7+ Best Spend Management Software For 2022 [100% Unbiased]

Efficient spend management software can save your business from the negative consequences of poor spend analysis and identification. If you’re looking for one, this guide can help you.

Whether you’re just starting a business, freelancing, or an established enterprise, managing your cash flow and spending is challenging.

That’s why I’ve done in-depth research and testing of the best spend management software. Today, I’ll share with you my top choices, including their key features, disadvantages, and more.

What Is The Best Spend Management Software?

If you’re in a hurry, you can check my top 3 picks: Spendesk, Ramp, and Mesh Payments.

4.9	4.7	4.2
Best overall. All-in-one spend management with systems for streamlining complex processes.	Best value for money. Offers automation features to simplify transactions. Available for free.	Most features. Offers businesses a centralized spending management platform. Available for free.
Try Spendesk	Try Ramp	Try Mesh Payments

1. Spendesk – Top Pick

All-In-One Spend Management Software With Built-In Controls For Company Cards [Custom Pricing]

Managing spending, big or small, can be complex and challenging.

This is where Spendesk’s all-in-one spend management software comes in handy. There are different types of business spending, and it happens this software covers three:

• Strategic spend
• Discretionary and operational spend
• Expenses

Its sophisticated system streamlines the end-to-end process of every spend – from getting purchase approval to applying the necessary VAT rates.

Another great advantage of this spend management software is that it operates based on users’ needs. If you’re an employee, you can request purchases and pay them using a Spendesk card or virtual card.

The Spendesk card is issued by Sutton Bank and usable wherever a Visa® Debit card is accepted.

This type of card is also available as a physical card for travel and in-store purchasing. In comparison, the virtual card is temporary and often used for a one-time purchase.

Are these cards secure to use?

Yes, they are. Spendesk cards are protected against fraud by Mastercard’s Zero Liability Protection.

On the other hand, virtual cards are designed with unique card details.

You, as an employee, can access the mobile app to quickly take a photo of your receipt and create an expense claim. Once done, its system will send it to the respective managers and finance team for validation.

However, if you’re part of the finance team, you can perform various administration tasks.

A few of these tasks are listed as follows:

• Creating employees’ profiles and expense cards
• Set a spending limit
• Build custom pre-approval process
• Create budget
• Reviewing expenses
• Applying the accurate VAT rates

And the list goes on.

Creating expense reports is also made simpler. The Spendesk system will automatically fill the information into the reports when employees create expense claims.

Getting started only takes three simple steps.

The first step is to sign up and verify your business, then load your funds into the Spendesk wallet provided. Next is to set spending rules and policies.

Lastly, invite your entire team.

Spendesk has its own unique mobile application that it frequently improves through continous updates and bugfixes. The mobile app provides a lot of convenience for users that are always on the move.

Burkhard Berger

Pros And Cons Of Spendesk

Pros	Cons
Impressive user interface with a low learning curve	Bugs may occur from time to time.
Easy to upload receipts – scanning (web app) and taking a photo (mobile app)	Only available for businesses within the European Economic Area (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, etc.) and in the United States
Supports businesses with multiple locations and subsidiaries	Direct integrations are limited to QuickBooks, Xero, and Slack Workspace (no available API access)
Provide automatic backup and encryption for the databases
Listen to customer feedback for app improvement

Spendesk Pricing Plan

Spendesk is available in a flexible pricing model. Contact a sales expert to get a personalized pricing quote.

You can also book a demo to see its functionalities in action.

2. Ramp – Best Value For Money

Five-In-One Spend Management Software [Free]

Ramp is created to save businesses time and money. It successfully delivers it by offering powerful automation and a five-in-one spend management solution.

Automation works by simplifying all transactional processes, operation tasks, and more.

Successfully doing so will help your team optimize your processes and give them more control over the spending. Also, it gives them more time to formulate strategic organizational goals.

One area you can implement automation is expense reporting.

Upon approval of spending, its system will collect and verify 90% of the receipts’ information. If you want to implement automation for reconciliation, you can create smart rules.

It includes multi-entity and custom fields to cover every piece of information in the receipt.

Let’s now focus on its five-in-one spend management solution.

Like Spendesk, Ramp allows you to issue corporate cards to your employees – virtual and physical cards. The best part of it, you can issue an unlimited number of cards for any type of expense.

The virtual cards include built-in controls for optimal security and budget compliance.

While physical cards come with customization tools to reflect your brand. You can also use it for international transactions without shouldering additional foreign fees.

Expense management is the second solution included.

It provides you with all the tools you need to set spending limits and other restrictions. Other functions it offers are listed as follows:

• Automatic receipt matching using artificial intelligence
• Create digital expense policies
• One-click reimbursement within 24 hours

Juggling multiple software is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

You don’t have to worry because Ramp includes bill payments into its solution.

You can create bills and use its OCR to detect payment details, vendors, and line items instantly. If you want to automatically add a category per line item, you can integrate your accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, and more.

You can also get complete control over your business spending by using Ramp’s multi-level approvals.

Integrating your accounting software also holds another benefit: closing your books quickly and efficiently. It’s a plus that it can help you scale as your business grows.

Last on Ramps’ solution is its real-time reporting.

As standard, reports display all insights into your business spending and savings. To keep you updated with the latest activities, it provides alerts.

Every time a new transaction has been made, it will send you alerts via email, text, and Slack.

Pros And Cons Of Ramp

Pros	Cons
Offer 100+ third-party apps for out-of-the-box integrations	No available mobile app (access on a mobile browser)
Provide solutions for startups, small businesses, enterprises, and HRs	Bugs occur on the web platform (lagging, auto-populating information is inaccurate, etc.)
Allow cardholders to submit and manage their receipts through email and text (matching is easy too)	Only accepts organizations (for-profit and non-profit) registered in the U.S.

Ramp Pricing Plan

Ramp spend management software is 100% free to use. Sign up for an account to get started.

3. Mesh Payments – Most Features

Complete Spend Management Software [Free]

Improving spend visibility is crucial in making the right business decisions. Mesh Payments can help you by providing finance teams with a centralized spend management platform.

It uses 256-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption to protect all confidential information.

All data centers are equipped with modern electronic surveillance and multi-factor access control systems. When it comes to its virtual debit cards, all are issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank.

So, ease your mind that all your information and transactions are highly secured.

Getting the right insights will never be a problem. You can upload receipts manually or sync your existing accounting system via integration.

It can also perform the following tasks:

• Categorize and record all spend
• Match receipts
• Set permissions per role
• Track all your payments

The last task provides visibility to your entire organization – from budget owners to employees.

Mesh payments also help you maintain complete control over your budget and spending. They deliver it by providing advanced controls.

Aside from setting a spending limit, you can also include vendor locks on every payment.

You can set custom fields to ensure they will include all the transaction information. You’ll also get real-time alerts when a transaction is made.

Pros And Cons Of Mesh Payments

Pros	Cons
Easy to add a new card and track spending	No available mobile app
Simple and quick to detect redundant/hidden fees	Only support banks and businesses located in the U.S.
Provide excellent 24/7 support via live chat and phone (also offer ticket support)	Virtual cards don’t work via POS transactions (online purchase only)
All personal information is secure using 256-bit SSL encryption.

Mesh Payments Pricing Plan

Mesh Payments is available free of charge. You can get started by booking a demo.

4. Airbase – Centralized Command & Control Center

All-In-One Spend Management Platform For Non-Payroll Spend [Free | Custom Pricing]

Airbase focuses its spend management solution on three areas:

• Corporate cards
• Bill payments
• Reimbursements

All are designed effectively for processing non-payroll spending.

The corporate cards you can issue are physical and virtual cards, including controls. The card control gives you the power to create and adjust the spending limit per employee.

If you prefer stricter controls, you can use its spending controls.

Spend controls include a rule-based approach to policies. A few of the policies you can create are for approval and reimbursement.

The best part of this function is to create policies per department, spend threshold, or users (CEOs, budget owners, or employees).

The most appealing benefit of corporate cards is the cashback.

You can get as high as 2.25% for pre-funded cashback or 1.75% for charge card cashback.

The bill payments provide you with a consolidated payment platform (the main control center). By default, you can process all payment types, such as:

• Cards
• Checks
• ACH
• Vendor credits

And other international payments.

You can also streamline your invoice processes, amortization, audit trail, and more.

You can sync your data from existing business systems (general ledgers, HRIS, SSO, Slack, etc.) to save quality time.

Traditional employee reimbursements take months before you can release them. Airbase makes it simpler by providing a mobile app.

Capture a photo of the receipt, and the system’s OCR technology will instantly scan and populate all information included in the receipts.

You can approve the reimbursement and deposit the funds into the employee’s bank account in a few simple clicks.

Aside from the card spend, Airbase can also consolidate purchase orders and simple invoices.

Airbase also has four distinctive features – integrated workflow for POs and virtual cards, observers, reimbursement intelligence, and the ability to comment in POs. It also now provides SAML SSO support for all identity providers.

Burkhard Berger

Pros And Cons Of Airbase

Pros	Cons
Easy to use and intuitive platform (low learning curve)	No function available for mileage reimbursement
Provide mobile app for iOS and Android (track, approve, capture receipts, reimbursement, and more)	The operation in the mobile app isn’t as seamless as with the web version.
Include multi-subsidiary and multi-currency support
Responsive customer support (quick to resolve problems)

Airbase Pricing Plan

Airbase offers free and paid plans. The free plan is ideal for startup companies with 100 employees.

If you have more employees, you can choose the following custom pricing plans:

• Growth: Small to midsized businesses with up to 500 employees
• Enterprise: Businesses with up to 3,000 employees

Get started by contacting a sales expert to request a demo or personalized pricing quote.

5. Sage Intacct – Better Risk Management

Spend Management Software With Multidimensional System [Custom Pricing]

Sage Intacct is one of the most trustworthy cloud accounting software available in the market. With over a decade in the industry, it guarantees to automate and streamline any business’s essential finance and accounting processes.

Its spend management software is part of its advanced functionalities.

It operates to improve the business cash flow, minimize risks, and ensure all spending fully complies with the company’s budget by default. The automation can help you perform any labor-intensive tasks such as:

• Compilation of spend requests
• Managing funds availability
• Tracking budgets
• Set spend limits per department and location
• Adjust the budget

The latter task is a great strategy to cater to unexpected/emergency spending needs.

Since Sage Intacct is built with a multidimensional architecture, you can configure all spending by creating custom validation rules.

The validation rules work based on the type of spend request, department, and location. You can also choose which application areas the request will be processed:

• Accounts payable
• Purchasing
• General ledger

Once a request exceeds the budget, you have the option to send alerts to the budget administrator or stop it.

Business needs change rapidly. This is why Sage Intacct added a duration control so that you can set a specific timeframe for your configured spend management.

You can set it in small intervals or by project duration.

Pros And Cons Of Sage Intacct

Pros	Cons
Easy to configure and administer	Limited customization options for dashboards
Superb automation to ensure budget compliance	Provide technical support via phone, but they take too long to respond and often push you to their community support (even for technical-related troubleshooting)
Provide a real-time dashboard to give you a complete view of the spending trend

Sage Intacct Pricing Plan

Sage Intacct Spend Management software boasts tons of flexible controls. You can explore it by watching its product demo.

Contact a sales expert and request a pricing quote that fits your business needs.

6. Tradeshift – Modern & Versatile Platform

Enterprise Spend Management Solution For Under Management & Long Tail Spend [Custom Pricing]

Spend management software is developed based on the business sizes. Tradeshift is one of the recommended options for enterprises.

Tradeshift holds all the functionalities of traditional spend management.

Of course, the company enhances all those functionalities with modern technology. As a result, it boasts a smart and flexible platform that can analyze and record all your company’s spending.

It includes powerful tools to ensure you can dig deeper into the insights and segregate poor-quality data.

Currently, Tradeshift can compare three kinds of spending:

• Managed
• Under management
• Long-tail spend

The managed and under management are the types of spending that companies often handle.

The long tail spend is another approach that manages all spending that doesn’t have any contractual agreement or negotiated work order. Poor management of this spending type can increase the risk of non-compliant suppliers in your network.

But there’s nothing to worry about because Tradeshift uses advanced machine learning to analyze every transaction automatically.

This technology also performs automation of the spend analysis process and identifies duplicates.

If duplicates are found (spend and orders), machine learning will instantly identify and consolidate them. All data gathered are organized into the business intelligence dashboard to provide a comprehensive real-time view.

This dashboard includes smart tools so that you can create reports based on your company’s needs or goals.

Pros And Cons Of Tradeshift

Pros	Cons
No app to download and install (accessible to the current versions of web browsers, both mobile and desktop)	It takes a long time to load a specific page.
Uses advanced machine learning software to perform automated analysis of your organization’s spending	No real-time human support (only offer to raise a support ticket)
Provide tons of smart tools to create easy-to-understand reports (including bespoke graphs and pie charts)
Includes real-time and comprehensive view of contract compliance

Tradeshift Pricing Plan

Learn more about Tradeshift spend management software by requesting a demo.

7. GEP SMART – Feature Comprehensive Sourcing Functionality

Spend Management Software For Building Strategic Savings Plan [Custom Pricing]

GEP SMART is another enterprise-grade spend management software designed to manage the end-to-end procurement process efficiently.

Like most spend management platforms, it provides you with robust spend analysis to improve your spending visibility. All spending information is made accessible to all users across the company.

Building a strategic savings plan is challenging.

GEP SMART makes it simpler to achieve by including historical data on its spend visibility. Together, it helps you analyze and identify savings opportunities.

If this isn’t enough, you can use its savings tracking tool.

GEP SMART is built as a unified procurement platform. Therefore, you can easily access all its available tools to guarantee success.

You can also save time using its automation feature.

A few of the processes you can automate are listed as follows:

• Category management
• Contract management
• Procure-to-pay
• Savings tracking
• Spend analysis
• Supplier management
• Strategic sourcing

Another great advantage of GEP SMART is its comprehensive sourcing tools and functionalities.

The sourcing tools are perfect for running events like auctions. Each sourcing event created will be a milestone, and link it to your savings project.

Successfully creating one will help you gather the following insights:

• Show the actual performance of all suppliers
• Measure each performance and compare them to your savings targets

As a result, you will only engage with compliant suppliers across spend categories.

GEP SMART includes an e-sourcing function so that users can collaborate with other stakeholders to evaluate suppliers, author RFPS, and more. Once the sourcing process is complete, you have the option to convert the winning bids into a contract.

Pros And Cons Of GEP SMART

Pros	Cons
Built for managing and tracking direct and indirect spending	Platform’s icons and search function need improvement for easy navigation.
Allows you to gather spend data from multiple source systems
It has a bit learning curve, but all training and onboarding support is provided.
Accommodating and helpful support team

GEP SMART Pricing Plan

Schedule a demo today and explore all the benefits of GEP SMART spend management software.

8. PayEm – Best For Vendor & Subscription Management

Global Spend & Procurement Platform [Custom Pricing]

PayEm is the recommended platform for managing vendors and employee subscriptions.

It’s engineered with an end-to-end finance operating system to ensure it provides the utmost control and transparency. It also uses modern technology to automate labor-intensive tasks and amortizations.

You can accomplish the automation of amortization once you’ve integrated your account with your ERP system.

Currently, it supports Oracle NetSuite, which you can complete in five simple steps. Another advantage of integrating your ERP system is auto-categorizes all your spending.

Other tasks you can perform are listed as follows:

• Capture invoices
• Create bills
• Schedules and send payments

PayEm allows you to settle payments in any currency and country.

PayEm operates in four simple processes, and it starts by creating a spending request.

Once the request is approved, your vendors’ and employees’ subscriptions can be settled using a unique virtual card.

Sutton Bank issues the virtual card. So, ease your mind that all transactions are secure.

You can set budgets and limits for each vendor and employee to prevent overspending or overcharging.

Once the vendor/employee closely reaches their limits, they will receive an automatic notification. PayEm provides a centralized dashboard to monitor and manage your employee’s usage per subscription.

You can also remove any subscription for your former employees.

Pros And Cons Of PayEm

Pros	Cons
Tracking changes is easy	Limited training and quick start guide for new users
Provide complete control over your vendors, subscriptions, and spending	Ideal for adding flexibility to the approval process
Sending automatic confirmation via email for every transaction

PayEm Pricing Plan

Learn more about how PayEm spend management software can help your company. Contact their sales experts and book a demo.

Conclusion

Simple, smart, and secure spending are the goals of every business owner. You can achieve it too by choosing the right spend management software.

I have to pick Spendesk as the best overall software out of my recommendations.

Scalability is its greatest strength, which is advantageous for supporting your business as it grows. It also includes all the powerful tools you need to cover every aspect of the process – from spending requests to creating reports.

It’s a plus that it supports businesses with multiple locations and subsidiaries.

Do you have a favorite? Share it with us in the comment section.