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Expense Management 101: Your Guide to Expense Reporting

November 13, 2020

Expense management is a process that is often described as time-consuming, laborious, error-prone, and frustrating. Yet it plays a crucial role in maintaining your company's bottom line.

By definition, expense management is a system of organization deployed for processing expense reports , approvals, and employee reimbursements.

However, further into the read, you will see how the nitty grits of expense management could make or break businesses of any size if left unattended. This article talks about why companies must pay closer heed to expense management and its benefits.

Why is expense management important?

Expense management has different implications for different stakeholders. For finance teams, the main focus is to maintain accurate records and financial planning. For employees, it is to get reimbursed faster and with minimal friction. For owners or management, it is about growth, productivity, risk management, cost-saving, and employee satisfaction.

Here are some perks of paying heed to expense management:

• When the expense management process flows smoothly, it gives accurate insights into the organization’s financial health. This helps management identify cost-saving opportunities and potential risks.
• Next, when expense employee reimbursement cycles are shorter, it results in higher employee satisfaction and trust. This plays a crucial role in determining your employee and financial productivity.
• Lastly, when you put in the effort to stay compliant and maintain detailed records, you are rewarded with tax benefits. A well thought out and implemented expense management system, hence, has benefits both tangible and intangible.

What does the expense management process look like?

The expense management process involves the following:

• Reporting of business expenses by employees
• Verification and validation of reports by managers/approvers
• Audit of expense reports for compliance by accountants/finance teams
• Processing of payments for employee expense reimbursements
• Safe-keeping of expenses, sales receipts , and records for external audits

Here’s a flowchart to help you visualize the process:

It looks quite simple, but in reality, there are challenges at each step of the process that pose severe threats to the business’s stability and growth if not done right. Thus, it is essential to understand these challenges to build an efficient expense management system.

Challenges in the travel and expense management process

Added to being time-consuming and labor-intensive, the expense management process is riddled with challenges right from when you set up policies till reimbursements are processed. And then some more. Here are the three most common challenges in expense management.

1. Unclear travel and expense policies

The cycle of expense reporting starts from the employees, and with unclear expense policies, the first step is where the trouble begins. Especially because expense reporting is always a last-minute job, and it is dreaded by all.

Problems employees face with unclear travel and expense policies:

• It becomes difficult to remember expense policies and categories.
• This results in employees claiming for out-of-policy expenses.
• Reports are sent back to employees for resubmission, resulting in delayed payouts.
• Non-compliant expenses, if reimbursed, count as expense report fraud.
• Employees might try repeating unchecked violations as they might not be fully aware of the repercussions of committing expense report fraud.

2. Ineffective expense approval workflows

As in the case of travel and expense policies, if the approval workflow is not well defined, the expense report might just not reach the right person and in the right time frame. This causes frustration, confusion, and delays in reimbursing employees for the money they spent from their pockets for your business.

Problems employees and finance teams face with inefficient approval workflows:

• Employees and approvers aren’t aware of the entire reimbursement process.
• They waste productive hours in understanding which reports go to whom.
• There is a high chance that an approver misses an expense report email.
• Fraudulent or out-of-policy claims might go unchecked.
• As a result of the constant and long back and forths, reimbursements are delayed.
• There is no one place where all activity on an expense report is tracked.
• It becomes difficult for Finance teams to keep track of bottlenecks and compliance.
• Inevitably, without a detailed audit trail, the business opens itself up to audits.

3. Delayed employee expense reimbursements

Expense reimbursements are a lengthy and tiresome process. Be it the multiple back and forths between employees and finance teams or the colossal amount of manual data entry, verification, and processing – nobody likes expense reporting.

Additionally, delayed employee expense reimbursements lead to:

• Employee dissatisfaction and reduced morale.
• Employees lose out on the money that they spent on the company.
• Don't have enough time to focus on things that are actually important.
• Last-minute approvals might result in out-of-policy claims being approved.
• Finance teams cannot close books on time.

Delays, errors, frauds, and painful audits are characteristic of traditional expense management. This is businesses, small and large, turn to more effective methods of managing expenses.

What is traditional expense management?

Traditional expense management processes rely on paper-based receipts and records. To paint a picture, this is what a traditional expense management system looks like:

• Employees are tasked with keeping all business receipts safe to claim expense reimbursements at the beginning of every reimbursement cycle.
• Approvers need to manually verify expense claims and ensure they comply with the company’s travel and expense policy.
• Finance teams are tasked with auditing all approved expense receipts with paper trails before processing.
• Finance teams then have to save all receipts and records in an organized manner for future internal/external audits.

Challenges with traditional expense management

An upgrade from paper-based accounting was Excel-based accounting. However, both systems are time and labor-intensive, relying solely on manual data entry and verification. Here are some challenges and limitations of traditional expense management:

• High probability of data entry errors: Traditional expense management relies on manual data entry for expense reporting, approvals, and even record-keeping. An additional zero or a missing one could skew your books and open you up to audits.
• High risk of expense report frauds: It is very much possible for policy nuances to slip through the cracks and create expense report frauds. This costs businesses a lot of money and may block your calendars for an unpleasant inquiry with tax authorities.
• Lack of visibility into employee spending: Finance teams have no way to know how much employees are spending on different projects until they’ve turned in expense reports at the end of the month. This handicaps financial productivity and can cause a serious threat to your company’s bottom line.

What is automated expense management?

Automated expense management software use features designed specially to eliminate all mundane tasks involved in financial reporting. This helps remove the frustration behind manual expense reporting.

Besides making expense reporting and tracking a breeze, here are some other benefits automated expense management brings with it:

• Offers easy ways for employees to track and report expenses from any device of their choice.
• Runs real-time policy checks on every expense claim even before it is reported to ensure policy compliance.
• Enables customization and automation of approval workflows and bank and corporate credit card reconciliations.
• Integrates with other accounting, ERP , and HRMS software to ensure all employee and travel and expense management data are centralized.

Benefits of switching to automated expense management

A switch from paper and Excel-based expense reporting to digital can be a significant transformation for businesses. Here are a few benefits automated expense management offers over traditional expense management.

• Employees spend less time compiling and submitting expense reports.
• Approvers spend less time verifying and approving expense reports.
• Compliance is taken care of by the expense management software.
• Audit-readiness is ensured without any extra manual effort.
• Finance teams get continuous visibility into employee expenses.

Switching to automated expense management takes over manual, error-prone, and time-consuming tasks and helps businesses boost financial performance, employee productivity, and optimize their budget management .

What is expense management software?

Expense management software is designed to automate travel and expense management-related processes, including expense reporting, approvals, reimbursements, and travel bookings. An automated expense management process minimizes risks that are usually characteristic of traditional expense management. Here are a few advantages of using an expense management software organized by stakeholders.

For employees, it offers:

Efficient receipt tracking and reporting

Most expense management software offer easy business receipt tracking options to reduce the time and effort employees invest in expense reporting. The most salient expense reporting feature is the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanner found in almost all expense management mobile applications.

This feature allows employees to simply take a picture of the paper receipt using the OCR scanner. The software then auto-populates expenses details from the captured image, all ready to report. This ensures that a truly one-click experience replaces the otherwise tedious manual expense reporting process.

Faster expense reimbursements

An automated travel and expense management software makes it easy for employees to submit compliant expense reports. It also eliminates the need for constant back and forths between stakeholders to ensure timely expense report submissions, approvals, and employee expense reimbursements.

For approvers, it offers:

Custom automated approval workflows

With an expense management software, there’s no need for managers or approvers to respond to “could you please point me to the right person” emails. Once the workflow is fed into the system and policies set, you could even set automatic report submission reminders and auto-approve reports and eliminate bottlenecks in the expense approval process altogether.

Effective expense policy enforcement

As managers, department heads, or the finance department, there are better and more important things you have to do than verifying expense claims against policies. An expense management software automates policy checks and alerts you about any violations. This enables you to take appropriate action and without wasting productive hours on verification.

For finance teams, it offers:

Automatic corporate credit card reconciliation

A while ago, when corporate cards were all the rage, they felt like the ultimate solution to managing business expenses. Only finance teams know the pain of matching credit card statements to bills and then auditing them for compliance. An expense management software can be a real boon when it comes to credit card reconciliation . The software automatically matches expenses, receipts, and transactions, erasing manual intervention from the equation. It also integrates with credit card providers to get direct feeds on the expense management dashboard. This helps finance teams get real-time insight into where exactly the spend is happening instead of just the information that spend is happening.

Digital audit trails for continuous compliance

Expense management software maintains detailed digital audit trails for each expense and all stakeholders’ corresponding actions. This makes it easy for Finance teams to audit expense reports before processing reimbursements. This also eliminates the need for storing stacks of paper receipts and worrying about their safekeeping.

Faster payment processing

An expense management software integrates your existing ERP, accounting, HRMS system, and bank portals. This allows you to bring all employee and expense data to a single platform and initiate payments right from your expense management dashboard. Further, it will enable you to track payment progress, ensuring you are always in-the-know of things.

Secure cloud storage for expense receipts

All expense receipts attached to expense claims are stored in a secure and searchable cloud. This makes it easy for finance teams to search for any expense, receipt, or report using filters. The next time you sit for an audit, there won’t be an hour of awkward silence between you and the auditor while you sort through heaps of reports to find the one the auditor asked for.

Real-time insight into expense data analytics

An expense management software offers real-time visibility and insight into employee spending across the organization or multiple organizations. These insights are made available on your expense management dashboard, where you can view spend by departments, projects, categories, and more.

Real-time expense data insights will help you optimize spends whenever and wherever necessary. It also ensures you’re sticking to the predicted/allocated budgets. Additionally, insight into historical data enables you to analyze your organization’s financial needs better to make data-driven decisions.

Data security

Data security is a massive concern with anything that involves software. A good business expense management software adheres to industry-standard security measures to ensure your data is always safe. They also offer features like role-based access, IP based access, and auditor-access to ensure different stakeholders with different roles only have access to data you decide to let them see.

An expense management software helps you automate the entire expense management system, save time and costs. It also helps reduce risks and frauds while boosting employee morale and overall profitability. If you’d like to check, strictly in terms of money, the RoI of an expense management software, here’s a free ROI calculator you can use.

How to pick expense management software for your business

If you used the ROI calculator we were just talking about, you’re probably convinced that an expense management software is worth the investment.

But automating your expense reporting is more than just ROI. You must pick an expense report software that suits your business needs. To help you through the process, we've compiled a handy checklist to help you select the best expense software options for your business:

Check for must-have expense management features

Your chosen expense management software vendor should offer the following capabilities to ensure that you can automate every single step of the expense management process:

• A mobile app with easy expense tracking options for employees.
• Fully customizable expense approval workflows.
• A robust business rules engine (travel and expense policy automation.)
• Automatic bank and credit card reconciliation capability.
• In-depth and real-time expense data analytics.
• A comprehensive expense management dashboard.
• Integrations with travel desks, ERP, accounting, and HRMS software.
• Powerful and easy to implement ERP systems with API integrations .

Understand your customer support requirements

You must understand your organization's customer support requirements before you shortlist vendors. If you have frequent traveling employees, you might need a highly rated vendor with quick responses, active live chats, and timely customer support.

If you prefer having detailed how-to videos, documents, and other resources, ensure that your vendor can make such resources easily accessible for your team. This ensures quicker and easier adoption of newer technology.

Check for user reviews on trusted platforms

Reviews from customers who use a software provide insight into their experiences post-implementation. These reviews play a crucial role in understanding whether a particular software is a viable product or not for your business.

Software review platforms like G2 simplify and fasten the process by rating software based on real user reviews across various platforms. They rate software based on different criteria such as ease of use, quality of support, ease of implementation, and more. This provides a trusted shortcut to getting your hands on the best expense report software to achieve your desired business goals.

Future-proof your bottom line

The main ingredients for an organization's success are a seamless collaboration between teams with a constant rise in financial and employee productivity. This can be achieved by streamlining your expense management process to save time, effort, ensure accuracy and security, and provide valuable expense data insights.

Manaswini Rao Kaki is a Content Marketer at Fyle, a B2B expense management software company. When she’s not building brands, she’s off exploring pretty places and vibrant cultures or brewing a perfect cup of coffee. Reach her at [email protected]

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10 Best Travel & Expense Software to Use in 2024

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

June 2, 2024

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Manual travel and expense reimbursement is tedious. You have to maintain spreadsheets, gather all travel expense receipts from employees, verify them, record the data, and approve the reimbursement. It also leaves room for errors.

Why go through this whole expense data hassle when you can automate this process with travel and expense management software?

Instead of maintaining a record of hundreds of physical receipts and large rows of employee expenses, you can simply scan the receipts to record expenses and automate the approval processes through defined workflows, making corporate travel management as easy as ever.

Let’s explore the top 10 travel and expense management software to support your business travel needs, their key features, and pricing.

What Should You Look for in Travel and Expense Software?

1. travelperk, 3. wegopro (formerly travelstop), 4. expensify, 7. emburse certify, 8. sap concur, 9. travelbank, 10. zoho expense.

A travel and expense software should simplify bookings, invoicing, and reimbursements. Here are some capabilities that enable a streamlined reimbursement process:

• Intuitive dashboard : An intuitive dashboard helps you easily monitor each employee’s travel expenses when they submit digital expense reports. Look for customizable views, app integrations, and real-time tracking
• Automation : The software should auto-fill transaction details from corporate cards and calculate expense reimbursements
• Digital receipts capturing : It should be able to extract data from digital receipts and fill in expense fields, eliminating the need for manual data entry
• Advanced analytics: Best expense management platforms offer in-depth reporting and analytics features to help businesses analyze and manage travel expenses
• Cost-effectiveness : The software should offer custom and reasonable pricing as per your business needs

The 10 Best Travel and Expense Software to Use in 2024

Here are the 10 best travel and expense software that can manage your end-to-end business travel needs—from travel booking to expense management, budget tracking, and receipt management.

TravelPerk is a platform that offers seamless travel and expense reporting management. It supports multiple use cases, such as group travel bookings for offsites, travel management, expense management, and centralized invoicing.

With its in-built travel tracker, HR managers can monitor employee trips in real time and check whether they are adhering to travel expense policies and compliances. 

TravelPerk best features

• Control your travel budget with real-time information from the interactive TravelPerk dashboard
• Add powerful integrations in one click to manage all your expenses from one place
• Modify your bookings anytime with Flexi Perk, a one-tap solution to book airline tickets and hotels at any rate and cancel them at any time 
• View real-time travel status with an interactive map
• Get top insights on travel carbon footprints for introducing sustainable traveling solutions

TravelPerk limitations

• It has limited travel booking options
• Needs potential UI improvements for travel bookings. For example, you cannot search for hotels directly and will have to scroll through the entire list

TravelPerk pricing

• Starter : Free
• Premium : $99/month+3% booking
• Pro : $299/month+3% booking
• Enterprise : Custom pricing

TravelPerk ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.6/5 (1500+ reviews)
• Capterra : 4.8/5 (404 reviews)  

Fyle is an expense management solution that automates your expense and reimbursement process, which includes reconciling corporate card expenses and processing employee expense reimbursements. Connect it with your accounting software to track vendor, project, and department expenses.

You can integrate Fyle with NetSuite, Xero, Sage Intact, BambooHR, and QuickBooks. While it does not offer travel management features, it can be integrated with TravelPerk to analyze and report employee travel expenses.

Fyle best features

• Leverage conversational AI to collect digital expense reports and match them to the credit card transaction
• Automate expense form filling, report submissions, and sync expenses to your accounting software like Quickbooks, Sage, and Xero
• Get real-time actionable insights into your spending data through the powerful and advanced analytics dashboard

Fyle limitations

• Fyle’s limited expense categories make it difficult to accurately record all types of expenses 
• It has a steep learning curve

Fyle pricing

• Standard : $6.99 per month per user, billed annually
• Business : $11.99 per month per user, billed annually
• Enterprise :  Custom pricing

Fyle ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.6/5 (1300+ reviews)
• Capterra : 4.5/5 (146 reviews)

WeGoPro is a travel booking and management plus expense tracking software. It has over 800 airlines and 600,000 hotels listed to make travel booking and control easier for businesses. 

With WeGoPro, you can track company-wide expenses on a single dashboard in real time. It also allows you to maintain a record of frequent travel policy and compliance violators.

WeGoPro best features

• Saves hours of manual paperwork and accelerates reimbursement with automated expense reporting 
• Manage multi-currency expenses with instant exchange rates to manage global business expenses without any delay
• Get data-driven insights through a consolidated view of your spending by either expense category or department in one single place
• Track real-time business traveler’s data and ensure safety and instant support through interactive maps

WeGoPro limitations

• It offers limited accommodation options as compared to other travel management platforms
• Higher prices per booking can impact travel budget, especially for small businesses

WeGoPro pricing

• Standard : $10/booking
• Premium : Contact for pricing
• Expenses : $5/month per user

WeGoPro ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.4 /5 (12 reviews)
• Capterra : 4.3/ 5 (18 reviews)  

Expensify is an expense management app with unlimited receipt tracking management. Its SmartScan feature scans all receipts in one click and automatically uploads them on the dashboard. 

You can sync Expensify with business accounting, HR, and travel software to bring all data together, making financial audit processes easier.

Expensify best features

• Capture all receipts in one click with SmartScan to automatically import your expenses for rapid reimbursements  
• Earn up to 2% cashback on Expensify cards on transactions above $250,000
• Create expense rules to categorize recurring payments automatically

Expensify limitations

• Submitting separate expense reports for personal and business cards can be overwhelming for employees 
• Frequent glitches in the receipt scanning process require manual effort to submit expense bills

Expensify pricing

• Collect : $5/month per user, billed annually 
• Control : $9/month per user, billed annually 

Expensify ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.5/5 (5100+ reviews)
• Capterra : 4.5/5 (1000+ reviews)

Navan is an expense management automation software that collects details of business spend from employee receipts and business card expenses. Businesses can limit card usage to avoid overspending by employees.

You can use Navan to reimburse out-of-pocket expenses of business travelers across 45 countries and 25 currencies. Moreover, Navan Rewards allows employees to earn rewards on their travel.

Navan best features

• Track employee travel spending with advanced expense reporting and analytics  
• Get real-time carbon emission data to keep track of your sustainable travel goals

Navan limitations

• Customer support team might take longer time than usual to answer your support tickets
• Lack of offline GPS support makes it difficult to record travel when employees are traveling to another country without an international SIM card

Navan pricing

• Growth : Free
• Professional : Custom pricing

Navan ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.7/5 (7500+ reviews)
• Capterra : 4.6/5 (176 reviews)

Happay is a comprehensive platform for travel and expense management. It offers different expense management solutions for various use cases, such as a Self Booking Tool (SBT) to book travel tickets and hotels for business purposes, and Xpendite to track expenses from over six sources automatically.

Its smart audit solution helps managers identify and flag travel policy violations by employees. Happay’s intelligent analytics offer valuable insights into employee spending patterns, enabling greater control over the business spend.

Plus, its seamless integration with accounting systems makes it the ultimate solution for efficient financial management.

Happay best features

• Achieve 100% accurate expense reporting from 6+ sources with Happay Xpendite
• Detect duplicate receipts and policy violations using SmartAudit to ensure compliance
• Manage your travel and expenses from anywhere with the Happay mobile app with all the web features
• Get real-time travel and expense insights with DeepAnalyze  for making well-informed decisions 

Happay limitations

• Can be time-consuming and lead to erroneous reports  
• It can be difficult to manage expenses that involve multiple expense categories, projects, and currencies 

Happay pricing

• Custom pricing

Happay ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.5/5 (305 reviews)
• Capterra : 4.6/5 (829 reviews)

Emburse is another popular expense management software for creating, submitting, and approving expenses. It also provides a travel and expense management system that streamlines travel planning, policy compliance, expense recording, and collection of visa and health information of travelers.

You can set pre-approvals for travel expenses for better cost control. It also eliminates manual tasks like submitting an expense report or a physical receipt.

Emburse Certify best features

• Schedule an automatic expense report creation with ReportExecutive to avoid the tedious job of manual reporting
• Catch violations and duplicates using Embrace Audit for a transparent, reimbursement and expense management process
• Eliminates cash flow bottlenecks by providing pre-approval on travel programs 
• Improve financial decision-making by analyzing expenses and spending patterns

Emburse Certify limitations

• Its complex UI makes it difficult for users to navigate through the app
• It offers limited integration features

Emburse Certify pricing

• Certify Now: $12/month per user 
• Professional: Custom pricing 

Embrace Certify ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.5/5 (2035 reviews)
• Capterra :4.7/5 (1279 reviews) 

SAP Concur offers a bundled solution for expense, travel, and invoice management. It connects employees’ travel expenses and invoicing into a single system to offer greater visibility into transactions and ensure compliance.

SAP Concur’s best features

• Automate spend management system with Concur expense and process reimbursements faster
• Analyze data and insights from business expenses and invoice clearance timelines with comprehensive dashboards 
• Streamline business travel details by connecting trips, travelers, and itineraries all in one place with Concur Travel 
• Automate accounts payable processing to mitigate potential fraud and compliance risks

SAP Concur limitations

• Inability to show expense reports which are older than 90 days
• It has a high turnaround time for support tickets 

SAP Concur pricing

Sap concur ratings and reviews.

• G2 : 4.0/5 (6000+reviews)
• Capterra : 4.3/5 (2030 reviews)

TravelBank is another comprehensive solution for card management, expense tracking, and travel management. You can submit digital expense reports, automate approvals, optimize travel spending, reconcile corporate card transactions, and get better data visibility with TravelBank.

TravelBank best features

• Monitor the allocation and spending of funds to control business expenses
• Predict future expenses and plan travel budget accordingly 
• Integrate all virtual corporate travel cards and automatically sync the transaction into the TravelBank expense management platform 

TravelBank limitations

• It can be difficult to modify your bookings
• The scanning tool captures wrong information from receipt uploads sometimes

TravelBank pricing

• Travel : $25/month per user 
• Expense : $10/month per user
• Travel and Expense : Custom pricing

TravelBank ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.5/5 (333 reviews)
• Capterra : 4.7/5 (226 reviews)

Zoho Expense is a travel and expense management tool for businesses to automate expense reporting and simplify business travel booking. It also autoscans credit and corporate card transactions with receipts for better reconciliation. You can also set per diem allowances for employees in different regions.

Zoho Expense’s best features

• Get a comprehensive view of your employees’ travel requests with instant analytics and intuitive dashboards 
• Automate mileage tracking without compromising on data security
• Enhance expense auditing and fraud control so you don’t have to review every transaction manually 
• Simplify business receipt tracking through advanced auto-scan in more than 14 languages

Zoho Expense’s limitations

• Minor discrepancies in the receipt recognition feature lead to ineffective expense reporting
• It has limited integrations 

Zoho Expense’s pricing

• Standard : $4/month per user, billed annually
• Premium : $6/month per user, billed annually
• Custom : Custom pricing

Zoho Expense’s ratings and reviews

• G2 : 4.5/5 (1100+ reviews)
• Capterra : 4.6/5 (900+ reviews)

Other Travel Management Tools

Travel and expense management software can help you track travel overspends and policy violations. However, to avoid overspending, you need strategic travel planning. Try ClickUp, an all-in-one platform to create smart travel plans.

With ClickUp, you can create detailed personal or business travel plans at low costs. It is an all-in-one travel tool for travel managers and individuals. Start with budget planning . For this, you don’t need an AI-powered accounting tool . Use ClickUp’s Docs to collaborate with the travel team, discuss budgets, and create itineraries.

With ClickUp for Finance , you and your finance team can track the organization’s financial goals and set a travel budget accordingly.

Next, you need itinerary templates to plan a smooth business trip. 

ClickUp offers several itinerary templates to suit your different travel needs. These templates help you plan more effectively and handle last-minute changes in the plan.

You can also simplify business or personal travel planning with ClickUp’s Travel Planner Template. The template helps you track flights and hotel bookings and share your travel plans with friends, family or colleagues.

Now that you’ve planned your trip and the budget, it’s time to create a schedule for your travel program with ClickUp’s Calendar View . You can plan all trip activities, including rest days and travel time.

Make Travel Planning and Management Easy with ClickUp

Choosing the right travel and expense management software is essential to ensure compliance, maintain cash flow, and process reimbursements quickly.

However, they often lack travel planning features and have expensive booking options. 

ClickUp is the best solution to bridge this gap. Combine your travel and expense management processes with ClickUp to simplify business travel planning and execution, which in turn results in better expense management.

Sign up on ClickUp for free to organize travel plans and track business travel costs effortlessly!

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​​The 8 best travel & expense management software platforms in 2024

What is travel and expense management software.

• Give you a comprehensive overview of your corporate travel spending 
• Help you book travel that’s aligned with your corporate travel policy  
• Streamline your invoice process

Revolutionize your travel and expense management through automation.

The best travel and expense management solutions, 1. travelperk.

• Access to multiple user profiles for booking travel
• Centralized invoicing , so you can say goodbye to multiple invoices and even opt to let TravelPerk handle invoice collection for you 
• Company policy compliance when offering booking options
• Third-party integrations with popular tools like Expensify , Payhawk , and BambooHR
• Excellent 24/7 customer support with a target 15-second response time
• Advanced reporting and insights for a comprehensive overview of spending
• Quick VAT recovery solutions —find out how much you could be saving with TravelPerk’s VAT recovery calculator
• G2 rating : 4.6 / 5, based on 1,533 ratings (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating : 4.7 / 5, based on 408 ratings (as of September 2024)

Don't overspend on business travel. Save time and money today.

2. spendesk.

• Unlimited virtual cards for frictionless subscription management and online payments
• Built-in budgets and spending rules to eliminate rogue spending 
• Automatic receipt capture with OCR technology
• Smoother month-end closing thanks to automated bookkeeping and streamlined processes
• Faster, smarter spending decisions
• G2 rating : 4.7 / 5, based on 402 reviews (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating : 4.8 / 5, based on 219 ratings (as of September 2024)

3. BILL Spend & Expense

• Unlimited, customizable virtual cards for your business expenses
• In-depth reporting and insights to give you complete control over business expenses
• Travel reimbursement software to measure expense claims and mileage reimbursements against specific budgets for added spend visibility
• Rewards program based on your payoff schedule, with rewards on restaurants, hotels, subscriptions, and more
• G2 rating : 4.5 / 5, based on 1,435  ratings (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating : 4.7 / 5, based on 414 ratings (as of September 2024)

• Accounting automation to eliminate tedious, time-consuming accounting tasks (when integrated with an accounting solution)
• Easy to set up spending approval and prepaid cards with custom budgets
• AI-powered receipt matching that learns from previous receipt submissions
• Cards with your company branding for that extra personalized touch
• G2 rating: 4.8 / 5, based on 2,013 ratings (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating: 4.9 / 5, based on 186 ratings (as of September 2024)

• Easily manage receipts and business travel details
• Save or submit digital expense reports through a centralized dashboard
• Ensure travel compliance with set business travel expense reimbursement policies
• Access credit card management software, which is useful for monitoring and processing company credit cards
• G2 rating : 4.6 / 5, based on 1,411 ratings (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating : 4.5 / 5, based on 146 ratings (as of September 2024)

6. SAP Concur

• Reduce overall costs with control over your travel and expense management
• Improve your compliance and help mitigate risks
• Simple implementations with cloud solutions
• A scalability solution for growing businesses
• Mobile optimized for those looking for mobile app capabilities
• A larger inventory means TravelPerk offers deals from a wider variety of travel providers, including deals on flights, accommodation, and car hire.
• SAP Concur’s pricing can be difficult to estimate , and many features are optional additions. With TravelPerk, you pay when you travel —no unexpected fees or add-ons.
• TravelPerk’s platform is easy to implement and use, whereas SAP Concur users often report the tool being “ clunky and not easy to use ”.
• G2 rating : 4 / 5, based on 6,109  ratings (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating : 4.3 / 5 stars, based on 2,074 reviews (as of September 2024)

Click below to compare both platforms’ features and benefits

7. zoho expense.

• Streamlined corporate travel with automated expense reporting for each trip
• Notifications to alert team members of updates and changes
• Real-time spend visibility for an up-to-date overview of any expense data
• Analytics that can highlight changes required for better travel and expense management
• High-quality 24/7 customer support with a target response time of 15 seconds
• A leading inventory that offers TravelPerk’s negotiated rates
• Key features like carbon offsetting and VAT recovery
• An easy-to-use interface and workflow
• G2 rating : 4.5 / 5, based on 1,216 ratings (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating : 4.6 / 5, based on 1,021 ratings (as of September 2024)

8. Emburse Certify

• Workflows for efficient, reliable, and data-rich employee expense management
• Policy compliance with built-in policy controls
• Automate the accounts payable process and gain insights into business spend
• G2 rating : 4.5 / 5, based on 2,132 ratings (as of September 2024)
• Capterra rating : 4.7 / 5, based on 1,279 ratings (as of September 2024)

When is the right time to find a travel and expense management solution?

• Identify where you could be saving on your travel budget
• Find better deals on travel and accommodation with negotiated rates
• Lower your overall travel spending
• Make life easier for your corporate travel manager(s)
• Enable employees to easily self-book travel within your organization’s company policy

What should you look out for in T&E software? 6 Key features

1. a user-friendly travel management platform, 2. multiple user profiles, 3. travel policy integration and compliance, 4. a seamless reimbursement process, 5. automated approval workflows and reporting, need an easier way to manage expenses for business travel, 6. integrations with existing tools.

• Accounting software
• Travel management software
• Time-tracking tools
• Team management software
• Calendar software

Travel and expense management software for your business

Simplify the way you do business travel today.

Make business travel simpler. Forever.

• See our platform in action . Trusted by thousands of companies worldwide, TravelPerk makes business travel simpler to manage with more flexibility, full control of spending with easy reporting, and options to offset your carbon footprint.
• Find hundreds of resources on all things business travel, from tips on traveling more sustainably, to advice on setting up a business travel policy, and managing your expenses. Our latest e-books and blog posts have you covered.
• Never miss another update. Stay in touch with us on social for the latest product releases, upcoming events, and articles fresh off the press.

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#1 Easiest-To-Use Travel and Expense Management Platform

Simplifying Travel and Expense Management

Enterprise-grade security.

Ensure your company's data is protected with SOC II certified security protocols.

Extensive Travel Inventory

Access a vast selection of flights, hotels, and rental cars to find the best options for your team.

Use-Cases Beyond Employees

Manage payments for employees, contract workers, interview candidates, clients, and guests effortlessly.

Integrating QuickBooks for Seamless Travel Expense Management

Automating Expense Management with Accounting Software Integration

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How Businesses Can Reduce Travel Management Costs in 2024

The Role of Single Sign-On (SSO) in Modern Travel Management Systems

The most user-friendly travel management platform.

#1 Easiest To Use Travel Platform

We're top rated on G2 review platform.

In-App Approvals

Streamline bookings with automated approvals.

Cost Recovery On Nonrefundable Tickets

Recover costs by utilizing unused credits automatically.

On-demand assistance

Get assistance via text, email, or phone at no extra charge for last-minute requests.

Eliminate Reimbursement Process

Save up to 60% admin hassle by eliminating out-of-pocket expenses and thereby reimbursement needs.

Empower Employees

Enable employees to manage their own travel, earn loyalty points, and access 24/7 support.

Automate Accounting

Sync your accounting software to automate expense management.

Easy Onboarding

Start immediately with a preconfigured account — no sales calls or product demos needed.

Create Account

Your account is preconfigured for immediate use. Get started with just one click.

Configure Central Billing

Use company cards or get instant approval for a line of credit with Routespring.

Book Travel

Just like that, you and your teams are ready to Go Further with us.

Seamless Integrations

Microsoft Entra

Integrate MS Entra for SSO and user access management.

Secure user data with Okta’s single sign-on (SSO).

Auto-sync transactions with QuickBooks.

Feed receipts automatically to Expensify.

Zoho Expense

Automatically feed receipts to Zoho Expense.

Add all travel itineraries to your TripIt account.

Process approvals directly from Slack.

Process approvals directly from MS Teams.

Simplify your accounting and close your books faster

Auto feed receipts to your SAP Concur account

Loved by Our Customers

"Easy to Use. Great customer service. Great tracking for managers. Easy to make policy exceptions when needed."

Director of Business Development

"Routespring has made my job of managing travel so much easier...saved me tons of time and money!"

Chief Executive Officer

"Routespring’s centralized payments and extensive prepaid hotel inventory helps us out."

"Extremely easy to implement and can start to book travel within minutes."

Chief Financial Officer

Center Recognized as Leader in G2’s Fall 2024 Report

By The Center Team on September 24, 2024

For the 12th consecutive quarter, Center has been recognized as a leader in expense and travel management in the G2 Fall 2024 Report. This consistent recognition underscores our commitment to delivering ‌intuitive, easy to use solutions and exceptional customer experiences.

In the latest G2 report, Center achieved outstanding rankings across multiple key categories:

• Leader in Travel & Expense Management
• Leader in Expense Management
• Leader in Spend Management
• #1 in Mid-Market Usability Index for Expense Management

Additionally, Center secured top 5 rankings in several important indexes:

• Usability Index for Expense Management
• Small-Business Results Index for Travel Management
• Results Index for Travel Management
• Relationship Index for Spend Management and Expense Management
• Mid-Market Relationship Index for Expense Management and Travel & Expense

What Our Customers Are Saying

Our customers’ satisfaction remains our greatest achievement. Here are a few recent reviews from G2 that highlight how Center is making a difference:

• From Jay G., Accounting Specialist: “Center massively streamlined our credit card expense accounting. It provides a smooth and customizable flow of information from credit card spending to approval to coding and posting. The real-time visibility and control it gives to managers and accountants into spend on the company credit cards is exceptional, and the ease and accessibility of the app/website for users helps ensure timely and thorough receipt capture.”
• From Melisa D., CFO: Center is ‌easy to use and has simplified our expense submission process. Whether using a corporate card or submitting expenses for reimbursement, Center makes it easy. Plus, implementation was simple and customer support is top-notch.. Center has been wonderful for our company.”

Looking Ahead

We’re proud of Center’s impact on the expense and travel management market, and we also recognize there’s always room for growth and innovation. Our latest features showcase our commitment to streamlining expense and travel management. 

With Smart Receipts, we’re automating the capture of IRS-compliant receipts with complete transaction data, significantly reducing expense submission time. Our new Approver Planner ensures the right person reviews expenses at the right time by enabling scheduled changes to expense approvers. For a comprehensive view of travel spend, we’ve introduced Insights for Travel, providing detailed dashboards for both on-and off-platform bookings. And for those managing group travel, our Multi-Passenger Air Booking feature now allows booking flights for up to six travelers simultaneously. These innovations reflect our ongoing commitment to making expense and travel management more efficient and insightful for businesses of all sizes.

Ready to experience how Center can transform your expense and travel management processes?   Schedule a personalized demo today .

About G2 Ratings

G2 stands as a trusted authority for software and service reviews, helping businesses make informed decisions based on authentic customer feedback. The G2 quarterly report is designed to help business professionals in selecting the right software solution for their organization. We’re honored to be consistently recognized by G2 for our impact and reliability. These awards serve as a testament to the value we deliver to our customers and the trust they place in us.

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Hear Why SAP Concur Solutions Are G2 Leaders for Travel and Expense Management

SAP Concur users have spoken (more than 5,000 of them!) and they have ranked SAP Concur as a leading travel and expense management solution. Download the infographic for the details.  Learn more  or get a Demo . 

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Expense and travel management that syncs with any card.

Control spend while empowering employees to book within policy with 24/7 support.

Get real-time visibility into spend, automate approvals, and reduce errors.

Sync any card. Reconcile transactions and create virtual cards.

Make smarter decisions with fully customizable reporting.

Trusted by thousands of happy customers.

Sync your data, report and reconcile faster.

What’s new in the app.

User Delegate Report Enhancements in Premium Insights: New fields within the User Delegate Report give Admins instant visibility into delegates, the status of their employee assignments, and permissions, enabling swift followups for pending approvals.

Set Default Card for Travel: Admins can independently set their corporate travel card as a default payment method for bookings, giving them greater control of their travel settings.

Weekly Reimbursements: Admins can schedule weekly reimbursements on their preferred day, offering greater flexibility in managing their reimbursement schedules.

Together we share a commitment to deliver the best of an innovative fintech supported by the strength and stability of a highly regarded financial institution. Learn more about the acquisition.

Discover even more.

Expert advice on demand for all things related to business travel and expense management so you can ensure company money is spent wisely. Check out all of our resources.

What does T&E look like in 2024? Employees are supplying their own needs without the hassles (or bulk discounts) of official procurement.

An all-in-one expense and travel solution can help streamline expenses, improve visibility, and align budgets with your business goals.

In this deep dive, Duke, Connor, and Dan discuss the problems that plague T&E management, and how to relieve them.

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Travel & expense management: the simplest way to start your cloud journey.

Employees already have a full plate, and it’s challenging to ask for more when the tools provided only slow them down. Take travel and expense solutions, for example. They should facilitate travel booking, expense management, and adherence to policies in a smooth, intuitive manner from start to finish. They should remove unnecessary manual steps and eliminate frustrations throughout the process.

On-premise systems cannot make that happen. Their complexity and maintenance costs can put you at risk of falling behind. Limited visibility and process difficulties can strain your budget, while deployment can be rocky and user experiences frustrating.

Taking travel and expense management to the cloud allows you to reallocate resources without overwhelming your team with integration challenges. It also provides enhanced visibility into spending, a seamless user experience, and the confidence that you’re always using the latest tools with instant, automatic updates.

Moving to the cloud is a true transformation, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Download this brief ebook to learn how SAP Concur can be your trusted partner in confidently transitioning your travel and expense management to the cloud without added burdens.

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Adams was treated to over $123k in travel perks over five years that he did not disclose: indictment.

Party-loving, jet-setting Mayor Eric Adams lived the high life while allegedly raking in Turkish graft — getting treated to more than $123,000 worth of travel perks, prosecutors said.

Adams failed to disclose six luxurious, paid-for trips spread over five years as legally required on annual financial disclosures, according to a sprawling 57-page indictment unveiled Thursday.

The trips aren’t out of character for the self-declared “swagger” mayor who’s a fixture at New York City nightlife hotspots .

But the feds contend Adams starting in 2016 illegally accepted the lavish travel arrangements — which he allegedly did not disclose — from wealthy foreign businessmen and at least one Turkish government official looking for favors from the up-and-coming pol.

Business class flights, opulent hotel rooms, free meals at high-end restaurants and luxurious entertainment — either free or heavily discounted — were all on the menu during Adams’ travels his foreign fixers set up while flying on Turkish airlines, the indictment details.

One summer 2017 trip for Adams, a relative and a close staffer who served as his “liaison to the Asian-American communities in New York” boasted an enviable itinerary: Nice, France; Istanbul, Turkey; Columbo, Sri Lanka; and Beijing, China, according to court papers.

The business class flights for the trio were worth a jaw-dropping $35,000 and they all also received “a heavily discounted stay” at the St. Regis Istanbul hotel for two nights — where Adams stayed in the “Bentley Suite,” the filing claims.

The ritzy suite would have cost roughly $7,000 for both nights but Adams paid less than $600, the indictment claims.

The deal with Turkish Airlines was so cushy that Adams even flew them when it was inconvenient, court papers contend.

During the France trip, his longtime partner Tracey Collins was surprised to learn he was in Istanbul for a flight from New York to France in 2017, the indictment states.

“Transferring here,” he texted his partner, according to the documents. “You know the stop is always instanbul (sic).”

At another point, Adams repeatedly pushed Collins, who was planning a trip to Easter Island, to see if Turkish Airlines could be used, the court papers contend.

Adams even required his to call the airline to “confirm that they did not have routes between New York and Chile,” the documents state.

Adams, then Brooklyn’s borough president, allegedly started accepting the perks during October 2016, when he and Collins took a trip to India on Turkish Airlines.

He bought two economy class tickets for the duo that cost $2,286, but two days before takeoff they were upgraded to business class tickets — were worth roughly $15,000 — for free, the court papers allege.

The trip kicked off a years-long pattern of travel, where free perks were assumed, the feds contend.

During one ultimately canceled planned trip to Istanbul, an Adams staffer who helped arrange travel momentarily balked at a Turkish Airlines manager’s suggestion that the pol stay at the Four Seasons hotel.

“It’s too expensive,” the staffer wrote, according to the indictment.

“Why does he care? He is not going to pay,” the manager wrote back, court papers state.

The canceled trip would have been swanky — Adams and his partner would have bedded at the Four Seasons, embarked on a yacht tour, stayed three days at a posh resort and been supplied with a car and driver, according to the indictment.

Adams only paid $1,100 for each international flight and was only set to pay “a nominal price of $720” for the rest of the trip — which would have cost over $8,500, the indictment states.

A fundraiser for Adams ultimately went on the trip to Turkey instead the next day and was treated to “transportation from the airport, a free hotel, and free use of a VIP room in the Turkish Airline’s business class lounge,” the indictment states.

Other trips detailed in the indictment show that Adams didn’t miss out on fringe benefits during other trips.

Adams and his liaison went to Nepal during 2017 through Istanbul and Beijing on free business class tickets worth over $16,000 on the Turkish Airline, the feds allege in the court papers.

Adams only paid $1,100 for each international flight and was only set to pay “a nominal price of $720” for the rest of the trip — which would have cost over $8,500, the indictment says.

The mayor and his partner then took a trip to Budapest, Hungary in January 2018 on a free upgrade to business class flights worth $14,000, the indictment alleges.

His partner originally bought the economy tickets for $560 a pop but in December 2017, Adams’ staffer asked for the free upgrade at his behest, the documents allege.

Adams took a trip to Istanbul again in 2019 for the purpose of “raising campaign contributions illegally in Turkey” and was comped an upgrade to business class on that flight.

On that trip he asked for and accepted, “free hotel stays, dinners, and a boat trip” as well as a “free two-night stay in the Cosmopolitan Suite of the St. Regis,” worth $3,000, the indictment says, including photos of the posh suite.

He also received perks including a “car and driver, a boat tour to Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara, a Turkish bath at a seaside hotel, and at least one meal at a high-end restaurant,” the indictment claimed.

The final trip detailed in the indictment originally started as a planned trip to Pakistan, for which Adams purchased two roundtrip economy class tickets on Turkish Airlines $1,436, according to the indictment.

A staffer for Adams asked whether he was still intending to travel there and whether she should have his “tickets upgraded to business class.”

Four days before the trip to Pakistan, Adams asked for his destination to be changed to Ghana — which they did so at no extra cost. 

Turkish officials reassured an Adams staffer that they’d “take care of the layover in Istanbul” including providing a BMW 7 with a driver and dinner at a high-end restaurant where he met with a Turkish official, the documents state. No photos were allowed at the dinner.

During the nine-hour layover he was also treated to drinks at a separate location, before boarding his business class flight to Ghana. He passed on the offered Bosporus Strait cruise, explaining he had “done the boat tour a few times,” according to the indictment.

The Adams staffer stressed there be “no media attention, including social media” during this layover, court papers state.

Once in Ghana, the mayor pushed for media coverage in “stark contrast” of the Istanbul layover, the indictment states.

After the layover, a Turkish official texted an Adams staffer: “Is Eric happy then?”

“He is very happy,” the staffer texted back, according to the indictment.