“Have I paid that vendor yet?” you ask yourself as you sort through the dozens of invoices you’ve received this month. Definitely not the way you wanted to spend your Friday afternoon.
As your small business grows, manually managing accounts payable (AP) processes becomes more challenging, time-consuming and error-prone.
Enter accounts payable software. These platforms can automate processes like invoice management and payment processing while syncing to your accounting software to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
This article offers an overview of the six best accounts payable software solutions for small businesses so you can find just the right platform for your needs. We’ll also give you a list of the features you should look for when choosing a platform, plus tips for how to make your decision.*
Financial admin eating up too much of your time? We can take it off your plate
Automate your accounts payable processes with Juni and free up your day for more impactful work.
*The information about all the platforms discussed in this article was collected between 9 January 2024 and 11 January 2024. This article was written and approved by Juni and is intended as marketing material.
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Whenever you’re researching software, whether that be an accounts payable solution or inventory management platform, you need to be clear on what functionalities your business needs. So before we get into our list, here are some features you should prioritise when selecting accounts payable software:
Let’s take an in-depth look at our list of software. For each platform, we’ll list its features (as well as its limitations), explain how pricing works and point out what kind of business it’s best fit for.
Juni’s platform for ecommerce entrepreneurs comes with automated accounts payable features that can help you run simpler, tighter and more accurate financial admin. With Juni, it takes just seconds to auto-collect, pay and even finance your invoices.
By collecting and scanning your invoices automatically, then pre-filling all the important payment details, Juni saves you time and reduces the risk of human error. You can also automatically import your receipts and invoices with your dedicated Juni inbox for effortless spend management, plus match receipts to transactions.
What’s more, if you need to reduce pressure on your cash flow cycles, Juni offers financing options for certain types of payments, giving you up to 120 days to pay.*
The platform goes beyond accounts payable features, also offering business accounts and cards, features to optimise cash flow management, powerful accounting automations, fast transfers and storefront integrations.
Most suitable for: Ecommerce entrepreneurs and small businesses
Juni has two plan options:
You can try our Scale plan for free for the first 30 days.
Based in Copenhagen, Pleo is a business spending solution with built-in AP automation software. Pleo’s invoice management features make it easy to capture, process, approve, pay and bookkeep invoices in a central location. With over 50 supported currencies, Pleo users can seamlessly pay vendors across the world.
Most suitable for: Companies that need to pay invoices in several currencies
Pleo has three plan options:
Spendesk is a spend management platform with accounts payable features like invoice automation and approval workflows, giving you greater control over the invoicing lifecycle and your AP processes. By using Spendesk, you can minimise (or eliminate) manual data entry for your invoicing processes, plus get real-time insights into your spending patterns.
Most suitable for: SaaS, tech and fintech companies
Spendesk doesn’t list its pricing options, so you’ll have to reach out to sales to get a quote
Sage Intacct’s cloud-based invoicing software helps small business owners and finance teams automate invoice management with the power of AI. For example, simply upload or email an invoice, and the software will automatically extract details and populate fields for your approval. The platform can also detect duplicate invoices, helping you stay in control of your expenses and avoid costly errors.
Most suitable for: Businesses that need powerful analytics tools
Sage Intacct has three plans for its accounts payable software. All plans come with three months free:
While SAP Concur isn’t specifically designed for small businesses, it’s still a good fit for solopreneurs and SMBs looking to automate their AP processes. The platform automates invoicing processes, meaning you can pay suppliers quickly without constantly having to double-check invoices and complete transactions yourself.
Most suitable for: Businesses with immediate plans to scale
SAP Concur doesn’t list its pricing options, so you’ll have to reach out to sales to get a quote.
Visma is the parent organisation for a number of accounting and invoicing solutions across Europe. It has designated products for 15 different EU countries, such as Visma eKonomi, its designated Swedish accounting platform. Visma eKonomi has basic AP features for paying vendors, but it has a range of other accounting features that can help you streamline your financial admin as a whole.
Most suitable for: Small businesses in Sweden
Visma platform prices range depending on which country you operate in and the Visma product you select. Visma eEkonomi has three plans that come with supplier invoicing features:
You can have all the software comparison guides in the world available to you, but if you aren’t intentional about your decision, you may end up choosing software that falls short for your needs. Here are a few steps you can take to help you make the right decision when selecting an accounts payable platform for your small business.
By digitising the traditionally paper-intensive process of handling invoices and payments, AP software is not only more efficient than manual processes, but also minimises the possibility of errors, like a missed or incorrect payment. Having more visibility over invoices, due dates and your general spending patterns can help you maintain tighter control over your financial operations.
But to get the most out of a platform, you need to make sure you’re choosing the right one for your needs. For example, if you run an online storefront, you’ll want to choose a solution like Juni that has the specific needs of ecommerce entrepreneurs in mind.
By choosing a software solution that’s a good fit for you, you’ll make your business more agile, resilient and competitive. Meanwhile, you’ll get back more time in the day to focus on what you most love about running your company, whether that’s marketing your product, interacting with customers or finding ways to scale.
Financial admin eating up too much of your time? We can take it off your plate
Automate your accounts payable processes with Juni and free up your day for more impactful work.
*Juni Invoices is available for EU-based companies only. Media financing is available for companies registered in NL, SE, DE, FR, ES, IT, FI and NO, upon eligibility. Fees and terms and conditions apply. Click here for more details.
Accounts payable automation software helps businesses manage and track the money they owe to suppliers, vendors and other parties. Essentially, this type of software helps business owners and finance departments handle their payment processes by recording invoices, tracking due dates and organising information.
While you can manually manage your accounts payable process, this approach can be time-consuming and error-prone. A better way to keep track of accounts payable is by using specialised accounts payable software that tracks and pays your invoices for you.
You can automate accounts payable processes by using specialised software. These platforms handle a number of tasks, including:
"Only six more to go," you tell yourself as you upload yet another receipt to your accounting software. We all know the pain of searching for receipts across emails and platforms and trying to match them to expenses.
This becomes even more challenging the larger your business becomes and the more vendors you have to pay. You can avoid most of that frustration and wasted time with the right spend management software.
But not all spend management platforms will be a good fit for your business. For example, digital commerce companies need solutions that take into account sector-specific expenses like ad receipts and multiple platform payments, while small businesses need tools that simplify their financial admin, not complicate it.
This article takes a look at the six best spend management software solutions so you can find just the right platform for your needs. We’ll also give you a list of the features you should look for when choosing a platform, plus tips for how to make your decision.*
Spend less time on spend management
With real-time spend overviews, receipt matching automation and powerful integrations, Juni will make you forget what a hassle managing your expenses used to be.
*The information about all the platforms discussed in this article was collected between 17 January 2024 and 19 January 2024. This article was written and approved by Juni and is intended as marketing material.
Before taking a closer look at the tools on our list, here are six features your spend management software (also known as expense management software) should come with:
Bonus: Look out for spend management platforms that come with built-in accounts payable and invoice automation features, which will help you centralise your financial admin and save time.
Now, let's explore the solutions on our list in depth. For each platform, we’ll list its key features (as well as its limitations), explain how pricing works and point out what kind of business it’s best fit for.
Juni helps businesses in digital commerce manage their cash flow, track their expenses and optimise their profits with features that are specifically designed with ecommerce companies in mind.
While it’s not specifically expense management software, you can use the platform for your spend management needs. Juni's goal is to give everyone in digital commerce, from the CFO to the accounting team to marketing managers, everything they need to focus on business growth.
Juni’s expense management features are especially valuable for users who have multiple receipts coming from different media buying channels and online transactions. With Meta and Google Ads integrations, plus powerful receipt matching, expense management suddenly becomes easy. On top of that, you can also manage your unpaid invoices and accounts payable processes within Juni, bringing your financial admin under one roof.
All of this comes with easy access to media and inventory financing for up to 2 million EUR, helping you free up your cash flow and grow your business.*
*Juni Invoices is available for EU-based companies only. Media financing is available for companies registered in NL, SE, DE, FR, ES, IT, FI and NO, upon eligibility. Fees and terms and conditions apply. Click here for more details.
Most suitable for: SMBs and mid-market companies in digital commerce
Juni has two plan options:
SAP Concur helps you streamline processes to deliver efficiency savings, with a focus on eliminating manual data entry, lost receipts and unclaimed VAT refunds. As such, it’s best suited to larger organisations. The platform helps you reduce the risk of human error and compliance issues with automations, plus the software can identify potential mistakes and discrepancies in real-time.
Most suitable for: Larger and enterprise organisations
SAP Concur doesn’t list its pricing options, so you’ll have to reach out to sales to get a quote.
Zoho Expense is the business expense tracking app from the Zoho suite of business tools, which means it integrates with Zoho’s other financial management apps. It’s a reasonably priced platform suited to handling all aspects of expense management and reporting for SMBs. Zoho Expense automatically records expenses from receipts, simplifying and automating the expense reporting process.
Most suitable for: People already using other Zoho products (namely Zoho Books)
Zoho Expense has three plans for its spend management software:
Expensify is a spend management solution for keeping track of business expenses on the go. Most of the expense management functionality can be done on your phone, while a series of handy integrations help to automate and streamline processes around uploading and allocating receipts. Plus, it’s easy for employees to create and submit expense reports for quick reimbursement.
Most suitable for: Small businesses with lots of employee expenses
Expensify has two plans:
One of the many features of smart accounting software QuickBooks is its built-in expense management tool. There are obvious advantages to expenses being handled via your accounting platform, like how easy it is to claim business expenses for tax purposes. And when you connect your bank to the platform, QuickBooks automatically matches and organises your receipts to transactions.
Most suitable for: Businesses who want more comprehensive accounting tools built into their spend management software
Quickbooks has five plans:
Fortnox is a cloud-based accounting software platform based in Sweden that helps businesses manage their accounting and bookkeeping processes, as well as other financial admin like spend management. Users can take photos of receipts and instantly upload them via a mobile app, and the platform automatically fills in date, amount and VAT.
Most suitable for: Businesses that operate in Sweden
Fortnox has three plans:
The information in this guide can help you make your decision, but ultimately, you need to factor in considerations about your business and its needs when choosing a platform. Here are three things you can do to ensure you’re choosing an ideal solution.
As you’ll notice from the list above, different software solutions are more suitable for different business industries and sizes. For example, Juni is spend management software built with the needs of ecommerce companies in mind. So when researching a platform, pay close attention to what type of business (big or small, ecommerce or SaaS) it’s best suited for.
While it shouldn’t be the only factor that guides your decision, you can’t ignore pricing when choosing a solution. You need to find a healthy balance between a platform you can afford (and doesn't go over budget) that still gives you all the key features and functionalities you need to run smarter, more efficient financial admin.
You may be a small business now, but if you have plans of scaling in the future, you want to make sure your expense management solution can scale with you. Juni, for example, caters to both SMBs as well as mid-market companies, meaning we can provide the solutions you need from the time your business is founder-led to when it has 100+ employees.
While you can never remove expense management from your to-do list, you can find a platform that does most of the work for you. The best spend management software is one that not only simplifies financial operations but also contributes to strategic decision-making and the long-term financial health of your organisation.
To find a platform that does all that, you need to make sure you’re making your selection with the unique needs of your business in mind. For example, if you operate in digital commerce, you want to choose a solution like Juni that comes with ecommerce-specific capabilities, like features designed specifically for media buying and online transactions.
So take your time finding the right platform—doing so can lead to significant time savings and valuable insights into spending patterns, helping you improve the overall financial health and success of your business.
Spend less time on spend management
With real-time spend overviews, receipt matching automation and powerful integrations, Juni will make you forget what a hassle managing your expenses used to be.
Spend management software is a platform or tool that helps businesses manage and control their expenses. This type of solution usually includes features for receipt management, expense reporting and approval workflows. Plus, these platforms often integrate with accounting software, as well as sync with banks and credit cards.
There are a number of benefits to using spend management software to control your expenses, including:
The price of expense management software varies depending on the size of your business and what industry you operate in, as this will impact which platform you choose. Prices range from as low as £7 per month to almost £100, and some spend management systems also offer free plans to certain users.
Managing expenses and spend efficiently is crucial for maintaining financial health and operational excellence. However, the one-size-fits-all approach to expense management often falls short of addressing the unique needs and challenges faced by different industries and verticals.
Whether it's a tech startup, a sportswear brand or a cosmetics company, each sector has distinct expense management requirements that demand tailored solutions. Diverse industries operate under varied regulatory frameworks, face different market pressures and have unique workflows.
These differences mean an expense management solution that works perfectly for a retail business might not be suitable for digital commerce. By customising these solutions, businesses can ensure compliance, enhance efficiency and gain better financial control.
In this article, you'll learn:
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For mid-market companies, expense management refers only to employee-initiated expenses like travel or training and development fees. On the other hand, spend management covers business expenses, like buying inventory or marketing spend.
Key components of expense management include:
Expense tracking and reporting. Monitoring and reporting all expenses in real-time or through regular reporting to ensure they align with the company's budget and financial goals.
Approval workflows: Implementing a system where expenses need to be approved by managers or finance teams before they can be reimbursed or recorded. This helps ensure that spending is necessary and within policy.
Policy enforcement: Establishing and enforcing guidelines on what constitutes an allowable expense, spending limits and the required documentation. This helps in maintaining consistency and avoiding fraudulent or excessive spending.
Reimbursement processes: Ensuring employees are reimbursed promptly for out-of-pocket expenses, following the proper submission and approval of expense reports.
Integration with accounting systems: Linking expense management systems with the company's accounting software for seamless data transfer, accurate bookkeeping and financial reporting.
Each sector operates under unique conditions, regulations and market pressures, leading to distinct needs in managing spend. Customising expense management solutions to fit these specific requirements is essential for achieving optimal financial control and operational efficiency.
Here are some of the ways industries might differ in their expense management requirements:
1. Regulatory compliance: Different industries and verticals are subject to varied regulatory requirements. For example, online retailers need to comply with diverse consumer protection laws and data privacy regulations. This means they might require robust data encryption, secure payment gateways, and comprehensive privacy controls in their online platforms to protect customer information and ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
2. Expense categories and volume: The types and volume of spend can vary greatly between industries. A technology startup might deal heavily with software licensing and cloud services costs, while a consulting firm may have higher travel and client entertainment spend. Customising expense management solutions to handle specific categories efficiently can streamline processes and reduce errors.
3. Approval process and workflows: Approval workflows can differ based on organisational structure and industry norms. For example, in advertising, expenses might need approval from multiple account managers and compliance officers, while in retail, approvals might be centralised to a corporate finance team.
Let's take a look at some essential features any expense management solution should offer, regardless of business needs and company expenses:
Automated data entry and expense tracking: By integrating with corporate credit cards and banking systems, an expense management solution can automatically capture and categorise expenses as they happen.
Real-time tracking and reporting: This feature lets managers monitor spend as it happens, identify any anomalies or excessive spending quickly and make informed decisions based on current data.
Integration with existing systems: For seamless financial management, an expense management solution must integrate with existing accounting, ERP and HR systems. This ensures a smooth flow of data across different platforms, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry and reducing the risk of discrepancies.
Customisable approval workflows: This feature allows businesses to set up specific rules and approval chains that match their operational needs, ensuring that spend is reviewed and authorised by the appropriate personnel.
Security and data protection: An effective expense management solution must incorporate robust security measures such as data encryption, user authentication and compliance with data protection regulations. These features protect sensitive information from unauthorised access and breaches, ensuring that financial data remains confidential and secure.
Pro tip: Juni lets you solve the unique financial challenges finance teams face every day. Take control of business spend with virtual corporate cards, accounts payable and smart automations – all in one place.
This segment explores how tailoring expense management solutions can transform financial operations across different industry verticals. Let's dive into how each sector can achieve greater efficiency and financial clarity through specific spend customisations:
Digital commerce businesses often engage in cross-border card transactions, deal with multiple currencies and face varying transaction fees. On top of this, they might be tracking media and inventory spend while navigating manual data entry, which can complicate financial oversight and budgeting.
This means you need high visibility and spending controls. Look for spend management software with features like virtual cards, multicurrency accounts and accounting and advertising integrations that can give you valuable insights and a unified view of your finances.
For instance, every single one of Juni’s features is designed specifically for companies that operate in digital commerce. Take the financial platform’s multi-currency accounts, for example. You can create IBAN accounts in your preferred currencies (SEK, GBP, EUR, USD or NOK), which you can manage on a centralised dashboard – perfect for selling your products across the globe. This speeds up time-consuming manual processes like converting currencies, managing international payments and reconciling accounts from different countries.
The fashion sector is characterised by rapid changes in trends, seasonal shifts and a complex supply chain that requires precise and flexible financial oversight. Not to mention managing inventory and supplier payments. This can make it difficult to maintain accurate financial records and ensure timely reactions to market changes.
A robust and adaptable expense management process is crucial to effectively track and control costs, manage supplier relationships and adapt to rapid shifts in consumer demand. Here are some customisations specific to improving profitability and efficiency in fashion:
Industry insight: "Getting ahead and having an ongoing plan to monitor your cash flow and plan your liquidity throughout the year will put you in a great position to handle tricky periods.” – Björn Påhlman Spenger Founder & CEO at Fashion Tech Group
Managing spend in the cosmetics industry comes with its unique challenges. These might include accounting for high marketing expenses, stringent regulatory compliance requirements and the complexities involved in product development and international distribution.
The cosmetics market also demands constant innovation and compliance with diverse global standards. This makes detailed tracking of research and development expenses crucial for maintaining a competitive edge and regulatory adherence.
Customised tools like R&D expense tracking and compliance management systems let businesses oversee these costs, ensuring investments are made wisely and regulatory fines are avoided.
On top of R&D expense tracking tools, expense management functionality tailored for the cosmetics industry include:
Expense management in homeware often involves maintaining high standards and competitive pricing in a market driven by both quality and cost-efficiency. This might look like: managing inventory costs and seasonal fluctuations, handling logistics and shipping, maintaining quality control and managing promotional discounts.
Here are some expense management features to look for:
Advertising agencies face spend challenges such as campaign budgeting, client billing, media buying costs and creative production. There's also the need to align extensive campaign expenditures with client expectations and project outcomes. All of which makes effective budget management tools indispensable.
Platforms like Juni enable agencies to allocate, track and adjust budgets and spend in real-time. This can ensure financial transparency and enhance client trust. Plus, with smart automations, you can effortlessly pull dimensions, set up tax codes and two-way sync all your transactions.
Other customisations you can use to control costs and drive operational efficiency include:
Pro tip: Paying for ads and inventory before they’ve paid off for you? Juni Capital gives you more time to settle your invoices, freeing up your cash flow and helping you negotiate better rates with your suppliers.
The sportswear market is highly competitive and fast-evolving, requiring companies to be agile in product development and responsive to trends while maintaining strict cost controls. Spend management challenges often include:
This means tailored tools for project budget management are essential. They let firms precisely track expenses related to new designs and product launches, ensuring that projects stay within budget and align with strategic goals.
Material cost tracking systems can also help manage the expenses associated with diverse fabrics and production supplies, optimising spending and reducing waste. Moreover, labour expense management tools help monitor and control the costs of manufacturing labour.
Additionally, compliance expense tracking is necessary to ensure adherence to both domestic and international regulatory standards, which can vary widely and impact market accessibility.
With Juni's multi-currency accounts and a flexible business credit line with interest-free financing, you can better manage expenses across different regions. This is particularly valuable for sportswear companies adhering to diverse international regulations.
Tailored platforms are designed to address unique challenges and streamline processes according to the specific needs of each sector. For example, Juni services all the industries above to help you simplify the way you spend and move money.
With low FX fees, corporate cards and financial insights ranging from cash flow analytics to storefront performance—Juni provides digital commerce businesses with the resources they need to manage their finances wisely, ease cash flow and invest in growth.
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