Expense management software evaluation

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Expense management software evaluation

​​Best Expense Management Software 2023 - Reviews, Pricing, & Ratings [Updated]

September 21, 2022
|
14
Min Read

Written by: Anand Sasikumar and Rahul Radhakrishnan.

Fact checked by: Shruti Kesavan. 

Gone are the days when traditional expense management stood a chance in the current market. Post-COVID, SMBs, and enterprises are rapidly switching to automated expense management to bridge the gaps that plague the business landscape.

The benefits of an automated expense report software are multifold for business owners, finance and accounting teams, and employees. While business owners and finance teams benefit from automated compliance, real-time access and control over all expenses, employees benefit from a seamless way to be reimbursed for business expenses incurred without the customary back and forths.

Whether you’re an SMB owner taking care of your organization’s expenses or a CPA who handles the expenses of multiple clients, an expense management software can simplify and streamline your expense management process. It can also add a layer of compliance and security, ensuring your financial bottom line is always under check. 

The benefits are endless for businesses considering the switch to automated expense management. And for those who are looking to switch from one software to the other, the wait ends here. This article will take you through everything you need about expense management and help identify and evaluate the best expense management software in 2023. 

Questions About Expense Management to Help You Get Started

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?

When employees incur expenses on behalf of the organization, they can apply for expense reimbursements by submitting an expense report that combines all business expenses and their corresponding expense receipts. Depending on an organization's workflow, the expense reports must be validated, verified, and approved by the reporting manager or the finance team, sometimes both. 

Once approved, the employee gets refunded for the expenses they have incurred on behalf of the company in the form of employee expense reimbursements. This process, from report submission to reimbursement, is called expense management. 

Why Does Your Business Need an Expense Management Software?

While traditional expense management barely gets the job done, it leaves your business at financial risk with a high probability of errors and expense fraud. This is mainly why successful companies are actively adopting automated expense reporting to combat the issues that come along with traditional expense management. 

Benefits of Using an Expense Management System

  • An expense management software is essential for a business as it helps control and monitor employee spending and optimizes business expenditure from a centralized dashboard. 
  • The software automates all time-consuming and error-prone tasks to ensure no data entry errors, duplicate submissions, or fraudulent expenses get by. 
  • An expense tracking software efficiently enforces compliance by automating pre-submission checks. This saves finance teams time as they no longer need to verify every submitted report against the company expense policy manually. Additionally it also ensures expense fraud is kept at bay. 
  • An expense software facilitates transparency as stakeholders get real-time notifications of policy violations. This ensures that everyone is aware of the company expense policies. Additionally, employees can also keep track of their reimbursement status in real-time.

Features to Look For in an 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. To help streamline the process, here are six features your software must have, whether the provider is a legacy or new-age expense software.

  1. Expense tracking and reporting: A capable expense tracking software should provide employees with multiple ways to track and report paper and e-receipts. This would also make things easier on the Finance-front as all corresponding receipts and expense reports are in one place. 
  1. Expense categories: Having customizable expense categories helps organizations have a bird's eye view of business expenses like transportation, meals, Wifi, accommodation, and more. It also allows companies to differentiate between taxable and non-taxable expenses, which the IRS sets. 
  1. Approval workflows: A capable expense tracking software should be able to set up complex approval workflows before the reports are processed and reimbursed. They should be able to set up standard approvals, and custom approval workflows for different expenses, create escalations if the amount exceeds a certain amount, delegate approval authority, and more. 
  1. Accounting integrations: Ideally, the software must ensure seamless data movement in and out of systems. When choosing expense management solutions, ensure that it doesn’t just automate the tracking and reporting part but also sync with your accounting software automatically. 
  1. Credit card reconciliation: Traditionally, accountants have to wait till the end of the month to receive bank statements and reconcile their card accounts. But now, for the first time, Fyle’s direct data feeds can enable you to reconcile card expenses in real-time. Features such as these act as game changers for businesses looking to pick the best corporate expense management software for their business.
  1. 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 We Selected Our Top 5 Employee Expense Management Solutions?

  1. Features: We looked for softwares that included the most sought features listed above.
  2. User-friendliness & Mobile access: The software should be easy to use. It should also have a mobile expense app so users can stay on top of their expenses. 
  3. Integrations: The software should have robust integrations with accounting platforms and everyday applications like Gmail, Slack, or Teams.
  4. Pricing: Pricing is critical when choosing any solution. So we evaluated the software that provided the most bang for the buck. 
  5. Reporting and Analysis: The software should provide easy means to submit reports and be capable of extracting detailed analyses and insights from them. 
  6. Customer Support: The software should quickly resolve customer issues over email and chat. 
  7. Customizability: The software should be able to customize workflows, expense policies, and more to meet your business needs.
  8. Security: It should have security measures and encryption methods to protect your sensitive financial information.
  9. Customer reviews: We've explored review sites like G2 and Capterra to see what users have to say about these expenses tracking software.

5 Best Expense Management Tools of 2023 - Editor's Picks [Updated]

Here are our top picks for the best expense management tools available in the market today. These expense management systems have been evaluated according to our review methodology to ensure an unbiased view of our picks. They are also backed by real human reviews, as seen on reputed review sites such as G2. So let's get started!

1. Fyle - Best Expense Tracking Software With Real-Time Data Feeds on Credit Cards You Already Have

Fyle-homepage

Fyle is the leading expense management automation software that simplifies and streamlines expense reporting and tracking for SMBs and mid-market companies. It is the best app for managing business expenses and employee reimbursements as it enables employees to report their expenses from everyday apps like Gmail, Outlook, Slack, Teams, or its expense reporting mobile app. Finance teams and approvers can also access and approve all employee expense reports online with a simple click of a button.

Recently Fyle launched its real-time spend management solution for the owners of Visa and Mastercard business credit cards across the U.S. This means any SMB or mid-market company can now access the powerhouse of features in the expense management platform without changing their cards. 

Also, with real-time feeds, Fyle notifies finance teams via text about credit card spend seconds after an employee swipes your corporate credit card. Employees just need to reply with a receipt, and the finance team can instantly reconcile the card transaction. This eliminates the dependency on bank feeds, making the expense management process truly seamless. 

Features: 

  • Multiple expense tracking options
  • Instant receipt scanning feature with OCR technology
  • Real-time credit card reconciliations on your existing cards 
  • Easy tracking for mileage, per diems, and cash advances 
  • Accurate digital audit trails for constant compliance
  • Seamless integrations with major accounting software like NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and Xero
  • Automatable and customizable expense approval workflows

Pricing: Standard plan starts at $6.99 per active user*/month, billed annually. 

*An active user creates at least one expense report in a month

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews:

What users say about Fyle:

Fyle-best-expense-tracking-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Fyle customer review
Fyle-best-expense-tracking-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Fyle customer review
Fyle-best-expense-reporting-software-capterra-reviews
Source: Capterra Fyle customer review
Fyle-best-expense-reporting-app-capterra-reviews 
Source: Capterra Fyle customer review

2. Expensify - Best Expense Report App to Manage Personal and Business Expenses

Expensify is an expense management app that aims to manage expenses by cutting out all the accounting hassles and simplifying bookkeeping. The expense reporting app allows employees to track personal and business expenses, improve receipt management, book travel, and more. Once tracked, Expensify generates reports and submits them for approval. They also issue credit cards with their expense management software to make reconciliations easy.

Features

  • Click a receipt picture with your phone for expense reporting, approval, reimbursement, and syncing with accounting software
  • Expensify business cards for corporate card reconciliation and expenses
  • Send your vendor bills to Expensify for tracking, approval, and payment
  • Create invoices and collect payments while syncing them automatically to your accounting software
  • Book hotels and flights right from the app

Pricing: $5.00/month/user with the Expensify Card

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Expensify: 

employee-expense-management-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Expensify customer review
best-expense-reporting-systems-capterra-reviews
Source: Capterra Expensify customer review

3. Concur - The best travel and expense management software for businesses

Concur Expense is an expense management tool that helps capture receipts, process expense reports, enforce business rules and make more informed business decisions. When you create a business expense report with Concur, your charge from the credit card, vendor, and a picture of the receipt are auto-populated. And as for approvers, they can review and approve team expense reports as soon as employees capture transaction data and submit the expense reports.

Features

  • Quick online expense reporting and receipt capture
  • Adding vehicle mileage to an expense report
  • Automated expense reporting system with on-the-go travel booking
  • Vendor and supplier payment
  • Integration with ERP and accounting platforms 
  • Easy approval process for business expense reports

Pricing: Contact for pricing

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Concur: 

best-expense-software-for business-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Concur customer review
best-expense-software-for business-capterra-reviews‍
Source: Capterra Concur customer review

4. Certify - The Best Business Travel Expense Software 

Certify is one of the best business travel 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
  • 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.

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Certify: 

best-employee-expense-reimbursement-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Certify customer review
best-employee-expense-reimbursement-software-capterra-reviews
Source: Capterra Certify customer review

5. Zoho Expense - Great for Corporate Expense Management

Zoho Expense is a powerful reimbursement software that enables organizations to automate everything from receipt submission to accounting, saving time and effort. Users can make travel bookings and track expenses right from the platform. Credit card reconciliation is also easier with Zoho Expense as it automatically converts transactions into expenses. finance teams can 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.

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Zoho Expense:

best-t&e-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Zoho Expense customer review
best-t&e-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Zoho Expense customer review
These above expense reporting tools rank highly in expense tracking, travel and expense management, and receipt management. Now if you’re looking for more options, we’ve listed out other tools in no particular order categorized based on their market fit and more.

Ideal for Small Business Expense Tracking

Some of the most common challenges SMBs face with expense management is human error, data entry errors, expense fraud, approval and policy compliance, and a lack of visibility and control of business expenses. Using an automated expense reporting system eliminates these challenges and ensures your financial bottom line is always secure. 


1. Ramp - For Easy Expense Report Automation

Ramp is the complete package when it comes to finance automation. With Ramp, organizations get credit card expense management software, accounting, bill payment, and expense reporting in one simple and easy-to-use platform. It also supports direct integrations with accounting software, auto-matching receipts, and analytical spending insights. And to top it all off, customers earn 1.5% cash back on all spend using a Ramp credit card.

Features

  • Easy expense approval software
  • Budgeting/Forecasting
  • Efficient credit card receipt tracking app
  • Seamless expense tracking with mobile receipt upload
  • Employee expense reimbursement software and management
  • Spend Control and Analysis

Pricing: Ramp is free to use.

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Ramp:

best-expense-tools-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Ramp customer review
best-expense-tools-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Ramp customer review

2. Airbase - A Seamless Financial Tracking Software for Businesses

Airbase unifies three systems: accounts payable, an advanced corporate credit card system, and an expense management system. Coupled with automated accounting and approval workflows, Airbase makes all non-payroll spend control and reporting a breeze for finance teams, opening up productive time and reducing manual effort. This easily makes Airbase one of the top expense management software out there. 

Features

  • Accessible software for expense reports with receipt capture
  • Multiple bank/credit card integrations
  • Seamless employee reimbursement software 
  • Accommodates for complex approval workflows

Pricing: Contact for pricing

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Airbase: 

best-travel-expense-management-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Airbase customer review
best-travel-expense-management-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Airbase customer review

3. Spendesk - The Employee Expense Tracking Software for Smarter Business Spending

Spendesk comes with seven financial solutions in one complete package. It can handle corporate credit cards, employee reimbursements, expense approvals, budgets, compliance management and reporting, invoice payments, and pre-accounting. Spendesk is designed to deliver automation, visibility, and control to the modern finance team.

Features

  • Prepaid credit cards
  • Purchase tracking from order to payment
  • Custom budgets for every teammate
  • Automated invoice recovery and matching
  • Instant payment categorization
  • One-click export to your accounting software

Pricing: Contact for pricing

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Spendesk: 

best-expense-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Spendesk customer review
best-expense-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Spendesk customer review

4. Abacus - For Automated Expense Reports and Seamless Compliance

Abacus by Emburse streamlines expense reporting for individuals and businesses accurately while offering complete 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
  • Integrations with multiple accounting software 

Pricing:

Abacus starts at $9 per active user per month. 

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Abacus: 

best-financial-tracking-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Abacus customer review
best-financial-tracking-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Abacus customer review

5. Freshbooks - For Easy Expense and Invoice 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 expense and invoice management 
  • Easy payment processing with bank reconciliations
  • Time and expense software capabilities
  • Mobile app support

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Freshbooks: 

best-software-to-track-expenses-G2-reviews
Source: G2 FreshBooks customer review
best-software-to-track-expenses-G2-reviews
Source: G2 FreshBooks customer review

Ideal 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. Additionally, it helps you 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 travel and expense management softwares that enables businesses to manage business travel end-to-end. It has powerful integrations with expense management platforms and travel suppliers like airlines and hotels, allowing you to book and track expenses in the same place. TravelPerk also comes with 24/7 customer support that can be beneficial when it comes to resolving any travel-related issues. 

Features:

  • Seamless in-app online travel booking 
  • Create custom travel policies and easy approval workflows to ensure compliance
  • Create Robust integrations with numerous softwares to improve travel management
  • Gain access to 24/7 customer support for all your queries

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about TravelPerk: 

best-travel-expense-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 TravelPerk customer review
best-travel-expense-software-G2-reviews
Source: G2 TravelPerk customer review

2. Navan (Formerly TripActions) - For automated travel expense reporting

Navan (formerly TripActions) is a corporate travel and expense management platform 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
  • Easy in-app online travel booking for all your business trips
  • Create custom travel policies and approval workflows based on your businesses needs
  • Create Robust integrations with numerous softwares to improve travel management
  • Gain access to 24/7 customer support for concerns and queries
  • Real-time reporting and analytics for finance teams

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Navan: 

best-software-for-expenses-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Navan customer review
best-software-for-expenses-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Navan customer review

Ideal for Enterprise Management

Enterprises are synonymous with one word: large. Large budgets, large projects, large numbers of employees, and larger expenses. Enterprise-level software means a tool with a significant investment but one that also delivers immense value. 

1. Brex - Ideal for Large Company Expense Management

Brex is a spend management platform that also issues corporate credit cards. It has features like virtual cards, spend analytics, receipt capture, policy checks, and more that can help businesses control spending. 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 making it easier for employees and finance teams.

Features:

  • Seamless expense report creation
  • Automated policy checks for business compliance
  • Digital receipt management
  • Credit card integrations
  • Unique rewards program for Brex card spending

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Brex: 

best-expense-reporting-systems-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Brex customer review
best-expense-reporting-systems-G2-reviews‍
Source: G2 Brex customer review

2. Emburse Chrome River Expense - Suited for Corporate Expense Management

Chrome River Expense is an expense reports software that helps automate the process of tracking expenses and receipts, reporting expense reports, and reimbursing employees. This t&e software allows employees to submit expenses from their mobile app and seek approval and payments. Chrome River Expense claims it helps businesses improve efficiency, reduce errors, and eliminate manual expense management efforts.

Features:

  • Easy expense report creation
  • Automated policy checks for constant compliance
  • Seamless digital receipt management
  • Intergations with banks/credit cards for easy reconciliations 
  • Advanced integrations with airline tracking systems, hotels, etc.

Quick and trusted ratings & reviews: 

What users say about Emburse Chrome River: 

best-expense-management-tools-G2-reviews
Source: G2 Chrome River Customer review
best-expense-management-tools-Capterra-reviews
Source: Capterra Chrome River Customer Review

Common FAQs Around Expense Management Automation

How to Choose an Expense Management Software for Your Company?

  1. List out your expense management needs: List your challenges depending on your company's size, growth stage, and revenue.
  2. Evaluate your current expense management processes: See what's broken, what's good, and what needs improvement. 
  3. Identify top expense management solutions: Map these expense reporting tools to your needs. Review sites are powerful tools to leverage at this stage of the process. 
  4. Test drive these expense reporting apps: Most tools provide demos and free trials. Ask key stakeholders to use and review your top picks. 
  5. 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?

Most expense management solution providers offer pricing plans tailored to your organization's needs. The average pricing starts from $4.99 per month and increases depending on the features and capabilities. Most expense programs also provide free trials or demo accounts to test before choosing. 

Why Do Businesses Need Expense Management Automation?

  1. Simplifies and streamlines the entire expense management process
  2. Eliminates inaccuracies, expense fraud, and delayed employee reimbursements
  3. Automates all error-prone, time-consuming, and redundant tasks
  4. Gives finance teams real-time control and visibility into all business expenses across the organization
  5. Ensures automated compliance and zero financial leaks 

How to Tackle Legal and Tax Compliance With Expense Management?

  • Create a statutory checklist based on your requirements: Stay updated with the changes in tax laws and regulations that are likely to 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 I Integrate Expense Management With Financial Reporting and Budgeting Process?

  • Link expenses to budget: Match all business expenses to the budget categories they fall into to ensure that actual spending aligns with the projected amounts.
  • Automate data entry: Use an expense management software that automatically imports expense data into your accounting system, thereby reducing errors in manual entry.
  • 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.

Concluding Thoughts

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 software 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. 

We hope the above list of recommendations has brought you closer to identifying an expense management solution that perfectly fits your organization’s needs. 

Additionally, if you’re wondering where you could start your search for an expense management platform that can handle everything end-to-end, please feel free to sign up for a demo and check Fyle out today!

Check out why our customers say Fyle is the best expense management software! 

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