Paperless Paypr: Taking receipts digital

Taking your office paperless is a dream for many small business owners, and a new app is helping businesses get there.

Paypr from Paymark offers a simple solution for business owners looking to take the pain out of expense claims with a real-time, more accurate, digital experience. Rather than forcing you to collect paper receipts for small purchases (less than $50), the app allows you to instantly track the payment through a mobile device into Xero.

Creating this innovative product was no simple task, especially when it came to passing regulatory hurdles. So Paymark came to PwC for help.

Building an end-to-end digital solution

Paypr replaces one of the remaining paperbased processes that small businesses were undertaking. While digital solutions like Xero have moved large parts of a company’s bookkeeping into the cloud, many are still collecting paper receipts for smaller purchases.

Six months before the Paypr launch, Paymark reached out to PwC to understand how Paypr would impact their customers, in particular their GST obligations to hold receipts.

Papyr is an innovative solution – it’s groundbreaking in fact – and we wanted to make sure there was nothing upsetting the apple cart from a tax and GST perspective.

“Obviously this is an innovative solution – it’s ground-breaking in fact – and we wanted to make sure there was nothing upsetting the apple cart from a tax and GST perspective,” explained PwC Partner and GST specialist Eugen Trombitas.

Working with Paymark, it was agreed that certainty was critical to the commercial success of the app. Our advice and a product ruling from Inland Revenue were the key to providing that certainty.

Bringing a commercial mindset to the Inland Revenue ruling process

While the ruling required a lot of technical work, we also applied a commercial lens to this project.

Our understanding of Paymark’s commercial goals was useful for informing the preliminary work applying for the product ruling, but also crucial for the final negotiations with Inland Revenue to get the project over the line.

“We were working with the client in partnership with a commercial hat on, rather than just being focused on the tax function,” said PwC Financial Services Partner, Darryl Eady.

“Paymark’s goal is go 100 per cent digital and we are helping them to get there, solving the technical issue while also keeping within commercial parameters.”

The credibility question

It wasn’t just about building technical knowledge, as Paymark was also looking to develop credibility with the Inland Revenue and customers.

“All along, Paymark wanted a strong endorsement from Inland Revenue. That message, that they have a product ruling and the endorsement of Inland Revenue, is one of the key points of difference for Paypr,” said Eugen Trombitas.

Underpinning this question of credibility was also the breadth of experience that PwC was able to bring to this project. This went beyond the technical work and ultimately involved PwC’s public support, together with Xero CEO Rod Drury, during the launch campaign.

“One of the benefits from Paymark partnering with us was that element of credibility. There was a lot of misinformation before the launch about whether or not small businesses would be able to ditch the paper,” explained Darryl Eady.

“Our work with Inland Revenue gave Paymark’s customers confidence that they could take this step.”

Lastly, the team invested a lot of time into collaborating with Paymark, understanding their vision for the product and then delivering a solution that could support the app development they have already completed.

“The whole point of this ruling is that you don’t need paper anymore. What the ruling really means is that you don’t have to keep those under-$50 invoices,” said Eugen Trombitas.

{{filterContent.facetedTitle}}

{{contentList.dataService.numberHits}} {{contentList.dataService.numberHits == 1 ? 'result' : 'results'}}
{{contentList.loadingText}}

Contact us

Darryl Eady

Darryl Eady

Partner, PwC New Zealand

Tel: +64 21 820 390

Follow us