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Expense management software evaluation
There's no dirth of expense management solutions. Team Fyle handpicks the best for you, not based on the software but based on the problems you want to solve.
Picking the best expense management software for your business or CPA firm can simplify and streamline receipt collection, credit card reconciliations, and overall expense management.
If you're considering switching to an automated expense management software or upgrading your current corporate expense software, this article reviews and evaluates the best expense management software for 2024.
Expense management software comparison
Here’s a comparison of the best expense reporting software for the year 2024.
Fyle
Expensify
Concur
Certify
Zoho Expense
Happay
Receipt submission via Text message
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Instant spend notifications
Yes
Yes* (only with Expensify Card)
No
No
No
Yes* (only with Happay Card)
Real-time feeds with your existing Visa & Mastercard
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Accounting Software Integrations
NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QBO, QBD, Xero
NetSuite, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, Xero
NetSuite, Sage, QBO, QBD, Xero
NetSuite, Sage, QBO, QBD
Sage Intacct, QBO, QBD, Xero
Sage, Dynamics 365, Tally, Intuit
Multi-level approval workflows
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
24/7 Support
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Pricing
starts at $11.99 per active user*/month, billed annually.
Starts at $10 per user/month billed annually
Contact for pricing
Starts at $12 per user/month
Starts at $3 per active user/month billed annually
Contact for pricing
6 best expense management tools of 2024 - editor's picks
1. Fyle - Best expense tracking software with real-time feeds on your existing credit cards
Fyle offers easy expense management on your existing credit cards. Its real-time credit card feeds directly integrate with Visa, Mastercard and American Express to bring credit card transaction information into your expense management system as soon as your employee swipes the card! Accountants also have immediate access to credit card transaction data that helps track spending, reconcile expenses, monitor budgets, and spot unauthorized charges in real time.
Features:
Submit receipts via text messages and other everyday apps like Slack, Gmail, Outlook, and more.
2. Happay - An expense management system for corporate expense management
Happay is an end-to-end expense management solution tailored to match the specific needs of large enterprises. The unique T&E ecosystem gives you 100% visibility in all travel, expense, and payments-related activities. From specialized expense reimbursement modules to advanced analytics, all Happay tools are built to contain budget leakages and maximize savings.
Features:
Auto-capture expenses right from the source with Xpendite.
Accelerate approvals with auto approvals, customized workflows, and policy violation detection with ApprovNow.
Eliminate expense fraud with Smart Audit’s auto-detection.
Get 360-degree visibility into all expenses with DeepAnalyze.
3. Expensify - An expense management app to manage personal and business expenses
Expensify is one of the best expense management app, enabling employees to track personal and business expenses, improve receipt management, book travel, and more. Once tracked, the expense manager app generates reports and submits them for approval. They also issue credit cards with their online expense management software.
Features:
Easy receipt capture with OCR matching.
Expensify business cards for corporate card reconciliation and expenses.
Send your vendor bills to Expensify for tracking, approval, and payment.
Create invoices, collect payments, and sync them to your accounting software.
Book hotels and flights right from their expense app.
Pricing:
Collect plan: Starting at $10 /user/month, billed annually.
Control plan: Starting at $18/user/month, billed annually.
4. Concur - An expense management tool for business expense management
Concur Expense is one of the best expense management tools that help capture receipts, process expense reports, enforce business rules, and make more informed business decisions. When you create an expense report with Concur, your charge from the credit card, vendor, and a picture of the receipt are auto-populated. As for approvers, they can review and approve team reports as soon as employees capture transaction data and submit the expense reports.
Features:
Online expense submission and receipt capture.
Adding vehicle mileage to an expense report.
Automated expense management systems with on-the-go travel booking.
5. Certify - An employee expense management software for small businesses
Certify is one of the best expense softwares. It supports seamless business expenses tracking, analyzing, and reporting for business travel spend. Users can scan and attach paper and e-receipts of restaurants, flights, hotels, and more, eliminating the need for spreadsheets and manual expense management. It also streamlines the entire approval process, considerably reducing employee reimbursement times.
Features:
Free and easy-to-use mobile app to create and submit reports.
Receipt tracking software that scans and auto-fills reports.
Auto-generated business expense reports.
Integrated Certify booking tool for easy travel bookings.
ACH reimbursement and credit card integration.
Pricing: The standard plan for 25 users starts at $12/user/month, and the enterprise price plan depends on the organization's needs.
6. Zoho Expense - Great for corporate expense management
Zoho Expense is one of the top expense reporting softwares that enables organizations to automate everything from receipt submission to accounting. Users can make travel bookings and track expenses right from the expense platform. Credit card reconciliation is also easy with Zoho Expense as it automatically converts transactions into expenses. Finance teams can also set up multi-level approval hierarchies, spend policies, budgets, and analytics.
Features:
Multi-level approval hierarchies.
Decent credit card receipt tracking app.
Easy mobile receipt upload.
Multi-currency capabilities.
Workflow management.
Pricing: The premium plan for Zoho Expense starts from $5/active user/month, billed annually. They also offer a free plan with basic expense tracking features.
These above expense management systems rank highly in company expense management, travel and expense management, and receipt management. If you’re looking for more options, we’ve listed other expense management tools in no particular order and categorized them based on their market fit.
Top Expense Management Software for SMBs
Some of the most common challenges SMBs face with expense management are human error, data entry errors, expense fraud, approval and policy compliance, and a lack of visibility and control of business expenses. Automated expense management systems eliminate these challenges and ensure your financial bottom line is always secure. Listed below are the best expense management solutions for SMBs across the US.
1. Airbase - Aseamless expense management system for businesses
Airbase unifies three systems: accounts payable, an advanced corporate credit card system, and an expense management system. Airbase simplifies all non-payroll spend control and reporting with automated accounting and approval workflows. This easily makes Airbase one of the best expense management software out there for SMBs.
Features:
Accessible software for expense reports with receipt capture.
2. Spendesk - An employee expense management software for smarter business spending
Spendesk can handle corporate credit cards, employee reimbursements, expense approvals, budgets, invoice payments, and pre-accounting. It helps deliver automation, visibility, and control to the modern finance team.
3. Abacus - An expense management app for seamless compliance
Abacus by Emburse is one of the top expense reporting softwares that streamlines expense management for individuals and businesses accurately while offering control and transparency. It also works as a reimbursement management software and credit card expense management software, thereby automating critical parts of accounting.
Features:
Easy receipt capture with OCR matching.
Create custom expense policies based on business needs.
Create single or multi-level approval workflows for expense report verification.
Developed insights and analysis based on expense information.
4. Freshbooks - For easy invoice and expense management
FreshBooks is an online accounting and invoicing software that simplifies bookkeeping for small businesses. FreshBooks makes financial recording simple and lets the finance team focus on other value-adding tasks. As a result, the finance team can save time, automate admin tasks easily, and ensure the business is tax-ready.
Features:
In-built billing portal that acts as bill tracking software.
Seamless invoice and expense management.
Easy payment processing with bank reconciliations.
Best expense tools for small business travel and expense management
Managing business travel is a lot of work. However, the right expense management solution can make business travel much easier to book, cancel, and monitor. It also helps save money by letting you identify potential areas of overspending. This is essential for SMBs that operate with limited budgets.
1. TravelPerk - The business travel expense software for your corporate travel needs
TravelPerk is one of the best expense report softwares that enables businesses to manage business travel end-to-end. It has powerful integrations with expense platforms and travel suppliers like airlines and hotels, that allow you to book and track expenses in the same place. TravelPerk also comes with 24/7 customer support that can be beneficial to resolve any travel-related issues.
Features:
In-app online travel booking.
Custom travel policies and easy approval workflows.
Robust integrations with softwares to improve travel management.
Navan (formerly TripActions) is a corporate expense management tool that provides businesses with travel booking, expense tracking, and spend control. It also has various integrations with travel providers, giving employees multiple options to book flights, hotels, transportation, and more while staying in line with company policy and budget. Navan also has a powerful mobile app that helps users stay on top of their trips and simplifies tracking expenses. This makes it a tough contender in the business travel expense software category.
Features:
Easy travel booking and expense reporting software.
Easy in-app online travel booking for all your business trips.
Custom travel policies and approval workflows Robust integrations with softwares to improve travel expense management.
Real-time reporting and analytics for finance teams.
Best corporate expense management software for enterprise management
Enterprises are synonymous with one word: large. Large budgets, large projects, and large numbers of employees. With this comes larger expenses, which is why enterprise expense management software is a significant investment. However, it is also a valuable tool that can deliver immense value.
1. Brex - Ideal for corporate credit card expense management
Brex is an enterprise expense management software that also issues corporate credit cards. It has features like virtual cards, spend analytics, receipt capture, policy checks, and more. Brex also offers a rewards program that enables companies to earn rewards on business spending from their credit card. It also supports real-time expense tracking and integrates with all the major accounting platforms.
Chrome River Expense is an online expense management software that helps automate tracking expenses and receipts, submitting expense reports, and reimbursing employees. This expense reporting software allows employees to submit expenses from their mobile app and seek approval and payments..
Features:
Easy expense report creation.
Automated policy checks for constant compliance.
Seamless digital receipt management.
Integrations with banks/credit cards for easy reconciliations.
Advanced integrations with airline tracking systems, hotels, and more.
Selection criteria for the top 6 employee expense management solutions
Receipt Collection via SMS: The software should provide easy ways to collect receipts for accountants. Receipt collection via text messages is one recent innovation here.
Real-time Reconciliations on Existing Credit Cards: The software should automate the credit card reconciliation process without asking you to change cards.
Integrations: The expense platforms should have robust integrations with accounting software and everyday applications like Gmail, Slack, or Teams.
Pricing: Pricing is crucial when picking the best expense management software. We rated expense software based on ROI for said price points.
Reporting and Data Analytics: The software should provide an easy means to submit reports and be capable of extracting detailed analyses and insights from them.
Customer Support: The expense software should provide 24*7 customer support via email or chat.
FAQs around expense management automation
What is Expense Management?
Expense management is a multi-step process that includes tracking, reporting, submitting, approving, and reimbursing employee business expenses. These business expenses can range from travel-related expenses to employee corporate card spends to buying office supplies.
How Does Expense Management Work?
Expense management is a multi-step process with three primary stakeholders: employees, department managers, and finance teams.
Employees record, code, and submit expense claims as expense reports.
Department managers verify, validate, and check these reports against expense policies and then approve or reject them.
Finance teams audit expense reports checking for compliance and expense fraud and then push them for payment processing.
This process, from report submission to reimbursement, is called expense management.
Why is Expense Management Important?
Simplifies and streamlines the entire expense management process.
Eliminates inaccuracies, expense fraud, and delayed employee reimbursements.
Automates all error-prone, time-consuming, and redundant tasks.
Gives finance teams real-time control and visibility into all business expenses across the organization.
Ensures automated compliance and zero financial leaks.
How to Manage Business Expenses?
Open a business account.
Choose a suitable accounting software.Choose accrual or cash based accounting for your finances.
Connect with existing financial institutions.
Automate receipt collection and management.
Stay up to date with business expenses.
Use an expense management app.
Features to Look For in an Online Expense Management Software
The expense management industry is spoilt for choice, making it challenging for a business to pick the best expense management software based on its specific needs. We’ve shortlisted here the most important features to look for in an expense management software:
Expense tracking and reporting.
Expense categories.
Approval workflows.
Mileage tracking.
Accounting integrations.
Analytics.
Automated compliance.
Budgeting.
Let’s look at these features in more detail:
Expense tracking and reporting: A capable expense tracking software should provide employees with multiple ways to track and report paper and e-receipts.
Expense categories: Having customizable expense categories helps organizations have a bird's eye view of business expenses like transportation, meals, Wi-Fi, accommodation, and more.
Approval workflows: It should support complex approval workflows for processing and reimbursing reports. This includes standard approvals, custom workflows for different expenses, escalations for large amounts, and delegation of approval authority.
Accounting integrations: When choosing expense management solutions, ensure that it doesn’t just automate the tracking and reporting part but also syncs with your accounting software automatically.
Others: A few other features that are great to have are analytics, automated reminders, robust security, budgets, reimbursement methods, compliance, mileage tracking, and integration with other productivity software.
How to Choose the Best Expense Management Software for Your Company?
List your expense management needs: Map your challenges depending on your company's size, growth stage, and revenue.
Evaluate your current expense management processes: See what's broken, what's good, and what needs improvement.
Identify top expense solutions: Map these expense management systems to your needs. Review sites are powerful tools to leverage at this stage of the process.
Test drive these expense management apps: Most tools provide demos and free trials. Ask key stakeholders to use and review your top picks.
Map budget and software functionalities: Once you have tried the tools, you can work out the ROI of automating your expense management.
How Much Does An Expense Management Software Cost?
The average pricing starts from $6.99 per month and increases depending on the features and capabilities. Most expense programs also provide free trials or demo accounts to test before choosing.
How to Tackle Legal and Tax Compliance with Business Expense Management?
Create a statutory checklist based on your requirements: Stay updated with the changes in tax laws and regulations that will likely affect your business expense management.
Document expenses: Always maintain detailed records of all expenses and receipts to support tax compliance.
Classify expenses correctly: Make sure the expense categories are marked as either business or personal to ensure accurate reporting on tax returns.
Create enforceable policies: This ensures your employees know the policies they must adhere to when filing for reimbursements.
Use approved accounting methods: Always adhere to accepted accounting methods to account for expenses and ensure compliance with tax laws properly.
Keep records: Keep records of all business expenses for at least seven years in case of an audit by tax authorities.
How Do Businesses Integrate Expense Management With Financial Reporting and Budgeting Processes?
Link expenses to budget: Match all business expenses to the budget categories.
Automate data entry: Use an expense management software that automatically imports expense data into your accounting system.
Use a consistent chart of accounts: Ensure that the same expense categories are used in the accounting and expense management systems.
Regularly reconcile accounts: Regularly compare expense data in the accounting system to the data in your expense management system to identify and correct discrepancies.
Use dashboards and reports: Utilize dashboards and reports to monitor expenses in real-time, compare actual expenses against the budget, and identify areas where spending may exceed the budget.
Involve stakeholders: Encourage the involvement of all stakeholders in the expense management process, including budget holders, finance teams, and management, to ensure everyone is aligned with the organization's goals.
Conclusion
The growth of a company ultimately depends on its financial health. This makes it imperative to clearly understand where your employees spend money and what they spend it on. Access to little or no expense data can be detrimental to an organization.
An expense management solution for your company will help it grow, control costs where needed, and improve your overall financial health. Investing in it has become a no-brainer in today's financial environment.
If you’re wondering where to start your search for an expense management platform, check Fyle out today!
