7 Best Small Business Expense Tracking Apps

Looking for a smarter way to manage your expenses as a small business? You might want to consider using one of the many expenses tracking apps out there. Some even have free plans or trials, so you can test them out before committing to one.

In this guide, we’ll run through 7 of the best small business expense tracking apps available in the UK right now. This includes the likes of Zoho Expense, Rydoo, QuickBooks, FreshBooks and many more.

And while you’re researching smarter solutions for your company, make sure to check out Wise Business. It’s a powerful international account for managing funds in multiple currencies, while also integrating seamlessly with accounting tools like Xero, Quickbooks and more.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Small business expense tracking app

Regardless of what industry your company operates in, it’s essential to have an efficient, streamlined process for managing business expenses. Apps and software can help enormously, automating the process to save time and improve accuracy.

Below, we’ll take a look at 7 of the most popular small business expenses apps in the UK:

• Zoho Expense
• Rydoo
• QuickBooks
• FreshBooks
• Expensify
• Ramp
• Xero

Best expense tracking software for small business: overview

Before we look at each app in more detail, here’s a quick at-a-glance comparison of them all:

Provider	TrustPilot score	Monthly cost	Best known for
Zoho Expense	4.2 - Great¹	£0 to £7 per active user²	Expenses management
Rydoo	3.7 - Average³	£8 to £10 per user (custom pricing available)⁴	Expenses management
QuickBooks	4.6 - Excellent⁵	£10 to £90⁶	Accounting
FreshBooks	2.4 - Poor⁷	£7.50 to £17.50⁸	Accounting
Expensify	4.2 - Great⁹	£8 to £14 per user¹⁰	Expenses management
Ramp	4.4 - Excellent¹¹	$0 to $15 per user¹²	Expenses management
Xero	3.7 - Average¹³	£15 to £55, plus £2.50 per user for Expenses add-on¹⁴	Accounting

Comparing business expense tracker apps: criteria

To help you choose the right business expense app for your needs, we’ll focus on the criteria that really matters.

This includes - features and services, monthly subscription costs and integrations.

So, let’s dive right in.

Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is the online expense reporting app from the cloud software suite Zoho, commonly known for its accounting software.

It offers features such as:

• Auto-scan and digital storage of receipts
• Expense management for all kinds of expenses, including multi-currency purchases
• Mileage tracking
• Per diem allowances
• Personal and corporate card management
• Employee expense reports
• Travel expense management, including travel itineraries and configuration of travel policies
• Employee purchase requests
• Simple, customised and automated approvals
• Reimbursements
• Audit and compliance tools.

Zoho Expenses integrates with lots of different apps, including accounting software such as Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Xero and Sage. It also works with travel planning tools like Uber for Business and GetThere, as well as other apps like Slack, Google Drive, Office 365 and HSBC (for online reimbursement).

There are three plans to choose from with Zoho Expense - Free, Standard (£5 a month per active user) and Premium (£7 a month per active user).²

Free trials are also available, along with custom plans for businesses with over 100 users - contact Zoho for a quote.

Zoho has an ‘Great’ TrustPilot rating of 4.2, based on over 4,900 reviews.¹ Bear in mind though that many of these will be for Zoho’s other software, not just for its expenses app.

Rydoo

Rydoo is an expense specialist, an app just for managing employee spending. Its features include:

• Automated approvals
• AI-powered receipt scanner
• Credit card reconciliation
• Mileage tracking
• Per diem management
• Customisable policies
• Real-time reporting
• Improved compliance tools
• Rydoo Smart Audit - an AI-powered tool for automatically detecting and flagging out-of-policy spending.

It integrates with 35+ other business tools,¹⁵ including Oracle NetSuite, Sage, QuickBooks, Xero, Workday, Uber for Business, Lyft, Slack and Wise (ideal for reimbursing expenses in different currencies).

Rydoo has four plans available:⁴

• Essentials (online self-service) - £8 per user, per month
• Pro (online self-service) - £10 per user, per month
• Business (personalised guidance) - custom pricing
• Enterprise (personalised guidance) - custom pricing.

Rydoo has an ‘average’ rating of 3.7 on TrustPilot, although this is only from 9 reviews.³

QuickBooks

Intuit QuickBooks is known as accounting software, but one of its useful features is Business Expenses. This offers tools for automating the expense management process, through tools such as:

• Connection to authorised banks and credit cards
• Travel expenses and mileage tracking through the QuickBooks mobile app, along with on-the-go receipt capture
• Real-time figures for easy collaboration with your accountant
• Automatic organisation of expenses into tax categories.

QuickBooks integrates with a whopping 750+ business apps,¹⁶ including PayPal, Expensify, Zoho Expense and veryfi. It also integrates seamlessly with the Wise Business account.

QuickBooks has a choice of plans available, ranging from £10 to £90 a month, but all offer Business Expenses as standard.⁶

The accounting software has an ‘excellent’ rating of 4.6 on TrustPilot, based on over 14,600 reviews.⁵

Connect QuickBooks and Wise Business to manage and track employee expenses in multiple currencies.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

FreshBooks

Also known primarily as accounting software, FreshBooks offers Expenses & Receipts as one of its standard tools.

Features include:

• Connect with your bank accounts and credit cards - recent spending updated daily
• Automatic mobile receipt scanning in the app
• Automatically bill clients for expenses
• Tax-friendly categories
• Project and budget-specific expense management
• Multi-currency expenses.

The software integrates with 100+ business apps,¹⁷ including Slack, Todoist, HubSpot CRM, Square and Expensify. It also integrates seamlessly with the Wise Business account.

FreshBooks has the following plans available - Lite (£7.50 a month), Plus (£12.50 a month) and Premium (£17.50 a month), along with a Plus custom plan.⁸ It’s important to note though that not all of the app’s expense management features are available with the Lite plan.

The company gets a ‘poor’ rating of 2.5 on TrustPilot, based on over 800 reviews.⁷

Expensify

Expensify is a specialist spend management app for businesses, offering the following features:

• One-click receipt scanning
• Import credit card transactions
• Customisable workflows
• Corporate card reconciliation
• Multi-level GL coding
• Advanced tax tracking
• Audit and compliance
• Delegated access
• Custom business expense reporting
• Spend trend analysis

The app also integrates with other business software, including QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, Workday, Uber for Business, Lyft, Trainline and Kayak Business.

Expensify has two plans available - Collect (£8 per user, per month) for 1-10 employees, and Control (£14 per user, per month) for up to 1,000 employees.¹⁰

The app gets a ‘Great’ rating of 4.2 on TrustPilot, based on just over 300 reviews.⁹

Ramp

Ramp is a spend management platform, offering solutions for businesses of all sizes. Key features include:

• Custom workflows to pre-build budgets
• Fully control over spending limits and submission requirements
• Custom policies
• Receipt capture and submission on the go
• Automatic flagging of non-compliant expenses and out-of-policy spending
• Automatic reminders to staff.

The platform also has solutions available for travel, corporate cards, procurement, accounts payable and more.

It integrates with business software and tools such as Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, Outlook, Google Suite, Slack, Lyft and many more.

Ramp has two available plans - Ramp ($0 per user, per month) and Ramp Plus ($15 per user, per month). There’s also Ramp Enterprise for larger companies, which has custom pricing. All offer automated expenses management, although all tools and features may not be available with the free plan.¹²

The company has an ‘Excellent’ rating of 4.5 on TrustPilot, although this is based on just 91 reviews.¹¹

Xero

One of the big names in accounting software, Xero has expense management as one of its standard features. Here’s what Xero Expenses has to offer:

• Capture receipts and upload photos in the Xero app
• Analytics to monitor employee spending
• Track mileage
• Self-service - where employees can claim expenses in the Xero app
• Notifications when expense claims are submitted
• One-click approvals.

Xero integrates with a number of other business tools and apps, all available through the Xero App Store. This includes Airwallex, Square, Stripe, HubSpot, Expensify and Revolut Business. It also integrates seamlessly with the Wise Business account.

Pricing for Xero ranges from £15 to £55 a month, depending on plan. Some basic expenses tools are included, but the full Xero Expenses package is an add-on costing an extra £2.50 a month per active user.¹⁴

Xero has a ‘Great’ score of 4.1 on TrustPilot, based on over 6,800 reviews.¹³

Connect Xero and Wise Business to manage and track employee expenses seamlessly in multiple currencies.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

FAQs - Small business expense tracking

How to organise expenses for a small business?

All businesses will need to start with an expenses policy. This will outline the processes for submitting claims, timeframes for reimbursement, spending limits and lists of what is and isn’t a reclaimable expense.

You may also want to save time by automating processes, using one of the apps we’ve looked at above. These offer self-service tools, letting employees capture receipts and submit claims in handy mobile apps.

How to record expenses without receipts?

It’s really difficult to manage expenses properly without receipts, as these verify purchases and provide a paper trail for accounting purposes.

If a receipt is lost, it is still possible for the employee to reclaim the expense. However, they’ll need to provide some proof of purchase or a signed statement explaining the reason for the missing evidence. You may want to add a section into your company’s expense management policy to cover this kind of situation.

What business expenses should I keep track of?

There are lots of categories of business expense, such as:

• Travel expenses, including fuel and mileage
• Meal and entertainment expenses
• Office supplies and equipment
• Professional services
• Software or professional subscriptions
• Telecommunications
• Training and education
• Marketing and advertising
• Maintenance and repairs
• Miscellaneous expenses.

Wise Business expense cards: international expenses made easy

If your business operates internationally and your employees are regularly spending time abroad for work, Wise Business expense cards could be the ideal solution for managing expenses.

These contactless international debit cards work for spending and cash withdrawals in 150+ countries worldwide, with no foreign transaction fees or subscription fees.

Whenever someone spends or withdraws cash overseas, the currency is converted at the mid-market exchange rate, with just a small conversion fee to pay.

There’s also 0.5% cashback paid on all eligible spending.

Once you have a Wise Business account, you can order unlimited expense cards for just a one-off fee of £3 a card. You can add employees to your account, with controlled access - and you get full control over spending their limits.

What’s more, it’s easy to integrate Wise with your accounting tools, including Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, FreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite and many more. Plus, your accountant can easily access team spending insights.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

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Sources used:

1. TrustPilot - Zoho
2. Zoho - Pricing
3. TrustPilot - Rydoo
4. Rydoo - Pricing
5. TrustPilot - Intuit QuickBooks UK
6. QuickBooks - Pricing
7. TrustPilot - FreshBooks
8. FreshBooks - Pricing
9. TrustPilot - Expensify
10. Expensify - Pricing
11. TrustPilot - Ramp
12. Ramp - Pricing
13. TrustPilot - Xero
14. Xero - Pricing plans
15. Rydoo - Marketplace
16. QuickBooks - Integrations
17. FreshBooks - Home

Sources last checked on date: 10-Set-2024