Melbourne startup Point & Claim has developed advanced optical character recognition technology to make tax time easier

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It is not uncommon to find many people spending hours poring over hundreds of receipts that have been hastily ‘filed’ throughout the year. Point & Claim’s founder Anthony Pettiona found himself in a similar situation when he was stuck at home with a broken ankle. He had piles of tax forms to file, prompting an idea on ways to get around it. The end result was an app make tax time easier.

While many apps have been developed over the last few years to help speed up this process, Australian offering Point & Claim seeks to bring in a unique data capturing and reconciliation technology. The startup aims to make expense management easier all year round, rather than helping users sort out personal and business finances as tax deadline nears.

The app works by having the user take a photo of a receipt, with the app then capturing the data and filing the information under the appropriate expense type. This allows it to be reconciled and shared with the user’s employer, tax agent or accountant. Unlike similar services such as Shoeboxed, data is processed automatically within the platform rather than being outsourced to a data processing centre to reduce the chance of human error.

The platform offers easy integration with different accounting software, as well as the ability to nominate a preferred accountant or tax agent with whom they can securely share their information. The app is intuitive, learning from each use to categorise further expenses and purchases down the line.

The Point & Claim app uses advanced optical character recognition (OCR) with own intelligent data extraction software. Underneath the patented technology lies six unique nodes that capture and categorise data from an image. This accuracy and efficiency of the app.

The startup is based in Melbourne and founded by Anthony Pettiona, group strategy manager at Carsales.com.au. It has achieved full ATO compliance and boosts ten whitelabel partners, including big accounting firms like ITP and Sage. The app is free to download and use through these partners – with 14,000 active users on the app, a number which is growing by around 100 a day.

 

[Source] Australian Information Technology News – Melbourne startup Point & Claim has developed advanced optical character recognition technology to make tax time easier