For the success of any company, all the expenses and transactions within a company must be tracked and recorded. And expense management software helps to do just that. With the help of expense management solutions, one can track duplicate receipts, ease the procedure of claiming tax with appropriate receipts, and automate the task of manually maintaining spreadsheets related to various expenses. An expense software is a great relief to companies as it provides cost-reduction and reports to control the expenses.
There are a few best expense management software free. However, before selecting any software, you need to check for the features it provides to track and manage all your earnings, expenses. Further, the best expense management system also helps with the management of client & vendor details.
Must-Have Features in the Best Expense Management Software
Here’re some of the must-have features that you will get with the best expense management solutions. Let’s have a look:
- Travel Expense Management: If a company reimburses the work-related travel expenses of an employee, it needs the best travel expense management software. One can customize the approval hierarchy for reimbursement requests and take care of approvals as well.
- Employee Expense Management: Employees can be empowered with the best employee expense management software. They will be able to easily reimburse whatever amount they have spent with the help of travel expense software. Now one can track their expenses and approve other requests on time with the help of notifications and alerts.
- Telecom Expense Management: Accurate telecom expenses of your employees can be calculated with the help of the best telecom expense management software. You can also track and manage expenses for data and voice services with this software.
- Expense Report Management: Expense reports can save a lot of time as they are easy and efficient in themselves. One can submit all the expenses in one form and further automate the reporting process using travel expense report software. One can also set limits for spending a particular amount and also set an expiration period. Add custom fields and opt for notifications in the best expense report management software.
List of 10 Best Travel & Expense Management Software
Zento
Zento travel expense management software allows employees to manage their business travel expenses in a hassle-free manner. They can easily submit travel receipts, check the reimbursement status and even reconcile expense claims and reimbursement on a single dashboard.
Further, managers need not track down expense data to approve the claim, as software’s dashboard gives a quick view of all the expenses in a filtered and arranged manner. It is as helpful for employees as it is for employers.
Key Features
- Handling request for advance payment
- Expense approval with a single click
- Strict security controls
- You can easily attach receipts for claim.
- It has a feature of approval process control.
- Reimbursement management module is available.
- Spend control option is there.
- Spend control option is there.
- This software can’t incorporate multi-currency calculations.
- Receipt management module is not present.
- Time tracking feature is not available.
Bottom line: It is as helpful for employees as it is for employers.
Fyle
With Fyle expense management software, managers will no longer have to chase employees for their expense receipts to prepare expense reports. One of the most interesting things about Fyle is its AI-powered data extraction feature.
This feature extracts data from receipts and cross check it with company’s expense policy. If there is any violation in terms of the pre-set policy, expense claims are not approved. And Fyle’s powerful integration with third-party software like Microsoft Dynamics, Netsuite, QuickBooks is icing on the cake.
Key Features
- Approval workflows
- Travel requests & advances
- Real-time expense reporting
- Accurate data and insights
- Direct data extraction from receipts.
- This SaaS based software provides cost-effective subscription options.
- Fyle can also be used on android and iOS mobile phones.
- Webinars and online trainings are available.
- 24×7 live support is present.
- This software cannot be installed in Mac devices.
- In-person trainings are not available.
Bottom Line: With Fyle, it becomes easy to track expenses, manage receipts and approvals and increase financial productivity. It automatically extracts data from all kinds of receipts.
Keka
Keka developers understand that company expenses are a menace to manage and therefore, their payroll software comes with the expense management module. Their expense manager for PC module allows an employee to group all their expenses into one batch.
After that they can submit the same to the manager for approval. Once the submission has been made, it can be tracked by the employee until the expenses are reimbursed.
Key Features
- Easy receipt capture
- Expense approval policies
- Setup mileage rates
- Per diem payment based on the days of assignment
- Cost centers for expense reports
- It is a cloud-based software that ensures data security.
- Modules of this expense management software can be customized according to your needs.
- The software also has a mobile app to ensure expense claim and reimbursement on the go.
- It doesn’t have an app for iOS.
Bottom Line: One can group all their expenses into a single batch and then submit the same to the manager for approval. After submission, it can be tracked by the employee until the expenses are reimbursed.
Happay
Happay employee expense management system empowers employees to report expenses digitally and allows managers to give approvals online. However, the software has more to offer other than expense management.
Happay has its own prepaid card for managing digital marketing expenses of a company. It is a powerful alternative to debit or credit cards and cash advances. A company can fund the Happay card as and when an employee needs money, remove funds or block card whenever necessary. Using Happay, managers can track employee expenses in real time.
Key Features:
- Smart policy checks
- Multi-tier approvals
- Reconciliation summaries
- Cut-off dates & reminders
- Channel-specific limits
- In-person trainings, webinars, and live online sessions are available.
- It supports multiple currencies.
- It does not have a mobile app.
- It cannot work without internet as it is purely cloud based and can’t be installed in windows or mac.
Bottom Line: You can bring all the business expenses on just one platform. Track and manage the requests online from desktop or mobile devices.
JSM Technologies
JSM Expense Claims Management System automates all processes related to employee expense claims and reimbursements. Also, this solution offers many important modules including expense claim submission, approvals, policies, reports, etc.
Further, it helps in making expense policy of a company accessible to all, and ensure complete compliance.
Key Features:
- Expense claims submissions
- Online approval by reporting managers
- Expense reports
- It’s a customizable travel management software
- Helps manage all types of expense activities.
- It can’t be installed in desktops or laptops.
- This software does not provide any online training.
Bottom Line: This web-based software assists companies of different sizes with reporting and managing expense management.
Concur
Travel expense, entertainment expense and other business expenses are made easy with the travel and expense management software. From submitting receipts to getting reimbursements, Concur is completely automatic.
Its ability to automate the expense management process doesn’t leave any room for human errors. Moreover, it keeps both employees and managers up to date regarding the company’s expense policy and thereby, helps in maintaining transparency. Additionally, the expense management system quickens the whole process of reimbursement via invoice tracking and faster payments.
Key features:
- Its ability to automate the expense management process doesn’t leave any room for human errors.
- It keeps both employees and managers up to date regarding the company’s expense policy and thereby, helps in maintaining transparency.
- The expense management system quickens the whole process of reimbursement via invoice tracking and faster payments.
- The amount comes directly to the dashboard of the software from the user’s credit card and they don’t have to enter it manually.
- This expense management software can also generate expense reports post the trip.
- More labels should be introduced to categorize the receipts.
- It does not have a mobile app.
Bottom line: Data is automatically integrated to the software. You get full visibility about all your spending and would help you to search new ways to save.
Finly
Finly travel expense management software is fit for any and all organizations i.e. from SMEs to large enterprises. It gives total visibility and 100% control over business expenses by letting administrators track & manage the spending end-to-end.
Amongst Finly’s many modules, one is Petty Cash Management. This feature comes into the picture when your organization has many branches. Petty cash management helps you in managing expenses across all your offices through a centralized platform.
Key Features
- Budget allocation & insights
- Automated matching of invoices, purchase orders
- You can also split payments
- Helps manage money flow of the marketplace
- Provides visibility on business spend.
- It has a mobile app which runs on android mobile devices.
- The software ensures payment automation.
- In-person training is not provided in this expense management software.
- It is not suitable for small businesses.
Bottom Line: It can be used by medium as well as large scale organizations which have a team size of 100 and above. It can be used by any industry.
Expensify
Expensify is a feature-rich and robust expense tracking and management software for both, employees & administrators. Besides basic expense management system features, it offers many other interesting modules & ‘automatic accounting sync’ is one of them.
As per this feature, if there is any change in the accounting system w.r.t expense account, employee or department, Expensify will automatically sync the required accounts in real time.
Key Features
- Detects duplicate receipts automatically
- Integration with other software to make the workflow smoother
- Automates pre-accounting processes
- Assess the validity of all transactions
- Ensures accuracy in exchange rates.
- It has streamlined workflow enhancements that makes this software a very easy to use tool.
- It takes care of everything, from automating reimbursements plans to capturing GPS mileage.
- Its user-interface is a little difficult to use at first.
Bottom line: Expensify expense management software streamlines processes like data entry and automates tracking of expenses. It is comparatively an affordable software.
Easyform
Easyform is an android and iOS based expense management app. Despite being an app, it has all the expense management features that you expect from a software. Therefore, you can manage the expense records on the go.
Easyform is an online expense manager developed not only to manage expense claims but also advance pay-outs. Keeping track of outstanding claims and advance pay-outs becomes next to impossible after a point of time. However, with Easyform, employee’s ledger is just a few clicks away. With all the data related to claimed and unclaimed amount on your fingertips, making the decision related to advance pay-out becomes easy and quick.
Key Features
- Helps schedule the tasks
- Provides real-time reports
- Emails & SMS alert
- Provides photo, video & digital signature
- Comes with reading capabilities for BAR Code & QR Code
- It has both android and iOS mobile app
- Drag and drop controls.
- It does not have inventory management.
- Contact database is not present in this software.
Bottom line: It is a platform that helps increase productivity for different industries like pick-up and delivery services, telecom services and trip management.
Zoho
Zoho expense management solution allows you to manage expenses from anywhere, round the clock. The software has an exclusive feature of ‘multi-currency expense’. Worldwide travel and currency issues can give bookkeepers a tough time.
However, this travel and expense management solutions effortlessly converts the expense as per the current exchange rate and provides finance department with precise expense report. In addition to it, the software eliminates the problem of losing the receipts by storing the same digitally in the cloud.
Key Features
- Allows adding expenses in bulk to save time
- You can add expenses directly to the reports
- It stores all receipts digitally
- Mobile app is available for this software
- You can track expenses from anywhere
- Auto scans all receipts
- It is not much suitable for small sized businesses.
- Time tracking feature is not available in this software.
Bottom line: Zoho Expense makes expense reporting, effortless. Automate expense recording, connect credit cards, streamline approvals, gain spend visibility and control.
How to Find the Right Business Expense Tracking Software
There are a few pointers that you should keep in mind before buying travel expense software. They are:
1. You should have a clear definition of what you want to achieve with this software
2. Decide your requirements beforehand for the technology and support that you need.
3. Be very sure about the budget that you want to spend in and where are you planning to run the expense management software.
4. Match what you need with what the market is offering currently. Travel and expense management software lets you track, manage and control costs with automated compliance as well. Be one step ahead with its up-to date reports and get detailed insights about where you are spending. Everything can be managed with just a single platform which makes travel and expense management easier than ever before.
Aditi is a graduate from the University of Delhi with a degree in Bachelor of commerce. While studying CA she found respite in writing poems and her once hobby has turned into a full time profession. Her ‘Introduction to creative writing’ course at British Council of India has... Read more