The True Cost of Manual Expense Tracking — And Why It's Time to Automate

Jun 19, 2025

The Hidden Time Drain

Let’s say you spend just 5 minutes entering each receipt manually — between finding it, reading it, and typing the data into your tracker.

  • 5 minutes x 20 receipts/month = 1 hour, 40 minutes/month

  • That’s 20+ hours/year, gone.

If you're a freelancer, small business owner, or finance team member — your time is money.

Now imagine if a receipt scanning app could do that in 10 seconds or less, without typos, lost entries, or end-of-month panic.
That’s why automation matters.

Manual Tracking is More Expensive Than You Think

Here's what the average company spends when managing expenses manually (based on real-world benchmarks):

Expense Type

Manual Process

Automated (Ezpense)

Time cost per employee/month

~$75–150

$29.99

Error correction & rework

High (avg. 20% error rate)

Near-zero

Delayed reimbursements

Frequent

Real-time

Audit readiness

Stressful, incomplete

Clean, export-ready

According to GBTA (Global Business Travel Association), the average cost to manually process a single expense report is $58.
Compare that to automated solutions, which drop that cost to $29.99.

The Risks of Manual Entry

Manual tracking isn’t just tedious — it’s risky:

  • Lost receipts = lost money

  • Typos = inaccurate reports

  • Inconsistent formats = compliance issues

  • Delayed entries = cash flow blind spots

In short? You’re flying blind with outdated tools. 

Ezpense eliminates the stress, slowness, and sloppiness of manual expense tracking.

Snap a photo of your receipt — our AI-powered OCR extracts and categorizes the data
Track, manage, and export expenses in seconds
Sync seamlessly with your team or accountant
Stay audit-ready — always

Whether you’re a solo freelancer or managing a growing team, Ezpense gives you your time (and sanity) back. Let Ezpense handle the boring stuff, while you focus on growing your business.

👉 Try Ezpense for free and start saving time — one receipt at a time.