As e-commerce continues its boom in the region, more and more startups are appearing, offering services that complement the region’s increasing affinity with purchasing things online. GiveReceipt, a relatively new startup that offers a surprisingly useful solution not just for online businesses, but also to SME and part-time businesses.
As its name suggests, GiveReceipt lets business owners – big or small, offline or online – to issue official receipts to buyers. This is useful not just for the business owner because it automates and digitises the process of issuing a receipt, but also for the customer who now has a proof of purchase that can be used for warranty issues or any customer-related disputes(exchanges, faulty products, etc).
Founded by David Sin, the project was fine-tuned together with co-founder Belinda So before developing the app in-house. In all, it took three months for the web app to be completed, before GiveReceipt introduced a Premium offering with more features which was released three months later. For both David and Belinda, the concept behind GiveReceipt was very simple and practical: how can consumers protect themselves from being cheated by sellers, especially in the online space? Moreover, some physical receipts fade over time, rendering them unusable for things like warranty claims and income tax deductions.
Sample receipt provided by GiveReceipt. All Premium users can customise the receipt header to include company logo and name, and include automatic calculation of GST.
The spillover effect is good for business owners as well, especially smaller ones who operate online or in bazaars. How do they minimise costs in issuing receipts without resorting to expensive Point-of-Sales (PoS) machines, while still providing peace of mind for customers to purchase from them? On top of that, registered businesses also need to be GST-compliant, and PoS machines that are GST-ready are easily in the five-figure price point. Moreover, with the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia no longer recognising hand-written receipts as valid, businesses need to evolve and move forward as well.
While creating GiveReceipt, the core approach was to make the interface simple and intuitive for all users. Considering the vast demographics of its potential users, this was critical to ensure the transition from PoS systems (or handwritten receipts) is seamless. As such, the web app is clean and intuitive, offering receipt templates that you can customise by adding your company name and logo, company registration and GST numbers, among others. What’s unique about GiveReceipt is in the modern way it manages receipts. Once you’ve filled out the necessary parts like product name and price, the receipt is saved as a PDF file, which can then be printed and emailed – so customers will always have a copy at hand.
GiveReceipt dashboard, with a simple interface for issuing receipts. Again, this is for Premium users – free users only can issue one product per receipt.
The web app also has a dashboard for business owners to keep track of issued receipts, while the paid Premium version unlocks things like exporting the receipt data into Excel spreadsheets for greater use of the sales data. On top of that, GiveReceipt is also GST-compliant in 10 countries including Malaysia, where businesses can key in their company registration numbers and GST ID in the backend to be eligible for the Customs Department’s GST refunds. The GST calculations are added into sales receipts automatically, meaning that businesses cannot tamper with the rates.
Because of its unique offering, business owners also benefit from the fact that customers are more likely to purchase from them than if they were to issue handwritten receipts. This is especially true for businesses that sell products that are income tax deductible, such as books and PCs. Both David and Belinda recounts the experience of a single mother who, as a self-confessed book addict, began an online bookstore to feed her passion of reading by selling her own books (to buy new titles, of course). By adopting GiveReceipt into her business, her online store not only stood out for appearing more “professional”, but more importantly saw a marked growth in customers simply because the issued receipts can be used for income tax deductions.
Image: GiveReceipt
The company isn’t limiting its services to just Malaysia. Some of the company’s core Premium users are actually from around the region, from neighbouring countries all the way like Singapore to places like Cambodia, where a vet uses GiveReceipt for his business. The company expects the regional business to be very positive for growth, especially as the e-commerce adoption rate in Asia Pacific continues to spike. In future, GiveReceipt is also actively working on releasing an app for Android and iOS, allowing more flexibility for business owners.
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