What is BILL Spend & Expense?
We used BILL Spend & Expense for over five years, back when it was still called Divvy, after it got acquired by BILL. And honestly, when I first started using it, I couldn't believe it was free. The UI/UX is fantastic, the QuickBooks integration is incredibly helpful for automatically reconciling our books, and it basically felt like we had hired a 5-hour a week employee to do our expense management.
It is one of those tools that makes me think: why isn't every small business using this?
The first time we set it up, we created a virtual card for Facebook ads, cards for each of our software subscriptions, and another for a contractor. Each one had a budget limit. It removed 90% of the "what is this charge?" questions.
Expenses showed up in real time, tied to a specific vendor or budget, and synced into accounting automatically with receipts.
We recommended it to a family member who runs a construction business (Alex's step-father), and the reaction was the same as ours, he was totally blown away. Before BILL S&E, sending someone to pick up materials for a job meant handing over the business card and hoping for the best.
With BILL S&E, employees get their own card with a set budget, they can't go over it. And the cash back rewards get pooled and are given out as team bonuses at the end of the year (that was the decision he made since he felt like it was extra money just for using the software).
We did eventually switch to Ramp, but only because we're a software review site and we needed to evaluate it properly. If we weren't doing this work, we'd probably still be on BILL Spend & Expense and have no reason to leave. For most small businesses, it's more than enough, and unlike other tools in this category, there's no bank minimum to get started. You can jump in from day one as a soloprenuer or small team and start getting the benefits immediately.
It's still our top pick for small businesses that want a clean, reliable expense management foundation with any bank minimums.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Ideal for small businesses
- No bank minimums!
- No annual fees, totally free. No hidden charges (we used it for 5+ years)
- Expenses are tracked and categorized automatically
- Easy to create virtual cards for greater control over purchases/subscriptions
- Credit card rewards
- Each employee can get a card that admins can manage and control
- Budgets and limits can be set at the vendor or card level
Cons
- Reporting and automation are not as deep or flexible as some other platforms
- Can feel slightly rigid for larger companies with complex approval workflows or multiple departments
Key Features
Credit Card
BILL Spend & Expense gives us so much control when it comes to our spending. We can easily create a virtual credit card, set a budget and Quickbooks category within seconds for each different vendor. We simply set a budget for each credit card for the exact amount that we know will be charged. If a subscription service decides to increase their pricing and charge our card, it will decline. And we like that, because we want to be the one deciding if someone should charge us more or not. 💪
Because we're able to put virtual cards down with each vendor, BILL Spend & Expense allowed us (and our vendor) to actually catch a person that committed fraud by stealing and using our credit card 🤯 Of course, the employee of our vendor was fired. Catching them would have been impossible to pin down if we had a generic credit card on file.
Expense Tracking and Reconciliation
Transactions are logged in real time and can be categorized right away. Once synced with your accounting software, everything lines up automatically, so month-end reconciliation is faster and less error-prone. This cuts down a lot of the manual cleanup at month-end.
Employee Cards
Have multiple employees that need their own corporate card? Create a card for them and set a spending limit, that's all you need to do. You can change the spending limit for each employee, make it $50 or $500, BILL Spend & Expense cards allow you to be flexible.
If they leave the company, simply freeze the card (you have total control—just think of what the process is like with a typically corporate card. Issuing a new card for an employee is an annoying process, as is cancelling it). Not to mention the positive affect it has on your employees, as they get to feel empowered and like a trusted part of the team.
Accounting Integrations
BILL Spend & Expense works with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Oracle NetSuite, and Xero among others. If your system isn't supported, you can still export CSVs and import your data manually. Either way, it keeps your records connected without forcing you to change your existing accounting setup.
Rewards
The rewards are pretty standard with others in the business credit card space, getting somewhere around 1–1.5% on all categories, with a bit more in certain categories (higher % when making payments weekly—less if made bi-weekly or monthly).
One customer that we recommended BILL Spend & Expense to started using it and quickly saw his reward balance grow. He decided to use the reward funds as Christmas bonuses for his employees. He said, "it's money that's just sitting there, and if I can give them a little extra to take home at the end of the year, it's something cool I get to do."
Pricing
- Free: $0/month. This covers everything: expense management software, corporate cards, budgeting + controls, and accounting integrations.
Honestly, I thought we were paying a subscription when I first used BILL S&E, I couldn't believe the software was free since it was that good 😅 (If you're wondering how they're able to do that, they make money on interchange).
