After a long journey, we’re announcing the end of our SmartReports beta.
We wanted to thank everyone who participated for making the SmartReports beta such a tremendous success. We’ve learned a lot and we’re excited to head back to the lab so that we can make the SmartReporting experience even better.
Unfortunately, as we design SmartReports 2.0, SmartReports beta will end. The feature goes offline on November 15th. Please submit any SmartReports that you would like processed before this date and we will take care of them for you. If you’ve enjoyed your expense reporting experience, we hope you'll consider getting your company on expense reports that don’t suck!
While you won't be able to use Expensify to automatically fill out your company expense template, you're welcome to explore Expensify's paid features and plans. Learn more about them here.
Comments
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What has changed in the new smart reports? I have used them successfully for 3 years and now it is not working for me and I can get no adequate help in diagnosing the problem. Looks like I will have to manually type in all my expenses into our company form. That's a report that sucks!
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Hi Expensify, this post/email was a bit disappointing as it was vague especially as someone who has relied on the functionality for the last couple years. I've loved the functionality and would happily advocate however there's not enough information to go off of yet. Coming away from the message, I have questions such as:
- What plans will include SmartReports 2.0? Is it all of them or only some of the plans? This isn't in the Pricing webpage from a quick glance
- When the post states "you won't be able to use Expensify to automatically fill out your company expense template", does this mean without a paid plan or even with a plan is the functionality is going away?
- If you upgrade to a paid plan, what do you get in terms of SmartReports functionality? Is it the same service as what we've been getting in beta but now Expensify is trying to monitize it? If so that's fine, there's just no mention of what functionality you'll get by obtaining a paid plan
- Will anything within SmartReports be improved as part of the move to 2.0?
Thanks
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@reschen -- We do not have any details yet regarding SmartReports 2.0, so I am unable to answer your questions 1 and 4. As for questions 2 and 3, we will not offer SmartReports functionality even in our paid plans as of now. If you decide to setup your own policy using one of our paid plans, you will get a variety of other great features. See here for a detailed breakdown of features by plan.
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WHAT?! Have been using smart reports for a quite a while and need to submit expense reports on my company form vs the standard form you offer. You have the programming already done and now are just going to turn it off with no option to move to 2.0 to bridge over? Like the previous post said - that is a report that sucks if I have to now hand enter form your report to my company format. Welcome back to the stone age. Will stop using if that is the case. Super disappointed. Will go to twitter to advocate and let all the other contacts I referred over to expensify know and will be sure to also let TripIt know I'm not a happy camper when it comes to expensify. So disappointed to have the rug pulled out. Horrible customer experience!
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In your comment, it states, "we will not offer SmartReports functionality even in our paid plans as of now". Looking at the paid plans, it says the Smartscan function is included. I'm confused. If I pay the $5.00 per month, will smartscan be included as stated on your site? If so, is there a difference in what I've been getting for the past 1+ years?
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I've loved Expensify for several years and I've always loved the product and been thrilled with the customer service. I understand it not being a free feature, but I dont understand stopping it completely with no new option yet. While I would like to see SmartReports continue (the main reason I use Expensify), I'm more disturbed that we were only given 35 days notice, with no migration or alternative in place. You would think after such a long "beta" and people so entrenched in the service, Expensify would at least give 90 days notice. Severely disappointed.
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This is unfortunate and disappointing. I've used Expensify for years and have loved the product and the ease of use. Interested in hearing more as your post was a complete shock and didn't create any alternative avenues for you loyal customer base. Please keep us posted on 2.0 version.
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@LisaD, @dwear and @Jay -- Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience. And we will definitely keep you posted on 2.0 as we know more. That said, please know that your accounts, all historical expenses and reports will remain intact. And if you have enjoyed your Expensify experience so far, then I would recommend creating a Team policy to use unlimited SmartScans (where you and your colleagues snap pictures of receipts to create expenses directly). You can also leverage our report functionality and build customized CSV reports to export your data (Instructions). All we are unable to do here is populate your company's custom spreadsheets. And we are working on finding a path to do this in a more operationally scaleable fashion in SmartReports 2.0.
@dcuny in the $5 Team policy you will get unlimited SmartScans, which is basically the ability to snap a picture of any receipt and have Expensify scan the details and create expenses for you. Smart Reports went an extra mile by taking your expenses and populating your company's spreadsheet for you. It is just this last piece that is going away on November 15.
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We use Team Policies (which I thought were SmartReports). Are we effected, or do the policies we currently pay for remain?
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Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,364 Expensify Team@kristincollins1 -- Any policies that you currently have that are on the Team or Corporate level will remain completely intact.
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Very disappointing news after using SmartReports for several years.
This looks like bye bye Expensify - you have just removed the most useful part of your service. -
@BCS Sorry to hear that Bryan. Have you explored the functionality that's available via our Team and Corporate policies so far? The spreadsheet exports available there tend to be preferred by finance teams, as it means they can import transactions straight into their accounting systems - no manual typing required.
The policies also include unlimited SmartScanned receipts every month, and a whole heap of automation (create, group and submit expenses automatically) and direct integrations to supported accounting systems (like Xero, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite etc).
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I have to agree that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to just wipe out your best feature. Charge more for it if it's not scaleable. I would gladly pay 10 to 15 a month if I could keep this feature. Disappointing. Does anyone know of any other similar services?
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Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,364 Expensify Team
Hello @Heresteve2 -- Thanks for chiming in here, it's important to us to hear from our users about this.
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This is extremely disappointing. I have to submit expenses on our company form and smartreports was the only reason for me using Expensify. I don't use smartscan etc. If this feature goes away then I'm afraid so will I.
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Count me among one of the many beta users who is disappointed in this move. I've been recommending Expensify to my colleagues for this primary feature. Unfortunately, we are required to use our company provided spreadsheets, so setting up a policy will not work, because it would be difficult for me to set up an exact duplicate w/in Expensify. As some other users have stated, I would be happy to pay an additional fee to be able to remain using this most excellent feature of the product.
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Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,364 Expensify Team
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We've found the SmartReports feature to be one of the most important and valuable aspects of using Expensify. It takes a very cumbersome process and makes it simple. We would be willing to pay money to keep the service alive.
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Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,364 Expensify Team
Thank you @tgreenwood for the thoughts. We'll keep this thread updated with information about SmartReports 2.0 as it becomes available.
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This is heartbreaking. i don't need smart scan, I don't need collaborators, I NEED SMART REPORTS! I love that I can take my receipts and put them in your report and you transfer the data into my company CVS. I will pay.. gladly. Sadly, if you aren't offering this feature in any other plans (as it seems on the above responses) I will have to look for another company. What sucks? Getting used to a feature and then the company strips it away! THAT SUCKS!
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Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,364 Expensify Team
Hello @Dedra, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and let us know how useful you found SmartReports to be. It's important for us to understand the impact this feature had on our customers.
As new information becomes available, we'll be sure to update this thread and keep everyone informed. Take care!
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Count me in. This feature is the reason I use the product. Would gladly pay what is needed for this to be a smart economic decision for your company. What is not smart is the path you are taking. Removing critical features that customers rely on with no replacement is not a smart business decision. I would recommend that you continue this feature in it's current form while you figure out what the right economic model is. Again, would gladly pay for it. Please don't take this feature away on November 15th.
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just FYI... while you "plan your roadmap" we are going to be doing business DAILY and will need to find a new plan. I am actively looking at your competitors.
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Folks - I recommend you save your breath. I signed up for Expensify for one of my companies several years ago. Initially, their CEO Dave Barrett was super responsive. And he cared about customer feedback. Now their attitude appears to be "Life's tough. Take it or leave it". As evidenced by this announcement.
We also use Smart Reports and it is disappointing that they are shutting it down. I can't fathom why they would shut down a feature without having a replacement. And I can't also understand why - at the minimum - they would not do their customers the simple courtesy of explaining why they are doing what they are doing.
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I always had a suspicion due to the lag on submitting the smart report and receiving it in an email that it was being done manually in the Expensify nether world. In all seriousness that feature alone was the only reason i signed up with Expensify as now all the other competitors have caught up with the platform for basic scan receipt, autopopulate fields(smartscan), FX rates, etc. Sounds like this is a cost containment reason as I would be interested to know the percentage of paying customers that used Expensify and had smart reports generated. Sad day...
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Sheena Trepanier Expensify Team, Approved! Accountant, Expensify Student Ambassador Posts: 1,364 Expensify Team
Thank you very much for all the comments, feedback, and use cases that were shared in this thread.
As we say goodbye to SmartReports, and hello to what tomorrow brings, we hope that we can continue to serve you and your teams for your expense report needs. When we have new information to share regarding SmartReports 2.0, we'll be sure that post it in our community forum.
We would like to clarify that SmartReports was not a paid feature, and no customers were charged for this functionality.
