6 best expense management software in 2023 in Australia

Overview:

Volopay introduces a novel approach to expense management by combining traditional financial management with smart spending tools. This software positions itself as an all-in-one platform for expense tracking, corporate cards, and bill payments.

Key features:

Volopay's standout feature is its integrated corporate card, which can be assigned to employees with preset spending limits. The platform also offers automated expense tracking, invoice processing, receipt capture, and approval workflows.

Integration with accounting software ensures seamless data synchronization.

Pricing:

Volopay offers a transparent pricing structure with plans designed to accommodate businesses of varying sizes. There are absolutely no hidden or unexpected charges involved. Volopay's simple transparent pricing plans start from $25/month.

Pros:

• Integration of corporate cards simplifies spending control.

• Comprehensive approach covering expenses, cards, and bills.

• Competitive pricing with clear plan differentiations.

Cons:

• Might not be suitable for businesses with minimal expense management needs.

• Some users may prefer more specialized solutions for specific functions.

Customer reviews:

Customers applaud Volopay's simplicity and the convenience of the integrated corporate card. The platform's comprehensive approach to expense management and bill payments receives positive feedback.

Some users, however, noted that the platform's capabilities might be more extensive than necessary for smaller businesses.

Overview:

One of the most comprehensive expense management software out there, Budgetly has been strategically crafted to offer businesses a transparent and accurate view of their fiscal well-being.

The platform's robust functionalities and intuitive user interface position it as a preferred choice for enterprises operating at a variety of scales.

Key features:

Budgetly boasts an array of features that streamline expense tracking and management. These include real-time expense tracking, automated expense categorization, receipt scanning, budget creation and monitoring, and seamless integration with various accounting software.

Pricing and plans:

Budgetly offers multiple pricing tiers tailored to different business needs. The plans include essentials, premium, and enterprises, with prices starting at $89 per month for small businesses and going up to $240 per month for enterprises.

For larger organizations with specific requirements, custom pricing is also available.

Pros:

• Budgetly has a user interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate and use.

• You get enhanced financial visibility gained from real-time tracking features.

• Reduced manual work due to automation of expense categorization.

• Integration with accounting software streamlines overall financial management.

Cons:

• Some advanced features might be available only in higher-tier plans.

• Limited customer support options in lower-tier plans.

Customer reviews:

Users appreciate Budgetly's simplicity and effectiveness. Small businesses commend its budgeting features, which have helped them gain better control over their finances.

Some users have reported occasional glitches, but overall, Budgetly receives praise for being one of the best expense management software for small business that also provides value for money.

Overview:

ELMO Software is an all-in-one HR and payroll platform that also offers robust expense management features. It focuses on providing businesses with comprehensive tools to streamline their workforce and financial processes.

Key features:

ELMO Software's expense management module includes features like expense submission and approval workflows, policy enforcement, real-time expense tracking, integration with accounting systems, and insightful expense analytics.

Pricing and plans:

ELMO Software's pricing structure is tailored to the unique needs of each business, which can vary greatly based on the size and requirements of the organization. As such, pricing details are typically provided upon request.

Pros:

• Integrated solution for HR, payroll, and expense management.

• Customizable approval workflows ensure compliance with expense policies.

• Seamless integration with existing accounting systems.

• Advanced analytics provide deep insights into spending patterns.

Cons:

• Lack of transparent pricing details upfront can be a drawback for some potential users.

• The wide range of features might require a learning curve for new users.

Customer reviews:

Users appreciate ELMO Software's ability to centralize various business functions, which streamlines processes and improves overall efficiency.

The platform's expense management capabilities, coupled with its HR and payroll features, have been particularly beneficial for businesses seeking a holistic solution.

Overview:

Avaza is a unique software solution that combines project management and expense tracking functionalities. It is ideal for businesses that want to manage projects while simultaneously monitoring expenses.

Key features:

Avaza's expense management features include expense tracking, automated expense categorization, receipt uploading, mileage tracking, multi-currency support, and integration with accounting software.

Pricing and plans:

Avaza offers tiered pricing plans designed to cater to various business sizes and requirements. There is a free version, a startup version at 11.95 USD/month, a basic version at 23.95 USD/month, and a business version at 47.95 USD/month.

Pros:

• Integration of project management and expense tracking in a single platform.

• User-friendly interface for efficient navigation and utilization.

• Multi-currency support is beneficial for businesses operating internationally.

• Customizable invoicing and expense reporting options.

Cons:

• The project management integration might not be necessary for all businesses.

• Advanced features are more prevalent in higher-tier plans.

Customer reviews:

Users praise Avaza for its seamless integration of project management and expense tracking capabilities. Small businesses, in particular, find it valuable for keeping their projects and financials organized.

The platform's affordability and comprehensive features make it a top choice for many.

Overview:

Crunchr stands as an effective expense management software that has been meticulously designed to empower enterprises with holistic control over their financial activities.

This platform seamlessly combines user-friendly interfaces with a full set of comprehensive functionalities, rendering it an indispensable solution for businesses.

Key features:

Crunchr boasts an impressive suite of features, including automated expense tracking, receipt scanning, real-time expense reporting, and integration with accounting software.

Its intuitive mobile app allows employees to submit expenses on the go, while managers gain visibility into spending patterns for informed decision-making. Additionally, Crunchr's policy enforcement tools help ensure compliance with spending guidelines.

Pros:

• Intuitive interface catering to both employees and managerial staff.

• Real-time reporting and analytical capabilities that foster informed decision-making.

• Seamless integrations with esteemed accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero.

• Customizable plans accommodating varying business needs

Cons:

• Comparatively elevated pricing in comparison to certain competitors.

• Support for smaller businesses or startups might be limited.

Customer reviews:

Customers praise Crunchr for its ease of use and efficient expense tracking. Positive remarks highlight the platform's robust reporting capabilities and seamless integrations.

Some users, however, expressed concerns over the pricing, particularly for smaller businesses.

Overview:

Locomote sets itself apart in the expense management industry by uniquely concentrating on corporate travel expenditures.

This software delivers an all-encompassing resolution for overseeing all spending that is related to business travel, all the while maintaining seamless adherence to compliance and control standards.

Key features:

At the heart of Locomote's features is its travel booking and approval system, which allows employees to plan and book trips within company guidelines.

The platform also offers expense tracking, receipt scanning, and integration with accounting systems. Its centralized dashboard provides real-time insights into travel expenditures.

Pricing and plans:

Locomote's pricing structure is customizable and dependent on the specific requirements of the business. As such, interested companies are encouraged to contact their sales team for a personalized quote.

Pros:

• Tailored for businesses with substantial travel-related expenses.

• Centralized travel booking and approval streamline processes.

• Integration with popular accounting software enhances accuracy.

Cons:

• Limited focus on broader expense management outside of travel.

• Lack of transparent pricing information.

Customer reviews:

Locomote is praised for its efficiency in handling corporate travel arrangements. Users appreciate the platform's ability to enforce travel policies and streamline booking processes.

However, some users have noted a lack of flexibility when it comes to managing expenses beyond travel-related ones.

Top expense management software offers in-depth insights into company spending patterns. As an individual working in finance, you understand the importance of maintaining a streamlined budget.

With expense management software, you can track expenses in real time, identify unnecessary costs, and implement strategies to control expenditures.

By having a clear view of where the funds are being allocated, you can make informed decisions to optimize your financial resources.

Efficiency stands as a fundamental principle within the realm of fintech. Expense management software eradicates the necessity for manual procedures like gathering physical receipts and manually inputting data.

Automation expedites the progression of expense reporting, approval workflows, and reimbursement procedures, enabling your team to dedicate attention to tasks of greater significance.

This heightened efficiency culminates in elevated productivity across the entirety of the organization.

The significance of real-time information is clearly evident in the pace at which this industry works. Expense management software provides you with up-to-the-minute data on expenditures, enabling you to make timely decisions.

This level of responsiveness empowers you to adapt quickly to changing financial scenarios and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

Exacting precision holds immense importance, particularly in the realm of financial management. Expense management software mitigates the potential for human mistakes linked with the manual input and calculation of data.

Reliable and precise data guarantees that financial statements are dependable and faithfully represent the company's authentic expenditures, thereby enhancing the process of informed decision-making.

Seamless integration between expense management software and accounting systems is crucial for maintaining a coherent financial ecosystem.

By having data flow seamlessly between these systems, you can ensure that financial records are accurate, up-to-date, and synchronized.

This integration simplifies reconciliation, reduces the risk of discrepancies, and enhances overall financial transparency.

In the highly regulated fintech industry, adherence to auditing and compliance standards is non-negotiable. The best software for expense management always provides a comprehensive trail of financial transactions, making audits smoother and more transparent.

This capability ensures that your company remains compliant with industry regulations and internal policies.

Expense management software can be configured to enforce company expense policies. This feature aligns with the needs of an organization to enforce compliance, ensuring that all expenditures related to the organization’s work adhere to the stipulated guidelines.

Policy compliance not only promotes responsible spending but also minimizes the potential for disputes and discrepancies.

The fintech landscape often involves international transactions and multi-currency operations. Expense management software equipped with multi-currency support accommodates these complexities seamlessly.

This functionality is invaluable for a business organization, enabling them to manage expenses across different currencies accurately.

As someone working for a fintech software company, you understand the paramount importance of data security. Expense management software employs robust encryption and security protocols to safeguard sensitive financial information.

This ensures that confidential data, including employee reimbursement details and financial records, remains protected from unauthorized access and potential breaches.

Challenge: Gathering and handling physical paper receipts can result in mistakes, time delays, and operational inefficiencies. The process of manually entering data is both labor-intensive and susceptible to errors.

Solution: Expense management software revolutionizes receipt management by allowing users to capture receipts digitally using mobile devices.

Optical character recognition (OCR) technology swiftly extracts relevant information, eliminating the need for manual input. This not only reduces errors but also expedites the data entry process, enabling employees to focus on more value-added activities.

Challenge: Ensuring policy compliance and streamlining approval workflows can be challenging, especially in a dynamic fintech environment.

Solution: Expense management software enforces company expense policies by configuring automated approval workflows. It validates expense claims against predefined policies, ensuring that every expense adheres to established guidelines.

Additionally, the software facilitates a transparent and traceable approval process, reducing bottlenecks and ensuring timely reimbursements.

Challenge: Lost or misplaced receipts can lead to discrepancies, hinder audit trails, and delay reimbursement processes. They can present a significant challenge to any system streamlining efforts.

Solution: Expense management software combats this challenge by offering a secure repository for digital receipts and documentation. Users can upload and attach receipts directly to expense claims, creating a comprehensive and easily accessible record.

This digital trail ensures that all expenses are adequately documented, aiding in audits and minimizing the risk of lost documentation.

Challenge: In the global fintech landscape, dealing with currency conversions and international transactions can introduce complexity, extra costs as well as potential inaccuracies.

Solution: Expense management software with multi-currency support handles currency conversions seamlessly. It automatically converts expenses into the company's base currency using real-time exchange rates.

This eliminates manual calculations and ensures accurate reporting of international transactions, maintaining financial accuracy and transparency.

Challenge: Seamlessly aligning expense data with accounting systems can be a daunting task, leading to discrepancies, errors, and inefficiencies. Manual data transfer between these systems is time-consuming and prone to errors.

Solution: Expense management software offers robust integration capabilities. It bridges the gap between expense tracking and accounting by automatically syncing data.

This ensures that financial records are accurate, up-to-date, and consistent across all platforms. Integration also streamlines reconciliation processes, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring a seamless financial ecosystem.

Challenge: Traditional expense management methods often lack real-time visibility into expenditures, making it challenging to make informed decisions promptly.

Delayed access to expense data can lead to missed opportunities and hinder agile financial decision-making. 

Solution: Expense management software provides real-time insights into expenses. With up-to-the-minute data, businesses can monitor spending patterns, identify trends, and proactively manage costs.

This immediate visibility empowers organizations to react swiftly to changing financial scenarios, optimizing resource allocation and capitalizing on emerging opportunities.

Challenge: Expense fraud and misuse remain persistent concerns for businesses, leading to financial losses and reputational damage. Detecting fraudulent or unauthorized expenses can be a time-consuming and complex process.

Solution: Expense management software incorporates advanced fraud detection algorithms and audit trails. It automatically analyzes expense data, flagging anomalies and suspicious activities.

With built-in controls and automated approval workflows, the software enforces policy compliance, minimizing the risk of fraud and misuse. Additionally, digital receipts and documentation enhance transparency and accountability.

Challenge: Manual expense reporting processes can be cumbersome and frustrating for employees, hampering their productivity. Cumbersome workflows and complex submission procedures can discourage timely and accurate expense reporting.

Solution: Expense management software enhances employee productivity and user experience. Mobile apps allow employees to submit expenses on the go, capturing receipts through their smartphones.

User-friendly interfaces streamline the expense submission process, reducing the time and effort required. Automation accelerates approval workflows, ensuring prompt reimbursement and boosting employee satisfaction.

If your company chooses to follow a process of reimbursements, then Volopay allows users to instantly create reimbursement claims using our mobile app or the web app.

You can even move away from this process if you choose to opt for Volopay corporate cards that can be issued to each employee. You also get to create unlimited virtual cards to manage all online expenses. 



Instead of waiting for weekly or monthly updates on expense reports from all employees, using Volopay, you’ll be able to get a real-time update of all expenses that people are making throughout the organization. 

For making payments to vendors, you can easily set up approval workflows to ensure compliance with the expense policies of your companies. Volopay lets you set up to 5 levels of approvers depending on a custom expense range.

This allows you to assign the necessary managers for expenses as the degree of payment increases. 



The best expense-tracking software for small businesses comes with the option to let its users issue corporate cards for their employees.

Not only does it remove the need for reimbursements but also allows the finance and accounting team to control budgets in a better way using the custom spending limits on cards.

Another great thing is that these controls can be adjusted whenever needed.



Every accounting team knows how important it is to maintain an audit trail for all transactions in their ledger.

Using an expense management system, the hassle of maintaining one is removed as all the actions taken on a transaction are automatically recorded in the digital ledger.



Another useful element of an expense management system is its ability to create specific reports as per your requirements, give data analytics for you to derive insights, and sometimes also give insightful data directly when a certain behavior or spending pattern is observed by the system. 



Rather than communicating over email and waiting a day or two for confirmation or rejection, an expense management system allows for instant approval notification to necessary approvers so that there is no delay in business operations due to slow approval processes.

For small and petty expenses, you can also assign smaller budgets to employee corporate cards and avoid having to approve every small payment.



The biggest benefit of using expense management software for reimbursement is that you can immediately submit an expense claim after you make it rather than waiting till the end of the week or month to submit your expense claims.

This reduces the need for employees to constantly carry around a bunch of receipts.



Lastly, the expense management platform you choose should be able to integrate easily with your existing accounting software. You should be able to easily export and sync all the expense data into your accounting tool without much hassle. 

Interesting read: Direct debit vs recurring payment: Which to choose?

Before you embark on the process of implementation, it is crucial to meticulously outline the objectives you intend to reach through the utilization of expense management software.

Take the time to pinpoint areas of concern, whether they involve labor-intensive manual data entry or navigating complex compliance issues.

By precisely defining your distinct requirements, you lay a solid foundation that will not only steer the entire implementation process but also facilitate the assessment of its effectiveness in achieving your desired outcomes.

This proactive approach ensures that the implementation journey is purposeful and the results can be measured against well-established benchmarks of success.

Thoroughly research and evaluate different expense management software options available in the market.

Consider factors such as features, scalability, user-friendliness, integration capabilities, and pricing. Choose software that aligns with your business's unique needs and growth trajectory.

Establish a specialized project team with the primary responsibility of supervising the implementation process. This team should comprise professionals from diverse departments, including finance, IT, and HR, fostering a comprehensive approach.

Assign explicit roles and responsibilities to each team member, ensuring clarity and accountability. Additionally, establish robust communication channels to facilitate seamless information flow and collaboration throughout the implementation journey.

This collaborative effort ensures a well-rounded perspective and efficient execution of the expense management software integration.

Smooth data migration is essential to avoid disruptions and maintain historical expense data. Ensure that the chosen software allows for seamless data migration from existing systems.

Additionally, prioritize integration with other relevant systems, such as accounting software, to streamline workflows and enhance data accuracy.

Tailor the expense management software to match your company's unique workflows and policies. Customize expense categories, approval hierarchies, and reporting structures to reflect your business processes.

This ensures that the software becomes a tailored solution rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Extensive training plays a pivotal role in optimizing user acceptance and reducing reluctance during transitions. It is imperative to conduct in-depth training sessions for employees tasked with utilizing the software.

These sessions should encompass not only fundamental navigation but also delve into the intricacies of advanced functionalities. Furthermore, crafting user-friendly guides or manuals for convenient reference can prove invaluable in reinforcing learning.

To foster a supportive environment, continuous assistance should be provided to address any queries or apprehensions that arise, ensuring a seamless and confident integration of the expense management software into the daily operations of the business.

In preparation for the full-scale implementation of expense management software across the entire organization, it is prudent to commence with a pilot test involving a select group of users.

This preliminary phase serves as a valuable opportunity to detect and address potential issues, while also affording the chance to gather constructive feedback that can be instrumental in refining the software's functionality.

You could also craft comprehensive user guides and documentation that serve to streamline the pilot testing procedure, ultimately fostering a more intuitive comprehension of the software's nuances among the participants.

Effective communication is vital to garnering buy-in from employees. Craft engaging procedures that outline the benefits of the expense management software, addressing concerns and showcasing its value.

By creating persuasive and informative materials, you can ensure that employees understand the software's significance and are motivated to adopt it.

Continuous support is essential for a seamless transition. Develop comprehensive training materials, including user manuals, video tutorials, and FAQs.

The extent to which you provide support can play a crucial role in enabling users to navigate the expense management software effectively and feel confident in its usage.

Regularly assess the software's performance and usage patterns. Utilize analytics to identify any areas of improvement or user challenges.

Enforcing this practice can aid in disseminating reports on the software's impact and encouraging users to provide valuable feedback for ongoing enhancements.

Align the software's features with company expense policies. Provide training and parameters that educate users on how to adhere to these policies and enforce the same while using the software.

Clearly articulate the importance of compliance and reinforce it through persuasive communication materials.

Technology evolves rapidly, and you should work towards keeping your employees informed about updates and new features.

Regularly share information about software enhancements and improvements, showcasing how these changes contribute to their efficiency and overall experience.

You should also make sure the software itself is kept updated and in tune with the latest technological trends.