Best Expense Trackers for Small Business Owners of 2021

Need to expense a meal with a client or track the mileage you put on the company van? Simply put, expense tracking software eliminates the need for manual entry of receipts and makes it easy for managers to check in on employee spending and track company spending. 

In addition, your business is going to need expense tracking software that can integrate (or at least not conflict) with your existing accounting software so your team’s accountant can easily keep a  tax-complaint trail of your business expenses. 

Expense tracking software can vary in price depending on the size of your business, the complexity of reports, department structure, categories (e.g. travel, office supplies) and functionality. When choosing our recommendations, we focused on 10 popular pieces of software that offer free trials so you can test them out before you choose the tier that’s best for your company’s needs. 

If you’ve got a small business, your project manager or accountant may have their hands full and would rather not spend valuable time sorting through receipts, invoices and reams of paperwork. The aim of this software is to reduce the time that your team spends tracking and logging expenses for reimbursement (and making life easier for managers who have to approve them). 

With the exception of Expensify, we chose software that offers more than just the ability to create invoices and photograph or scan receipts. As your business grows, you’re going to want software that can grow in complexity to suit your needs, growing expense categories and expanding team. 

Expenses are more than just coffees and trips to conventions. If your small business is on a lean budget, tracking and approving expenses can make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars in your annual budget. This software can reduce time wasted on paperwork and most importantly, increase employee satisfaction by not having them just through hoops to get reimbursed.  

The apps we’ve chosen receive high marks for being:

• Beginner-friendly
• Available for Android, iOS and web
• Easy to navigate interface
• Helpful integrations with other business software
• Easy to customize according to your company’s needs and policies

To test the software, we downloaded the apps and tested the functionality by creating an invoice, adding expenses using a receipt and generally testing how easy the whole process is for a small business to get started. 

We watched dozens of brand tutorials to see if they did a good job of explaining advanced features and spoke with users who use these products every day to understand the pros and cons of the software. 

The five apps Select chose offer a free trial and have a version that costs $10 or under per employee, per month. They each have at least 1,000 reviews in both the App Store and on Google Play, as well as a rating of 4 stars (out of 5) or higher on both platforms.

To determine the best expense tracking software for small businesses, Select reviewed six top reviewed applications and zeroed in on their cost, ease of use and ease of access on multiple devices, as well as extra features. 

Note: Unless indicated otherwise, all the pricing is for what you’d be billed annually, which is less expensive than you would pay if billed monthly.