Are manual expense reports killing your budget?
Juggling endless spreadsheets and chasing down receipts creates blind spots. This makes accurate forecasting nearly impossible for your finance team.
The real danger is unauthorized spending and compliance risks that go unnoticed. These costly mistakes can quietly drain your company’s resources.
According to The Business Research Company, many businesses face significant operational challenges in cost management due to manual workflows. This inefficiency is a major driver for automation.
The right software platform solves this by giving you complete visibility over company spending and automating your entire expense workflow.
If you’re also focused on financial control and compliance, you might find my guide on enterprise legal management software valuable.
In this guide, I’ll review the best spend management software. We will explore solutions that help you streamline approvals and gain control over your budget.
You’ll discover how to enforce spending policies automatically, track expenses in real-time, and get actionable insights for strategic budgeting decisions.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rippling → | Mid-sized global companies | |
| 2 | Spendesk → | Teams needing real-time control | |
| 3 | Mesh Payments → | Modern global enterprises | |
| 4 | Brex → | Mid-sized companies | |
| 5 | Tipalti → | Mid-sized automated finance |
1. Rippling
Are you losing control of company spend?
Rippling’s Spend product gives you granular control over corporate cards, expenses, and bill pay.
This means you can enforce expense policies and generate and approve bills with automated oversight. This helps curb unauthorized spending.
Here’s how you gain control.
Rippling Spend enables you to manage all company spending in one centralized location, including corporate cards and expenses. This streamlines operations for finance directors.
You can also leverage Rippling’s Bill Pay feature to effortlessly generate and approve bills, while its Global Spend capabilities help your company save everywhere you operate. This comprehensive approach reduces manual reconciliation and ensures policy adherence globally. Plus, the platform’s Workflow Studio triggers advanced workflows using any data, and its Analytics provide reporting across all your apps, offering complete transparency.
The result is better financial oversight.
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Key features:
- Expense Management: Enforce your company’s expense policies automatically, ensuring compliance and reducing unauthorized spending across your organization.
- Corporate Cards: Gain precise control over employee spending by managing corporate cards directly within the platform, limiting financial surprises.
- Bill Pay: Simplify your accounts payable by generating and approving bills efficiently, improving cash flow management and operational productivity.
Learn more about Rippling features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Rippling is an ideal best spend management software for mid-sized companies seeking to centralize spend control, automate expense policies, and manage global operations seamlessly. Its combined capabilities for corporate cards, expense management, and bill pay address critical pain points, leading to improved financial oversight and significant time savings.
2. Spendesk
Is your spend management causing headaches? This means you’re likely losing valuable time and money through inefficient processes.
Spendesk offers a complete procurement and spend management platform, including smart corporate cards and automated invoice handling.
You gain 100% control and visibility on operational spend, allowing you to save time and money on every transaction.
Here’s how to fix it.
Spendesk helps you achieve real-time control over spending by connecting all moving parts of your business. This solution provides secure payment methods, smart automations, and makes accounting a breeze.
You can set rules and policies that are smoothly adopted, automating every step of your spend process. This means you can uncover errors and see where you are overspending in real time.
Additionally, you can manage and reimburse expenses without chasing receipts, generate unique virtual cards for secure online payments, and link all your existing accounting tools via API integrations. Businesses using Spendesk have saved up to 90% on invoice processing costs.
The result: less time spent on expenses.
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Key features:
- Complete Procurement and Spend Management: Gain full control and visibility over operational spending, streamlining processes and saving time on every transaction for your team.
- Smart Corporate and Virtual Cards: Set limits, create approval flows, and generate secure, unique virtual cards for one-off or recurring online payments, enhancing financial security.
- Automated Invoice and Expense Management: Automate invoice handling from entry to payment and manage expense claims efficiently, eliminating the need to chase for receipts.
Learn more about Spendesk features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Spendesk is ideal as the best spend management software for teams seeking real-time control, automated processes, and significant cost savings. With features like smart corporate cards and automated invoice processing, it helps organizations like yours save up to 90% on invoice costs and close month-end 4 days faster.
3. Mesh Payments
Struggling with fragmented spend data and compliance headaches?
Mesh Payments offers a 360-degree view of your enterprise’s travel and expense, consolidating everything. This means automated expense management, global corporate cards, and adaptable T&E that connects to your existing financial software, making reconciliation effortless and accurate. The result is complete control over your payments.
Mesh Payments solves your spend management woes by centralizing expenses globally. You get advanced spend controls, real-time approvals, and accounting automation. It provides smart corporate cards with embedded compliance and AI-powered receipt collection. Additionally, you can manage travel bookings with flexibility, integrating your preferred TMCs for complete control. Plus, AI-driven automation simplifies everything from receipt collection to accurate coding for tax and compliance, ensuring your team achieves its financial goals.
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Key features:
- Real-time expense control: Centralize and monitor global expenses, approvals, and accounting automations, providing complete visibility into your spending across all entities.
- Global corporate cards: Utilize smart virtual and physical cards with embedded compliance, AI-powered receipt collection, and local currency support for worldwide operations.
- Integrated travel management: Gain flexibility for online, offline, or direct bookings, connecting your preferred TMCs while enforcing policies and automating expense management.
Learn more about Mesh Payments features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Mesh Payments provides an all-in-one platform for global T&E, streamlining expenses with smart corporate cards and AI-powered automation. It supports multi-entity operations, multi-currency transactions, and integrates with any ERP, making it an ideal best spend management software for modern global companies.
4. Brex
Are you struggling with fragmented spend management?
Brex offers modern cards, banking, expenses, and accounting, all unified in one platform. This means you can gain control and speed with global capabilities spanning 120+ countries.
The result is a streamlined financial operation that eliminates manual work, simplifying global travel with in-app booking and management. It truly makes expense management a breeze for your team.
Spend smarter and move faster.
Brex helps you achieve this by providing powerful corporate cards with built-in controls. This means you can proactively set budgets and allocate spend limits with auto-enforced controls, keeping everyone on track.
Additionally, Brex uses AI to automate approvals and expense reports, freeing up time for strategic tasks. You can also save time with AI-powered invoice entry and payment automation, ensuring vendors are paid faster and easier. Plus, Brex accelerates accounting with AI-generated suggestions and 1,000s of two-way ERP integrations.
This leads to enhanced control and superior policy compliance.
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Key features:
- AI-powered automation: Automates approvals, expense reports, and invoice entry, saving your company significant time on manual financial tasks annually.
- Integrated financial stack: Combines corporate cards, banking, expense management, and accounting, streamlining all your financial operations in one place.
- Global spend control: Enables worldwide spending with powerful cards, real-time tracking, and automated compliance across 120+ countries.
Learn more about Brex features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Brex simplifies complex financial operations with AI-powered automation and integrated tools, helping your team save an average of 4,250 hours annually. Its superior policy compliance, reaching 99%, makes it the best spend management software for mid-sized companies seeking efficiency and control.
5. Tipalti
Struggling with fragmented spend management tools?
Tipalti offers a connected finance automation suite designed to bring all your spend under one roof. This means you can manage accounts payable, global payments, procurement, and employee expenses efficiently.
This comprehensive approach allows you to gain complete visibility and control over your corporate spend, helping you to avoid costly mistakes and manual reconciliation inefficiencies. The result? You drive growth.
Here’s how Tipalti achieves this.
It provides end-to-end Accounts Payable automation, eliminating manual work and time-consuming reconciliation. You can send global payouts to over 200 countries in 120 currencies, enhancing payee satisfaction and simplifying cross-border operations. Additionally, automated tax compliance helps you instantly capture accurate supplier tax information, reducing non-compliance fears and ensuring adherence to multi-jurisdictional tax rules. Plus, AI-driven capabilities and proactive fraud prevention identify unusual patterns, securing your payments.
Simplify your entire financial workflow.
Key features:
- Accounts Payable Automation: Streamline invoice management with AI, automate payment reconciliation, and implement 2 and 3-way PO matching to ensure accuracy and prevent fraud.
- Global Mass Payments: Send fast, secure, and cost-effective payments worldwide, manage multiple currencies and entities, and leverage proactive fraud prevention.
- Integrated Spend Control: Gain complete visibility and control over corporate spending with real-time analytics, automated approval workflows, and pre-built ERP integrations.
Learn more about Tipalti features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Tipalti stands out as the best spend management software for mid-sized companies seeking comprehensive financial automation. Its unified platform addresses core pain points like manual processes, compliance concerns, and global payment complexities, offering a clear path to enhanced transparency and strategic budgeting, including reducing AP time by 80% for ServiceRocket.
6. Airbase
Struggling with fragmented spend management? You’re not alone.
Airbase unifies procurement, AP automation, expense management, and corporate cards into one robust platform. This simplifies financial operations, giving you comprehensive control.
Imagine gaining unmatched visibility, control, and compliance through a platform designed for both finance and employees. It transforms spend management from a burden into a streamlined process.
Here’s how Airbase delivers.
Airbase consolidates key financial processes, eliminating manual work and reconciliation headaches. This means your finance team can operate more strategically.
For example, its AP automation handles everything from bill pay to complex purchase orders, amortizations, and multi-subsidiary support. You can also sync all vendor and payment details to your ERP, like NetSuite or QuickBooks.
Additionally, corporate cards secure pre-approvals and flow purchase details directly to your ERP, whether you use Airbase’s own versatile cards or integrate your existing American Express or SVB card program. Plus, AI-powered receipt management and advanced approvals automate workflows for compliance and efficiency.
The result is truly consolidated spend.
While we’re discussing streamlining operations and reducing manual tasks, you might also find my guide on best workshop management software useful for other areas of your business.
Key features:
- Guided Procurement and AP Automation: Automates purchasing with stakeholder routing and simplifies bill payments, purchase orders, and multi-subsidiary support.
- Comprehensive Expense and Corporate Card Management: Offers user-friendly expense reporting, global reimbursements, and a versatile card program for secure pre-approvals.
- Robust Integrations and Analytics: Connects with over 70 ERPs including NetSuite and Sage Intacct, providing advanced approvals, security, and spend analytics for better decision-making.
Learn more about Airbase features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Airbase brings procurement, AP automation, expense management, and corporate cards together, offering unparalleled visibility and control. Its broad ERP integrations and AI-powered features make it an ideal choice for finance directors and procurement managers seeking the best spend management software to streamline operations and ensure compliance.
7. Ramp
Is your company wasting time and money on spend management?
Ramp consolidates corporate cards, bill payments, and accounting, replacing disparate tools with an all-in-one platform. This means your finance team can streamline workflows and significantly reduce manual effort.
You can set policies that enforce themselves, ensuring compliance and stopping out-of-policy spending before it happens. This centralized approach helps you avoid costly mistakes and gain better control.
So, how can you save both time and money?
Ramp simplifies workflows and automates busywork, from expense reports to accounts payable. Your team can process bills in seconds and accelerate the monthly close.
Ramp’s AI intelligence keeps an eye out 24/7 to catch out-of-policy transactions and uncover overspending. Additionally, you can connect your ERP in minutes and integrate with over 200 apps.
Plus, Ramp is completely flexible, scaling with your business, whether you’re a startup or a global enterprise. You can also send payments to 195 countries in over 40 currencies, offering truly global operational capabilities.
Gain control, save time, and optimize spending.
If you’re also looking into broader cost management strategies, my article on best cloud cost management software covers how to optimize your cloud spending.
Key features:
- Automated Expense Management: Eliminates manual expense reports and ensures compliance by setting policies that enforce spending controls and catching out-of-policy transactions.
- Integrated Corporate Cards & AP: Consolidates corporate cards and accounts payable into one platform, allowing you to process bills quickly and control spend before it occurs.
- AI-Powered Accounting Automation: Leverages AI for 24/7 monitoring, detecting errors, identifying overspending, and automating accounting tasks to accelerate your monthly close.
Learn more about Ramp features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Ramp’s integrated platform and AI-driven automation make it an ideal choice for the best spend management software. It helps you save millions of hours by simplifying workflows and enforcing policies automatically, ensuring compliance and optimizing your financial operations, just like how one customer saved 400 hours monthly.
Conclusion
Manual expense tracking is frustrating.
Choosing the right tool is overwhelming. So many options promise a fix but lack key integrations, creating workflow disruptions instead of solving them.
The real danger is in what you can’t see. Unauthorized spending and compliance risks quietly drain your budget without a centralized system to catch them, eroding both trust and profitability.
Here’s my top recommendation.
From my review, Rippling is the best all-in-one solution. It unifies corporate cards, expenses, and bill pay, giving you complete, centralized control.
Its automated oversight and global spend capabilities are perfect for a growing company. I believe it’s the best spend management software because it prevents costly mistakes and saves significant time.
For other crucial areas of expenditure, my article on maximizing ad spend efficiency offers valuable insights.
I suggest you learn more about Rippling to see how it gives you total financial oversight for your business.
You’ll gain complete financial control.
