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The 8 best expense management software in 2024
Benchmark your company's expenses with Ramp's data.
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Managing employee expenses can be a headache for finance leaders. From tracking receipts to ensuring policy compliance, manual processes are time-consuming and prone to errors. Mismanaged expenses can lead to overspending, financial discrepancies, and endless frustration.
This is where expense management software comes in. The best tools automate and streamline expense tracking, giving you real-time visibility and control over company spending. Say goodbye to manual expense management spreadsheets and hello to accuracy and efficiency with the right software solution.
What is expense management software?
Expense management software can help automate approval workflows, preventing unapproved expenses before they happen. Integrations with accounting systems provide real-time insights and detailed financial reports, making it easier to make informed decisions and close your books faster.
8 best expense management software
Here are our picks for the best expense management software on the market right now, based on factors including feature set, integrations, usability, pricing, and others:
Benefits of using employee expense management software
Expense tracking software simplifies spend management, expense claims, and the reimbursement process. By automating expense compliance and report processing, these end-to-end spend management solutions eliminate the need for spreadsheets, making financial oversight more efficient and accurate.
Here are five key reasons why cloud-based expense management apps make sense:
1. Spend visibility
Gain real-time insight into where and how your budget is spent. With clear visibility, you can track business expenses, identify spending trends, and make informed financial decisions.
Some software lets you plan for recurring SaaS subscription costs before they hit. You can also look ahead with expense forecasting and see month-over-month spending trends.
2. Cost control
Set spending limits and monitor transactions to keep expenses within budget. Preset expense rules ensure employee expenses stay within policy, and custom workflows ensure that the right stakeholders are looped in for approval. Automated alerts can help you catch overspending before it becomes a problem so every department stays on track financially.
3. Increased efficiency
Automate the creation, submission, and approval of expense reports. Reduce manual workload, speed up employee expense reimbursement, and ensure accurate financial records. By eliminating tedious processes, your team can focus on more important tasks that enable growth.
4. Scalable systems
As your business grows, your expense management system should scale with you. Unlike manual processes, the right expense management software can handle increased transaction volumes and supportmore users without compromising performance. The right software keeps your financial operations running smoothly no matter the size of your business.
5. Guarantee compliance
Software helps ensure that all expenses adhere to company policies and regulatory requirements by setting automatic controls and alerts for noncompliant transactions. It also helps maintain financial integrity, reduce the risk of expense fraud, and ensure your business meets all legal obligations.
5 essential features of expense management software
As you evaluate your options for expense management software, pay close attention to the feature set each tool offers. Features will differ from platform to platform, but these should be non-negotiable:
- Policy compliance: Look for options that automatically ensure all spending follows company rules and prevent unauthorized transactions
- Real-time spend data: Choose a platform that provides instant access to up-to-date spending information, helping you catch errors quickly and enabling better planning and decision-making
- Advanced spend controls: In addition to specific spend limits, your software should let you set category and vendor restrictions on employee spending to stay within budget
- Automated receipt matching: Modern expense management software automatically matches receipts to transactions, saving time and reducing errors
- Customizable expense approval workflows: Look for tools that let you create tailored approval processes to fit your business needs
How to choose the right expense management software for your business
When it comes to choosing the right software for your business, it’s important to keep these five factors in mind as you make a final decision:
1. Cost and budget
Before you commit to a platform, spend some time evaluating the total cost of ownership, including subscription fees, implementation costs, and any other charges for features or support. Your software should provide good value for the money and fit within your company budget. Be sure to consider the potential cost savings the platform might offer through increased efficiency and reduced manual labor.
2. Integration compatibility
Always check the list of integrations for expense management software. Make sure the software you choose integrates with your existing systems, like your enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, accounting software, and other financial tools. When all your financial systems are properly integrated, you’ll reduce the risk of errors and duplication.
3. Ease of use
A user-friendly interface ensures employees can easily adopt and use the software. An intuitive mobile app is also important since it allows users to manage expenses, capture receipts, and approve transactions on the go.
4. Automation and efficiency
Look for software that automates expense management processes like expense report generation, receipt capture, and invoice management. Automation reduces manual effort, minimizes errors, and speeds up workflows, so your finance team can focus on more strategic tasks.
5. Advanced analytics and reporting
You need powerful analytics and reporting features that offer real-time insights into spending patterns and financial health. Customizable reports and dashboards can help you make informed decisions, identify cost-saving opportunities, and ensure compliance with company policies.
Ramp: The best employee expense management software
Expense management software should do more than just manage spending limits. You need an all-in-one expense management solution that helps your finance team streamline processes. It should also help enforce your expense policy and eliminate the need for manual data entry.
That’s where Ramp comes in:
- Real-time expense tracking: Get up-to-the-minute visibility into employee spending. Analyze spending by department, location, merchant, and more.
- Automated receipt matching and expense categorization: Employees can submit receipts via mobile app the moment they make a purchase, and Ramp will automatically categorize the expense and match it to an expense report
- Unlimited physical and virtual corporate cards: Set custom spending, vendor, and category limits at the card or individual level with Ramp’s corporate charge cards
- AI-powered recommendations: Trained on data from millions of financial transactions, Ramp's AI can help you build approval workflows, provide recommendations to reduce expenses, and more
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- Real-time spend reporting: Ramp's expense management system lets you see all your business's expenses in a single dashboard.
- AI-powered insights: Get tailored recommendations on where you should reduce spend, renegotiate contracts, and more with Ramp Intelligence.
- Integrated corporate cards: Ramp’s unlimited physical and virtual corporate charge cards offer built-in spend controls and tracking.
- Enforce your expense policy automatically: Block out-of-policy spending before it happens. Set purchase limits, block merchant categories, and more.
- Automated receipt generation and categorization: Ramp automatically categorizes receipts, making expense reporting and reimbursements fast and easy.
Pros:
- All-in-one finance platform with corporate cards
- Automates expense compliance
- Customizable category and merchant controls
- Multiple integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero
- User-friendly mobile app
- Unlimited free tier offers everything small businesses need from expense management software
Cons:
- Must have $50,000 in a business bank account to qualify
- Limited tax support
- Geared toward companies with a large US presence
- Real-time insights into spending: See up-to-the-minute expense data and get an accurate overview of your financial situation at any time.
- AI-powered expense audits: AppZen automates the auditing process, reducing the need for manual checks.
- Spending pattern analytics: Get a clear view of where and how you’re spending money, helping identify areas for cost savings.
- Identifies and eliminates duplicate entries: Maintain the integrity of your expense reports with clean error-free financial records.
- Detects fraudulent activities: AppZen proactively identifies and prevents fraudulent activities by flagging anomalies.
Pros:
- All-in-one expense management platform
- Real-time data and insights
- Supports multi-currency transactions
- Caters to businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises
Cons:
- Complex interface
- Limited reporting features & ERP integrations
- OCR receipt capturing can glitch
- No free tier
- No mobile app
- No transparency around pricing
- Create and manage custom budgets: Design and oversee budgets with specific spending limits so team members stay within financial boundaries.
- Physical and virtual corporate cards: Manage business expenses and retain control over corporate spending, making it easier to manage expenses.
- Digital receipt management: Simplify expense reporting by capturing and storing receipts via mobile app.
- Set custom spending rules: Tailor controls so spending aligns with company policies and financial strategies.
- Redeem rewards for cashback, travel, or gift cards: Includes a rewards system that allows users to earn and redeem points for cashback, travel, or gift cards.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use interface
- Offers virtual cards
- Useful mobile app for managing expense requests
- Multiple accounting platform configurations
Cons:
- Limited customer support
- Rewards redemption requires a year of platform use
- Limited reporting functionality
- Some issues with platform stability
- Need to pay for AP automation features
- Automatic expense reviews: AI-powered algorithms assess and categorize expenses without the need for manual intervention.
- Real-time spend visibility: Get an up-to-date overview of expenses and spending habits so you can make decisions more quickly.
- Automate receipt collection: Brex automates the entire process of collecting and matching receipts with corresponding transactions.
- Custom budgets and spending limits: Create and enforce tailored budgets and spending limits that meet your business needs.
- User-friendly mobile app: An intuitive mobile app makes it easy to manage expenses on the go.
Pros:
- Use corporate cards in over 100 countries
- Detailed spend reports and automated insights
- Easy-to-reach support team
- Simple to integrate with popular accounting software
Cons:
- Complex setup
- Limited banking integrations
- Stringent eligibility requirements
- Some transaction limits and restrictions
- Free tier lacks some essential features
- Detailed analytics: Airbase has robust analytics that highlight areas for cost savings based on business spending patterns.
- Real-time visibility into spending: Get real-time insights into your business transactions as they occur, enabling better financial control.
- Intuitive mobile app: A user-friendly mobile app lets you capture receipts and approve transactions no matter where you are.
- Integrates with over 70 ERP systems: Sync all your financial data across the platforms your business relies on, improving operational efficiency.
- AI-based OCR creates expense reports from receipts: Airbase automatically generates detailed expense reports directly from receipt images, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
Pros:
- User-friendly web and mobile interfaces
- Expense reimbursement is easy to use
- Offers corporate cards
- Customizable workflows for stakeholder review of business expenses
Cons:
- No support for international banks
- Slow approvals
- Limited customer support
- Basic reporting functionality
- No free tier or free trial
- SmartScan feature automatically captures receipts: Simplify expense management by automatically capturing and recording all necessary details from receipts.
- Customizable approval workflows: Design and implement expense approval workflows that are tailored to your specific business needs.
- All-in-one finance platform: Access features for bill pay, invoicing, and spend tracking in one centralized location.
- Advanced mileage tracking: Accurately log and manage your travel expenses with a robust tool suite that tracks mileage for reimbursement or tax purposes.
- Integrates with most major accounting systems: Expensify integrates with major accounting systems, including QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics, and Xero.
Pros:
- Easy to set up and navigate
- Intuitive to create and send reports
- Submit and approve expense reports on mobile
- Rapid reimbursements, including next-day ACH
Cons:
- Mobile app is limited in functionality
- Slow customer support response times
- Limited customization options
- Some synchronization issues with accounting software
- All-in-one travel booking and expense management platform: Navan integrates travel booking with expense management for convenience.
- Real-time data on travel and expenses: Access real-time information on both travel arrangements and related expenses, helping you manage budgets effectively.
- Automated expense reporting: Navan automates the expense reporting process, saving time and reducing the likelihood of errors.
- AI-powered travel recommendations: Get personalized travel recommendations that cater to your business preferences and needs.
- Robust analytics highlight cost-saving opportunities: View advanced analytics that provide insights into spending patterns.
Pros:
- Simple to onboard new users
- Easy-to-use integrations with booking and management systems
- Visibility of remaining allowance limit
- AI-powered expense tagging and categorization
- Extensive reward system
Cons:
- Slow support response times
- Integrations don’t always work well
- Adding tax details is confusing
- Receipt scanning isn’t always accurate
- Free tier won't scale with your business
- Real-time insights into company spending: Make more informed decisions based on up-to-date financial data.
- Integrates travel booking with expense management: Combining travel booking with expense management simplifies the process of planning trips and tracking related expenses.
- Automated invoice management: This feature streamlines the invoicing process, ensuring that all invoices are processed and paid on time.
- Integrates with ERP systems: SAP Concur integrates with popular ERP systems like NetSuite and other accounting platforms for better data flow between systems.
- Mobile app lets you manage expenses on the go: A user-friendly mobile app allows you to capture receipts, track spending, and approve transactions.
Pros:
- Solid features for policy compliance and fraud detection
- Supports multiple currencies and languages
- Robust reporting provides insight into company spending
- Automates expense report creation, receipt capture, and approval workflows
Cons:
- Slow support response times
- Data synchronization issues between platform integrations
- Platform can be complex to set up and use
- Costly for small businesses
