Small business expense tracking: 8 best tools

Definition: Small business expense tracking software helps businesses record, monitor, and manage their expenditures accurately and efficiently while providing insights into spending. 

Managing small business expenses, from lunch meetings to mileage tracking, can be time-consuming, error-prone, and frustrating. With so many tasks to oversee, manually keeping track of invoices and spending becomes overwhelming. However, the right expense tracking software can help—especially for smaller businesses where managers and employees often wear several hats. For many companies, the solution is switching to expense tracking software to streamline the process and transform this demanding aspect of business management. With the right software solution, tracking and managing business expenses will be easier and more accurate, and you’ll gain valuable insight into your spending. 

How to track expenses for small business: 8 expense management software

Expense tracker and expense management software helps small businesses keep on top of individual and overall spending. It eliminates manual expense input and integrates with accounting software, streamlining a cumbersome process and reducing employee frustration. Selecting the best business expense tracking software for your business depends on your current and future needs. Here are some of the best options for small business expense tracking:

1. Rippling

Rippling is an all-in-one platform that makes it easy for organizations of any size to manage their business expenses and other aspects of their operations. With Rippling, companies can simplify their expense processes, increase visibility into spending, and ensure compliance with their spend policies. Rippling's advanced policy engine and customizable workflows enable you to create custom rules and automate tasks, saving time and reducing manual effort.

Key features: 

• Automating expense management tasks like duplicate detection, receipt matching, and ledger syncing
• Flagging out-of-policy spending with hyper-custom policies based on granular attributes, including by vendor or value, for further review
• Leveraging AI-powered transaction categorization and accounting system integration to close books faster
• Managing global payroll and expense management by supporting multiple currencies and reimbursements in over 100 countries

Integrations: Rippling supports integrations with accounting software and other popular business software platforms.

G2 Rating: 4.8 out of 5

2. Expensify

Expensify is an easy-to-use financial management tool built to streamline the expense tracking and reimbursement process. Expensify has multiple features that simplify expense tracking and management for employees and managers. Expensify integrates with other accounting software, making it an excellent choice for most businesses.

Key features: 

• Capturing receipt details with a single click using SmartScan technology, eliminating the need for manual data entry
• Offering corporate card reconciliation
• Customizing approval workflows
• Enabling companies to make cross-border payments to over 190 countries with a global reimbursement feature

Integrations: Expensify integrates with popular accounting software, HR platforms, and travel apps.

G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5

3. Ramp

Ramp offers a variety of features to help businesses simplify their financial operations. With Ramp, companies can manage business expenses, automate their accounting processes, and view and track income and expenses in real time. Ramp expense management, automation, and powerful reporting tools save businesses time and money.

Key features: 

• Offering virtual and physical corporate credit cards with customizable spend controls and auto-enforced policies
• Automating expense management with receipt matching, generation, and policy compliance checks
• Streamlining accounts payable through automation, including invoice extraction, approval workflows, and vendor payments
• Providing real-time reporting and AI-powered insights to identify cost-saving opportunities

Integrations: Ramp connects with popular business tools and software like Sage Intacct, NetSuite, Amazon Business, and more. 

G2 Rating: 4.8 out of 5

4. Navan (Formerly TripActions)

Navan is an all-in-one travel and expense management solution. Navan helps businesses streamline their expense tracking to gain insight into employee spending. The platform offers a range of features designed to save time and money, including automated expense categorization, customizable spend controls, global reimbursements, and more.

Key features: 

• Automating expense management by sorting and reconciling transactions, eliminating manual expense reports
• Setting customizable spend controls enforced at purchase, reducing out-of-policy spending and fraud
• Monitoring spending in real-time with analytics to keep on top of expenditures
• Providing access to travel booking and management

Integrations: Navan integrates with most common finance, payroll, HRIS, and CRM platforms.

G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5

5. Brex

Brex is a popular spend management platform that combines corporate credit cards, expense tracking, and accounting automation into one integrated system. Brex helps companies simplify and control their business spending with several features, including customizable expense policies, automatic receipt scanning, and accounting software integrations.

Key features: 

• Integrating corporate credit cards to track business expenses
• Accessing travel booking shortcuts
• Customizing spending limits with embedded and automated policies
• Supporting multiple currencies, local expense policies and compliance, and worldwide reimbursements

Integrations: Brex integrates with accounting platforms like NetSuite and QuickBooks and top HRIS platforms including ADP and UKG.

G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5

6. SAP’s Concur Expense

Concur Expense is an expense tracker and management platform that simplifies and automates the entire expense process from end to end. The cloud-based platform provides businesses with enhanced spending visibility, helping reduce costs and increase compliance. Concur Expense offers a comprehensive spend management solution for any business. 

Key features: 

• Capturing automated expenses from multiple sources, including corporate credit cards, travel bookings, and receipts
• Providing sophisticated analytics and reporting capabilities for real-time insight into spending trends
• Offering an intuitive user interface
• Simplified expense reporting and faster employee reimbursements

Integrations: SAP Concur has a comprehensive ecosystem of partner applications and integrations, including accounting platforms like QuickBooks, NetSuite, and SAP’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform. 

G2 Rating: 4 out of 5

7. FreshBooks 

FreshBooks is a cloud-based business accounting software solution. FreshBooks is tailored to small businesses and those who are self-employed, helping them manage and track business expenses efficiently. FreshBooks features include invoice and payment processing, automated expense tracking, time tracking, comprehensive analytics and reporting, a mobile expense tracker app, scalability, and integration.

Key features: 

• Customizing invoicing and offering online payment options for customers
• Automating expense tracking by capturing receipts and importing transactions from business bank accounts
• Facilitating time tracking for businesses with hourly billing for services
• Generating reports for insights into spending and overall financial health

Integrations: FreshBooks has a wide range of integrations with payment processors, payroll services, project management tools, and e-commerce platforms.

G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 766 reviews

8. Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is a cloud-based solution for small businesses looking to simplify their expense tracking and management. Zoho Expense offers a variety of features aimed at streamlining expense tracking, reporting, and reimbursement. Zoho Expense is a good choice for small businesses thanks to its user-friendly interface, cost, and functionality. 

Key features: 

• Automating receipt scanning using a mobile expense tracker app that automatically captures and categorizes relevant data
• Speeding up employee reimbursements
• Setting custom expense policies to enable compliance and reduce fraud
• Providing comprehensive analytics to help small businesses track expenses and manage budgets and finances

Integrations: Zoho Expense offers a variety of integrations across different platforms. Accounting software integrations include Xero, Sage, and QuickBooks.

G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5

How to choose a business expense tracking software

For small businesses on tight budgets, the importance of tracking business expenses can’t be understated. Knowing where your money goes is key to sound financial management and profitability. Manual expense tracking is time-consuming, frustrating, and susceptible to errors. Expense tracking software is a game changer for small businesses looking to streamline their financial processes. 

Choosing the right software for your business is critical. From automating expense input to providing real-time insights into your spending, small business expense tracking enhances accuracy, simplifies tax prep, and can help you make better financial decisions for your business. Here’s what you should consider: 

Fast reimbursement process

Fast reimbursements allow you to repay employees quickly for out-of-pocket business expenses. An automated process that uses expense tracker apps reduces errors and speeds approvals, resulting in fewer delays and happier employees. 

Multiple currencies 

If you conduct business outside of the US, having small business expense tracking software that can issue payments in different currencies and apply local policy rules is an important feature to look for. It will streamline payments and reduce tedious manual currency conversions. 

Integration capabilities

Integrations with financial software and business tools allow you to sync data across your existing systems. Integrating with other processes provides a broader view of financial data, helps you automate workflows, and enforces internal spending policies widely. 

Customization options 

Look for an expense tracking and management solution that lets you create custom workflows for your unique expense policies. If you need multi-level approvals for a specific category or dollar amount, check that the software offers this function. Choose software that scales and can adapt to other changes in your business so you won’t have to change to a new platform in the future. 

Security

Protecting sensitive financial data is a top priority when choosing expense tracking software. Look for a solution that meets the highest standards of security and encryption. It should use multi-factor authentication, automatically store receipts, and regularly back up other data. 

Price

For many small companies, price is the major consideration when choosing the right expense tracker. Many providers offer pricing options ranging from free or low-cost (with limitations) to more expensive packages that are rich in features. The best choice is the option that meets your requirements and fits your budget.

Efficient expense management with Rippling 

Rippling consolidates all of your company’s finances—from payroll and benefits to corporate credit cards and expense management–giving you an up-to-date view of cash flow across your company and offering unprecedented control over spending patterns.

While many expense management solutions only allow for basic employee-manager approval chains, with Rippling expense management’s advanced policy engine, you can set hyper-custom policies based on the vendor, dollar amount, and expense category, helping you block out-of-policy business expenses with ease. You can also tee up automated workflows that help you control spend, like triggering an alert when business expenses in any specific category sharply increase. 

With Rippling, businesses of all sizes can leverage the best expense management platform to simplify processes, increase visibility into spending, and ensure compliance with spend policies across the organization. 

Frequently asked questions

What is expense tracking software?

Expense tracking software automates and streamlines expense submission, approval, and reimbursement. It ensures compliance with your spending policies and gives your small businesses access to real-time monitoring of your expenses, providing valuable insights that are essential in controlling spending and effective budgeting. 

What is the best way to track small business expenses?

Robust expense management software is the best way to track small business expenses. By automating the expense and reimbursement process, businesses can reduce errors, increase compliance with company spending policy, and gain an overview of spending and how it affects their budgets. Replacing manual expense tracking reduces employee and manager frustration and speeds up reimbursements. It also creates a tax-compliant and audit-ready trail of business expenses, so your accountant doesn’t miss important tax deductions. 

Is Rippling’s expense management software tool right for small businesses?

Yes. Rippling's expense management software is an excellent fit for businesses needing time-saving expense automation and automatic policy enforcement. Built on a scalable platform, Rippling can easily support future growth. As with any software investment, evaluating your specific needs and budget is important to ensure it’s the right choice for your business now and in the future.

This blog is based on information available to Rippling as of August 26, 2024.

Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide or be relied on for tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, accounting, and legal advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.