Whether your business is scaling up or just setting out, optimizing your cash flow is a top priority. From employee reimbursements and software subscriptions to business travel expenses and utility costs, finance managers are tasked with making the most of every dollar.
But without the right tools to help them manage company funds, finance managers are stuck with spend management processes that are highly time-consuming, arduous, and prone to errors.
To help you decide on the best spend management solution for your business, here we go through what spend management software does and its benefits, and provide an overview of the seven best spend management solutions on the market.
What is spend management software?
Spend management covers more than just employee spending and expenses. While expense management software focuses primarily on individual expense tracking and reimbursement, spend management encompasses all types of spending within a business.
For example, spend management covers rent, utilities, materials, travel, advertising, insurance, taxes, professional services, and other miscellaneous business expenses.
Spend management software, then, helps businesses track and manage all of their non-payroll-related costs, helps them analyze spending to identify opportunities for cost savings, and forecast and optimize future budgets. It also helps them enforce policies and controls to help them keep spending within budget.
There are various tools on the market for startups and more established businesses -- ranging from enterprise spend management solutions to modular options within larger software suites -- to help businesses manage their cash flow to boost business performance.
Benefits of using spend management software
While spend management is the responsibility of finance managers, the advantages of spend management software have a direct impact on a business’s bottom line. Here are just a few benefits of using spend management tools:
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Increased efficiency: Through automation and data analysis, spend management systems simplify the process of tracking, managing, and controlling spending, which enables businesses to boost their overall efficiency.
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Improves all areas of the business: Better spend management processes benefit all areas of the business. For example, integrating spend management platforms with a modern travel management platform such as TravelPerk helps finance managers better streamline and control travel expenses and enforce company travel policy.
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Reduced costs: Spend management solutions give finance managers better visibility into spending patterns to help them identify and reduce redundant costs.
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Enhanced spending visibility: These tools provide detailed reports and analytics to give financial managers granular insights into business expenditures, enabling them to make more informed decisions.
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Automated tasks: Finance managers benefit from automations such as approval workflows, expense reviews, and reconciliation, which frees up time for them to focus on optimizing spend in other areas.
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Improved compliance: Spend management software can build businesses’ specific policies into the software to ensure that spending remains in compliance.
The 7 best spend management software solutions
Below, we examine seven of the best spend management software solutions for finance teams and managers. As well as an overview of each tool’s main services and functionality, we also take a look at:
- Key features and ease of use
- Customer ratings on software review sites, G2 and Capterra
- Each solution’s most rated features
- Pricing options
- Languages supported by the solution
1. Airbase
Airbase is a spend management platform designed to help organizations automate their accounts payable and accounts receivable processes, control business spending, manage bill payments, and streamline the manual processes of invoice management, expense management, and cash flow management.
The platform also supports real-time reporting for all non-payroll spend, and department heads and budget owners can view up-to-date spending information by department, team, and vendor.
Users can set approval workflow automations, create custom rules and automatically route approvals to multiple approvers, set pre-approval criteria, and send approval requests via email and Slack.
Airbase noteworthy features
- Airbase offers both physical and virtual cards and organizations can earn unlimited cash back across all categories of spend when making purchases.
- The platform supports international multi-subsidiary support and purchase orders with automated 3-way matching.
- Airbase uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to scan invoices and create bills.
- Users can automatically create, execute, and track a straight-line amortization schedule for both virtual card and bill payment transactions.
- When employees scan receipts, Airbase scans and populates the expense details, submits the report for approval, and sends the reimbursement directly to employees’ bank accounts.
- The platform enables approvers to set mandatory fields, a time window for submission, and budget limits.
How customers rate Airbase
G2 rating: 4.8/5 (as of February 2023)
Capterra rating: 5/5 (as of February 2023)
Airbase’s most rated features
The following are Airbase’s most highly-rated features by real users on Capterra:
- Budgeting/forecasting: 5/5
- Receipt management: 4.8/5
Airbase pricing
Airbase offers three different subscription packages (Standard, Premium, and Enterprise). The provider operates a quote-based model and does not share its pricing information publicly.
Languages supported by Airbase
Airbase only supports the English language.
2. Teampay
Teampay is a cloud-based spend management tool that helps businesses manage, control, and track expenses. With automated purchasing workflows and reconciliation, employees can purchase what they need, and all transactions and payments are automatically coded and instantly reconciled to a company’s ERP solution.
The platform also enables users to submit, approve, and track expenses, manage budgets, and reconcile accounts. Teampay integrates with Quickbooks Online, Xero, Intacct, and Netsuite to ensure companies can access up-to-date, accurate data.
Teampay noteworthy features
- The tool automates the collection and reconciliation of purchase data and captures an audit trail of all spending conversations in one place.
- Teampay supports automated invoice processing and purchase order matching, routing for approval and payment, and uses OCR technology to automatically scan invoice data.
- Teampay provides both physical and virtual cards and supports employee expense management by ensuring every transaction complies with company policy.
- The platform’s proprietary Purchase Assistant chatbot integrates with Slack and Microsoft teams, guides employees through the purchasing process, and collects approvals upfront.
- Teampay centralizes all updated spend data in real time and provides report dashboards for instant visibility into company spending.
How customers rate Teampay
G2 rating: Teampay is not listed on G2.
Capterra rating: Teampay is not listed on Capterra.
Teampay pricing
Teampay does not list its pricing information publicly.
Languages supported by Teampay
Teampay only supports the English language.
3. Divvy
Divvy is an all-in-one expense management system designed to help organizations automate business spend management, control their cash flow, and track expenses.
With Divvy, businesses can create budgets and track spending across departments, individual employees, and vendors. Divvy also provides tools to help businesses automate expenses and payments, monitor spending, and compile customized reports.
Divvy also integrates with TravelPerk to provide organizations with a centralized portal where they can easily book, manage, and report on travel expenses and manage spending.
Divvy noteworthy features
- Approvers can set spending limits and merchant controls which are directly tied to employee cards to prevent overspending or spending out of policy.
- Users can customize Divvy to mirror their chart of accounts by integrating it with accounting software.
- Divvy syncs automatically with employee credit cards to provide real-time visibility into spend by department, team, project, and individual budget.
- The tool’s mobile receipt upload and push notifications feature enables quick employee reimbursements.
- Divvy’s Payments Services feature is a free vendor payment solution designed to streamline the accounts payables process by handling payment processing and remittance.
How customers rate Divvy
G2 rating: 4.5/5 (as of February 2023)
Capterra rating: 4.7/5 (as of February 2023)
Divvy’s most rated features
The following are Divvy’s most highly-rated features by real users on Capterra:
- Receipt management: 4.8/5
- Budgeting/Forecasting: 4.4/5
Divvy pricing
Divvy’s spend management platform and corporate card are 100% free to use.
Languages supported by Divvy
Divvy only supports the English language.
4. Ramp
Ramp is a cloud-based expense and spend management platform that provides businesses with tools to manage and optimize their spending. It enables businesses to track and manage their spending in real time, and provides access to detailed financial insights and analytics to help them identify opportunities for cost savings.
The tool also offers functionality for automating accounting processes, managing multi-currency transactions, and monitoring supplier performance.
Ramp integrates with TravelPerk which enables organizations to provide employees with Ramp corporate cards embedded with company-wide travel policy limits. Travelers can also access real-time tracking, spend alerts, and receipt integrations for an optimized employee expense process.
Ramp noteworthy features
- Ramp digitizes approval policies and spend guidelines, enables users to pre-approve expenses, and flags out-of-policy items for automatic review.
- The platform facilitates fast receipt collection via integrations with Gmail, Lyft, and Amazon Business.
- Ramp offers virtual and physical cards with unlimited 1.5% cash back on purchases.
- The tool’s accounting automations help businesses manage vendor data, bill payment details, and category tracking.
- Ramp syncs general ledger category mappings and automatically syncs events to NetSuite, Sage, QuickBooks, or Xero to remove multiple entries.
How customers rate Ramp
G2 rating: 4.7/5 (as of February 2023)
Capterra rating: 4.9/5 (as of February 2023)
Ramp’s most rated features
The following are Ramp’s most highly-rated features by real users on Capterra:
- Approval process control: 5/5
- Mobile receipt upload: 5/5
- Reimbursement management: 4.7/5
- Budgeting/forecasting: 4/5
Ramp pricing
Ramp’s spend management platform and corporate card are 100% free to use.
Languages supported by Ramp
Ramp only supports the English language.
5. Spendesk
Spendesk is an all-in-one spend management platform that provides a range of features to help companies manage their spending, save time and money, and gain greater control and visibility over their finances.
As well as automated expense tracking, receipt scanning, and secure payments, Spendesk also offers virtual and physical corporate cards, procure-to-pay invoice management, and automated accounting features such as automated VAT extraction, expense account allocation, and receipt reconciliation.
Spendesk also integrates with TravelPerk to give finance teams the tools for complete visibility into overall spending, including travel expenses.
Spendesk noteworthy features
- Budgets are integrated into businesses’ spending processes for automated spend control.
- The Spendesk mobile app enables employees to instantly claim reimbursements for business-related expenses with photos of receipts.
- Spendesk offers physical and virtual cards with adjustable and pre-defined budgets.
- Accounts payable processes are optimized by linking purchase orders and supplier invoices to team approvals, budgets, payments, and accounting.
- Spendesk’s consolidated reporting feature helps finance teams and managers tag transactions with cost centers, projects, and labels and gain better visibility into the procurement process.
How customers rate Spendesk
G2 rating: 4.7/5 (as of February 2023)
Capterra rating: 4.8/5 (as of February 2023)
Spendesk’s most rated features
The following are Spendesk’s most highly-rated features by real users on Capterra:
- Receipt management: 4.5/5
- Approval process control: 4.5/5
- Mobile receipt upload: 4.4/5
- Reimbursement management: 3/5
Spendesk pricing
Spendesk charges a fixed subscription fee for access to the platform and variable fees for transaction usage (including card purchases, invoice payments, and expense claims) to ensure you only pay for what you use.
There are three subscription packages to choose from based on how many users you need:
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Starter: For up to seven users, including one approver. This plan is aimed at entrepreneurs and small to mid-sized businesses looking to manage day-to-day expenses.
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Essentials: For unlimited users and approvers. This plan is designed for small to mid-sized businesses that want to control their spend management process in one place.
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Scale: For unlimited users and approvers. This plan is for larger businesses that require more control, flexibility, and automation in their enterprise spend management processes.
Languages supported by Spendesk
Spendesk is available in English, French, Italian, and German.
6. Emburse
Emburse is a spend management platform that helps companies optimize all types of business spend. The tool offers single-use and recurring virtual cards, auto-reconciliation of receipts, and built-in policy controls to help businesses better manage their cash flow.
With the platform’s reporting tool, finance teams can also review real-time spending in total, by budget, spend category, team, or project for enhanced spend analysis.
Emburse also integrates with TravelPerk to facilitate the automatic sending of itineraries to business travelers' Emburse expenses wallet, making it easier to submit travel expenses for approval.
Emburse noteworthy features
- Businesses can create virtual and physical cards with specific spend management rules.
- The tool scans receipts and populates receipt data using optical character recognition.
- Users can create and submit expense forms and managers can approve expenses from both smartphone and desktop devices.
- The platform automates accounts payable and purchasing workflows.
- Emburse’s dashboards provide insights into spending data to help finance managers optimize cash flow, identify unusual trends, and set improved budgets.
How customers rate Emburse
G2 rating: 4.5/5 (as of February 2023)
Capterra rating: 4.7/5 (as of February 2023)
Emburse’s most rated features
The following are Emburse’s most highly-rated features by real users on Capterra:
- Time and expense tracking: 4.9/5
- Mobile receipt upload: 4.8/5
- Receipt management: 4.8/5
- Approval process control: 4.6/5
- Reimbursement management: 4.4/5
Emburse pricing
Emburse offers three different pricing plans:
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Certify Now!: This plan is aimed at small businesses with 1-25 employees and costs $12 per user/month.
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Professional: This plan is designed for businesses with 25-200 employees and offers full-service implementation in under 30 days. Instead of a monthly subscription model, users are charged a monthly service fee on a custom quote basis.
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Enterprise: For businesses with over 200 employees, users can expect annual fixed pricing on a custom quote basis.
Languages supported by Emburse
Emburse supports the following languages: Norwegian (Bokmal), Indonesian, Japanese, English, Ukrainian, Chinese (Simplified), German, Dutch, Korean, Italian, Thai, French, Turkish, Portuguese, Czech, Chinese (Traditional), Hungarian, Spanish, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Arabic, and Polish.
7. Mesh Payments
Mesh Payments is a comprehensive spend management solution designed to give finance teams full control and visibility over company spend while also automating workflows to minimize manual tasks and boost efficiency.
The tool offers unlimited virtual and physical corporate cards, automated expense reports, automatic categorization of business expenses, and cashback on company expenses.
Mesh Payments noteworthy features
- Mesh Payments provides actionable data for every payment, including cheaper alternatives and forecasting expenses.
- Finance managers can set spend limits and vendor locks on payments, receive real-time alerts, and set custom fields for all company transactions.
- The platform offers dedicated travel cards to help manage all travel expenses in one place.
- Users can create customized reports to access optimized insights into cash flow, budgets, and forecasting.
- Notifications are sent by text, email, and Slack anytime a business is overcharged, makes duplicate payments, or pays for unused subscriptions.
How customers rate Mesh Payments
G2 rating: 4.7/5 (as of February 2023)
Capterra rating: 4.9/5 (as of February 2023)
Mesh Payment’s most rated features
The following are Mesh Payment’s most highly-rated features by real users on Capterra:
- Mobile receipt upload: 5/5
- Reimbursement management: 4.3/5
Mesh Payment pricing
The Mesh Payment platform is 100% free to use, with no subscription or setup fees.
Languages supported by Mesh Payment
Mesh Payment only supports the English language.
Conclusion: Which spend management solution is best for your needs?
With so many spend management systems on the SaaS (software as a service) market to choose from, selecting the right one that suits your business can be a daunting task.
Ultimately, the best choice for your business depends on your unique combination of business needs, industry, and budget, as well as the features and capabilities you require.
The best spend management platforms also integrate with other tools in your stack to help streamline and simplify business processes. For example, if your employees travel regularly for business, the spend management tool you choose will need to integrate flawlessly with your travel management solution.
TravelPerk is a flexible, user-friendly travel management solution that offers a seamless travel booking and expense management experience — and it also integrates with several of the best spend management tools in this guide.
Reach out today to find out how you can simplify your spend management and travel management processes with TravelPerk today!
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