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“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.
So, you have an awesome ad, but what comes next? To maximise your clicks and up your conversions, creative copywriting is key.
We spoke to Amy Taylor, Creative Lead at Juni, to get her top tips on how to write creative copy to take your landing pages to the next level.
Advertising started in print. There was a headline to grab your attention, body copy on what the product was and why you needed it, and a call to action (CTA) to encourage the reader to make a purchase.
Since then, not much has changed. This format has been adapted for digital media, but whether it’s a Google ad or a landing page, you’re still writing a headline, body copy and CTA to inspire customers to purchase your product.
There’s a reason why this tried and tested structure is weighted this way. A big, bold headline is where your eyes are drawn to first. It’s the perfect place to grab attention with clever and compelling copy. The body copy or sub copy may be where the most important information is situated, but it would be useless without the headline to bring in your readers. The CTA is the final push to help potential customers make that purchase.
Although this article will focus on campaign landing pages, these tips can work for any type of brand copy, especially digital ads.
If you want to write great copy, you need to read great copy. It’s cliché but true – inspiration is everywhere. Look at your competitors, check in on social media, read books and magazines, study the backs of shampoo bottles (yes, really!) – it’s important to feed the creative engine.
You’re not doing this to copy any good ideas you find but instead to take it all in and improve your skills. You could see a new approach to presenting information, different ways to add a flourish to technical copy, or get inspired and find a way out of a copy conundrum.
Before you start copywriting, make sure you have an in-depth understanding of your brand, tone of voice and your customer. In an ideal world, your brand and tone of voice will have been
created with your customer in mind, but either way, getting to know who your target audience is and their pain points will give you good ground to start on.
To write compelling copy, you need to know who you are as a brand, what you stand for, how you talk, and most importantly, which problem you want to solve for your customer. Ultimately, if you have competitors selling a similar item, it’s your brand personality that will make you stand out, so let this shine in your copy.
Two areas to focus on to write engaging copy are the problem you want to solve for your customer and your product's unique selling points (USPs) that help you do it.
Let’s use a toaster as an example. Is the most important problem-solving USP that the toaster is red or that it makes toast in 30 seconds so your customer won’t be late for work anymore?
You want to find the thing that will appeal most to the customer and tie in your USPs in a way that reflects your brand and is also attractive.
Once you know what you want to say, now’s the time to find the best way to say it. The goal of a landing page is to capture attention and give all the details a customer needs to convert.
Headlines don’t need to be overly informative. As we said earlier, they’re there to catch the eye of your customers. Instead, they can be a motive, a hook, or tapping into a problem. You have your body copy to go into more detail and weave in the important information your customer needs.
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waterdrop©, a drinkware ecommerce company, are masters of a creative, engaging headline. On their page for Microlyte hydration cubes, designed for during and post exercise, they use headlines like ‘Full of flavour. Tastes like victory.’ and ‘Ready to beat your limits?’ to grab your
attention. Meanwhile, body copy focuses on the ingredients, education on the health benefits of Microlyte and why it’s great for athletes.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what works. Functional copy that lists features or packs in keywords isn’t the best way to go if you want enticing, engaging copy. By writing purely functional copy, you’re assuming that the person reading it already knows the value your product will bring them.
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Take Lick, a home decor company, who are promoting a new paint colour for spring on their homepage:
‘Transform your space this spring. White 06 is whisper-soft and ever so comforting. A warm white with a delicate drop of pink in its undertones. Drop your shoulders with this soothing white and melt away your cares.’
Describing a paint colour is no easy feat, and it could be tempting to simply focus on colour composition. Instead, the focus is on the relaxation the colour will bring by using creative copy focused on a relaxing action in a clear, poetic brand voice.
Weave the benefits and features together to demonstrate value, then add flavour with your brand personality. This can help you catch the people who know exactly what they want, but it can also convince those who might still need to understand why your product is a great choice.
This method is handy if you’re selling items with jargon-heavy features, like electronics. You need to use technical language to ensure your customers know what they’re buying, especially if they’re looking for specific features, but you can still be playful and appealing. Think about how to make your copy human, relatable and emotive, so you can engage customers that might not be tech-savvy but still need your product.
It’s essential to include the right keywords in your landing pages to improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) and the quality score of your Google Ads. But there needs to be a balance, and you shouldn’t sacrifice creativity or good copy for the sake of including a keyword.
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Aeyla, a UK-based home goods brand, is a good example of how to balance creativity and keywords. ‘Sleep cool this summer’ brings creativity to the headline, while immediately showing how their bedding solves a problem. Meanwhile, the sub copy hits the right keywords, while getting straight to the point of Aeyla’s attractive features.
Ultimately, even if you improve your SEO ranking or quality score and people to your page, if it isn’t engaging, lacks creativity and makes for terrible reading, your efforts won’t give you the conversions you’re after.
There is good news! The days of having long, repetitive pages that sound like a list of keywords are over. Whether it’s ‘landing page experience’ influencing your ad quality score or high-quality content now being considered a Google ranking factor by the SEO community, it’s becoming clear that having a relevant page that’s well-written and helpful to customers is being prioritised.
So, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re writing good copy with your customer in mind. Weave in your keywords, but find the right balance and don’t lose focus on writing appealing copy.
If you want to learn more about using SEO techniques in your ads and campaign landing pages, check out our guide to how SEO can up your Google Ads game here.
To stay recognisable to your customers, your brand needs to be consistent across all your channels, whether it’s your website or social media. This includes your tone of voice. You don’t want a landing page, or ad, to seem completely out of character, so make sure you keep it consistent.
We find that some of the most successful brands are the ones who communicate the same way, whether it’s in an email, an ad or on the back of a milk bottle! They sound the same everywhere, providing a cohesive omnichannel experience for customers, especially if that brand has a distinctive tone of voice.
Half of the job of writing copy is editing it. Don’t expect to write beautiful copy in one go; instead, go back several times and keep tweaking it. If you have other colleagues who write copy, share it with them for feedback, but ultimately don’t be afraid to stick to your guns if you’ve written something you’re confident in.
It’s well known by now that people have short attention spans. So, the goal is to say as much as you can with as few words as possible. Keep it short but beautiful. Get nitty-gritty with your editing, consider your word choice and try to be concise without sacrificing the message or emotion.
Remember that editing isn’t about being a perfectionist. Instead, it’s about ensuring your copy is as effective as possible!
Whatever your budget, or the size of your marketing team, you can test your copy to see what works and actually converts. If you already have A/B testing set up for your website and ads, then this could be the perfect opportunity to push yourself to experiment with copy.
If you don’t have an A/B testing setup or you’re working on a budget, it could be as simple as changing the copy on your landing page each week and measuring how your conversions change.
Just because you’ve put something on a web page or ad doesn’t mean it needs to stay there forever. Measure the effectiveness of your copy with engagement, conversions, and, of course, keeping an eye on CPC too. Use this as a guide to see what’s working and rethink what isn’t.
You need to have an overview of your ad spend and CPC so that you can make informed adjustments to your ads. Juni can help with that! With Juni, you can have all the information you need at your fingertips in a single, smart dashboard and manage your ad spend more effectively.
Instead of dealing with different platforms and currencies, receipts and invoices, and arguing with banks over spend limits, you can make running ads easier with Juni. With automatic receipt generation, real-time spend insights, and Google Ads invoices auto-pulled into your account, keeping track of your payments is simple.
You can also boost your cash flow with credit, cashback and more to help you fund ad campaigns and unlock revenue growth.
Sounds good? Get Juni.
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