The right expense management software can save your team countless hours by streamlining and improving the tracking and reimbursement process.
Here’s a list of the top 5 expense management software solutions along with some guidance to help you find the right fit.
1. Best Budget Pick: Divvy
Divvy comes with all the basic features you need like automatic categorization, simplified reimbursements, easy transaction review and dispute resolution. It also offers expense cards that make tracking even easier by automatically syncing transactions made with the card to a live transaction dashboard.
Unlike most of its competitors, Divvy offers a free, basic version of its platform. Start with the free version if you’re more interested in tracking and managing expenses than the need to facilitate reimbursements or reports.
If you want more than the basic platform, you can add individual premium features to build a tool that’s perfectly tailored to your business.
Pricing: Variable pricing (free plan available)
Mobile app? Yes
2. Best for Growing Businesses: Certify by Emburse
Certify offers a scalable tool that’s versatile and easy to implement. It’s built for global commerce with over 140 currencies, 64 languages and built-in policy controls to make compliance, exchanges and translations effortless.
It also offers one of the most user-friendly interfaces, so you can teach a larger team to work with the platform.
This option is best for businesses in the process of scaling. It provides a range of pricing plans based on the size of your business to keep costs low while you’re small and offer savings on larger packages as you grow.
Pricing: Starts at $8 per user per month
Mobile app? Yes
3. Best for Small Businesses: Expensify
Expensify offers the full range of management features, including the ability to submit, track and reimburse expenses all in 1 tool. It also comes with mileage tracking and lots of optional premium services.
Our favorite of the premium services is the Expensify card, which fully automates the process. The moment your employee swipes an Expensify card, the transaction is submitted, categorized and ready for approval and reimbursement.
Expensify offers a wide range of subscription options tailored to small and medium businesses. Even self-employed individuals can benefit from a low-cost single user plan. It’s easy to scale up gradually without paying for any premium services you won’t use.
Pricing: Starts at $4.99 per month
Mobile app? Yes
4. Best for Mobile Functionality: Paylocity
Paylocity’s expense management software offers convenient automation like on-the-go receipt capture, automatic categorization by expense type and automated reimbursements.
The automatic categorization makes it easier to analyze trends in employee and company-wide spending. It also simplifies the approval process by allowing you to return a single expense, so you don’t need to reject a whole report just because 1 adjustment is needed.
Its mobile app sets Paylocity apart. While most tools offer an app with limited functionality to work in tandem with your desktop software, Paylocity takes it a step further. Its app allows employees to submit receipts and expenses and lets you track and approve expenses from your phone.
Pricing: Variable pricing
Mobile app? Yes
5. Best for Larger Businesses: SAP Concur
SAP Concur offers a lot of great features to streamline spending and reporting for your business, including e-receipts, card integration and expense tracking. It’s an established, large SaaS provider, so SAP Concur provides more than expense management tools and can integrate with other apps seamlessly.
Take advantage of customization to build a plan with the features you need and can afford. Keep in mind, this is a more robust expense management too,l so it may be too expensive for smaller businesses.
Pricing: N/A
Mobile app? Yes
Important Features of Expense Management Software
As you compare your options, think about which tasks and processes you hope to improve. Here are some of the features you’ll want to factor into your decision:
Tracking and Analysis
Expense management software offers tracking and analysis. Many tools offer mileage trackers, receipt uploads and other features that make it easy to track an employee’s expenses.
Some tools also offer features like categorization or report generation that make it easier to analyze where your business is spending money. This can make it easier to look for inefficiencies and potential for savings in your expenses.
Automation
Submitting and approving expenses can become less tedious with automation, and some companies offer AI that can help spot errors.
If you’re an individual or a small team, automation probably won’t be the highest priority. It’s a convenient feature, but the time saved likely won’t warrant the added expense.
International Capabilities
If your business is global or works with international clients or employees, you might need software that can handle foreign currency exchanges, compliance policies, taxation and other capabilities. You don’t want to juggle different compliance policies without the appropriate platform — it’s tedious and carries a high probability for mistakes.
Integration
If your business uses any other SaaS platforms, check the integration capabilities. Most expense management software includes some integration ability with other common software and tools.
Make sure the software you’re considering can integrate with the digital ecosystem you’ve already started building. If you don’t yet have any other SaaS platforms, make sure your expense management pick can integrate with any that you’re planning to get down the road.
Benefits of Expense Management Software
Using an expense management software offers major benefits to businesses of all sizes. Here are some of the key benefits that you can expect when you make the switch:
Save Time
With the right tracking and automation, you can cut your expense management time down to just minutes per week by eliminating the need for most manual processes. That’s time you can spend on tasks to help grow your business.
Increase Accuracy
Automation and streamlined processes reduce the opportunity for human error. Once your team uploads a receipt or expense, it’s unlikely that any of the information contained will be altered or removed by the time it’s ready for reimbursements. When errors do happen, it is easier to spot and quickly correct them.
Analyze and Identify Spending Trends
By tracking all expenses in 1 place and integrating with other financial tools, you’ll be able to see how your company spends its money. It will become easier to recognize and interpret trends and use your software to make data-driven decisions.
Better Cost Management
With a faster, more accurate and more streamlined expense management process in place, your business can master cost management. Instead of reacting to budget shortfalls with drastic and potentially harmful cuts, you can start identifying trends and looking for more cost-effective options before the money is spent.
Cost of Expense Management Software
As with most tools for businesses, the cost will depend on how much you need. Most options offer different packages based on the size and needs of your business. This helps you manage your budget while also giving you the ability to scale as your business grows.
- For small businesses (up to 25 employees): $0 to $9 per user per month
- For mid-sized businesses: Variable pricing
- For large businesses: Variable pricing
Get Expense Management Software for Your Business
Choosing the best expense management software for your business depends on the size and needs of your business. If you’re mostly looking for a basic tracking tool for you or your small team, a free or low-cost option might make more sense. Larger businesses may need to automate and improve the efficiency through both tracking and reimbursing expenses.
Start with our recommended expense management software options today.
Best Expense Management Software Methodology
Benzinga analyzed the top expense management software by industry and winnowed the list to include those with the best attributes. We prioritized pricing, features and scalability. We also considered the availability of a mobile app and consumer reviews.