5 Best Enterprise Spend Management Solutions (UK - 2024)

If you run a business, it’s helpful to think about your approach to enterprise spend management to make sure every pound of income goes as far as possible. Using spend management solutions can be a straightforward way to spot inefficiencies, and manage control over purchasing, employee expenses, subscriptions and supplier spend - saving you money and increasing your profit in the end.

This guide walks through some top spend management platform options for UK businesses. We’ll also touch on Wise Business as a smart way to manage your business finances across multiple currencies, with accounts that support 40+ currencies, with the mid-market exchange rate and low, transparent fees.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Enterprise spend management

Enterprise spend management - in short - is the way that businesses work to manage and optimise their expenses, purchasing and supplier spend, to make sure costs stay under control. Spend management on a larger scale can be far easier if you have a spend management system including business spend management software from a specialist provider.

This guide looks at business spend management tools which could suit businesses large and small. Here are the providers we'll review in the article:

• Cledara
• Payhawk
• Soldo
• Coupa
• Workday Spend Management

Spend management software: overview

Each provider of spend management software has its own approach, which is tailored for the customer and business type they had in mind when designing their product. We’ll walk through various different spend management tools to give you a feel for some of the best expense management software in the UK. Here’s a quick overview as a starting point:

Provider	G2 score	Monthly fee	Best known for
Cledara	4.6 out of 5 score, from 177 reviews1	£75 - £500 GBP per month6	Ease of use, great customer support and card management tools
Payhawk	4.5 out of 5 score, from 399 reviews2	3 plan options - prices disclosed at demo stage7	Ease of use, intuitive interface, good integrations
Soldo	4.5 out of 5 score, from 169 reviews3	£21 - £33 GBP per month, or get a quote for a custom package8	Customer support, efficient, easy to use
Coupa	4.2 out of 5 score, from 533 reviews4	Schedule a demo to get a plan quote based on needs	Ease of use, range of features, efficiency
Workday	4.4 out of 5 score, from 33 reviews5	Schedule a demo to get a plan quote based on needs	Ease of use, simplicity, intuitive

*Details correct at time of writing - 28th November 2024

Comparing spend management systems: criteria

Before we dive into our review of some of the best expense management software available in the UK, here are the the comparison criteria we'll cover for all providers through the article:

• Features and services
• Customer reviews and ratings
• Fees and pricing
• Integrations

Cledara

Cledara is a software management platform for finance teams, which aims to help streamline the costs and administration involved in owning a tech stack. It gives complete visibility of your business tech stack, and can help you manage costs and spending on software in a collaborative way.

On G2, Cledara gets a 4.6 out of 5 score, from 177 reviews.

Some of the features and services you may get from Cledara include:

• Manage payments
• Control purchasing
• Automate day to day tasks
• Identify savings
• Analytics and reporting

Cledara monthly fees are between 75 GBP and 500 GBP per month depending on the plan you pick. Premium and Pro customers get 1% cashback, and there are also optional add-ons which cover spend optimisation, IT management and software compliance, which cost an additional 150 GBP per month each.

Cledara offers smart integrations and visibility of 6,000+ software tools, for communication, accounting, HR and more, to allow you to view and manage all subscriptions, renewals and payments easily.

Payhawk

Payhawk is a complete end to end provider for various spend management solutions including company cards, accounts payable, budget tracking and expense management.

On G2, Payhawk gets a 4.5 out of 5 score, from 399 reviews.

Some of the features and services you may get from Payhawk include:

• Physical and digital corporate cards
• Multi-currency functions across some common currencies
• Card spend policies and control options
• Accounts payable support and supplier management
• Expense management and automation
• Global options for larger businesses
• Accounting tools

Payhawk monthly fees depend on the plan you pick. There are 3 plan options, and prices disclosed at demo stage. Book a demo with the Payhawk team to learn more about the available solutions, which may suit you, and how much it’ll cost you. It helps to know that plans have a monthly fee, with optional add ons including budget management and some integrations.

Payhawk offers smart integrations with many business apps. In some cases, integrations - with services like Xero, Quickbooks, Datev, Exact Online for example - can mean paying an additional fee on top of the basic monthly rate.

Soldo

Soldo is designed to streamline the business spending cycle from payment to reconciliation. You can view all spending in one place, in real time, to spot opportunities and potential savings. You can also get employee and corporate spending cards to simplify expense management for your team.

On G2, Soldo gets a 4.5 out of 5 score, from 169 reviews.

Some of the features and services you may get from Soldo include:

• Receipt capture
• Reporting tools
• Multi-currency features
• Bulk payments
• API access
• Strong customer support

Soldo monthly fees are between 21 GBP and 33 GBP per month depending on the plan you pick, or you can get a quote for a custom package. Aside from the basic plans there are also various add on services. These include additional physical cards for 5 GBP each, and virtual cards for 1 GBP each. There’s also a 1% FX fee and a 1% ATM fee.

Soldo offers smart integrations with different services depending on the plan you select - there are basic, advanced and enterprise level options which are included in different monthly plans.

Coupa

Coupa is a US based, cloud spend management service provider offering end to end solutions to manage enterprise procurement, spotting saving potential and minimising unnecessary spending.

On G2, Coupa gets a 4.2 out of 5 score, from 533 reviews.

Some of the features and services you may get from Coupa include:

• Real time cash flow insights
• Identify savings to improve liquidity
• AI and data driven insights
• Accounts payable solutions
• Treasury and cash management tools

Coupa monthly fees are not disclosed as they can vary depending on organisation type and size. Schedule a demo to get a plan quote based on your individual needs.

Workday

Workday is a huge global provider of spend management tools which works with businesses at an enterprise level. As a very large business, Workday also offers a broader suite of services spreading into human capital management and student services.

On G2, Workday gets a 4.4 out of 5 score, from a surprisingly low 33 reviews.

Some of the features and services you may get from Workday include:

• Real time contextual insights
• AI tools to automate tasks
• Options to streamline supplier onboarding and selection
• End to end expense management 
• Procurement tools to reduce risk and cost

Workday monthly fees depend on your specific business needs. Workday can schedule a demonstration of the service options, and a member of the sales team can talk you through the pricing and feature availability based on your business type, size and stage.

FAQs - Enterprise spend management

What does enterprise spend management entail?

Enterprise spend management refers to all the efforts made by businesses to manage spending, improve supplier relationships and negotiations, reduce unintentional overspend and duplication. It looks different depending on the business in question, but can include reviewing subscriptions, improving supplier review processes, helping manage the employee expense process more efficiently and so on.

Because this can become an unwieldy process in businesses - even smaller businesses - there are many great enterprise spend management tools out there to automate processes and allow you to see all spending in one place to reduce silos and help you spot opportunities for managing a budget more efficiently.

What is the difference between spend management and expense management?

Spend management can refer to any efforts made by a business to reduce unnecessary or duplicated costs. Expense management tends to refer to a more narrow definition of reducing common expenses, like employee mileage and travel, or other employee expenses such as food and accommodation when on work business.

What is SaaS spend management?

Many businesses may also choose to use software-as-a-service (SaaS) spend management tools. These are designed to review software tools the business uses, to reduce duplication, optimise licenses and make it easier to see which software services and applications are being paid for by the business - and who is using them. Tools like these fit into the enterprise spend management category as they’re a way of reducing the overall spending of a business by eliminating and optimising costs.

What are the benefits of spend management software?

The most basic benefit of spend management software is that it can help your business or your finance team to get a solid overview of spending within the organisation. This may be overall, or within a niche such as employee expenses or SaaS spend. By being able to see at a glance what’s being spent where, you can reduce the costs and inefficiencies, saving money - and with spend management tools to speed up the process you could save time too.

Manage international finances with Wise Business

If you’re running a growing business you’ll need ways to connect more easily with customers, suppliers and contractors overseas. Check out Wise Business as a smart tool helping businesses in the UK to manage accounts payable, payroll and all other business finance needs -  in multiple currencies.

Wise Business accounts can hold and exchange 40+ currencies, with the mid-market rate and low fees. You’ll also get debit and expense card options, ways to receive payments with local and SWIFT details in select currencies, and easy tools to send payments to 160+ countries including batch payments to send to 1,000 recipients with one spreadsheet.

You can use your Wise Business account alongside spend management tools to help save on fees when paying bills and subscriptions in other currencies. This can help you make even more savings, and avoid unnecessary spending on high currency conversion fees.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

Use this guide to spend management tools for your UK business, to help you pick the one which will help you make the greatest savings, and check out Wise Business too as another good option for businesses looking to trade efficiently internationally.

Sources used in the article:

1. Cledara G2 score
2. Payhawk G2 score
3. Soldo G2 score
4. Coupa G2 score
5. Workday Spend Management G2 score
6. Cledara pricing
7. Payhawk pricing
8. Soldo pricing

Sources last checked December 11, 2024