How LoopFlow.co Uses Shoeboxed to Automate Tax Filing & Monitor Liabilities

Loopflow.co specializes in solving problems and creating solutions utilizing Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the startup helps small- to medium-sized businesses pinpoint process improvements for areas that create drag.

After identifying rules-based, routine tasks, the company frees up human capacity by automating low-value tasks, helping organizations reduce error rates, increase efficiencies, and reduce costs through their creative RPA solutions.

The challenge: jettisoning manual processes that slow a startup

Before switching to Shoeboxed, Loopflow.co managed their receipts like most businesses: they stored physical receipts in a folder and entered the information into a spreadsheet.

The challenges of a manual receipt management process include keeping track of all the receipts and keeping them organized throughout the entire year. “Not to mention having team members turn in the receipts in a timely manner, without the receipt ink being smudged or smeared,” recalls Logan Asbury, Operations Manager at LoopFlow.co.

Then there was the added danger of losing receipts as they were transferred from one person to the next for record keeping.

Logan Asbury further recounted how manual receipt data entry opened the possibility for data entry errors, requiring several audits/reviews of all their receipts and expenses for accuracy, which would consume time and resources.

The solution: expense tracking compatible with multiple projects

As Logan began his search for a receipt management solution, he had various criteria regarding what the team needed a receipt management app to do:

• It must be accessible via mobile phone and by different users.
• It must have a robust search function for reading receipts loaded into the system. Needing information about a cost and going through the receipts one by one was not something Logan was willing to do.
• It must also have a category feature, allowing for expenses to be filtered by project, providing high visibility around each project’s costs.

“As the owner of a business with multiple teams/projects, I needed a software [that allowed for] multiple categories to show that [for example] this receipt is for marketing for X project,” noted Logan during our interview.

Through researching receipt tracking/processing companies, Logan found and evaluated Shoeboxed as meeting his essential criteria. Today, Logan has integrated Shoeboxed into his overall Business Management System and uses the receipt app to fully automate the company’s business expense tracking process.

“We utilize Shoeboxed to track expenses per project. We create categories within Shoeboxed with the project’s name and then select which expense type it is. This allows us to pull all our expenses into a dashboard and use the categories to track expenses at the project level.”

“Using Shoeboxed has saved us at least 4 hours a week in our receipt management and project/overall expense tracking processes.”

—Logan Asbury, Operations Manager at Loopflow.co

The results: continuously updated tax liability prompts better management decisions

Notably, the team has also created an automated process using Shoeboxed that assists them with completing their business tax form. “Utilizing RPA, we are able to create bots that can mimic the same movements as if you were sitting there operating a computer but much faster and with a higher degree of accuracy.”

Logan described how his team created an automation for filling out tax forms ahead of tax season. “The process starts when a picture is taken of the receipt and the category data is submitted in Shoeboxed. The bot will then read the total amount and categories, and [that data] will go into an editable pdf version of the tax form (Form 1065 or Form 1120) and update the total expense of the specified category within Shoeboxed.

“To get income for the tax form, we are able to connect directly to our bank to pull that information. However, the whole thing can be done in Shoeboxed by creating a category called ‘income’ and taking a picture of the check to grab the total, which would trigger the flow to update the income section of the tax form with that information. This gives us the ability to not only track our income and expenses throughout the year but also our tax liability.”

Logan believes the ability to have a continuously updated tax form has saved his team countless hours in tax preparation. Additionally, the team has been able to use that data to make better management decisions, which have had a beneficial impact on their company.

“[With] continuously up-to-date tax information, we are able to use this data to work with our accountant to make better business decisions, such as purchasing additional equipment, investments and/or spending more money on marketing to reduce our overall tax liability.”

—Logan Asbury, Operations Manager at Loopflow.co

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