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The Top Spendesk Alternatives In 2024

Tom Edgington
By Tom Edgington
Tom Edgington

Tom Edgington

Tom is Digital Marketing Manager at Tipalti, with a specialism in SEM and SEO marketing. Based in London, he has a background working in fintech and accounting software.

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Updated September 15, 2024
Alternatives
Expenses
Software Comparison

3 Competitors and Alternatives To Spendesk

With a need to make more informed decisions, control spend, and simplify employee expenses, businesses are turning to spend management software like Spendesk. But if you’re considering Spendesk, don’t overlook these top Spendesk alternatives.

Payhawk

Payhawk is primarily an expense management platform that combines employee expenses with credit cards, spend management, and some accounts payable functionality.

Top Features

  • Expense management software with expense reports, expense tracking, and employee reimbursement 
  • Virtual and physical debit and credit cards (powered by Visa), earn 3% cashback
  • Set spend limits, issue team cards, control by spending category, and utilize Apple and Google Pay for card transactions
  • ERP integrations include NetSuite, Datev, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, and Exact

Serviceable Market

Payhawk is similar to competitors like Divvy, Fyle, or Soldo. Scale-up businesses of 60+ employees, with business expenses and card spend at the center of their financial management requirements. 

Strengths

  • Extensive physical and virtual card capabilities for expenses, e-commerce, and more
  • Unlimited number of cards (fair usage policy applies) with business account
  • Strong expense management functionality, integrated with card offering

Pricing

  • Card solution starts at approximately $250 per month
  • Additional charges for increased functionality, including invoice scanning, bookkeeping, and multi-entity management

Pleo

Pleo is an accounting software platform that categorizes itself as a “business spend solution” (not a CRM). Beginning life as a cards and expense management product, Pleo now includes some invoice management capabilities.

Top Features

  • Physical and virtual expense cards (powered by Mastercard), with individual spend limits and up to 1% cashback
  • Employee expense mobile app streamlines receipt capture and provides real-time spend tracking and notifications
  • Reimbursement solution to streamline out-of-pocket employee expenses
  • Scan and approve supplier invoices, with the option to pay via SEPA transfer

Serviceable Market

Unlike larger competitors such as SAP Concur, Airbase, or Expensify, Pleo is best suited for startups and small businesses looking to move away from manual expense reporting. Manual CSV integrations and limited payment methods will be restrictive for fast-scaling, complex businesses. 

Strengths

  • Intuitive SaaS mobile-app for expenses and reimbursements encourages employee adoption
  • Tiered pricing model offers low barrier for small, low-complexity businesses looking to automate

Pricing

  • Starter Package – Free (entrepreneurs and micro companies)
  • Essential Package – $50 per month – including 3 users, with up to an additional $14.50 per month per user for additional users.
  • Advanced Package – $100 per month – includes phone support, open API access, and 1% cashback on card spend. Also includes 3 users, with up to an additional $17 per month per user for additional users.

Tipalti

With a solution spanning procurement, accounts payable, global payments, and employee expenses, Tipalti offers a finance automation solution to bring all business spend under control from a single system.

Top Features

  • Intuitive employee expenses mobile app with receipt scanning
  • Extensive payout solution covers invoice payments, mass payouts, and employee reimbursements, via 12 payment methods and 120+ currencies
  • Header and line level invoice scanning, with 2 and 3-way PO matching, machine learning, and managed services
  • Flexible multi-entity structures enable custom workflows and branding for unlimited business units
  • Real-time API integrations with NetSuite, Xero, and many other accounting and ERP systems, plus REST API for custom integrations

Serviceable Market

A leader in the mid-market, Tipalti primarily serves the UK, EU, US, and is a licensed e-money provider in all 3 regions. 

Particularly well suited for fast-growing businesses seeking efficiencies as they scale, and those with global entities, or complex international payment needs.

Strengths

  • An end-to-end finance automation tool, bringing all business spend under control from a single system
  • Extensive multi-entity and global functionality
  • A licensed E-Money provider, Tipalti automates payment and reimbursement, eliminating manual bank runs
  • Manage foreign exchange volatility with FX hedging, enabling you to lock in FX rates for more predictable insight into cash flow

Pricing

  • Express subscription pricing starts at $129 per month for the platform fee 
  • Advanced features such as multiple entities, additional currencies, or international tax IDs are priced on a bespoke basis and can be added at any time
A logo showcasing the top Spendesk alternatives in 2023 with a five-star rating.

Spendesk vs Tipalti

What Does Tipalti Do?

An end-to-end finance automation solution, Tipalti addresses everything from procurement and PO management to supplier onboarding,  invoice processing, employee expenses, and global payments. 

Tipalti also offers tax and regulatory compliance, self-billing, supplier payment status communications, fraud detection, payment reconciliation, and reporting capabilities. 

Tipalti’s advanced global capabilities include multi-entity AP, multi-FX (intercompany bank transfers), and FX-hedging. 

The Tipalti platform integrates with all major ERPs and accounting systems (including NetSuite, Xero, Sage, and Quickbooks). Syncing with subsidiary GLs and ensuring payables information is up to date and accelerating financial close by more than 25%.

What Does Spendesk Do?

Spendesk is a company card and expense management solution for small to medium-sized businesses. 

Spendesk also has a fairly new offering for PO and invoice management. However, a lack of supplier onboarding and limited payment capabilities fall short of the full procure-to-pay process.

Features of Spendesk vs Tipalti

TipaltiSpendesk
*Limited functionality 
Employee Expenses
  • Employee expenses integrated with all payments for a single view on spend
  • Intuitive mobile app
  • Photograph receipts for mobile data extraction
  • Reimbursements available in 12 payment methods
  • Extensive ERP integrations enable real-time reconciliation
  • Comparable expense solution
  • Reimbursements paid via wire transfer only
  • Includes mobile app with ability to extract data from receipt photos
Invoice Management
  • OCR invoice scanning with header & line level capture
  • Machine learning applies continuously improves scan performance
  • Smart invoice approval routing
  • Unlimited number of approvers – approve via Tipalti, or email
  • Header level OCR capture only
  • No machine learning
  • Invoice approval utilizes same workflows as expenses
  • Number of approvers determined by level of plan
Supplier Management
  • Suppliers onboard themselves via an online portal, customized to your brand
  • Suppliers manage their preferred payment method and currency
  • Online access to real-time payment statuses
  • Incentivize specific payment methods with fee-splitting
  • Reduce payment errors with 26k automated validation rules
None – no supplier management capabilities
Multi-Entity Management
  • One consolidated view to manage multiple entities and units
  • Custom workflows and branding for each entity
  • Instant reconciliation across entities, geos, currencies, & payables workflows
  • Multiple “wallets” required to support multiple entities
  • No consolidated view
  • Customize workflows, policies and users per entity
  • Cannot customize branding per entity
Purchase Order Management
  • Cutom purchase request forms
  • Automated PO generation
  • 2 & 3 Way PO matching at header and line level
  • Approve POs via Slack and email
  • POs only available within top tier plans
  • 2 & 3 Way PO matching only applies to POs created in Spendesk
  • Cannot assign several POs to a single invoice
  • Slack approvals integration

Spendesk vs Tipalti: Which solution is best for your business?

When to choose Tipalti?

Tipalti’s unique solution spans the end-to-end payables process; supplier onboarding, PO, invoice, payment, expenses, and reconciliation. By automating inefficient steps throughout the entire payables and expenses workflow, Tipalti delivers an 80% reduction in manual workload.

Removing these manual processes, makes the entire payables process easily scalable without adding headcount, preventing bottlenecks as you grow

Today, some of the fastest-growing companies run on Tipalti, including Discord, Amazon Twitch, Cazoo, Hopin, and Therabody.

Tipalti’s global capabilities are where the solution particularly shines. The wide range of payment currencies and countries available make it the ideal choice for global businesses, whether paying suppliers, freelancers, contractors, creators, or reimbursing international employees. The ability to hold funds in a range of currencies and manage foreign exchange volatility offers further opportunities for cost saving and cost control, particularly for those dealing with large volumes of foreign currency.

With the supplier portal available in a wide range of languages, Tipalti is an ideal choice for those onboarding and paying overseas suppliers and payees. The ability for payees to manage their own onboarding and access real-time visibility into payment statuses via the portal, reduces inquiries to the finance team. Particularly those in a foreign language or out of time zone.

Furthermore, the extent to which branding and approval workflows can be customized for individual entities and business units, while maintaining powerful consolidated controls and reporting makes it the ideal solution for multi-entity businesses. 

Tipalti offers a wide range of pre-built connections to almost all ERP and accounting systems, including NetSuite, NetSuite OneWorld, Xero, Quickbooks, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, and more.

The integration enables you to automate many of the functions of your existing ERP, extending its suitability as your business grows. Instant, automated payment reconciliation, further eliminates cumbersome manual processes and ensures you always have an up-to-date picture of performance, while accelerating financial close by up to 25%.

In addition to the extensive range of pre-built connections, Tipalti’s open REST API enables bespoke integrations no matter what your tech stack looks like. Commonly used to integrate Tipalti with performance marketing systems, enabling digital businesses to automate performance-based payments on mass, to publishers, affiliates creators, and contractors.

When to choose Spendesk?

Adding invoice management functionality in 2022, Spendesk’s AP capabilities remain comparatively immature and don’t offer the depth and flexibility of Tipalti. However extensive expenses capabilities alongside both virtual and corporate cards make it an ideal choice if these features are at the center of your requirements.

The accounts payable functionality Spendesk does offer may suffice for low-complexity, low-growth businesses, but is likely to struggle as you scale.

While many of Tipalti’s strengths lie in its international capabilities and flexible range of payment options, Spendesk can provide a simpler spend management platform for businesses with less global needs. 

GBP and Euro payments can be made directly from your Spendesk wallet, whereas additional currency payments require a CSV or XML SEPA file export uploaded to your bank portal. This adds manual steps to the payment process and ultimately creates a bottleneck for those with large volumes of non-GBP or Euro payments.

A lack of PayPal payments may be limiting for those working within digital economies, where PayPal is commonly preferred, however, it’s unlikely to cause problems for those paying more traditional suppliers.

More From Tipalti Customers

The best practice is to have a purchase order first–the requisition needs to be approved before we receive the invoice. After we have a valid PO, we wait for the supplier to send us the invoice, and then we can match it to the PO and then make the payment. Tipalti has automated the entire process for us.

Henry Zhuang
Accounting Manager, Jumio

Before Tipalti, the process was painful—it took up to 15 days to close the books. Now, processes that used to take our team one to two weeks are being completed in one to two days.

Toni Tornell
Controller, United Language Group

Summing it Up

All of the solutions listed in this article can offer huge efficiencies and greater control for businesses currently relying on immature, or manual financial processes.

However, it’s clear that these solutions vary greatly in what they can offer and where their strengths lie. Therefore the first step towards implementing a spend management solution must be to identify the specific requirements for your business and where the current pain points lie for all stakeholders, to find the best solution for your needs. Ready to explore more expense management solutions? Get started with Tipalti today!

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