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Expense Management reviews by real, verified users. Find unbiased ratings on user satisfaction, features, and price based on the most reviews available anywhere.
Best Expense Management Software
Businesses utilize expense management software to process, pay, and audit employee-initiated expenses. The software includes capabilities for employees to input expenses for approval through a browser or mobile application. Expense management software simplifies and automates a business’ expense entry, streamlines review, eliminates paper trail, and reduces administrative effort. Expense management software allows administrators to have full visibility of and track employee use of business financial resources. Expense management software analyzes overall expenses, identifies cost-saving opportunities, and controls excessive spending. Expense management software is commonly integrated with time tracking software, travel management software, payroll software or accounting software, and workforce management software.
To qualify for inclusion in the Expense Management category, a product must:
Top 10 Expense Management Software
- SAP Concur
- TripActions
- Expensify
- Zoho Expense
- Pleo
- Emburse Certify Expense
- Brex
- Emburse Abacus
- Paylocity
- Rydoo
SAP Concur is the world’s leading provider of integrated travel, expense, and invoice management solutions, driven by a relentless pursuit to simplify and automate these everyday processes. With SAP Concur, a top-rated app guides employees through every trip, charges are effortlessly populated into expense reports, and invoice approvals are automated. By integrating near real-time data and using AI to audit 100% of transactions, businesses can see exactly what they’re spending without worrying a
Fast becoming the default for corporate travel and spend management, TripActions is the leading, cloud-based T&E platform that combines industry-leading technology with best-in-class travel agency service. Trusted by travel managers and finance teams alike at 4,000+ companies globally, TripActions leverages real-time data to keep traveling employees safe, control costs and save time. www.tripactions.com
Easily manage expenses, pay bills, send invoices, and book travel – all within Expensify. - Unlimited receipt scanning: Snap a photo of any receipt and Expensify 's SmartScan technology captures the details. Better yet, get the Expensify Card and say goodbye to receipts forever. - Expense management: Expensify codes and submits business expenses for easy approval, next-day reimbursement, and automatic sync with accounting software. - Bill payment: Expensify captures details from vendor bills for
Zoho Expense is an online solution that enables organizations to effectively manage business travel and spend. Zoho Expense automates expense reporting - from receipt to the balance sheet, and helps organizations save a significant amount of time and effort. Zoho Expense also streamlines business travel and booking, enforces multi-level approvals, and tracks advance payments. Hidden costs and time associated with manual expense reporting significantly reduce courtesy of Zoho Expense's ability
The business spending tool your team deserves. Smart company cards and software to help you track and pay expenses, invoices and more.
Emburse brings together some of the world’s most powerful and trusted financial automation solutions. As part of our product portfolio, Emburse Certify carries a promise to humanize work while delivering expense, accounts payable, and business travel solutions for growing organizations. Certify Expense is a web-based travel & expense management software for companies that want to quickly automate manual processes while receiving great administrative and end-user support for free. With Cer
Want spending power and control? Brex corporate cards deliver both. Unlock higher limits, best-in-class rewards, and integrated spend management. → 94% of customers believe Brex cares about their business’s success. → 95% of customers say switching to Brex is easy. → 98% of our customers who interacted with our live customer support team found them friendly and nice. (Based on a 2021 survey of more than 260 Brex customers.)
Submit and manage employee expenses in real time. No more expense reports or receipt hoarding. Capture the expense as it happens for full visibility into spend. Build custom approval routing rules for every expense and automate your expense policy to reduce errors and improve efficiency. The minimalist, sleek interface clears out the clutter and only prompts employees for what is needed, while organizing and sorting expenses into reports as they are submitted. Corporate card reconciliation
Our all-in-one software platform gives HR pros a way to easily manage daily tasks in payroll, benefits, talent, and workforce management. But what makes us different is that our technology is backed by a culture that truly cares about our clients’ success. Providers will merely sell you a product. But a partner actually cares about you and your business. A partner takes the time to get to know you and understand your needs. We work with you to identify the best solutions that will benefit your
Snap and manage expenses anywhere in real-time. Make expensing fast and easy for your employees & finance team. Rydoo simplifies your expense management process to a few clicks and photos, with real-time approval flows and smart reporting. Next to eliminating today’s expense reports, Rydoo also creates the new standard for business travelers - allowing employees to book a trip instantly via their smartphone. Thousands of companies including Deloitte, WeTransfer, Veolia & Burger King t
Webexpenses is a leading global provider of cloud-based travel and spend management software to businesses of all sizes across more than 70 countries. Webexpenses solutions automate manual processes, increase spend visibility, reduce errors, and are proven to save businesses time and money. Our award-winning expense management solution is at the heart of our suite and is proven to reduce T&E spend by up to 30%. Users benefit from our expenses app which builds claims instantly from a scanne
The world has changed over the last three decades and it’s time expense management does. Fyle has invented a new, intuitive way to turn expense reporting real-time. Employees submit expenses on-the-go within apps they use every day - Gmail, Outlook, Slack, WhatsApp, phone gallery. There’s more -- all expenses are submitted only after being checked for policies. This means employees get notified right within these apps if they’re violating any company policies. What’s more? - A modern corporat
Ramp is the finance automation platform designed to save you time and money. With Ramp you get 5-in-1 software that consolidates corporate cards, expense management, bill payments, accounting, and reporting into one simple and free solution designed to save time and money. With this unique approach to financial services, Ramp has quickly become America’s fastest-growing corporate card and #1 rated software. Businesses that use Ramp save an average of 3.3% in their first year and close their bo
Airbase is the only spend management platform for small and midsize businesses that brings together comprehensive accounts payable automation, software-enabled corporate card program, and fully automated employee expense reimbursement into one system. Spend management is a different approach and a new way of thinking about how companies spend money. It shifts the relationship between employees and the budget by building accountability into fast-paced workflows and supporting ownership of spendin
Divvy has combined seamless expense management software with business cards so you never have to process another expense report. With Divvy, you can leverage faster expense reporting, enforceable budgets, and a single platform to offer real-time visibility into all spend. Ready to gain more control and streamline your spend management—in a one-stop, easy-to-use platform? Get Divvy today to empower your team and save everyone time (including yourself). In the end, Divvy customers spend smarte
Spendesk is the only all-in-one spend management platform that gives 100% visibility into company spend. With Spendesk, you get an 8-in-1 software with corporate cards, invoice payments, expense reimbursements, approvals, budgets, reporting, compliance, and pre-accounting in one simple, scalable solution. Already simplifying the lives of thousands of businesses, Spendesk is designed to save time and money across the entire spending process.
One System Matters Paycom provides user-friendly HR and employee-driven payroll technology to enhance the entire employee life cycle, all in a single software. Our comprehensive software is unique because it’s truly everything you need — from hire to retire — in one system to empower your entire organization. Through our self-service app, employees can easily request time off, clock in and out, do their own payroll and more, allowing them to be accountable for the accuracy of their personal dat
BigTime is the access-anywhere operating system behind the greatest consulting firms on the planet. We help accountants, architects, engineers, IT-services firms, scientific and management consultants budget, track and bill their most important asset - time. In fact, BigTime users have increased their gross margins by 25%, on average, with our business-adaptable tools for resource allocation, workflow and task management, project planning and tracking, billing and invoicing with Quickbooks inte
Dext makes accountants and the businesses you look after more productive and profitable through better data and insights. Combine real time accurate data with practice productivity tools. Free up your team to spend more time adding value. Prepare finances You can Prepare, sort and automatically publish paperwork using Prepare with Receipt Bank. Pull cost data from over 1,400 suppliers and automatically sort and categorise with smart supplier rules. Match paperwork with cost data through bank
An all-in-one solution that simplifies how your organization gets around.
Emburse brings together some of the world’s most powerful and trusted financial automation solutions. As part of our product portfolio, Emburse Nexonia carries a promise to humanize work while delivering expense, accounts payable, and time tracking solutions tailored for Intacct and NetSuite. Customers choose Nexonia for: - Tight integrations with ERP's and accounting systems - Fast expense submissions with an easy to use mobile app - Handles complex approval workflows Nexonia's simple-to-use
Chrome River Expense is a fast, fluid, mobile web app that offers global organizations the latest in travel and expense management. We deliver the same user experience across all devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops – which makes employees happy. Powerful analytics and expense reporting capabilities make the CFO and accounts payable staff even happier. Expense serves complex, global enterprise organizations.
TravelBank is the leading all-in-one expense and business travel management platform, powering the expense and travel solution for more than 20,000 companies. With TravelBank, businesses gain immediate control of their expense management and travel program, reducing company spend by 30% on average while improving employee happiness through a user-friendly design, fast expense reimbursements, and travel rewards program. Companies can create and deploy custom expense and travel policies with ease
BQE CORE is an integrated, native cloud-based solution designed specifically for professional service firms. CORE offers business and project accounting, time and expense tracking, invoicing, project and human resource management and client relationship management (CRM). BQE CORE utilizes state-of-the-art technologies delivering actionable business intelligence and award winning artificial intelligence including natural language processing and speech recognition. BQE CORE supports a wide range
We are the world's business travel platform. Companies of all sizes in more than 60 countries trust Egencia to modernize their corporate travel programs. We bring the power of Expedia Group to deliver simple, consumer-like business travel that users love and fast, expert support for unexpected moments. With a globally consistent platform and powerful travel program management, rest assured your travel program is optimized to manage risk while maximizing ROI.
Before Soldo, tracking and controlling spending was a dark art: businesses created workarounds for payments and stifled staff with financial admin. There’s a brighter way. Enable employees and departments to make purchases – from advertising to software, travel expenses to e-commerce. Control every cost with custom budgets and track transactions in real time. Connect accounting software to automate reporting and save hours, then use insights to grow. Soldo combines smart prepaid company card
Paychex Flex is an all-in-one HR solution that you can build on as your business grows or changes. Use it to run payroll and integrate your HR administration, retirement, and insurance management with service the way you want it and our expert knowledge of the regulations that could affect your business. The more HR functions you bring to Paychex Flex, the more accuracy and efficiency you’ll gain. It can help you: • Recruit and track the best candidates • Streamline hiring and onboarding •
Expensya is a solution that transforms spend management. Expensya users can manage and process any type of expense: online purchases, general costs, expense reports, remote work, Per Diems, mileage expenses, and more. Thanks to its across-the-board features and expertise, Expensya currently supports more than 5000 companies and provides a comprehensive solution to its users, for flawless end-to-end management of all business spends. Expensya also integrates with your bank cards, your HR system,
Center is a complete corporate credit card and expense management solution that delivers real-time visibility and flexible spend controls to automate expense tracking. Center simplifies expense processing for the entire company, saving time for employees, improving operations and compliance for the finance team, and delivering live insights for managers and executives.
Bento is the only card+software solution modern small and mid-sized businesses need to manage daily expenses. Customers have reduced spending, improved cash flow, and cut down countless hours that used to be spent on expense reports and reimbursements. How? Simply create physical and virtual debit cards for employees and teams, and limit when, where and how much each card is good for. That’s it! Employees get their job done without ever overspending, and managers have control and visibility with
G2 Grid® for Expense Management
Learn More About Expense Management Software
What is Expense Management Software?
Expense management software refers to solutions that process, pay, and audit employee-initiated expenses, such as flights, car rental, lodging, meals, laundry, business calls, and shipping of work-related items. This type of software shares some similarities with spend management—which plans and monitors procurement expenses such as raw materials, business services, or investments.
Employees can manage expenses in multiple ways, from receipt scanning mobile apps to enterprise software that covers travel policies, approvals, expense tracking, and travel cost management.
What Types of Expense Management Software Exist?
Some accounting software and ERP systems include basic features for expense management, which are usually insufficient for companies with many mobile employees. These systems can be used to consolidate expense management data but aren’t a good option for expense approvals, tracking, and monitoring.
Standalone
Standalone expense management software exists separately from other systems. This type of software focuses exclusively on managing expenses and provides little or no functionality for travel management. Vendors usually offer integration with travel management software, ERP systems, and accounting software.
Travel and expense
Expense management software can be part of travel and expense solutions, either as a separate module or delivered as a package that can only be bought and used as one system. Vendors who provide separate modules or products for travel and expense management also tend to combine them in suites for companies that need both types of features.
What are the Common Features of Expense Management Software?
The following are some core features within expense management software that can help users categorize their expenses, finetune their workflows, and create expense reports, to name a few.
Expense reports: To get reimbursed, employees need to create expense reports and provide information on each type of expense, the amount, and the date. Receipts need to be included in expense reporting so that managers and accountants can have proof that the employee spent the money they request reimbursement for. Expense report forms typically have predefined fields that allocate expenses by type, department, or business unit.
Expense categories: Companies need to categorize business expenses to better organize company spend, such as travel, office supplies, and team outings, while also optimizing the tracking of these costs. The main categories used by companies are transportation, meals, accommodation, moving expenses, and work-related services (such as business calls or laundry cleaning). Companies also need to differentiate between tax-deductible and non-deductible expenses. According to the IRS, expenses are deductible if they are used for business and work. The portion of the expenses used for personal purposes is usually nondeductible. Sometimes companies may decide to cover some personal expenses to improve employee satisfaction.
Approval workflows: Travel expenses need to be approved by managers to be processed and reimbursed. In some cases, accountants also need to approve expenses (for instance, a moving expense of $10,000 will need to be approved by managers and accountants before being processed). To define who needs to approve what types of expenses, expense management software provides workflows for determining the steps of the approval process. Standard approval workflows are usually delivered out of the box but can be modified by companies according to their specific needs.
Payment integration: Expense reimbursements are made through money transfers directly to the bank account of the employee. Companies need to manage various types of payments, such as cash advances and partial payments. It is also essential to adjust payments when errors occur and employees are reimbursed the incorrect amount. Since most expense management systems do not provide advanced features for payments, it is critical to integrate with payment gateway software and other payment processing solutions.
Analytics: Expenses transactions generate a lot of data that needs to be analyzed to determine inaccuracies and trends. Expense analytics helps managers monitor travel spending at different levels of the company. Accountants also use analytics to forecast future amounts and take them into account when creating budgets.
What are the Benefits of Expense Management Software?
Decrease travel costs and processing business expenses: Expense management software streamlines the reporting and approval process, which allows companies to easily track employee expenses. This in turn allows organizations to ensure that they are getting the best value from their travel and employee-related expenses.
Reduce expense errors: This software automates several of the steps involved in the tracking, reporting, and submitting of expenses, which reduces the amount of human involvement. Even though it’s probably in a company’s best interest to still review work completed throughout the workflow, this automation reduces common errors that are committed by humans.
Ensure employee and manager expense-related accountability: The tracking of expenses and the “paper trail” that is created, allows companies to make sure their employees are held accountable for their purchases and that expenses are in compliance with company policies. This feature also helps to prevent employee overspending and unauthorized reimbursements.
Facilitate transparency of expense policies for employees, managers, customers, and investors: The reporting and analysis capabilities of this software allow all stakeholders an instantaneous view into employee-related expenses and the policies that they should abide by.
Who Uses Expense Management Software?
Expense management software can be used by a variety of employees within a wide range of industries. From employees who travel, to accountants, and contractors, the following list explains how different employees can benefit from this software.
Employees: Employees, mostly the ones who travel frequently, are the biggest users of expense management software. Occasional travel expenses can also be managed using this type of software, but it does not justify investing in expense management software. While employees use expense management software mostly to submit expenses they already incurred, they may also use the system to ask for approval before booking travel.
Managers: Managers are responsible for approving expenses and reimbursements. Depending on the expense policies and rules of the company, some types of expenses do not require approval, while others can only be processed with approval by one or more managers. Managers also track the total expenses by team or department and try to find opportunities to reduce spending.
Contractors: Contractors, consultants, freelancers, or project managers who collaborate with the company but are not full-time employees may also use this type of software to submit and track travel expenses. An alternative to expense management software is to add travel costs to the invoices for services provided by contractors.
Accountants: Accountants may not always use expense management software directly but require expense information to reflect it in their books accurately.
Software Related to Expense Management Software
The following are solutions that can be used together with or are closely related to Expense Management software:
Travel management software: Travel management software helps employees with finding the best travel options, as well as with the booking process. Booking confirmations and electronic invoices or receipts can be used by employees to submit expense reports. It is also crucial that travel expenses match reservations to avoid inaccurate reimbursements.
Accounting software and ERP systems: Accounting software and ERP systems track and manage travel costs. Companies need to know how much they spend on travel, which can be an essential part of their total costs and impact their profitability.
Mileage tracking software: Mileage tracking software focuses on transportation costs incurred using personal vehicles. Employees may use their cars for their daily commute or longer trips. Since companies reimburse an amount per mile, employees need to track and submit accurate mileage.
Business travel management services: Travel arrangement services are beneficial for companies that prefer not to use software to manage travel. Travel agencies can provide services to book travel for the company and its employees. This helps companies save money by not investing in travel management software. Also, travel agencies have more experience in the market and oftentimes partner with tour operators, airlines, or hotel chains, which allows them to reduce travel costs.
Challenges with Expense Management Software
Even though expense management software offers a variety of features that can benefit any organization that has a significant number of employees’ expenses to track and reimburse, they can still come with their own set of challenges.
Integration: Integration with travel management and accounting systems is critical to transfer data between systems. Information on travel booking needs to match with actual expenses, which are then consolidated and assigned to various cost centers in accounting. If the data isn’t accurate and consistent across all systems, the company or employee may lose money.
Bring your own software: Bring your own software and apps is a trend that allows employees to use their own software that is not authorized by the company. While employers usually provide expense management software, employees may use other tools and apps for booking travel, managing receipts, or for loyalty programs.
Privacy: Privacy is a significant concern because employees may use their credit cards for payments, and they provide personal banking information for reimbursements. Also, employees may mix business and personal travel, which means that they may use their credit card for both. Finally, personal information that is required for booking a flight or a hotel room may be included in expense reports. Employers need to make sure that only certain employees and managers can access private data. Protection against external threats is also necessary.
How to Buy Expense Management Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Expense Management Software
When selecting expense management software, it is important to first look at how travel and expense within the business operates, and then familiarize oneself with the different types of software available. There are a variety of options when it comes to expense management software products, including those designed for the business needs of small and medium-sized businesses.
Compare Expense Management Software Products
Create a long list
The main purpose of expense management software is to make everyone's life easier; this includes the employee who is submitting an expense report, the manager who is approving the expenses, and the finance and accounting team member who is tracking expenses. It’s important to first create a long list of solutions that bring all of these functionalities and tasks together in one dashboard. Buyers may consider including software that offers a mobile app for managing expenses on the go.
Another factor to consider when creating this list is how user friendly the software is in capturing and submitting expenses. Oftentimes, expense management software built for small businesses are more user friendly but have fewer features than enterprise software.
Create a short list
After reviewing and researching the software on the long list, the buyer can whittle down this list based on the available budget. Expense management software is available to suit all budgets, while some general expense management applications could be even downloaded for free or bought off the shelf at a lower price.
Buyers must keep in mind, however, that the more specialized a software is, the more expensive it gets. This is the case because the user base for specialized software is usually relatively small. If the company wants something specific to their industry or customized for the business, they should be prepared to pay a premium.
Conduct demos
As a rule of thumb, companies should make sure to demo all of the products that end up on their short list. During demos, buyers should ask specific questions related to the functionalities they care most about. For example, one might ask to be walked through how to track expenses, how to run expense reports, or how to import and submit receipts for reimbursement.
Selection of Expense Management software
Choose a selection team
The employees and managers who will be using this software must be involved in the selection process. Every business is different and the users are most likely in the best position to offer an educated opinion about which one is the best choice for the particular needs of the business.
After choosing a software, buyers must remember that they don’t have to be stuck with this selection forever; most platforms allow for add-ons or modifications. However, this decision shouldn’t be made lightly because no matter what software is chosen, it will be a big time and money commitment. To see a return on investment (ROI), buyers can’t change their minds a few months later and switch software again.
Negotiation
Negotiating a software contract is important to minimize risk, whether it is in terms of performance protection, security protection, or simply making sure that both parties are in complete agreement with what to expect from each other. If the business has enough cash on hand, they could ask for a discount in return for annual upfront payment, and many software providers are happy to make that deal. Other times, a software provider may offer unlimited usage if the buyers pay upfront instead of paying a monthly or quarterly package price.
Buyers should also determine if they will need help implementing the expense management software or integrating with another system. Usually, a software provider's first offer will include some implementation services in a given timeframe. Buyers can ask for these services to be removed if they can manage it themselves, or if a third party can do it at a lower fee. They also need to decide for how long they will need this software. If the company will use the software for years to come, the buyer can negotiate longer terms which sometimes results in more favorable pricing.
Final decision
The final decision should be based on all the information gathered previously. Businesses should try to prioritize needs and select the solution that meets most of, if not all of, their requirements. Companies must remember that there is no one perfect software, but there is likely one that is best for their business.
Expense Management Software Trends
Travel and expense consolidation
Consolidation with travel management allows employees to book flights and accommodation while complying with the expense rules and policies of the company. Depending on their roles, employees have limited options when it comes to the amount of their travel expenses. For instance, a company may decide that the maximum per diem amount is $50, which means that any expense that exceeds the limit will not be reimbursed.
New technologies
Cloud and mobile are mainstream technologies used by software providers and employees. The cloud can reduce IT costs and allows employees to use the system from any computer or device connected to the internet. Most expense management vendors also provide native mobile apps for their products to increase the user experience. The cloud also simplifies integration with other solutions such as ERP, accounting, or travel management.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) in expense management is still in its early stages, but it can provide substantial benefits for users of these solutions. The main advantage is that AI can analyze large volumes of data from thousands or tens of thousands of expenses and identify errors and trends more accurately than traditional software.
