Tracking your receipts and managing expenses on the go just got easier with Expensify.
Using OCR technology, the Expensify app makes expense management a breeze via your mobile phone. How easy? As the highly amusing and entertaining Expensify Super Bowl commercial featuring rapper 2 Chainz and actor Adam Scott reveals, its as easy as snapping a photo of your receipt and you’re done.
Expense reports with Expensify take 83% less time compared to traditional expense management methods.
Expensify has been designed to automate the entire receipt and expense management process. The app provides you with several features, one of the most notable being the one-click receipts scanning.
You simply take a picture of your receipt and your expense report is complete because Expensify automatically submits an expense report for you in a single click. This is made possible through the San Francisco-based company’s patented OCR technology.
How it works is the OCR (optical character recognition) tech automatically reads and codes the details on the receipt for you. It then adds the receipt to an expense report that can be automatically submitted and approved. It can even be reimbursed.
OCR technology wasn’t the only tech that gained exposure via Expensify’s Super Bowl ad.
Expensify also put the spotlight on QR codes in its Super Bowl ad, showcasing one of these unique 2D square barcodes on 2 Chainz’ phone when he was snapping a picture of a receipt. If mobile users scan the code, it takes them to the appropriate page where they can download the Expensify app.
It’s interesting that Expensify would choose to draw attention to these codes in a 30-second commercial that cost them millions to have aired during the Super Bowl. In fact, according to CNBC, the cost of a 30-second ad during this year’s Super Bowl is $5.25 million. The fact that the cost of these ads has gone up over the years isn’t surprising, considering the Super Bowl is the only televised sports event that people excitedly watch all over the world to see the commercials as much as the game.
This type of exposure is a huge win for QR codes, which were also featured throughout the full-length 3:50 minute Expensify music video, which debuted on YouTube prior to Super Bowl LIII. At the time, viewers could scan the codes in the video for a chance to win cash and prizes.
Unlike China and other Asian countries where QR codes have remained a popular tech incorporated into 
mobile banking, mobile payments, etc., these easy-to-use quick response codes have yet to really take off in the United States. Perhaps the popularity of Expensify’s OCR technology app and commercial is the first step to changing that.
