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5 Replies Last post: Sep 18, 2009 9:00 PM by businessSIR

Need business idea feedback

Mar 17, 2008 9:30 PM

naturebeau 1 posts since
Mar 17, 2008

Hello everyone,

We are working to create a receipt storage software that automatically organizes all business receipts for tax purposes. You can scan paper receipts and you can also save online business receipts - and voila! You have all your business receipts organized by
category, date, employee, etc. Business expenses are automatically
calculated so you can easily add this to your tax preparation docs (and
also have them ready for auditing).

We've noticed this was an issue in our company, but we haven't really tested out with other business owners. We're wondering if this is a valuable service for other small business owners as well. Any feedback would be appreciated!

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LUCKIEST 7,938 posts since
Aug 6, 2007

1. Re: Need business idea feedback Mar 17, 2008 9:37 PM

Welcome to this web site and hello.
We are working to create a receipt storage software that automatically organizes
all business receipts for tax purposes
Sounds good to me and the I R S.
How do you plan to test it out with other business owners.
Do you have a Business and Marketing Plan.
Good luck, LUCKIEST

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RongDesign 54 posts since
Jan 28, 2008

2. Re: Need business idea feedback Mar 17, 2008 11:05 PM

Hello,

You have a good idea with your program. It would be very convenient to have all your receipts in one spot digitally. With that said, I do not know if it would be a time saver; a single owner will usually keep a folder with receipts and copies of statements, then use a tax specialist or a small business accountant when tax season rolls around. This saves the owner a little time (though creating a little bit of paper build up) and also keeps the records in a state that accountants are used to. I know personally, some of my digital receipts that were printed off my printer were questioned at H&R. I had to get hard copies with additional information mailed from a handful of Internet based companies.

Also, I do not know how many managers would take this under their wing, but if they have an on staff account, they would most likly consider your software a great asset. You should consider making if Freeware, and selling ad space on the site where it can be downloaded.

Most likly everything I have stated you have already considered, but you were asking for feedback. All and all I would consider it a good idea. Keep me posted on its development.

Thanks,
Dave Moore @
RongDesign.com

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xenopod 109 posts since
Dec 28, 2007

3. Re: Need business idea feedback Mar 18, 2008 1:48 AM

It might be an easier starting place to market to accountants as a tool to help them organize records they handling for their clients. Another which could come once you established some footing with the accountants would be larger businesses with their own accountants who would use this to ease records keeping and minimalize physical records storage. (Though for large companies it might be better to look at how Earth Class Mail works and follow their model to offer the service of doing the scanning and providing them the digital records)

I think small and medium businesses could get on board with this if you could make them understand that the centralized data storage is helpful to say the least. It might be worthwhile if you could offer them redundant storage that way in case they loose their records you have kept a copy (this would apply in general but it might be something a small or medium company with a modest IT budget that doesn't include data recovery would be appreciative of).

I hope that is helpful. Follow up with us and let us know more.

Take care and good luck!

http://www.xenopodinc.com

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MoeNumber1 1 posts since
Apr 12, 2008

4. Re: Need business idea feedback Apr 13, 2008 1:17 AM

Just off the top of my head, the following companies are already doing this and have made significant inroads into the market, especially the first one:

www.neatreceipts.com
www.shoeboxed.com

Hope this helps...

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businessSIR 21 posts since
Aug 13, 2009

5. Re: Need business idea feedback Sep 18, 2009 9:00 PM

I actually think the receipt storeage software is a good idea. I am in the internal investigations and auditing business and software like that would help me out tremendously. One thing I would say is to approach the hr or operations department of a company where employees travel on a regular basis. One thing you can do is go to trade shows or conferences. Even events sponsored by the local chamber of commerce would help.

One thing you should do is promote how this would actually be a faster more reliable way of tracking receipts. I have done many cases of fraud where a person tried to claim more than they actually spent. Auditing programs such as yours do have a place. Retailers, contractors, many industries can use such a program.

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Need business idea feedback

Mar 17, 2008 9:30 PM

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