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Annette_S
Occasional Member - Level 2

Translating Foreign Receipts

Hi! We are an International company and we audit reports internally. Do any other companies struggle with reviewing receipts that are in other languages? Are there any products out there that make this easier? Thanks!

8 REPLIES 8
DavidW
Routine Member - Level 1

I've had success with google translate (which is free), but I had to type in the text.

Concur does have a service that can do that for you as well (Concur Detect).

 

 

Annette_S
Occasional Member - Level 2

Thank you! This is funny because before posting, I opened a case with Concur asking this question and they indicated that they did not have any products and told me to post a solution suggestion...

Merin
Occasional Member - Level 3

For occasional use, Google Translate is great.  If you download their app to your phone, you can also take a photo of the receipt image and get a translation that way, rather than having to re-type the text.

Concur Detect is an add-on auditing tool that can read receipts in a multitude of languages.  It is not, however, only a translation tool, which is likely why Concur support would not have suggested it.  It is a complete auditing tool, with OCR and AI capabilities that can transform your auditing process.  We are going to be implementing it soon, and I'm really looking forward to it!

KayPellack
Occasional Member - Level 3

Hello Annette - My team is venturing into this arena also, and I anticipate difficulties with receipts especially from our APAC countries. How is it going with your team?

lperez-lopez
Super User
Super User

@KayPellack Did you find a solution? I am getting internal pushback to find a solution to translate documents for the teams. APAC seems to be our biggest concern.

KayPellack
Occasional Member - Level 3

Hello - We did not find a comprehensive solution that translates receipts, especially those in a  .pdf format. To catch you up, since my original comment in November, my largely US-based processing team finished transitioning our EMEA report processing to our team, and next month we will complete the APAC transition. We've found that more receipts than we thought are actually in English, which is helpful. I also have a native Chinese speaker on my team, and she has been indispensable for China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. The most restrictive receipt rules are those from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, where paper receipts are required. For these three sites, someone in the local office still needs to verify that the receipts are received and release the payment hold we apply during our processing. In other countries, we've found that we can apply some materiality concerning smaller receipts (taxis, small meals, etc.) and only study receipts over a certain amount. The Google app that allows you to hold your phone to the receipt and get a (rough) translation has also been useful.

Time will tell if we can keep up this approach - specifically, when world travel picks up significantly and we have a larger number of reports to audit. But for now, things are going well and our local country contacts are happy.

AndrTrn
Occasional Member - Level 1

I would recommend avoiding Google Translation, as such documents are better to be translated in an accurate way to keep the contextual meaning.

 

I had success with legal translation services. They provided me an accurate translation of receipts in less than a day. Their plus was that they offered certification for each translated receipt that assured accuracy, + it was very affordable.

AndrTrn
Occasional Member - Level 1

I don't think it's ever easy. That's why most companies have a translation department that helps them with this topic.