Top 10 Tools for Streamlining Expense Reports and Reimbursements

The process of creating, submitting, approving, and reimbursing expense reports is a notorious pain point for almost every business. It is a time-consuming, administrative burden that drains productivity from employees, frustrates managers, and creates a mountain of manual work for finance teams. The traditional process, built on paper receipts, spreadsheets, and manual data entry, is not just inefficient; it is a major obstacle to getting a timely and accurate picture of your company's spending.

Fortunately, a new generation of software tools has emerged to completely transform this outdated process. By leveraging mobile technology, OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and intelligent automation, these platforms can streamline the entire workflow, from receipt capture to final reimbursement. This guide reviews the top 10 tools on the market today that are designed to make expense reports and reimbursements fast, simple, and painless.

Key Features to Look for in an Expense Management Tool

Before we list the top tools, it is important to know what features make a modern expense management solution effective:

Mobile App with OCR: A best-in-class mobile app that allows users to snap a photo of a receipt, with OCR technology that automatically extracts the vendor, date, and amount.
Corporate Card Integration: The ability to automatically import and reconcile transactions from your company's corporate card feeds.
Automated Policy Enforcement: The functionality to build your expense policy rules into the system to automatically flag out-of-policy submissions.
Automated Approval Workflows: A system for automatically routing submitted reports to the correct manager for approval.
Accounting/ERP Integration: Seamless, pre-built integrations with major accounting systems like QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite to eliminate manual data entry.
Integrated Travel Booking: The most advanced solutions are part of an all-in-one platform that also includes travel booking, allowing for the automatic creation of expenses for flights and hotels.

The Top 10 Tools for Streamlining Expenses

Our list includes a mix of all-in-one platforms and standalone expense management specialists.

All-in-One Travel & Expense Platforms

These tools offer the most seamless experience by unifying the entire trip lifecycle.

1. Routespring

Best for: Businesses of all sizes seeking a truly unified and automated travel and expense experience.
Why it's a leader: Routespring's key advantage is its deep integration. When a flight or hotel is booked on the platform, the expense is created and categorized automatically. For on-trip expenses, its mobile app offers best-in-class OCR receipt scanning. The platform's centralized payment options can eliminate the need for most expense reports altogether. It combines a simple, user-friendly interface with powerful, enterprise-grade control and reporting.
Key Feature: The seamless workflow from booking to expense creation to final accounting reconciliation makes it a top choice for maximizing efficiency.

2. Navan (formerly TripActions)

Best for: Companies that are all-in on a corporate card-centric model.
Why it's on the list: Navan's expense management capabilities are tightly integrated with its own corporate card product. This provides a very streamlined experience for transactions made on their card.
Considerations: The system is less flexible for companies that want to use other payment methods or have a significant number of out-of-pocket expenses to reimburse.

3. SAP Concur

Best for: Large, global enterprises already using SAP's suite of products.
Why it's on the list: Concur is the long-standing incumbent in the enterprise space. Its expense module is incredibly powerful and highly customizable, with the ability to handle complex global tax rules and depreciation schedules.
Considerations: The user interface is widely considered to be dated and difficult to use, often requiring significant employee training. The implementation is a long and expensive process, making it unsuitable for smaller businesses.

Standalone Expense Management Tools

These tools focus specifically on excelling at expense reporting and integrate with other third-party systems.

4. Expensify

Best for: Small businesses and individuals looking for a very user-friendly receipt and expense tracking app.
Why it's on the list: Expensify is famous for its "SmartScan" OCR technology, which is one of the fastest and most accurate in the industry. Its mobile app is excellent and makes it incredibly easy for users to capture receipts on the go.
Considerations: Its core strength is in individual expense submission. It can be less robust for complex approval workflows and policy enforcement compared to enterprise-focused tools.

5. Ramp

Best for: Startups and modern businesses looking for a corporate card that comes with integrated spend management software.
Why it's on the list: Ramp is a finance automation platform that leads with its corporate card. Its software makes it very easy to issue virtual and physical cards, set spending limits, and automatically collect receipts for card transactions.
Considerations: Its primary value is tied to the use of the Ramp card. If you are looking for a tool to manage out-of-pocket reimbursements, it may not be the primary focus.

6. Brex

Best for: Venture-backed startups and tech companies.
Why it's on the list: Similar to Ramp, Brex provides a corporate card and cash management solution with tightly integrated expense software. It is known for its clean user interface and features tailored to the needs of fast-growing tech companies.
Considerations: The platform is heavily geared toward the startup ecosystem and may not be the best fit for more traditional small businesses.

7. Zoho Expense

Best for: Small and medium-sized businesses, particularly those already using the Zoho ecosystem of business apps.
Why it's on the list: Zoho Expense offers a surprisingly robust and feature-rich solution at a very competitive price point. It has strong policy controls, good multi-currency support for international travel, and deep integration with Zoho Books and other Zoho products.
Considerations: While a powerful tool, it lacks the native travel booking integration of an all-in-one platform like Routespring, meaning the workflow is not as completely automated.

8. Divvy (now Bill.com)

Best for: Small businesses that want to provide budget-specific virtual cards to their employees.
Why it's on the list: Divvy's unique approach is to allow managers to create budgets and instantly issue virtual cards tied to those budgets. It provides excellent real-time control over spending.
Considerations: It is another card-first platform. Its primary function is to manage spending on Divvy-issued cards.

9. Rydoo

Best for: Mid-sized European companies.
Why it's on the list: Rydoo is a popular expense management tool in Europe with a strong mobile app and good features for handling international expenses, including VAT.
Considerations: Its presence and support are stronger in Europe than in North America.

10. Fyle

Best for: Small teams looking for the absolute simplest way to submit receipts.
Why it's on the list: Fyle offers a unique feature where users can simply forward any emailed receipt (like one from Uber or an online purchase) to a specific Fyle email address, and the system will automatically create the expense. It is a very low-friction approach.
Considerations: It is a simpler tool that may lack the advanced policy control and approval workflow capabilities of more robust platforms.

Conclusion

The right tool for streamlining expense reports and reimbursements can have a massive impact on your business's efficiency and your employees' morale. While standalone expense apps provide significant improvements over manual processes, the most profound benefits come from a fully integrated, all-in-one travel and expense platform. By unifying the entire T&E workflow, you can achieve a level of automation and control that saves time, reduces costs, and provides a superior experience for everyone involved.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is the most important feature to look for in an expense tool? A great mobile app with fast and accurate OCR receipt scanning is arguably the most critical feature. The entire value proposition of these tools is to make expense submission easy for the employee, and that happens on their phone.

2. How do these tools connect with accounting software like QuickBooks? Most modern expense tools offer pre-built, direct API integrations with major accounting platforms. During setup, you will connect your accounts, which allows the expense tool to automatically sync approved expense data directly into your general ledger, eliminating the need for manual data entry.

3. What is the difference between an integrated platform and a standalone expense tool? A standalone expense tool is excellent for managing expenses that have already happened. An integrated platform connects this to a travel booking tool. This allows it to be more proactive. It can enforce policy before a trip is booked and can automatically create expense items for pre-booked travel, which is a huge efficiency gain.

4. Can these tools handle cash expenses? Yes. Even if an employee pays for something with cash, they can still take a photo of the receipt and submit it through the mobile app. The process is the same; the only difference is that the final reimbursement will need to be paid out to the employee.

5. How much do these tools typically cost? Pricing varies widely. Many standalone expense management tools for small businesses are priced on a per-user, per-month basis, often ranging from $5 to $15 per user. All-in-one platforms may have a different pricing structure, sometimes based on a percentage of travel spend or a flat subscription fee. Many platforms offer free entry-level plans.