processing!
I agree with all previous comments, can't believe that you are making this change. OCR was very good and fast in most cases, only in a few cases (like foreign currency) it had problems. Please let me know how to avoid this downgrade!!! It must be a cost issue or somebody crazy and came up with this idea...
I read that it is not for all users, but for some regions. So what is the difference? Are some regions not generating any revenue streams for Wave thus not warranting the OCR feature which is in-licensed? Or is it language based? Receipts in foreign languages being problematic to the OCR vendor?
It is quite unclear what the reasons are, but it is quite clear your customers don't want to lose the feature. Why not charge users for your OCR service as an optional premium feature?
I couldn't agree more with the posts above. I will seriously consider moving from Wave if this is implemented.
NOT HAPPY!! Get it together Wave!!
Agreed, OCR is a key feature to wave receipt and why we use it. Is there an opt out option? I'd rather move to a paid for service like Xero so that we can make use of OCR.
I tried using the receipts function on Xero at one stage but had to manually enter all the details which really put me off so I stuck with Wave.
This is a massive step backwards, Wave.
And you're not being straightforward with your customers about why this is happening, in stead you're trying to disguise it as you doing us a favour by giving us a "more seamless" experience? That's marketing BS if I ever heard it.
Not only this major downgrade is very disappointing, but maybe the most part of this is the way you announced it, trying to present it as an improvement! This is a potential for a massive loss of trust here.
I believe you owe your Customers a thorough explanation on why you are considering this change, why only certain region (s), and who really complain about the current OCR process.
It takes some time to set up any new system, and in the case of accounting, it has to be reliable in accuracy, and in longevity.
If you start removing a major feature like this, what guarantee do we get you won’t remove other major features in the future?
If Customers can’t be assured stability in the service provided, they will loose trust. And if you loose trust on your accounting system, then you have to look for another one.
Please clarify this OCR downgrade, and show us we can still put our businesses’ survival into your caring hands.
Thank you.
This is horrible news and a big downgrade. I started using Wave because of OCR and the ability to scan receipts and save time. You are definitely not listening to user feedback. I guess I need to find an alternative now.
Ahm, what? Why would anyone request that OCR is being removed? Yes, I have to wait a moment, but it saves me from typing in all the details. Way faster then to open the image on a second screen and then check for all the details and typing them in manually.
Can I please, please opt out? This is a huge disappointment! Not a "seamless improvement" at all.
Hello, Wave Team. I appreciate that your software is free and easy to use. For my modest enterprise, lack of OCR is not a big deal - it was just a "nice to have".
But you've got to watch out how you communicate to your customers. You have to be honest and straightforward. It took me a few seconds to realise that the e-mail you sent out was basically saying you are going to remove OCR. There seemed to be a bit of a hint that uploading might only be available on app and e-mail, too. If it's not economic for you to offer OCR on free software, it's fine to just tell us.
I understand wave is a "free" app, and we can be thrown under the bus any moment.
But this is sad. OCR is a great feature, one that makes wave nice to use.
Please don't take it away.
Agreed, please try again Wave. The truth is always better than spin, even if it's bad news. Building Trust 101.
OCR is THE reason why we're using Wave! NONE of the comments above support the move to take away OCR, so how could anyone have asked for it in the first place?
And please, be honest about the bad news, not dress it up "good news" (which it clearly isn't), and cover it with obscure language. I think all your customers deserve a more intelligent and intelligibly-worded announcement. That certainly wasn't what I expected from a company that says they support the independent small business owners, who are smart and brave enough to start their own ventures.
Please let the feature remain. And if you can't, then explain the reasons why, honestly. We are business-owners too.
This is not an improvement, these are really bad news. Please be straight to people and don’t try to sell this as if was good news. They are not.
Very disappointed about you, first removing one of the principal parts of your app, and then trying to disguise it as an improvement.
Can I opt out of this decision?
Does someone know about an alternative to wave? It is causing me a lot of problems lately, instead of making life easier...
> Does someone know about an alternative to wave? It is causing me a lot of problems lately, instead of making life easier...
I'm searching too, just in case this really happens with no other ocr solution.
No OCR - Why have the App at all? if I wanted to type it all in manually I'd stick with a shoebox and spreadsheet!
Am Currently looking to move all my accounts online and this pushing me towards Xero which is a shame as until I got this mail thought Wave much better option for one man band type company
Bad move Wave team