Best Business Expense Tracker Apps 2024 (2024)

Zoho Expense has everything your burgeoning business will need to keep track of expenses—all without going over budget. Automated expense reporting lets employees submit their expenses on the go to help simplify approvals. Purchase requests help you keep track of preapproved spending while direct deposit reimbursem*nts keep your employees happy. There’s also automated credit and corporate card reconciliation so that your purchases are categorized right away.

With all of the expense data Zoho collects, it can create more than 25 reports based on your spending, travel, credit cards and more to help you stay up to date with all expenses. You can take advantage of all of this for free if you don’t mind having a 5 GB limit on receipt storage, 20 receipt auto scans per month and three users. For more functionality, you’re looking at $5 to $9 per user, per month, which is more budget-friendly than many of the other leading providers.

Who should use it:

Small businesses or freelancers who want powerful expense-tracking features for free.

Rydoo lets you approve or deny expenses right from the app or use an automated approval flow based on rules you set. What sets it apart is its ability to track mileage and tax rates for specific countries and regions. This means you can handle expenses easily, no matter where your employees are.

For example, if they’re traveling abroad, you can provide them with per diem rates based on over 20 jurisdictions. They’ll also be able to upload receipts on the go with the mobile app, which will extract all key data automatically. If they received an electronic receipt, they can forward it to Rydoo to have the expense added.

Another useful feature is insight reporting, which shows you where you are overspending and identifies cost-saving opportunities. Plans start at $12 per user, per month, which could get a bit pricey if you have a larger company.

Who should use it:

Companies that do a lot of international business will appreciate Rydoo’s multicurrency capabilities and per diem rates.

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On Emburse's Website

Like the others on this list, Emburse Certify features automatic report creation, streamlined approvals and built-in policy controls. This means your employees can spend based on preset guidelines—and you don’t have to waste so much time reviewing expenses. One unique feature is the ability to issue virtual cards for expenses, eliminating the need for employees to pay out of pocket and wait for reimbursem*nt.

Certify categorizes all of your receipt data automatically by extracting up to 15 expense fields. While the easiest way to upload is using the app, you also have 10 other ways to capture and upload receipts. It also remembers which businesses you’ve categorized, so if you go there again, it will associate that vendor automatically with the correct category.

The base plan is Certify Now! for one to 25 employees at $12 per user, per month, but there are also Professional and Enterprise plans with customized fees for more users.

Who should use it:

Companies with many virtual expenses will love the virtual credit card feature as it means they don’t have to issue physical cards to every employee.

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Read Forbes' Review

QuickBooks Online is full accounting software with great expense tracking features. It lets you sync your bank, credit card and other online accounts so expenses can be imported automatically. You can create custom rules to categorize these expenses as well as run reports to see where your money is going.

If you’d rather scan your receipts the traditional way, that’s fine too. You can snap a picture on your phone, and QuickBooks will link it to the transaction. QuickBooks also has functionality for freelancers who need to submit expenses to clients with the ability to attach receipts directly to invoices.

Since you’re getting so much with QuickBooks, the monthly fees are a bit higher. It’s $35 a month (50% for the first three months during current promotion) for the Simple Start plan, which includes one user. To get unlimited reports-only users and time tracking users, you’ll need to upgrade to the Essentials, Plus or Advanced plans for $65, $99 or $235 a month, respectively (all of which are available at 50% off for the first three months during Intuit’s current promotion).

Learn more:Read our fullQuickBooks Online review.

Who should use it:

QuickBooks Online has everything you need to manage your business’s finances, so it’s good for larger businesses that need more functionality out of their software.

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On FreshBooks’s website

As a business expense tracker, FreshBooks lets you connect your credit card and bank accounts so all expenses are updated automatically. You can also upload paper receipts through the app or email digital receipts to have them scanned and processed automatically. There are 14 default expense categories and more than 40 expense subcategories but, if that’s not enough, you can create your own as well.

For each expense, it’s easy to mark it as billable and pull it directly into an invoice for clients. Then, you can send out automated payment reminders until your reimbursem*nt comes through.

Pricing starts at $19 a month for the Lite plan, which includes five billable clients and unlimited expense tracking. The Plus plan at $33 per month increases that to 50 clients while the Premium plan at $60 per month and Select plan, which has custom pricing, offer unlimited billable clients. The Lite, Plus and Premium plans are available at 60% off for the first four months during the current promotion.

Learn more: Read our full FreshBooks review.

Who should use it:

Freelancers who primarily want to track expenses for billing clients will love FreshBooks because of its invoicing capabilities.

If you’re looking for a completely customizable solution for your business’s needs, then SAP Concur Expense is the way to go. This custom-built solution includes automated expense capture, including receipt uploads and report processing. But its real benefit is how easy it is to create a personalized travel and expense policy.

To do this, you need to answer six questions surrounding flights, mileage, rideshares, hotels, meals and exceptions. Your answers will then be populated into a personalized expense policy template that you can make part of your corporate documentation.

There are also add-on solutions that can make travel a whole lot easier as well. Concur TripLink lets you track outside bookings in your managed-travel program while ExpenseIT lets you match receipts to card charges to speed up reimbursem*nt. You can scan them through the app or email them in seven different file formats.

Who should use it:

Businesses who want to customize their business expense tracking will like SAP Concur for its personalization options.

With unlimited receipt tracking and expense management—all with a free plan—Expensify is a great business expense tracker app for most businesses. It offers one-click receipt scanning as well as credit card transaction imports. If you want, you can also sign up for the Expensify Card to get a 50% discount on your subscription and keep all of your expenses in one place.

Multilevel approval workflows help you customize your expense policy rules and flag expenses that need a manager’s approval automatically. To keep your expenses organized, you can also import general ledger (GL) codes from your accounting software of choice and then tag them accordingly.

In addition to the free business plan, there are the Collect plan at $5 per user, per month, and Control plan at $9 per user, per month, which adds on accounting syncing, tax tracking and custom reporting. Freelancers also have two free plans to choose from as well.

Who should use it:

Businesses or freelancers who’d like a free business card that integrates with the app would appreciate Expensify.

Everlance offers unlimited receipt uploads—even on its free plan—which could be a huge benefit if you deal with a lot of purchases. You also have the option of syncing your credit card to the app to track all purchases automatically. One unique feature of the app is the deduction finder, which scans all of your expenses automatically and creates a list of the ones you might be able to deduct on your taxes.

Separate apps for businesses and freelancers mean you can personalize your experience. On the business app, you can take advantage of the manager approval process workflow while the freelance app focuses primarily on mileage expense tracking. Both apps let you download IRS-compliant Excel and comma-separated values (CSV) file data exports for your taxes.

Unless you want to add on mileage tracking and fixed and variable rate programs, the free plan should be more than enough for most. Paid plans start at $10 per user, per month, for businesses and $5 per user, per month, for self-employed workers.

Who should use it:

If you’re mainly tracking expenses to deduct on your taxes, then Everlance will be a helpful tool for both businesses and freelancers.

Shoeboxed is our favorite business expense tracker app for scanning receipts. You can fill a Magic Envelope with all of your paper receipts, send it in and have Shoeboxed take care of scanning and digitizing everything. That could come in handy if you’ve been collecting receipts all year but need to organize them all come tax time.

You’re limited to 300 digital documents and 300 physical documents per month on the most expensive paid plan, which is $71 per month (or $54 per month during the current promotion), so if you’re a large business with a ton of expenses, this pick likely won’t work for you. The midtier plan at $47 per month ($36 per month during current promotion) caps out at 150 digital and 150 physical documents per month while the Start up plan at $23 per month ($18 per month during current promotion) offers just 50 digital and 25 physical documents per month.

All receipt images meet both IRS and CRS audit standards. After being uploaded, all of your receipts are searchable and able to be converted into expense reports right from the app.

Who should use it:

If your company has a backlog of paper receipts that you’d like digitized, Shoeboxed is a good choice because it can scan and analyze them all for you.

Note: As of July 2023, Emburse Abacus has since been replaced by Emburse Spend. You can find more information about that product here.

With Abacus, employees can submit their expenses from either the app or the web. They have the option to connect personal cards or corporate cards to make tracking expenses easier. After uploading a receipt, the app creates an expense automatically. Over time, the app can even learn from your behavior to suggest merchants and categories automatically.

It’s easy to fine-tune automation with program rules, budgets and daily limits and granular auto approve rules. Another cool feature is the option to forward certain types of expenses automatically to the appropriate project manager based on specific criteria. There’s even an in-app chat feature that lets you communicate about expenses with your team.

When it’s time to reimburse, you can issue reimbursem*nts right from the app with an ACH transfer, and employees should receive their funds about three business days later. Unfortunately, pricing is only revealed through a customized quote, so it’s hard to say if the app is a good value for you or not.

Who should use it:

Businesses that want easy direct deposit reimbursem*nt for their employees will appreciate the simplicity of Abacus.