Perhaps this is an intance where a central service could aggregate e-receipts for customers. I could see this being linked to loyalty programs from major grocers, gas stations, etc.
You could then manage your preferences with the central service who could email you receipts or just store them for you indefinitely.
Re:Ask HN: paperless receipts
by timrobinson on Friday March 11, 2011 @10:51AM
(#2313716)
I'd find this useful if I'm travelling on business. Right now I have to keep a week of receipts safe somewhere and bring them back - coffee, restaurants, taxis etc. Then I go back and type the details into the corporate expense system, and put the paper receipts into an envelope.
I'd be happier if somebody looked after the receipts for me (in the cloud?) and saved me the effort of typing them in when I got back.
Scanning the receipt from paper wouldn't eliminate the receipt, which is the "problem"
Re:Ask HN: paperless receipts
by timrobinson on Friday March 11, 2011 @10:30AM
(#2313641)
There's two problems: wasting paper and having to manually enter the receipt into an expenses system. You don't have to solve both problems at once.
yes, but i was wondering about the 1st one, which would have a large impact on the rain forests :)
As for #2, i'd say there are so many different formats of receipts that it could prove unfeasible, although just extracting the receipt values could be done, i guess.
the advantage i see in the business owner signing up, as opposed to a more detached solution, it that the business could be categorized in the "backend" (by industry type and etc), and that information would help automatically tagging the receipts (expense type), for example
Re:Ask HN: paperless receipts
by timrobinson on Friday March 11, 2011 @10:45AM
(#2313700)
Stores tend to put their name on the receipt (or at least the large ones do), which you could cross-reference against a list on the server. Alternatively, if you've used your phone to capture the receipt, you've got probably got geotagging information on the image.
I wonder how big the QR code needs to be in order to encode all the information on the receipt; those thermal receipt printers aren't that great. How about an app that uses the phone camera to scan the entire receipt, then reads the text? That way you don't need any dedicated equipment at all.
I've always liked how the Apple store sends me a receipt to my email address. However, I'm not sure I'd like to give my email address to every coffee shop just so they could mail me a PDF.