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7 Best Expense Management Software in 2026

Updated Mar 11, 2026

See how our top 4 picks compare across the 7 expense management software we evaluated.

Explore what each does best, where it falls short, and why it earned a spot on our 2026 list.

Alex Bass Headshot
Alex Bass
Andra Vomir Headshot
Andra Vomir

    Best Expense Management Software at a Glance

    7 apps and 7 deals
  1. 1
    Ramp
    Ramp

    Best for startups and tech-forward businesses

    Best for startups and tech-forward businesses
  2. 2
    BILL Spend & Expense
    BILL Spend & Expense

    Best for small businesses

    Best for small businesses
  3. 3
    Mercury Bank
    Mercury Bank

    Best for those already using Mercury

    Best for those already using Mercury
  4. 4
    Airwallex
    Airwallex

    Best for global spend & multi-currency

    Best for global spend & multi-currency
  5. 5
    Expensify
    Expensify

    For those who don't want to switch credit cards

    For those who don't want to switch credit cards
  6. 6
    Brex
    Brex

    For startups using Capital One as their business bank

    For startups using Capital One as their business bank
  7. 7
    Rippling
    Rippling

    For enterprise teams already using Rippling elsewhere

    For enterprise teams already using Rippling elsewhere
    Notable Mentions
  1. -
    QuickBooks Online
    QuickBooks Online
    Accounting

    Doesn't have proper virtual cards, core for expense management

    Doesn't have proper virtual cards, core for expense management

Best Expense Management Software Ranked & Reviewed

Watch our full breakdown of the top expense management software, how they performed in testing, and what makes each one worth considering

Recorded by our expert reviewers
Alex
and
Andra
Independent, hands-on testing.Learn more

How We Evaluate Expense Management Software

We score each expense management software across reliability, seamless receipt capture, finance visibility & controls, virtual & physical card management, user experience, and hands-on expert evaluation

  • Reliability
    Does the tech work consistently, with no duplicates or missing data?
  • Seamless Receipt Capture
    Does spend get logged without chasing people?
  • Finance Visibility & Controls
    Can finance see and control spend in real time without micro-managing the team?
  • Virtual & Physical Card Management
    Can you easily and securely spin up virtual cards?
  • User Experience
    Is the tool enjoyable to use, or does the team avoid it because it feels clunky and frustrating?
  • Expert Evaluation
    Curated by
    Alex
    and
    Andra
    , our rankings reflect in-depth testing, industry insights, and hands-on experience.
1
Ramp

Ramp

Ramp is our top pick in the expense management category for businesses that consistently hold at least $25K in their bank account. If that’s you, Ramp is an absolute winner—hands down. If you're tired of clunky expense reporting, slow corporate card processes, and feeling like your "finance stack" is duct-taped together, Ramp is awesone. We'd absolutely recommend it for modern companies—especially over traditional options like Amex or slow-moving legacy systems. (Oh, and it's totally free 👀)

Ramp
Go to Ramp site

What is Ramp?

What is Ramp?

Ramp is a corporate card and expense management platform designed to help companies control spend, automate finance tasks, and gain real-time visibility into expenses. It's a leader in the spend/expense management and accounting automation space, with a clean UI/UX, tons of reporting features, and fast search functionality. Ramp is built for scaling businesses who want better financial control without the friction of traditional banks.

They have a great UI/UX, tons of reporting/insights features, and a super clean and fast search functionality to find exactly what you're looking for:

Embedded Image
Embedded Image

Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons

Pros

Pros
  • Easy and fast onboarding
  • Clean and intuitive dashboard
  • Real-time transaction tracking
  • Strong accounting integrations (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, Kick)
  • Great receipt capture flexibility (SMS, email, mobile)
  • Generous cashback rewards (~1.5%)
  • iOS and Android Apps
  • Free

Cons

Cons
  • No "parent budget" feature
  • $25K minimum balance required to open an account
  • Minor delays for offline vendor transactions

Key Features

Key Features

Clean UI/UX

Clean UI/UX

Easy navigation with CMD+K search and an AI chatbot for help.

Spend Controls

Spend Controls

Easy to configure budgets via spend programs and card restrictions.

Receipt Matching

Receipt Matching

Automatic retries and Gmail integration for company-wide receipt fetching.

Pricing

Pricing
  • Cost: Free.

No annual fees, no user fees, and no hidden fees. Revenue comes from interchange fees and an optional paid tier for larger teams. BUT Important: You need around $25K in your business bank account at signup to get approved. Your credit limit will be based on your cash balance.

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2
BILL Spend & Expense

BILL Spend & Expense

Best for small businesses

Best for small businesses

BILL Spend & Expense is the best expense management software for small-medium sized businesses. The reason is because they are extremely accessible and do not require bank minimums like the other competitors do. Plus, it's totally free.

BILL Spend & Expense
Go to BILL Spend & Expense site

What is BILL Spend & Expense?

What is BILL Spend & Expense?

I'm sure you've heard of a business credit card? BILL Spend & Expense is a replacement for your typical corporate card. It's totally free to use (no annual fee), you get rewards and it has a much more comprehensive feature set, giving you the ability to create virtual credit cards for each vendor with spending limits. Further, BILL Spend & Expense is an expense management solution. Bought a new marketing software? Categorize it and when integrated with Quickbooks Online, it will automatically reconcile your books for you.

Simply put, if you are a business owner living in the United States, you are missing out if you're not using an expense management solution + a BILL Spend & Expense business credit card. There are other players in the market, and we've used all of the core competitors (Ramp, Brex, Expensify, and Airbase), and we're here to tell you to look no further than BILL Spend & Expense if you're a small business (Did we mention it's totally free? 👀)

Key Features

Key Features

Credit Card

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.

Employee Cards

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 & Expensecards 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.

Rewards

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 & Expenseto 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."

Travel rewards are also a perk with BILL Spend & Expense as they are partnered with TravelPerk. While we haven't cashed in our travel rewards yet, it's a great option for our next company retreat!

Eligibility Requirements

Eligibility Requirements

The BILL Spend & Expense eligibility requirements are way more accessible than that of Ramp and Brex (who both make their account criteria unnecessarily high). BILL Spend & Expense is great for startups and teams of all sizes, even if you're just getting your business started.

BILL Spend & Expense is the best tool in the spend management, business credit cards, budgeting, and basic accounting automation suite for most businesses of all sizes.

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3
Mercury Bank

Mercury Bank

Best for those already using Mercury

Best for those already using Mercury

The best business banking solution for startups and tech-forward small businesses. We've used so many business banks that got the job done, but Mercury is what business banking should feel like. It makes tedious tasks like invoicing and managing cashflow easy and, dare we say, enjoyable.

If you run a super traditional, check-heavy business and need branch access, keep a legacy bank as backup. But for most tech-forward SMBs, Mercury will give you everything you need. We've been using it for 4+ years, and you couldn't pay us to switch to another bank.

Mercury Bank
Go to Mercury Bank site

What is Mercury?

What is Mercury?

Mercury is the best business banking platform for US companies. We've tried every business bank out there over the years, and Mercury is truly the best banking solution, regardless of whether you're a small business, startup or large enterprise.

The UI/UX is top-tier. Treasury accounts are built in. You can spin up additional checking accounts in seconds. Invoicing and bill pay actually feel smooth. It just works.

Allocating funds is handled with simple automations, so we're never thinking about setting aside cash for payroll or taxes.

And what you won't get with any other business is a free Mercury Personal account so your money can flow between business and personal accounts quickly and seamlessly. And guess what? Any of your employees can get a free Mercury Personal account too (usually $240/yr).

Mercury has turned us (and many others) into people who say, "I love my bank" and actually mean it.

Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons

Pros

Pros
  • No monthly fees or minimums
  • Excellent UI/UX
  • Powerful sub-account automation
  • Fast, simple invoicing and bill pay
  • Strong integrations

Cons

Cons
  • No physical branches
  • No physical checkbooks
  • Customer support is not instant

Mercury Key Features

Mercury Key Features

Easy Setup and No Fees

Easy Setup and No Fees

We all remember the days of spending an afternoon in a stuffy bank with folders full of paperwork just to open a business account. With Mercury, you can open an account online in only a few minutes, for free. There are no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements, and no fees on USD payments or transfers, so even if your business is just getting off the ground, Mercury's tools and features are accessible.

Sub-Accounts with Automated Allocation

Sub-Accounts with Automated Allocation

If you're someone who uses the "envelope method," you'll love Mercury's sub-accounts. Once your primary account is created, you can set up as many additional checking or savings accounts as you'd like.

Having this option shifts money management from reactive to automatic. Instead of budgeting in spreadsheets or creating reminders to set aside funds for taxes, use Mercury to create separate accounts for things like payroll and taxes, then let automatic transfer rules do the rest. It's simple, but it completely changes the way you think about cash management.

Invoicing and Bill Pay

Invoicing and Bill Pay

I actually enjoy creating invoices in Mercury, and I'm not exaggerating. It just has a simple, clutter free interface, that isn't distracting or doesn't make me jump though hoops just to get the task done.

Time to pay a vendor? Literally drag and drop the bill into your dashboard or forward it to your bill pay inbox, and Mercury automatically populates and scans it. Then, in just a few clicks, you can take care of sending the payment, categorizing the expense, and even setting up recurring payments. Invoices are similarly smooth and will have you on your way to getting paid in minutes

Treasury Yield + $5M FDIC Coverage

Treasury Yield + $5M FDIC Coverage

Mercury is not a traditional bank, but all checking and savings deposits are safe, sound, and FDIC-insured up to $5M through partner banks and sweep networks. Plus, your idle cash can earn interest instead of sitting at near-zero in a traditional bank.

Unlike a lot of the other high-yield investment options, Mercury Treasury makes transfers actually fast, even same-day.

Free Personal Accounts

Free Personal Accounts

We've been Mercury personal account users for a while now, and even paid their $240 annual fee for a while because we just wanted the same Mercury banking experience for personal use too.

But now, any Mercury business account user can get a free personal account, which is a huge bonus. Remember those quick, intuitive features and tools we mentioned earlier? You can use those to simplify your personal finances, too. Plus, with everything under one roof, transfers between your business and personal accounts are almost instant.

Mercury Pricing

Mercury Pricing
  • Free: $0/mo. Best for startups and small businesses that need a powerful free business bank account (We're on this tier).
  • Plus: $35/mo (or $29.90/mo billed annually). Best for growing businesses that want advanced invoicing, ACH debit collection, expense reimbursements for larger teams, and enhanced accounting automations.
  • Pro: $350/mo (or $299/mo billed annually). Best for businesses with complex operations that need a relationship manager, unlimited invoicing via API, ACH debit with $0 transaction fees, and support for large teams.

Disclaimer: Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust, Members FDIC. Deposit insurance covers the failure of an insured bank.

4
Airwallex

Airwallex

Best for global spend & multi-currency

Best for global spend & multi-currency

We are huge fans of Airwallex for businesses that operate internationally and want to accept money across borders. With Airwallex, your customers can pay in their local currency, and you can keep the money in that currency (no forced conversions!). Better yet, you can spend funds locally using Airwallex's built-in expense management and multi-currency corporate cards.

This is our top pick for multi-currency payments, and we way prefer it over Wise. Wise is great for simple transfers. Airwallex is built for running an actual business globally.

Airwallex
Go to Airwallex site

What is Airwallex?

What is Airwallex?

Airwallex is a global finance platform built for businesses that operate internationally. It helps companies collect payments, send payouts, and manage money across multiple currencies without relying on traditional banks. The biggest advantage is that you can receive payments in local currencies and keep those funds in that currency. That means no forced conversions and fewer FX fees when paying global vendors or contractors.

Airwallex is a great fit for global businesses like ecommerce brands selling internationally, marketplaces handling payouts, or any company paying overseas contractors.

But if your business only operates domestically and rarely deals with foreign currencies, Airwallex is probably more than you need.

Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons

Pros

Pros
  • Multi-currency accounts with local bank details
  • Global payouts to 200+ countries in 60+ currencies
  • Competitive FX rates compared to traditional banks
  • Built-in corporate cards and expense controls that work globally
  • Integrations with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Xero, and QuickBooks
  • Free business account

Cons

Cons
  • Overkill for businesses operating in a single currency
  • Some advanced features geared toward global teams

Key Features

Key Features

Multi-Currency Accounts

Multi-Currency Accounts

Airwallex lets businesses create local bank accounts in multiple currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, and AUD. This allows companies to collect payments like a local business in different countries and hold those funds without immediate conversion.

Global Payouts

Global Payouts

Businesses can send payments to vendors and contractors in 200+ countries using local payment rails. This usually means faster transfers and lower fees compared to traditional international wires.

Corporate Cards and Expense Management

Corporate Cards and Expense Management

Airwallex includes virtual and physical corporate cards. They make things like spend control, budgeting, and expense tracking so much easier.

But what's really cool is that you can spend directly from foreign currency balances with Airwallex. So get paid $10k in USD and pay your US vendors in USD without ever converting the funds.

Pricing

Pricing

Airwallex offers a free business account, so it's super easy to get started without up-front costs. (A no-brainer!)

  • Explore: Free. Best for startups and small businesses that want multi-currency accounts, global transfers, and corporate cards without paying a monthly fee.
  • Grow: Paid plan designed for scaling businesses that need more advanced spend controls, expense management, and financial automation tools.
  • Accelerate: Higher-tier plan built for larger companies with complex financial operations and higher transaction volumes.

In addition to subscription tiers, Airwallex charges transaction-based fees depending on how you use the platform. FX conversions typically include a tiny markup above the interbank rate, which is still significantly cheaper than most traditional banks.

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5
Expensify

Expensify

For those who don't want to switch credit cards

For those who don't want to switch credit cards

Expensify handles receipt scraping and syncing with accounting software, but falls short compared to newer expense management tools that start with virtual credit cards for smoother categorization. Skip Expensify unless you only need basic receipt forwarding, since more modern options do the job better.

Expensify
Go to Expensify site

What is Expensify?

What is Expensify?

Expensify is one of the original expense management solutions on the market. We actually used Expensify for the first few years in business.

It started as a simple invoice/receipt scraping tool that you'd forward your receipts into receipts@expensifydotcom via email, and it would pull out all of the details, learn from past classifications, and sync that over to your accounting software like QBO or Xero.

They have more recently moved into the virtual credit card experience, realizing that if the charge starts with a virtual credit card, all the categorization is way more consistent and seamless.

6
Brex

Brex

For startups using Capital One as their business bank

For startups using Capital One as their business bank

Brex has been known for randomly shutting down accounts if you don't fit into their ICP, and since the Capital One acquired them many have left out of fear of the fate of Brex.

Go to Brex site

What is Brex?

What is Brex?

Brex a spend management platform for venture-backed startups and large teams. They also have a lightweight banking product called Brex Cash that functions as a simple business checking account.

We evaluated Brex years ago while comparing corporate card platforms. At the time it looked promising, and a lot of startups were using it for business banking. But the reality is Brex isn’t really designed to be your primary business bank, it's much more of an expense management platform built for startups that have raised serious venture capital.

The product has taken a strange turn over the past few years. After onboarding a large number of small and mid-sized businesses, Brex abruptly shut down access for many of those smaller accounts (including ours! I guess we weren't "startup" enough) and repositioned the platform almost entirely toward venture-backed startups or companies doing roughly $400K+ in monthly revenue.

For that reason, Brex isn't going to be something we recommend. But even if that weren't the case, when you compare the actual day-to-day experience, especially things like UI/UX and automated expense reconciliation, newer platforms like Ramp and BILL Spend & Expense have pulled ahead for most modern SMBs.

Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons

Pros

Pros
  • Designed specifically for venture-backed startups
  • Virtual cards and spend controls are easy to set up
  • Startup perks and partnerships (especially through YC)

Cons

Cons
  • Not available to most small businesses anymore
  • Accounts have historically been closed or restricted unexpectedly
  • UI/UX and accounting automation lag behind competitors
  • Banking features are limited compared to dedicated business banks

Key Features

Key Features

Corporate Cards

Corporate Cards

Brex provides corporate cards designed for startups and larger teams. Their core offering is pretty much the same as competitors': issue virtual cards, set spending limits, and control how funds are used across different departments.

Expense Management

Expense Management

Transactions from Brex cards feed into expense reports, where AI categorizes purchases, matches receipts, and enforces company policies. Employees can capture receipts through the mobile app, while finance teams get instant visibility into budgets and spending across teams or projects.

Brex Cash

Brex Cash

Brex Cash is their lightweight banking product that acts like a checking account where teams can store funds and manage company spending. It works well enough for simple use cases, but it’s fairly barebones compared to dedicated business banking platforms like Mercury, which offer much deeper banking features and integrations.

Pricing

Pricing

Essentials: Free. Best for startups and small teams that want Brex corporate cards, basic expense controls, accounting integrations, and bill pay.

Premium: $12 per user/month. Best for mid-sized companies that need more advanced expense policies, approval workflows, multi-entity support, and deeper ERP or HRIS integrations.

Enterprise: Custom pricing. Designed for large global organizations that need unlimited entities, advanced implementation support, and a dedicated account manager.

Note: Brex is primarily available to venture-backed startups or companies generating roughly $400K+ in monthly revenue. Many smaller businesses will not qualify for approval.

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7
Rippling

Rippling

For enterprise teams already using Rippling elsewhere

For enterprise teams already using Rippling elsewhere

Rippling's target customer is large enterprises who want to use one tool for payroll, HR, IT, finance, and spend management. For smaller companies (sub 200 employees), there are other stand-alone solutions that might suit your needs better.

Rippling
Go to Rippling site

What is Rippling?

What is Rippling?

Rippling is an all-in-one platform that combines HR, payroll, IT, and finance tools into a single system. While that sounds appealing, really it ends up feeling like overkill for most small and mid-sized businesses. Rippling is built more like an enterprise operations system than a lightweight expense management tool.

8
QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online

Doesn't have proper virtual cards, core for expense management

Doesn't have proper virtual cards, core for expense management

QuickBooks Online handles accounting with a strong focus on US businesses, especially around US sales tax laws, and most US accountants are more familiar with it than with alternatives.

If you're in the US and need accounting software with a solid API, it's the standard choice, but don't rely on it for expense management, payroll, or time tracking because those areas are clunky, limited, and better handled elsewhere.

QuickBooks Online
Go to QuickBooks Online site

What is Quickbooks Online?

What is Quickbooks Online?

While QuickBooks Online includes some basic expense tracking features, it is not a full expense management solution. For example, QBO does not provide robust support for virtual cards or company-wide spending controls.

Key Features

Key Features

Expense Management

Expense Management

Some people have mentioned that QuickBooks Online allows for some expense management features like virtual credit cards, that said, a tool like Bill Spend & Expense (formerly Divvy) does so much more for expense management than simply allowing for a one-off virtual card though. Unlike QBO, a proper expense management tool allows you to go deeper, as it ties in individual and team budgets (across the entire company), all to ensure your company only allocates what they have budgeted for.

Receipt Matching

Receipt Matching

QBO also does not have proper receipt matching that automatically ties the receipt from your email to the individual transaction.

Credit Card Rewards

Credit Card Rewards

QBO does not have credit card rewards with their virtual credit card solution either.

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Our Verdict

1
Ramp

Ramp

Worth trying
Apps worth trying
These expense management-adjacent apps prioritize another category at their core, but their expense management features are strong enough that you should still consider them.
  1. Rho
    Rho
    Banking

    Built for larger funded businesses

    Built for larger funded businesses
  2. Relay
    Relay
    Banking

    Profit-First style money management

    Profit-First style money management
  3. Stripe
    Stripe
    Payment

    Best for large SaaS startups

    Best for large SaaS startups
  4. Numeral
    Numeral
    Sales Tax

    Best for automated sales tax compliance

    Best for automated sales tax compliance
  5. Kick
    Kick
    Accounting

    Best AI accounting for small businesses

    Best AI accounting for small businesses
  6. Deel
    Deel
    Payroll & HR

    Best for global hiring

    Best for global hiring
  7. Novo
    Novo
    Banking

    Simple and least powerful

    Simple and least powerful
  8. Gusto
    Gusto
    Payroll & HR

    Best payroll software for small businesses

    Best payroll software for small businesses
  9. Gelt
    Gelt
    Tax

    For high-income individuals and business owners

    For high-income individuals and business owners
  10. Xero
    Xero
    Accounting

    Best for non-US businesses

    Best for non-US businesses
  11. Polar
    Polar
    Payment

    Best for startups & SMBs who want automatic tax compliance

    Best for startups & SMBs who want automatic tax compliance
  12. Harvest
    Harvest
    Time Tracking

    Best for time tracking with built-in invoicing

    Best for time tracking with built-in invoicing
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