Global HR 6 min

Small business expense tracking software to help your company

Written by Barbara Matthews
June 28, 2024
Barbara Matthews

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41% of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) say they spend more time than necessary on expense management.

Good expense tracking tools not only help you keep tabs on your spending, but also give you valuable data to plan for your future expenses.

This article will compare seven of the best expense management software in terms of pricing and usability. This information will help you choose the right expense tracking software for your unique business needs.

How do you choose the right expense management software for your small business?

When shopping around for a business expense tracker app, look for the following features.

Automation

Automated expense tracking and reporting make for more accurate bookkeeping and increased efficiency. With automation, your HR team members benefit from less manual labor when managing business expenses.

Compliance and security

Your company’s financial information is sensitive, so any tool you use to keep track of it should adhere to international security requirements. Keep an eye out for certifications such as ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2.

Ease of use

The user experience determines how quickly your team members will adopt to the software. The harder a tool is to get accustomed to, the more likely it is to become a bottleneck that slows your processes down.

Integrations

A fully functional expense management tool should connect to other tools related to your finances. This can be anything from enterprise resource planning (ERP) to rideshare apps. These integrations allow you to gather expense data from across your business in one place.

Flexibility

Customizability is an important feature of any business tool. For small businesses that are still developing an expense-tracking process, customizable workflows are a real advantage.

Scalability

A small business that’s planning to scale operations needs an expense management tool that can support business growth.

Pricing

Keeping manageable overhead costs is important for small businesses. A tool that is cost-effective and has comprehensive features is especially helpful for small to medium-sized businesses.

7 best small business expense tracking software

Here are some of the best business expense tracking software that help small businesses manage expenses.

1. Remote HR Management – Best for remote and hybrid companies

Remote HR Management helps you manage expenses for your distributed team.

With Remote, you can organize all your team’s invoices and receipts by expense category, employee, and country. This makes it easy for you to review and approve expenses for your business from one platform.

You can also custom workflows within user groups so only certain people can access and approve expenses.

And of course, Remote HR Management meets SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 standards, so you know you’re covered as far as security goes.

Integrations are available with popular HR and payroll tools, like Greenhouse, HiBob, Gusto, and Bamboo HR. You can also use Zapier to access 5,000 more no-code integrations or use the Remote API to build your own.

Plus, the platform is 100% free to use, which is a major bonus for small businesses.

2. Zoho Expense – Cost-effective option

Zoho offers several cloud-based software, including an expense tracker called Zoho Expense.

Zoho Expense has a free plan that a small business would need to find its footing. It’s free for up to three users and provides 5GB of storage for receipts. On this tier, however, you only get 20 receipt scans regardless of how many users you have, so that’s something to keep in mind. Its most popular paid plan is about 5 USD per user per month, billed annually.

Integrations are available for Zoho Analytics, CRM and Books, Lyft, Uber for Business, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and HSBC.

3. QuickBooks – Best for expense insights

Intuit’s QuickBooks is one of the best-known accounting software available. Its expense tracker can import and categorize expenses from bank accounts.

This software also estimates your tax liability every quarter and notifies you when the due date is close so you never fall behind. It also comes with a native integration for TurboTax, another Intuit product, to streamline tax preparation.

Integrations are available for TurboTax, Square, Etsy, eBay, PayPal, Amazon Business, and Shopify.

Costs are higher, starting at 24 USD per month.

4. Expensify – Best customization features

Expensify provides the core expense management features you’d expect, including reimbursements, receipt-tracking capabilities, and invoicing. Expensify’s approval workflows make for a simple and flexible product for small businesses. For example, you can automatically send all submitted reports to a predetermined user for approval. This kind of customization

Integrations are available for Uber, Lyft, Delta, QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle NetSuite, Xero, Greenhouse, and Thomson Reuters.

Its most popular plan is 5 USD per user per month.

data for small business expense tracking

5. FreshBooks – Best physical receipt-scanning features

FreshBooks is an expense management tool that can also handle payroll, bookkeeping, and time tracking.

If your small business handles several physical receipts, FreshBooks might be the ideal expense management tool for you. Its receipt scanner can capture merchant details, line items, taxes, and totals. There’s also a handy feature for adding notes to the scans if you need additional information for each one.

Integrations are available for Gusto, Stripe, Square, Squarespace, Magento, WordPress, and HubSpot.

Paid plans start at 7.60 USD per month.

6. Certify – Best reporting features

Emburse is a software company that offers expense management products. One of them, Certify, is known for its financial reporting features.

When users prepare their expenses, they receive an alert if they deviate from the predetermined company policy. You can also generate an expense report from scanned receipts for easy review and approval.

Integrations are available for Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Paycor.

Paid plans start at 12 USD per user per month.

7. SAP Concur – Best for tracking business travel expenses

If your small business requires a lot of work-related travel, Concur may be the right solution for you.

Small business expense tracking becomes that much harder when traveling. Concur is a travel and expense (T&E) management tool built to help you organize travel-related expenses easier.

As an end-to-end T&E solution, Concur can help companies access flights, hotels, and other travel-related bookings from one platform. Companies can also define their T&E policies so they remain consistent and compliant as they travel. 

Integrations are available for American Airlines, Hyatt Hotels, Doordash for Business, Uber, Hertz, United Airlines, Delta, Visa Commercial Pay, and Lufthansa German Airlines.

Exact plans are available through a consultation.

Take charge of your cash flow with Remote

When choosing an expense tracking app, look for automation, physical receipt scanning, integrations with other tools, and compliance features.

Remote HR Management has the tools you need to track expenses to manage a globally distributed team. With features like request management and custom workflows, small businesses can stay on top of their financial health from anywhere in the world.

Chat with us today to see how Remote can help you with your expense tracking.

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