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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. Mediefinansiering är tillgängligt för behöriga företag som är registrerade i Nederländerna, Sverige, Tyskland, Frankrike, Spanien, Italien, Finland och Norge. Avgifter och villkor gäller. 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. Mediefinansiering är tillgängligt för behöriga företag som är registrerade i Nederländerna, Sverige, Tyskland, Frankrike, Spanien, Italien, Finland och Norge. Avgifter och villkor gäller. 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.
Att skala upp din e-handelsverksamhet internationellt innebär att anpassa hela din strategi till en ny marknad. Serieentreprenören inom e-handel Nick Shackelford är expert på att bygga e-handelsföretag som kan skala globalt, och i den här artikeln delar han med sig av sina erfarenheter och råd om hur man skalar snabbt och undviker de fem vanligaste hindren som e-handelsbolag står inför.
Nick Shackelford gjorde sig ett namn genom att skala D2C-startups till varumärken värda flera miljoner euro, om och om igen. Under de senaste elva åren inom performance marketing-världen har han blivit en av världens ledande e-handels- och Facebook-marknadsförare. Nick är medgrundare och managing partner på Structured Social, medgrundare av Konstant Kreative och partner på BRĒZ.
"Förstå att du behöver pengar för e-handelns tillväxt," säger Nick. Att expandera till nya marknader innebär ökade kostnader, så du måste vara beredd att investera intäkter här.
För att maximera dina marginaler måste du både generera och bevara intäkter när det kommer till marknadsföring. “Generera innebär förvärv och innehåll, och bevara innebär mejl och förvaltning av ditt community”, förklarar Nick.
För att effektivt köra annonser och maximera din omsättning med kredit behöver du en bank som förstår behoven hos en e-handelsverksamhet. "Många traditionella banker förstår inte varför vi behöver 120 dagar för att betala för annonser, frilansare och lager," säger Nick. "Så när du har ett team som Juni som förstår hur det här fungerar, kan du enkelt finansiera dina utgifter och fortsätta med att expandera ditt företag."
Din fraktstrategi kan variera mycket beroende på var dina kunder befinner sig, så du behöver veta vad som förväntas från varje region och anpassa din plan därefter. Till exempel finns det viktiga skillnader i förväntningar mellan USA och EU som kommer att påverka var du har ditt lager och hur du skickar varor.
Amerikanska kunder förväntar sig supersnabb frakt, så du behöver tänka på hur du hanterar ditt lager. "Du måste ha varorna du säljer i USA," säger Nick.
Om du inte kan förvara ditt lager i USA, är det näst bästa att göra din frakt så snabb som möjligt.
"Du måste leverera till USA inom 7 dagar," säger Nick. "Om det tar längre tid än så kommer det att bli ett problem och kundsupporten kommer att bli ett helvete."
Däremot är EU-kunder mer toleranta mot längre leveranstider, så du kanske inte behöver ändra din lagerstrategi och istället kan fokusera på att hitta en pålitlig leverantör för frakt. "Om du expanderar till EU-länder, särskilt från USA, kan du komma undan med att leveransen tar lite längre än 7 dagar, men jag skulle inte rekommendera det," säger Nick.
"Expansion till en ny marknad är i princip en lansering av ett varumärke, även om du gör en enorm intäkt inom EU," förklarar Nick.
Som Nick nämnde i vår tidigare artikel för DTC-grundare, varumärkeslanseringar bör fokusera på två områden: företagets historia och ett bra erbjudande. Detta råd är särskilt betydelsefullt om du är ett europeiskt företag som vill etablera sig i USA, eftersom kunder där förväntar sig erbjudanden.
"Du kommer till USA, vi vill ha erbjudanden. Det finns ingen väg runt det här," säger Nick. ”Erbjudandet är viktigt för varumärkeslanseringarna.”
Kunder gillar paketpriser, och varumärken måste komma med rätt erbjudanden för att fånga konsumenternas uppmärksamhet.
“Ett erbjudande är anledningen till att de kommer att köpa, inte kvaliteten på produkten, inte produktens varumärke, utan det är värdet i dollar som kunden kommer att uppskatta, säger Nick. "Vi har till exempel raka försäljningar, där du kan välja att bara köpa en vanlig förpackning från oss, eller så kan du prenumerera och spara 30% på vilken order som helst. Det erbjudandet är övertygande nog för någon som kanske älskar produkten."
När kunderna har tagit sig genom dörren med erbjudanden, kommer kvaliteten på din produkt tala för sig själv. Du kan också använda andra metoder, som retargeting, email nurture och att bygga upp varumärkeslojalitet.
"Expansion är distribution, och distribution bygger på att förstå hur saker och ting fungerar lokalt. Det börjar med innehåll och annonser, förklarar Nick. “Lokalt språkinnehåll och annonser i lokal valuta är de största och viktigaste faktorerna för tillväxt.”
Att lokalisera innehåll, särskilt i stor skala, kan vara utmanande. Om du skalar ditt e-handelsbolag över hela Europa kommer du att arbeta med flera språk. Översättare är inte alltid tillgängliga att anställa på heltid och kan också vara förknippade med stora kostnader. Lyckligtvis har Nick en kostnadseffektiv lösning.
"De två sakerna som AI gör riktigt bra på är att skapa bra innehåll och hjälpa dig att skapa fler annonser," säger Nick. "Genom att ta innehållet från det land du är i och köra det genom ett AI-verktyg kan du snabbt utöka din räckvidd."
Nick ger dock en viktig varning: "AI kommer att utföra mycket av det grundläggande arbetet, men du måste fortfarande granska innehållet och anpassa det efter ditt varumärke. "Det räcker för att ta dig till 70 %, men de unika sista 30 % behöver fortfarande vara mänskliga."
En optimal strategi skulle vara att använda AI för att lokalisera ditt innehåll och dina annonser och anställa en redaktör på deltid för att göra kvalitetskontroll och lägga till den sista mänskliga touchen.
När du går in på en ny marknad behöver du köra annonser, betala leverantörer som fraktföretag och hantera en ökad mängd transaktioner i olika valutor. Rätt ekonomisk lösning kan göra det enkelt att hantera dina utgifter utan att öka din administration.
Juni erbjuder finansiella verktyg och insikter för att hantera och underlätta kassaflödet och fatta smartare beslut snabbare. Med produkter som företagskonton i flera valutor med låga växlingsavgifter, kreditlösningar för kort och fakturor, bokföringsautomatisering och en centraliserad översikt över din ekonomi har du allt du behöver för att hantera en global e-handelsverksamhet.
"Juni kommer att samla all din finansiella information i en tydlig dashboard, så att du kan fatta affärsbeslut snabbare," säger Nick. “På samma plattform kan du finansiera både dina medieköp och ditt lager, och allt detta på ett ställe!”
Att expandera till nya marknader innebär att du bygger upp din varumärkeskännedom och skräddarsyr din strategi efter kraven på varje ny plats. Det betyder att du behöver justera din fraktstrategi, överväga kampanjerbjudanden och lokalisera ditt innehåll. Som tur är finns det verktyg som kan hjälpa dig att lokalisera ditt innehåll och göra betalningar utan krångel.
Att bygga ett D2C-varumärke värt flera miljoner dollar är tufft. Lyckligtvis har flerfaldiga e-handelsentreprenören Nick Shackelford redan gjort det och gick med på att berätta exakt hur det gick till i avsnitt 2 av Unscripted Growth.
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