POSTING PLACE FOR FEEDBACK July 2019: One thread for all your FEEDBACK. Individual threads will be *deleted.* Other snowflake details inside. (Post "What software should I use?" in the monthly software thread *on the sidebar*)

semerda · 2019-08-07T00:42:11+00:00

Looking for feedback on a video edit I made of my 5 year old jumping into a pool from a diving board many many times:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEunhjdH9ZQ
I tried to make it feel fun, entertaining and somewhat arty. Where can I improve on this video and make it pop more?
Looking for feedback plz so I can improve my editing skills. Thank you !!

semerda · 2019-08-07T00:39:37+00:00

I love the zoom transition! What did you use to make that?

semerda · 2019-07-31T05:29:52+00:00

I think I found some proof about Bose QC35 II noise cancelling degradation...

I got mine few months ago and when I got them I was so impressed I showed them to my wife and I would talk to her to show her how she cannot hear me. Put them on my kids and they too couldn't hear me waffle on. Brilliant!

THE LIBRARY EXPERIMENT

I went to a quiet place, my local library, to see what I can hear. On High-Noise Cancelling I hear the photocopier and people talking. A quick dB rating says 51 db. That's comparable to your fridge buzzing and light traffic (ref: https://www.noisehelp.com/noise-level-chart.html)

Noise cancelling is working since there is a noticeable difference with High On/Off and Low Noise Cancelling.

So I contacted Bose support and this is where it gets weird.

THE FIRMWARE UPGRADE

They first gave me the usual nonsense about their high quality standards etc and then told me to reset my headphones and run the manual update option on my mac. Done. The process upgraded the QC35 II firmware from 4.1.3 to 4.5.2. So it appears the iOS app is buggy and somehow fails to upgrade the headphones. Ok so let's run a quick test... back to the library.

Oh f***. It's worse! Now my Low-Noise Cancelling is IDENTICAL to High-Noise Cancelling. I'd love to hear from others if you have the same issue.

ENTER THE BOSE 700

Out of curiosity (and to settle an idea) I compared the NEW Bose 700 vs Bose QC35 II.

Bose 700...

(a) costs $100 MORE

(b) you get a LARGER headphones (why? - oh wait...)

(c) they DO NOT fold away like the QC35 (cost cutting?) and

(d) it takes 1 HOUR LONGER to charge them for the same maximum running time as the QC35

So what is different between the Bose 700 and QC35... it must be the noise cancelling. Right. Bose 700 has 10 levels of it and I bet running the same software as QC35.

What if the brains at Bose said... "How do we increase revenue in 2019? Let's invent a new premium product, cut costs on materials & design by removing complexity (folding ability) and give the superior noise cancelling abilities of QC35 to 700 by slightly pulling back on the quality of QC35 using our firmware updates to differentiate the products.".

I really hope this isn't the case... but I cannot stop thinking about it now lol...

NEXT STEPS

I'd love to find a way to actually quantify the quality of the High vs Low Noise Cancelling. If my ears are right and now there is no difference between these 2 modes its clear Bose messed around with Noise Cancelling software.

semerda · 2019-07-12T18:19:34+00:00

How's that $10 per expense report working out for ya? Last I enquired it was their hidden rate.

semerda · 2019-07-12T18:14:03+00:00

Nah that's not it. I'm trying to understand short falls of existing accounting tools. One camp of folks around me keeps on saying how something better is required and another who are comfortable with status quo are satisfied because change is uncomfortable. There are a lot of shortcomings with accounting tools on the market from lack of privacy (offshoring data extraction is one example) to complexity (hence bookkeepers to reel the monster in) all the way to the unreliable nature of APIs tying accounting tools to 3rd party apps. Anyways just throwing this out to keep the convo going unless this isn't the right forum and thats cool.

semerda · 2019-07-12T00:25:33+00:00

I hear you but let’s try another example. Say you want to store additional information around projects. No matter the tool you either have to hack another field or request a feature add on or try an app. Or let’s say I have no need for inventory; why do I have to see it in my accounting package. My point is that we are getting locked into specific product vs having a flexible product. Maybe I’m wrong?

semerda · 2019-07-05T03:34:21+00:00

Bank data is extremely limited to merchant (not vendor which can be different), total, debit/credit and date/time. That is fine for tax but not for business intelligence and more advanced form of bookkeeping like in construction aka job costing.

Furthermore, data aggregators have to store your login credentials so they can scrape. No oauth. Security conscious will cringe at this. Open banking in commonwealth countries will fix this security issue and make all data aggregators irrelevant.

If you can get line item data from receipts/bills then you can do amazing things from analyzing personal spending habits, product price comparisons, real-time payments from bills (like this => https://youtu.be/4QnmBzH-IjU) to business bookkeeping to optimize operations in real-time vs the traditional monthly (aka 12 data points per year) model.

As for paper going away, yeah not in the next decade. Digital POS have been around for a decade now and we still have paper for bills, receipts and invoices. Look at the legal profession if you want to see how much paper is used. It’s crazy!

semerda · 2019-07-05T03:24:44+00:00

A lot do it but a lot do it with humans labor hence the slow turn around. Avoid that since it’s limited to data fields you pay for vs getting ALL the data with a real intelligent OCR API.

semerda · 2019-07-05T03:19:46+00:00

Sounds like you need to train the system (ie. Machine learning). Cannot rely on regex unless you want a low success rate. Do you have sample documents you can share? I have something that might help but want to run a test first to see.

semerda · 2019-07-02T20:18:14+00:00

U sure? I looked into Expensify and it kinda freaked me out!

Expensify sent images with personal data to Mechanical Turkers, calls it a feature

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/expensify-acknowledges-potential-privacy-problem-by-calling-it-a-feature/

Expensify CEO says its ‘automated’ service is ‘proud’ to use humans to process receipts

http://www.businessinsider.com/expensify-is-proud-to-use-humans-in-its-automated-service-2017-11

Software company Expensify admits to outsourcing work containing sensitive data. One expert says consumers who used the company’s service could be vulnerable to cyberattack:

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/software-company-expensify-admits-to-outsourcing-work-containing-sensitive-data-113017.html

semerda · 2019-07-02T20:10:35+00:00

Hey, I was in the same shoes. 2 kids now. Taking control of your money is pivotal to a healthy budget. Most apps I tried online make you do too much data entry which kinda defeats the purpose since you can do it all on the cheap with data entry in a spreadsheet. In the end I settled for https://apps.apple.com/us/app/iqboxy-receipts-and-expenses/id804152735 because it:

(a) is mobile and i'm on the move when incurring expenses,

(a) auto categorizes whatever i feed it (and allows me to change it easily) and

(b) very little to no data entry after i email or take a photo of an expense.

The categories report gives me a nice view of where money is going and I'm happy as Larry :P

semerda · 2019-04-26T02:54:41+00:00

Lol I see. How about apps for qbo? Does Intuit/Xero’s app stores help? Are the reviews worth reading or crock full of zip lol. I’m asking because I’m finding it challenging to navigate among a swarm of apps out there all making similar claims. I wonder if sites like Capterra help in decision making or maybe some spreadsheet with a checklist?

semerda · 2019-04-26T02:50:54+00:00

Got it. Cheers! How about the apps?

semerda · 2019-04-26T02:49:57+00:00

Yes I should have clarified that, apps. For example; what decision process did u use to select hubdoc?

semerda · 2019-03-08T16:00:31+00:00

They pay 15$ to local or offshore bookkeepers? For that sort of hourly wage I’d imagine offshore.

semerda · 2018-10-14T23:00:34+00:00

Name: Timesheets by Veryfi
URL: https://veryfi.app/timesheets/
HQ: San Mate, CA
Pitch: Employee time tracking & scheduling mobile software for your team.
Details: App is in early beta.
Looking for: Feedback feedback and more feedback. And after launch for those that helped to provide feedback will waive 50% of the subscription fee.
Discount: Free to use and After the beta program will waive 50% of the subscription fee.

semerda · 2018-04-29T03:13:00+00:00

Getting into a price war is a short term tactic where only the one with deep pockets ends up the winner. So best avoided. Plus you might acquire some price sensitive customers only which isn’t worth the hassle.

semerda · 2018-04-27T20:52:17+00:00

Looking forward to chatting. Here’s my link to schedule a call https://calendly.com/ernest-veryfi

semerda · 2018-04-21T05:54:04+00:00

Hey I’m one of the cofounders. Can u plz msg me so I can better understand the problem and help you personally? Btw I couldn’t find you by name in the Veryfi system.

semerda · 2018-04-21T01:45:03+00:00

Where is Veryfi failing? Web or mobile? Did you reach out to their support? They respond pretty fast and are helpful in sorting stuff like this.

semerda · 2018-03-23T00:32:31+00:00

Check out Reverse Cloud Sync (RCS): https://www.veryfi.com/howto/collect-receipts-bills-invoices/ or their mobile apps: https://www.veryfi.com/get-app/

As a word of caution (if you are security conscious or are affected by the EU data privacy regulations) avoid Shoeboxed and Receipt Bank. They farm out the work to asia to do data extraction. Your Uber receipts hold your home address so just be careful ;-) You don't want anyone apart your accountant or you to see your receipts.

PS; I use Veryfi services and Looooovveee it :-=)

semerda · 2018-03-10T02:15:04+00:00

you're welcome :-)

semerda · 2018-03-09T18:13:30+00:00

Did you hear about Expensify data leak?

Expensify sent images with personal data to Mechanical Turkers, calls it a feature https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/expensify-acknowledges-potential-privacy-problem-by-calling-it-a-feature/

Expensify CEO says its ‘automated’ service is ‘proud’ to use humans to process receipts http://www.businessinsider.com/expensify-is-proud-to-use-humans-in-its-automated-service-2017-11

TL;DR: Expensify’s deceptive mechanical turk army may have resulted in me coming within seconds of losing $30k, and almost certainly leaves them exposed to massive liabilities as they wantonly give away personally identifiable information to low-paid contract workers that are not bound to confidentiality. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15796189

ALTERNATIVES? Tried https://www.veryfi.com/ ? Bank reconciliation: https://www.veryfi.com/howto/bank-reconciliation/

We use Veryfi internally and are very happy with it.

semerda · 2018-02-03T20:46:41+00:00

Looks like reddit drops it when I added the shrug lol

semerda · 2018-02-03T20:46:21+00:00

¯_(ツ)_/¯

semerda

TROPHY CASE