An example of a compliance feature would be a system that automatically flags expenses that do not adhere to policy rules. Expense management software systems often come with receipt scanning, a feature that uses Optical Character Recognition technology to extract information from images. Users can simply photograph and upload images of receipts using the solution’s mobile app, and the expense information will be automatically recorded within the system. Businesses can get increased visibility into their company spending using the software’s real-time dashboards.

There’s no better way to know if a software application is right for you than to test drive it for a couple of weeks. Kristy Snyder is a professional writer and editor living in Pittsburgh with over 10 years of content creation experience. In addition to being a Content Editor for Clever Real Estate, she has contributed to numerous leading financial and tech websites, including Bankrate, The Simple Dollar, NextAdvisor, and more. If your company has a backlog of paper receipts that you’d like digitized, Shoeboxed is a good choice because it can scan and analyze them all for you. Businesses or freelancers who’d like a free business card that integrates with the app would appreciate Expensify.

Best for service-based businesses

Similar to the credit card feeds available in many accounting software applications, this feature can save you time. Once transactions are imported, they are usually automatically matched with receipts that have been uploaded, without any data entry required. You can then investigate any transactions unmatched to an expense. Unless you’re doing a ton of online shopping, the majority of your business expenses occur while you’re out. That’s why a robust mobile app with the same features found in the online expense management application is so important. Those two words are subjective, particularly with expense management software.

best expense management software

But categories are limited in the free version, and some reviewers are turned off by the email marketing. Historically, expense reporting has been a manual process predominantly. But, with amazing automation features from Zoho Expense, you don’t have to carry out mundane expense reporting tasks anymore. Here are three of the easiest platforms to use for expense management. Sage Intacct offers a wide range of out-of-the-box features with customizable functions to fit various conversion funnels and purchase orders.

Shifting Travel Expenses from Online Services

With advanced form customization—custom fields and page layouts—decide how the expense creation should look and expedite the process for employees by removing unnecessary fields. Enable employees to split expenses by amount (for shared expenses), by days (e.g. hotel expenses), or by custom modules. Findstack is free for users because vendors pay us when they receive web traffic and sales opportunities. Findstack directories list all vendors—not just those that pay us—so that you can make the best-informed purchase decision possible.

  • It’s a digital tool that helps you handle all sorts of tasks in one place.
  • Apply cash advances, download expense report PDFs, and streamline the reporting process with report types.
  • It’s easy to navigate, uncluttered with useless data, and provides quick access to all system features.
  • This can help you prepare for busy seasons, manage your inventory better, and set realistic goals.
  • If you’re worried about the safety of using third-party channels to import corporate card feeds into Zoho Expense, we’re here to reassure you.
  • You essentially get a clever, all-inclusive centralized platform with Emburse Spend that makes it simple for you to manage your employees’ spending.

❌ When SAP doesn’t work, users switch to the desktop version, which can make them spend more time navigating the app. ❌ Navan’s mobile platform might be unreliable, so users often have freezing and loading issues, requiring them to exit the app and clear their cache to fix. The software can also provide real-time status updates of devops teams your profit before and after tax, on top of tracking your income and expense streams in a single place. If you’re in business, one of the trickiest issues can be managing your accounts effectively. However, using the power of the best expense trackers on the market can streamline how you record your income, expenditure and more.

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Once you determine the features that will be most helpful to your existing business expense management processes, you can better understand which tools can meet these requirements. After this, you can consider other important factors, like how the solution would fit in with your existing software stack and whether it would fall within your business’s budget price range. Analyzing your business’s requirements and aspects will help you narrow down the best possible expense management solution. This customizable solution automates many of the tasks and workflows involved in expense reporting, budgeting, auditing, travel management and more. And with its collaboration features, business leaders can easily keep their teams on track and aligned with their expense management goals. Zoho Expenses is a solid expense management solution that offers so many features to streamline expense tracking and reporting.

Tracking expenses is essential to maintaining an up-to-date record of the business’s financial transactions. Many expense management solutions simplify expense tracking by letting users record expenses and income and categorize them appropriately. The purpose of these solutions is to streamline and mechanize the otherwise difficult and intricate process of managing expenses. Expense report software is a need for businesses if they want to survive and prosper in the competitive business world of today. It helps with everything from receipt management and expense report submission to workflow optimization and comprehensive analytical reporting.

Wave Accounting: Best receipt scanner

Certify simplifies the entire expense management process for both employers and employees, making everyone happy. Medium to large businesses will need a more solution with more in-depth features like corporate account card monitoring or expense approval/denial claims. The IRS will need proof of your receipts if you’re looking to deduct business expenses.

best expense management software

That’s why we encourage you to take advantage of all of the resources these online expense reporting applications offer, which usually includes a free 30-day trial. With Abacus, employees can submit their expenses from either the app or the web. They have the option to connect personal cards or corporate cards to make tracking expenses easier.

Take Control of Your Spending with the best Expense Management Software

For each expense, it’s easy to mark it as billable and pull it directly into an invoice for clients. Then, you can send out automated payment reminders until your reimbursement comes through. QuickBooks Online has everything you need to manage your business’s finances, so it’s good for larger businesses that need more functionality out of their software. If you’d rather scan your receipts the traditional way, that’s fine too. You can snap a picture on your phone, and QuickBooks will link it to the transaction.

best expense management software

After uploading a receipt, the app creates an expense automatically. Over time, the app can even learn from your behavior to suggest merchants and categories automatically. As a business expense tracker, FreshBooks lets you connect your credit card and bank accounts so all expenses are updated automatically. You can also upload paper receipts through the app or email digital receipts to have them scanned and processed automatically. There are 14 default expense categories and more than 40 expense subcategories but, if that’s not enough, you can create your own as well.

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Save time, track money, and get important insights from one of the best expense tracking packages on the market. Better still, you can currently explore the power of QuickBooks with a free 30-day trial. There are real-time dashboards so you can keep up-to-date with all your financial transactions as they happen, and you can download bank account data automatically. That way, you won’t have to waste time typing information into spreadsheets.

All this has now changed with expense management software to handle various financial functions. Not all expense management software solutions are created the same. Some cater to general needs, others are highly specialized, while many are complete accounting suites. However, there are general features that a good expense management software solution should have. It’s great having expense management software to track and categorize your expenses.

Approval workflows are the ultimate way for businesses to ensure their expense management tasks are correctly processed. For example, many systems provide customizable approval workflows to businesses, which helps them ensure that all spending is overlooked and authorized by appropriate individuals. Expense management software solutions can automatically sync expense data, significantly reducing the time it takes to process expense reconciliation with the business’s general ledger.