Expensify

Expensify
Industry Expense Management Software
Headquarters Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
Key people
 David Barrett (CEO)
Subsidiaries Expensify Ventures
Website www.expensify.com

Expensify is a software company that develops a travel and expense web and mobile application for personal and business use. Its namesake application allows users to manage expense transactions, upload receipts, generate receipts from online sales and automatically create expense reports as well as allows finance teams to approve and export reports. The company and its application have been discussed in numerous publications including Inc.,[1] the Business Insider,[2] The Wall Street Journal,[3] Forbes,[4] and Fox Business[5] among others.[6] Expensify also operates a venture funding arm known as Expensify Ventures.[7]

History

Expensify was founded in 2008 by current CEO David Barrett.[8] Barrett is a graduate of the University of Michigan and began programming at the age of six. He was involved in numerous tech companies prior to Expensify, including developing the file transfer technology for RedSwoosh, a company later purchased by Akamai Technologies.[9] Barrett founded Expensify from his "hatred" of expense reports and wanted to develop software to make it easier to track expenses. The slogan for Expensify was created by Barrett as "Expense Reports that Don't Suck!" Expensify received $1 million in funding in 2009.

The company raised an additional $5.7 million in funding in 2010. It used the funding to expand its team. Expensify raised an additional $3.5 million in funding in 2014. This round was led by Barracuda Networks, creating a reseller relationship between the two.[10] The funding was used to increase Expensify's sales and marketing, leading to an aggressive campaign to target new customers after its competitor Concur Technologies who was later purchased by SAP SE.[10] Expensify offers customers of Concur the opportunity to switch to its platform for free.[11]

Expensify maintains its headquarters in Portland, Oregon with additional offices in San Francisco, California, London, U.K., Melbourne, Australia and New York City. In addition to graduating from the University of Michigan, Barrett grew up in Saginaw, Michigan.[8] Sticking with his Michigan roots, Barrett opened an office for Expensify in the Michigan Upper Peninsula city of Ironwood.[8] The company expanded its operation in Michigan in 2014 and is considered one of the largest employers in the Upper Peninsula and partners with Gogebic Community College to offer scholarships to students in the area.[8] In July 2015, CEO David Barrett addressed United States Congress on behalf of the app industry, speaking to a House, Health, and Technology subcommittee.[12] The same year, Expensify closed a $17 million round of funding.[7]

In November 2017, it was alleged the company had been exposing customers' receipts to human readers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk whilst testing the automatic detection of transaction details from receipts.[13]

Products

Expensify has developed an expense reporting mobile and web application available in the Apple and Android marketplaces.[9][14] The app tracks and files expenses such as fuel, travel, and lunches.[14] The app allows users to take a photograph of a receipt that is then automatically saved and organized in Expensify, along with the merchant, date and amount gleaned from the photograph.[15] It also allows users to create receipts from online purchases that can be turned into their employer for reimbursement.[16] Expensify allows users to download expense reports based on user transactions[17] and also integrates with other applications such as QuickBooks, Xero Zenefits, Workday, Intacct, FinancialForce and NetSuite.[18]

In 2015, Expensify updated its app to allow expenses to be automatically reported by partnering companies.[19] The update allows users to make purchases with companies such as NuTravel, Egencia, Locomote, NexTravel, Uber, Priceline, Hipmunk, Lyft and Rocketrip having those purchases sent directly to the user's expense report.[19]

Expensify Ventures

Expensify launched a venture capital arm in 2015.[7] Named Expensify Ventures, the division was started with part of the $17 million funding the company received in early 2015.[7] Its first investment was with Piper, a company that uses technology to automatically upload receipts from point-of-sale systems as opposed to having them scanned.[7] Expensify's investment in the company includes licensing Piper's technology.[7]

Awards and recognition

Expensify has received numerous awards for its namesake product, including being listed as Top 10 Free Mobile Sales App by Inc. Magazine in 2014.[1] Additional recognition includes a 2015 Tabby Award[20] and being recognized as one of the World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 by Fast Company.[21]

References

  1. 1 2 James, Geoffrey (20 August 2014). "Top 10 Free Mobile Sales Apps". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  2. ↑ Bort, Julie (24 August 2014). "10 Apps You Probably Never Heard Of That Employees Are Sneaking Into Work". `. Business Insider. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  3. ↑ Sherr, Ian (15 September 2013). "Expense Reporting Takes a Digital Leap". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Kaufman, Micha (5 April 2013). "5 Steps to Build a Business on a Budget". Forbes. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  5. ↑ "Government Looking to Regulate Bitcoins?". Fox Business. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  6. ↑ "News articles". Expensify official website. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chernova, Yuliya (27 July 2015). "Expensify Launches Venture Arm With Part of $17M New Round". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Jarvi, Ryan (20 August 2014). "Financial tech company looks to increase local presence". Your Daily Globe. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  9. 1 2 Saitto, Serena (11 December 2014). "Expense-Reporting Startup Finds Big Growth by Focusing on Small Companies". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  10. 1 2 Lawler, Ryan (30 September 2014). "With $3.5 Million In New Funding, Expensify Targets Concur Customers". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  11. ↑ Vivion, Nick (30 September 2014). "Expensify takes aim at Concur consolidation with free for contract offer". Tnooz. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  12. ↑ Rubbelke, Nathan (23 July 2015). "Let's not screw it up app industry tells Congress". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  13. ↑ "Who is reading your Expensify receipts? | The Big Tech Question". The Big Tech Question. 2017-11-23. Retrieved 2017-11-28.
  14. 1 2 Duke, Bradley (26 May 2015). "Best apps for business: Expensify". Startups. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  15. ↑ Sophy, Joshua (23 February 2015). "Expensify SmartScan Makes Paper Receipts History". Small Biz Trends. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  16. ↑ Ravenscraft, Eric (10 November 2014). "Expensify Makes Receipts From Your Online Purchases". LifeHacker. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  17. ↑ Matthews, Kayla (22 December 2014). "5 resources Gen Y uses to win at business". The Business Journals. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  18. ↑ "App Awareness Month - Expensify". Better Cloud Blog. 16 April 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  19. 1 2 Ha, Anthony (23 July 2015). "Expensify Announces New Travel Integrations With Uber, Priceline, NexTravel and More". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  20. ↑ "The 56 best tablet apps: The Tabby Awards announces 2015 Winners and Users' Choice". Venture Beat. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  21. ↑ "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Money". Fast Company. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
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