“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.
Depending on the size and complexity of your modern business, you may spend as long as 5 to 10 days each month simply closing out your books from the previous month. For many finance teams, closing month-end accounts is a time-consuming, stressful process that often leaves them working with outdated data.
The quicker you complete your month-end closing, the sooner you can address financial discrepancies, cash flow problems and performance gaps, allowing you to make informed decisions and steer your company toward growth. That’s why so many finance teams are now leveraging automation to make the process faster, more efficient and data-driven.
Closing month-end accounts is one of your finance team’s most important responsibilities. Even though it occurs once a month, you’ll still inevitably run into common issues. Gathering the necessary information from various departments and systems can be slow, leading to delays and potential errors. When your team is forced to work with outdated data, you lose the ability to react quickly to urgent issues like overspending, declining profit margins and market changes.
This lag can result in missed opportunities, inaccurate forecasting and a general sense of playing catch-up rather than driving the business forward. To keep ahead, it’s important to have up-to-date financial data, so you can generate actionable insights like identifying cost-saving opportunities, optimising pricing and forecasting demand for better strategic decisions.
There’s no reason to let accounting slow you down. Solutions like Juni let you automate time-consuming, repetitive manual tasks while keeping your financial data accurate and up to date. They integrate seamlessly with your existing accounting software like Fortnox and collect the necessary data to close your books, so you never have to enter the same information manually in more than one system. They also help you maintain a clear overview and perform effective data analyses that can guide you towards better financial decision-making from month to month.
Below, we discuss some of the most effective automation features that can help transform your month-end process.
The main purpose for automating your month-end close is to eliminate time-consuming, error-prone manual tasks. With a modern solution like Juni, you can automatically collect, scan and process receipts and invoices, significantly reducing the manual effort required to keep accurate records.
For example, Juni Match, an AI-powered spend management tool, collects and scans attachments with 100% accuracy. This means you’ll never miss a receipt or invoice again. Juni also makes it easy to match receipts and invoices to the correct transactions automatically. By simply forwarding your attachments to a dedicated Juni inbox, Juni Match can create a new invoice to pay or match the receipt to the right transaction, all with minimal input from your team. Collection is also made easier as you can send reminders if an attachment is missing. This hands-off approach to reconciliation not only saves time but also ensures that your records are always up to date and accurate.
Real-time financial information is essential for effective spend management in commerce because it allows for timely adjustments, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently and potential issues are addressed immediately. Using a solution like Juni, you can connect and import transactions from various payment networks and gateways, providing a unified overview of your cash flow. By integrating your legacy bank account directly into your Juni account, you can track all your funds in one place, making it easier to monitor cash flow and make informed decisions based on the most current data.
This real-time insight is particularly valuable for managing spend before month-end. With Juni, you can accurately assess your expenses even before the books are closed, enabling you to adjust your strategies as needed. Whether managing ad campaigns, inventory purchases or supplier payments, access to up-to-date financial data helps you stay ahead of potential issues like budget overruns, stock shortages or payment delays. It also enables you to seize opportunities such as optimising ad spend, securing better inventory deals or negotiating favourable supplier terms.
When selecting an automated solution to speed up your month-end close, it’s important to consider whether it will integrate with the accounting tools you and your finance team are already using. Juni, for example, is designed to seamlessly integrate with popular accounting software like Fortnox and Exact Online. This integration allows you to effortlessly sync transactions, pull dimensions, set up custom rules and export data with 100% accuracy. For finance teams, this means no more errors in your exports and no more hours spent manually entering data into your accounting software.
Juni’s custom rules streamline your accounting process by allowing you to create templates that automatically link card transactions to specific accounting dimensions, such as departments or project codes, and add merchant names and customer descriptions with just a few clicks. This automation not only saves significant time by eliminating repetitive tasks but also ensures that your financial records are consistent and accurate across all transactions, reducing the risk of errors when reconciling your accounts
When it’s time to export your data, Juni makes the process simple and efficient. You can easily export data from Juni into your preferred bookkeeping tool via CSV or SIE formats for easy journal creation and reconciliation. And if you need to download statements in other formats like Datev, MT940 or CAMT053, Juni offers a custom format builder for that.
To give you a better idea of how automation speeds up month-end admin and streamlines your accounting, let’s look at how ANI Jewels, a Nordic jewellery brand, transformed their financial admin with automation. Before switching to Juni, ANI Jewels faced challenges with managing their spend across multiple ad platforms and struggled with inefficient financial processes. However, after adopting Juni, they were able to streamline their financial admin, achieving 3x faster processing times.
ANI Jewels integrated Juni with their accounting software, Fortnox, and their bank, Nordea, creating a cohesive system that automatically syncs financial data across platforms. This integration eliminated manual data entry errors and provided a real-time view of their financials, saving the company around 7 hours of admin work per week. With Juni’s seamless integrations and automation tools, ANI Jewels is able to reallocate resources to more strategic initiatives, leading to better decision-making and continuous business growth.
Managing invoices can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of the month-end close, but there are many solutions that can help speed up your process. Juni, for example, allows you to collect, pay and finance invoices in seconds, eliminating the need for manual invoice processing. Our invoices solution also lets you automatically match paid invoices to the correct transactions, so your records are always accurate and up to date.
Another advantage to our solution is that we can help ease cash flow pressure by giving you up to 120 days to repay invoices. This solution was designed to meet the needs of commerce businesses who often need to manage large outlays for inventory or ad spend while waiting for sales to come in.
EYTYS, a Stockholm-based fashion brand, is another example of how modernising processes like your month-end close can deliver major business benefits. EYTYS faced cash flow challenges as they expanded their distribution channels and needed to invest in inventory and brand building. With Juni, they were able to increase their cash flow through Invoice Credit, which allowed them to invest in growth without disrupting their cash flow.
Juni integrates with EYTYS’s Swedbank account and their accounting software, Fortnox, providing a comprehensive overview of their spend and streamlined their financial processes. This integration saves EYTYS significant time on financial admin, allowing them to focus fully on strategic growth initiatives. By consolidating all their payment flows in one system, EYTYS can now efficiently report expenses and close their books faster, ultimately saving them a full workday each month on financial admin.
Continuous Accounting is a modern way of handling your financial data, where you record and analyse it continuously during your accounting period, instead of monthly. Continuous Accounting removes the lag between month-end close and generating actionable insights as you always have an up to date picture of your finances. But, to make this change, you’ll need an easy way to have information at your fingertips. Automating tasks and centralising your financial data with a solution like Juni can help you make the switch.
As ANI Jewels and EYTYS show, streamlining your accounting processes with automation solutions reduces the time and effort it takes to close your books. By automating manual tasks, integrating seamlessly with your existing accounting tools and providing real-time financial insights, Juni helps your finance team work more efficiently and make better-informed decisions. Whether you’re managing complex ad campaigns, inventory or supplier payments, our automation features keep your financial records accurate and up to date, so you can focus more on growing your commerce business and worry less about repetitive manual tasks.
Learn more about how Juni can transform your month-end close.
