“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.
In my heart, I know there’s a good reason why many ecommerce ventures don’t make it. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. But with the adrenaline rush of getting started on an exciting new project, I was feeling pretty emboldened when I wrote my last post.
Since then I’ve been treated to a couple of reality checks. Nothing major. Nothing I couldn’t have predicted if you’d asked me to write about some of the challenges facing a new ecommerce business a month ago. But it’s different when you’re in the thick of it.
Dispassionate analysis and practical thinking are great. But when you’re desperate to get going with your ecommerce business, these little setbacks hit hard.
What were these setbacks, I hear you ask? Well, here's how my ecommerce business got off to a false start and how you can avoid the same problems.
I wasn’t really expecting this one. At least, I wasn’t expecting it to this degree.
Sure, there’s always a bit of uncertainty and the feeling of being a fish out of water when starting a new job. But I’ve been experiencing serious imposter syndrome.
I have the skills to do this. Juni has hired me because they recognised that I have the skills to do this.
And yet I’ve been experiencing self-doubt, second-guessing myself, and questioning whether I actually do have what it takes to turn this idea into a successful company.
To make matters worse, after attending an event with dozens of entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses my imposter syndrome kicked into overdrive. It's funny how seeing other people’s success at close quarters can provoke that sort of reaction.
Bram Stoker wrote: "We learn from failure, not from success." Nike says: “Just do it.”
Sometimes it just takes a few words to keep the imposter syndrome at bay. An entrepreneur's journey is never easy, but there's a reason why we work through the challenges we face along the way. It’s important to keep that in mind. Push the self-doubt aside and plough on with the things that are in your control until the evidence that you can do this is there for everyone — including you — to see.
Call me cliché but I figured a clothing business would be an interesting route to explore for my first ecommerce business. It’s a tried and tested first port of call for many ecommerce entrepreneurs.
My initial idea was for a print-on-demand dropshipping business that I’d run via Printful. Low overheads, very little inventory — what’s not to love? That’s before it became clear that negotiating warehousing, Incoterms and taxes across the EU would generate lower margins and a bigger headache than expected. That aside, to be honest I wasn’t impressed with the quality. The products were not up to scratch for what I wanted to sell. Back to the drawing board.
That led me across the water to Canadian brand Kotn. They're an awesome sustainable clothing and home decor brand based in Toronto. The team is amazing and really helpful. But with my target customers and me in Europe, and Kotn on the other side of the Atlantic, finding a way to work with them and stay within my sustainability targets proved to be hugely problematic.
At one stage, it looked like working with the charity One Tree Planted might save the day. They plant trees to offset the carbon footprint of deliveries. But even factoring that in, the transatlantic deliveries still didn’t stack up. My venture needs to align with Juni’s sustainability values, and working with Kotn wouldn’t have done that.
The fog of despair soon lifted when a bit more digging led me to Full Circle Clothing. They have a similar ethos to Kotn, an incredible business model, and the distinct advantage of being based in Europe. There’s the potential for some very exciting development and, if all goes to plan, I’ll also dive into their business model in a future post.
If you’re currently sourcing products for your ecommerce stores, here are my tips for making that process as easy as possible:
Open up your LinkedIn DMs. Don’t be shy about telling people what you’re looking for. In a business environment like LinkedIn, companies who are hungry for your business will reach out to you (and that saves you time reaching out to all of them).
Plan a production radius. For me, this was driven by sustainability considerations. That might be a consideration for you or it could come down to logistics, import taxes or lead times. Narrow your search down to the places where you want your products to come from.
Find shared values. You know my focus is on sustainability. Some businesses might prioritise a luxury element. Others might take a ‘stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap’ approach. My advice is to find a manufacturer or supplier that shares some or all of your core values. That’s going to make life much easier than trying to work with a supplier with a completely different ethos.
My first foray into setting up a Shopify store for the business did not exactly go to plan. Do you remember what it was like getting a new toy as a kid? And sometimes you played with it so excitedly and enthusiastically that it broke? Well, that’s short of what happened here.
After conducting lots of testing and experimenting with different scenarios, it all got a bit too experimental and I had to abandon the store. A web of mock transactions, dummy charges and partial refunds turned the back-end into a bit of a mess. Meanwhile, experimenting with different versions of product pages offended Google. An error message in Google Merchant Center indicated that I was effectively sabotaging my own SEO.
Sometimes it pays dividends to clear up a mess you’ve made. In this case, there was no sense in doing anything except start again with a fresh Shopify store and hopefully a clearer idea of what I want to achieve. Time will tell.
I learnt some valuable lessons from my tests and experiments. The mistake I made was believing that this ecommerce testing ground would eventually become my store. I’d suggest:
I’m soon going to have products and, as you may know from your own business, the problem with having products is that before too long you need a warehouse. I started the process of interviewing some of the candidates. Interviews aren't the most exciting activity at the best of times, let alone when the subject matter is essentially a big shed in which to store things. But putting in the time to find the right partner at the outset will save you headaches — and potentially money — down the road.
After searching online, I stumbled across Huboo. They're advertised as an award-winning ecommerce fulfilment company and their website is pretty impressive. Their tech-driven micro-hub model (a mini-warehouse of your products within a warehouse for efficient picking) is really smart. Unfortunately, since I’m hoping to experiment with selling various different products at a wide range of price points, my business is an awkward fit for this model. High-ticket items are stored differently to lower value items. Since I want to do both, it was impossible to have a single micro-hub. But if your products are all around the same price points, this is definitely an option worth exploring.
Byrd — a promising option with a warehouse in the Netherlands — was the next on my list. This would tick boxes for easy EU fulfilment, so I was feeling positive. But after travelling to meet The SMS Group, I started thinking about Juni’s deep roots in Sweden. My parent company was founded in Gothenburg and has a lot of Swedish connections, so a warehouse in our home country makes sense on a lot of levels (as well as being the perfect starting place for fulfilment within the EU).
Back in the UK, I had a promising conversation with Logistica and took a trip to their warehouse in Northampton. They’re a prime candidate but seem to be a bit inflexible on packaging options. I’ll pick up the conversation again to see if there’s room for manoeuvre to get the packaging I want.
I’ve been in discussions with haulage firm Viking Logistics, too. They seem like a good option for a logistics partnership, and I’m starting to think I might need Viking and Logistica on board. I’ll explain why in a future post.
In any case, I’m hopeful of signing a warehouse contract (or contracts) very soon.
As you’ll have gathered, I’ve looked at quite a few different warehouse and fulfilment options. If you’re looking for a good warehouse for fulfilment of your products, these are my recommendations of what to consider when choosing your logistics partner:
Or is it one step forward, two steps back? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. But it’s definitely been helpful to write this blog post. I can see now that I’ve made more progress than I probably thought I had when I started writing this.
I’m pretty confident I’ve got my first products lined up. And I’m very close to having warehousing space in which to store them and a fulfilment service to get them to customers.
Have you found a warehouse or logistics partner for your store? What was the biggest problem you faced? I’d love to hear from you and compare notes. Send me an email to community@juni.co to share your story.
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