Users found it difficult to attach a digital receipt to their expense reports because there was no straightforward method to forward email receipts or attach PDF files.
I started this project leading a redesign of our camera view for importing receipts, but I ended up proposing a new feature that allows users to claim expenses without opening the app.
2 weeks
Users frequently had to take screenshots of email receipts, such as taxi rides, to create a new manual expense claim because there was no option to forward an email receipt.
The first challenge was to provide users with a convenient way to forward digital receipts and avoid the need for taking screenshots
Of our users complained about the process of submitting digital receipts.
Our goal was to streamline the process of submitting digital receipts to the TripActions app and facilitate the creation of new transactions by filling out the receipt details automatically.
To accomplish this, we needed to first make improvements to the current method of importing receipts through the camera view.
I redesigned the camera view for our expense management system, making it more user-friendly and allowing for multiple options to import receipts. Users can now choose to take live photos, select an image from their photo album, upload a PDF file, or forward an email receipt from various sources including their personal email. To make the process more streamlined, multi-photo capture is enabled by default.
The redesigned camera view allowed users to forward email receipts directly to the app, and we knew that with our technology, we could extract information from the email receipts and pre-fill the details needed for reimbursement, so users don't have to manually enter the information.
This allows users to quickly and easily create expense reports without the need for manual entry.
How it works?
When we receive an email with a receipt, we search for a matching transaction. If we don't find any matches, we create a new transaction and automatically fill in the details for the user. This way, the user only needs to review the information and tap on "Submit Expense." It's that simple!
While the chances of attaching a receipt to the wrong transaction are minimal, I wanted to provide a solution for users if this happens. I allows users to manually move a receipt to another transaction and automatically delete the mistaken transaction.
This feature not only empowers users to move a receipt to the correct transaction, but it also serves as a performance metric for us. If a significant number of receipts need to be re-assigned, we can take steps to improve the accuracy of the feature and ensure a seamless expense reporting process.
I realized that certain transactions, such as a taxi ride, are very straightforward and don't really need to be reviewed. So, to make the experience even better, I suggest auto-expensing those transactions. As soon as TripActions fills in all the necessary information from an email receipt, the expense is submitted automatically, so our users don't have to take any action.
To ensure safety and test this assumption, we introduced an integration with Lyft. Users can connect their business email on the Lyft account to automatically forward receipts that would be auto-submitted for business travel-related taxi rides.
