Top 5 Software Solutions to Manage Expenses in 2025

As a business incurs expenses (everything from entertainment to office supplies), it becomes critical to establish a systematic process for approvals. Expense management ensures that all employee spending is aligned with budgets, company policies, and compliance requirements.

One solution is to implement expense management automation strategies to enhance financial controls, mitigate risk, and create a greater level of transparency. 

Manual and paper-based processes are time-consuming and error-prone. To address these challenges, companies are turning to expense management software to streamline the expense management process, from submission to approval and expense reimbursement.

In this article, we’ll explore the top end-to-end expense management software platforms and management tools for Canadian businesses, including the best features and how to implement the right solution for your business needs.

What is Expense Management Software?

Expense management software is designed to automate and streamline the process of managing and approving expenses. It helps a company efficiently handle expense requests, monitor spending, and ensure compliance with company policies.

Expense management software offers a multitude of features, like:

Electronic Submissions

Staff can submit their employee expense reports electronically. You can attach receipts to the expense claim, enter relevant details, and categorize expenses.

Custom Approval Workflows

expense management software enables the creation of customizable approval workflows. This form of expense management automation allows business expenses to be routed to the appropriate departments or managers for review and approval. 

It also ensures that expenses are reviewed by the relevant personnel in accordance with the business hierarchy. This technology works to streamline the entire approval process.

Policy Enforcement

At times, spend management can get away from finance teams. In this case, the software enforces expense policies by validating expense claims against predefined limits and rules. 

An expense management system can check for duplicate entries, policy compliance, and suspicious expenses, greatly reducing the chances of fraudulent claims for businesses of all sizes.

Automated Notifications

An expense management platform sends automated notifications and messaging to remind business owners, managers, and employees, keeping them updated on the status of pending approvals and expense claims.

3rd Party Integrations

The best expense management software you choose should also have the ability to integrate with other popular financial and accounting systems. This allows the seamless transfer of approved expenses to reimbursement, and further financial processing.

In-Depth Reporting

The expense reporting process can be lengthy and complex without a little help. expense management software provides features for reporting and analytics to analyze supplier onboarding, business spend, identify cost-saving opportunities, and generate in-depth reports for auditing purposes.

Real-Time Visibility

Whether you run a small business or a large enterprise, visibility into expenses is critical. expense management software gives a company real-time visibility into expense status and progress. Managers can easily review pending, approved, and rejected expenses, allowing them to better monitor spend, and make more informed decisions.

Leveraging expense management platforms allows a business to streamline the expense management process, ensure policy compliance, reduce manual paperwork, and improve the overall efficiency of managing expenses. This type of fintech creates a more controlled environment for tracking and managing corporate spending.

Best expense management Software Solutions

The best expense management software solution for your business is going to depend on a variety of factors, like:

• Budget
• Integration needs
• Specific requirements
• User preferences
• And more…

This may leave you a little flustered when it comes time to find the best solution. Fear not! We have compiled a list of highly-regarded, well-known brands that are simplifying expense management for thousands of companies right now.

Tipalti

Almost 60% of Canadian financial leaders express that manual processes inhibit their work on strategic projects. An additional 40% acknowledged lost productivity due to time spent on manual tasks. Tipalti enables finance teams to live up to their full potential, unlocking new levels of efficiency and freeing up time to drive growth across your business.

Tipalti has one of the market’s most comprehensive and efficient expense management solutions. The purpose-built tracking software and receipt management system was designed for managing and automating employee-driven spend and reimbursements. Tipalti’s expense features promote real-time control and visibility with an all-in-one dashboard for tracking spending, modern UI/UX, and an intuitive mobile application.

The expense management automation platform offers key features like:

System Consolidation

Tipalti Expenses integrates seamlessly with their finance automation system, streamlining critical financial processes and reducing workloads y 80%. Manage AP, mass payments, procurement, and employee expenses—all on one platform that scales with your business. The system eliminates the complexity of having multiple standalone apps. If your team is looking in too many places, it can get costly and create operational inefficiencies that slow everyone down. Tipalti promotes the ideal environment, where everything is in one, universal spot.

Fast Reimbursement

No more spreadsheets! Manually tracking and reimbursing expenses is a time-consuming and error-prone process that can exchange many hands. It’s far from fail-proof. Human intervention leads to mistakes, delays, and frustration for everyone involved. Tipalti’s robust, multi-currency payment infrastructure helps finance teams quickly and efficiently reimburse employees, no matter where they’re located in the world.

Automatic Reconciliation

Whether it’s tracking expense reports, entering receipts, or reimbursing employees, the lack of automation makes month-end reconciliation difficult. Tipalti offers a single, universal system with expense categorization (by GL expense type) and automatic reconciliation (at the GL entity level with the ERP system).

Tipalti helps you cut through the everyday challenges of expense filing and reconciliation, with more efficient expense management software. Finance teams can accelerate monthly close by over 25% and significantly reduce workload with reconciliation that is automated.

Enhanced Compliance

Tipalti helps a business confidently reduce compliance risk with automated expense policies and built-in compliance checks. This helps ensure expenses are always submitted and reimbursed per company policies. This works to reinforce spending limits while minimizing fraud.

Corporate Card Integration

Tipalti Expenses integrates seamlessly with Mastercard, Visa, and American Express. This helps to offer employees a unified platform to manage card transactions and reimbursable expenses. The integration enables automated reconciliation for all corporate cards regardless of the issuing entity, simplifying finance workflows and reducing work for teams.

GST/HST Support

Tipalti allows you to effortlessly capture tax details for each expense. Automatically synch tax codes, rates, and amounts with your ERP, streamlining claims processing and enhancing your overall tax management efficiency.

Additional Features

• Boost adoption with mobile and web apps to file expenses easily and for seamless approvals
• Automate secure payments to employees in 196 countries, supporting 120 currencies and 6 payment methods
• The system is built to scale with you as the business grows
• SaaS business model with a solution fit for companies of any size
• In-depth spend analysis features to identify patterns and cost-savings
• T&E capabilities and integrations with custom approval workflows

Float

Float is an expense and financial management platform that is designed to help companies manage cash flow, expenses, and budgets in real-time. It provides organizations with better visibility into their financial health by integrating seamlessly with ERPs and accounting software, automating spend management, and offering corporate cards for streamlined expense tracking.

The system also offers a variety of key features like spend control, automated approvals, and budget tracking. It provides a user-friendly interface to manage financial operations efficiently. Expect top modules, like:

Spend Management

The Float suite of solutions will issue everyone their own Float Card with unlimited users and virtual cards. Prepare for anything by arming your finance team with their own corporate cards in both CAD and USD. With $0 balances and spend limits, you don’t have to worry about rogue employee spend. Add funds only when you need to and immediately pause non-compliant cards.

Companies can control their expenses by issuing virtual and physical corporate cards with customizable spending limits. The expense management platform supports real-time expense tracking, automatic reconciliation, and policy enforcement, ensuring spending stays within budget.

Expense Tracking

Float provides organizations with real-time visibility into every transaction. Users categorize expenses, upload receipts, and automate approvals for faster payments and better financial oversight. Staff will submit receipts instantly, and finance teams will monitor spending patterns to prevent overspending and improve financial planning.

The system also offers one-click approvals paired with real-time receipt collection and automated reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses. Float also has custom approval workflows, instant receipt collection reminders, and automated coding for easier reporting.

Reimbursement and Payment

This is available on the Professional plan at no additional cost. The Float system simplifies employee expense reimbursements by automating the entire approval and payment process. Float also quickly syncs with accounting software to streamline financial reconciliation and reduce administrative workload.

Budgeting and Forecasting

The Float expense management system helps businesses plan and forecast cash flow by providing insights into spend patterns and future financial commitments. Companies can set department-level budgets, track variances, and adjust spending in real-time based on financial reports and trends.

Policy Compliance and Auditing

Float enables businesses to enforce custom expense policies by setting limits on employee purchases. Automated alerts notify managers of potential violations, ensuring compliance and reducing financial risks. The system also generates detailed audit trails for transparent reporting and regulatory compliance.

Additional Features

• Integration with popular systems like QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite for seamless data synchronization
• Virtual and physical corporate cards with built-in controls
• Automated approval workflows to streamline expense management
• Customizable reporting and analytics for insights into financial performance
• Mobile-friendly interface for easy expense submission and tracking on the go

SAP Concur

SAP Concur is a comprehensive expense management platform that integrates expenses, business travel, and invoice management in a single platform. The system guides staff through the process of submitting charges, populates them into expense reports, automates approvals, and facilitates ERP integrations. 

Concur expense management offers a variety of features like approval workflows, expense submission, and policy enforcement. It also provides a mobile app for employees to capture receipts and submit expenses on the go. Expect some top modules, such as:

Expense Reporting

SAP Concur enables employees to easily capture and submit expenses through the web interface or mobile app. It supports features like receipt scanning, expense categorization, and automated policy enforcement. You can also check the status of expense reports in real-time, making data-driven decision-making easier.

Travel Booking

The Concur expenses platform integrates seamlessly with travel management systems and online booking platforms, allowing you to easily track travel expenses from anywhere in the world. Users can search for hotels, flights, and rental cars, compare prices, and even make reservations, directly in the SAP Concur software.

Reimbursement and Payment

SAP Concur streamlines the reimbursement process by automating the calculation, management, and payment of employee expenses. The expense management automation system supports multiple payment methods, including direct deposit and corporate card reconciliation. It helps a business simplify the expense management process, gain better control over spending, and reduce administrative burdens.

Policy Compliance and Auditing

SAP Concur enables companies to define and enforce expense policies as they see fit. This helps ensure compliance with company policies and regulatory requirements. The system performs automated policy checks during expense submission and provides real-time alerts for any potential violations. It also offers robust expense tracking and reporting to ensure an accurate and accessible accounts payable audit trail.

Additional Features

• Receipt and invoice management with mobile capabilities and automated approval workflows
• Integrations with popular accounting and ERP systems for seamless data synchronization
• Eliminates manual data entry and provides customizable reporting and analytics features
• Tools to generate insights into spending patterns, identify cost savings, and track performance metrics
• Extensive ecosystem of travel providers, financial institutions, and software solutions

Expensify

Expensify is a popular expense management software platform that helps a business track, manage, and report expenses. It offers a multitude of features that help to streamline the expense reporting process and improve overall financial management.

Known for its user-friendly interface, Expensify helps to simplify expense tracking, receipt scanning, the reimbursement process, advanced reporting, integrations, and policy enforcement.

Smart Categorization

Expensify uses advanced algorithms to automatically categorize expenses. The system will recognize common expense types, saving teams time and effort in manual categorization.

Multi-Currency Support

Expensify offers multi-currency support, which is especially beneficial for companies operating globally. It makes it easier to manage expenses incurred in different countries.

Integrations

Expensify integrates with a variety of popular accounting and finance platforms, including Xero, NetSuite, QuickBooks, and more. This allows for a seamless transfer of data and eliminates the need for manual data entry.

Receipt Scanning

The Expensify solution allows users to scan paper receipts using the camera on their mobile device. The app uses OCR (optical character recognition) to extract the relevant information like merchant name, date, and amount.

Additional Features

• Mobile apps are available on both iOS and Android devices, allowing users to manage expenses from anywhere
• Mileage tracking, which is useful for employees who need to log business-related travel
• Expense report software with real-time reporting features to consolidate expenses and receipts into a structured format
• Corporate card reconciliation that automatically matches expenses to corresponding credit card transactions
• A complete audit trail that provides transparency and security to the expense management process

Quadient

Quadient (formerly Beanworks) is an AP automation and expense management platform that is designed to streamline invoice processing, approval workflows, and payment management. Tailored for mid-sized Canadian companies, Quadient enhances financial operations by reducing manual data entry, improving business expenses accuracy, and accelerating payment cycles.

The expense management system offers a variety of key features like automated invoice capture, expense management routing, and real-time reporting. It also integrates with leading ERP and accounting systems for seamless data management. Expect some top features, such as:

Invoice Processing

Quadient automates invoice capture and data extraction using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. The system digitizes invoices, categorizes expenses, and eliminates the need for human intervention or manual data entry. Finance teams can review, validate, and approve expenses and invoices through a universal dashboard, reducing processing times, and improving accuracy.

Approval Workflows

The Quadient (formerly Beanworks) platform quickly streamlines approval processes by automatically routing invoices to the right approvers based on predefined rules. Approvals can be easily managed via desktop or mobile, ensuring timely processing even for remote teams. Customizable workflow settings also help companies enforce internal financial controls and prevent unauthorized payments.

Payments and Reconciliation

The expense management platform simplifies the payment process by integrating with various payment providers and banking systems. Organizations schedule and process payments directly from the system while maintaining visibility into cash flow. The platform also automates invoice-to-payment reconciliation, reducing errors and ensuring accurate financial reporting.

Policy Compliance and Auditing

Quadient helps companies enforce compliance by automating policy checks and flagging discrepancies immediately. The system ensures adherence to internal financial controls and regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of fraud or policy violations. It also generates detailed audit trails, providing full visibility into business expenses, invoice history, approvals, and payments for effortless compliance management.

Integrations and Automation

The expense management tool integrates seamlessly with popular ERP and accounting systems like QuickBooks, NetSuite, and Sage. Automated data synchs eliminate duplicate entries and enhance reporting accuracy. The system also supports AI-driven automation for easy invoice classification, fraud detection, and predictive analytics.

Additional Features

• Customizable approval workflows to match company policies and internal processes
• AI-powered receipt capture and data extraction for increased efficiency
• Secure cloud-based storage for expense management and audit readiness
• Real-time spend analytics and reporting for smarter decision-making
• Mobile access for remote invoice approvals and expense tracking

Additional Expense Management Software Programs

• Certify: Offers a broad range of expense management features, including approval workflows, expense submission, policy compliance checks, real-time reporting, mileage tracking, and mobile capabilities.
• Zoho Expense: Zoho Expense helps to leverage cloud spend management with cloud-based features like expense submission, approval workflows, receipt scanning, policy enforcement, and a variety of integrations.
• Nexonia: A scalable expense management solution with features like approval workflows, expense submissions, policy compliance checks, reporting, and customizable configurations.

How Can Expenses Be Routed for Approval? 

Expenses can be routed for approval using a variety of methods. It just depends on the type of expense management automation software you choose and your specific workflow requirements. Some of the more common ways expenses are routed include:

Parallel Approval

In a parallel approval workflow, expenses are sent to multiple approvers simultaneously. Each approver can review and approve or reject each expense independently. 

This method is typically used when multiple individuals or departments need to review and approve an expense simultaneously. This can happen when an expense crosses cost centers or involves different stakeholders.

Sequential Approval

In this strategy, expenses are routed to approvers in a predetermined order. For example, an employee submits an expense, which is then routed to an immediate supervisor. 

Once that approval happens, the expense is sent to the next approver in the hierarchy (like a department head), and so forth.

Threshold-Based Approval

In this case, expenses are automatically routed for approval based on predefined thresholds. For example, if an expense exceeds a certain amount, it may require a higher-level manager or specific approver with the authority for large expenses. Smaller expenses below a certain amount may be automatically approved, without the need for manual intervention.

Role-Based Approval

In this method, expenses are routed based on predefined roles within the company. For instance, expenses related to travel may be automatically routed to the travel coordinator. Expenses related to a certain project may be sent to the project manager. 

This strategy automatically ensures the right person, with the right expertise or responsibility, is approving the expense.

Ad-Hoc Approval

Some expense management software solutions allow for ad-hoc approval. This means the person submitting the expense can manually select the approvers for a specific expense. This is mostly useful for exceptional or one-off situations that require approvals outside of the normal workflow.

No matter what type of expense management software you choose, it’s important to configure the program to your company’s policies, requirements, and approval hierarchy to ensure expenses are routed to the appropriate parties accurately and efficiently.

How to Choose the Best Solution for Your Business

Choosing the best expense management software requires some careful consideration. Here are a few key steps to consider when making an informed decision:

#1) Assess Needs

Start by identifying the top needs of the organization. Study the specific pain points and requirements related to expense management. Consider factors like the complexity of expense policies, integration needs, mobile accessibility, reporting, and compliance requirements.

#2) Research Options

Conduct some thorough research on what’s out there. Consider the different expense management software solutions available in the market. Be sure to read reviews, product descriptions, and case studies. Look at the features, scalability, ease of use, customer support, and brand reputation.

#3) Define a Budget

Determine the amount of funds you have allocated for expense management software. Look at both upfront costs (licenses, implementation, etc) and ongoing expenses (support, maintenance, and upgrades). This helps a business narrow down the options and focus on solutions within a specific price range.

#4) Evaluate Integrations

Assess the platform’s integration capabilities with your legacy systems that are critical to the business. This can include apps like ERP systems, accounting software, or HR platforms. Seamless integration streamlines data exchange, improves efficiency, and eliminates the need for manual data entry.

#5) Request a Demo

Request a free trial or demo of the shortlisted software. This will give you a more hands-on experience with the functionality, interface, and overall user experience. Evaluate how your software choices align with the current workflows, and whether they can meet specific needs.

#6) Consider Scalability

Look at your organization’s future needs and growth plans. Ensure the expense management software can scale with your business, and accommodate increased users, higher transaction volumes, and additional features or modules (as required).

#7) Assess Compliance and Security

Evaluate the platform’s security measures, user access controls, data encryption, and compliance with industry regulations (like HIPAA or GDPR). Make sure the provider follows best practices to protect personal and sensitive business data.

#8) Look at Feedback

Seek references and customer feedback. Reach out to other companies in your network or industry that have already successfully implemented an expense management software solution.

Ask for their experiences, including challenges, wins, and overall satisfaction. Their insights will provide valuable information for your decision-making process.

#9) Consider Support and Training

Look at the quality of training resources and availability of customer support provided by the software vendor. Ensure they have the proper training materials, comprehensive documentation, and responsive support channels to assist you as needed.

#10) Make an Informed Decision

Now it’s time to decide. Compare the pros and cons of each solution, along with their strongest features. Select the options that closely align with your company’s budget, needs, and long-term goals.

The best-fitting expense management automation software depends on specific requirements, so it’s critical you take the time to carefully evaluate your choices.

Summing it Up

Expense management technology is important for companies to maintain stringent control over spending. It helps to ensure policy compliance and drive financial efficiency.

This type of software offers a modern and streamlined approach to managing expenses. It eliminates manual processes, reduces errors, and improves visibility.

Companies can achieve greater cost savings and compliance by automating expense management workflows. Careful evaluation and selection of the right expense management automation software can transform your expense process, enhance financial control, and improve your business performance.

When automating accounts payable processes, selecting software solutions that only meet basic requirements is typical. Don’t get stuck in this rut. Find out the best ways to choose the top solutions with our latest ebook, The Holy Grail of Accounts Payable.