15 Best Expense Management Software in India

Introduction

Businesses in the past had warehouses full of ledgers and journals pertaining to years of transactions. While they had to maintain them for compliance issues, the entire process was cumbersome and unoptimized. 

Today, automation and technology have significantly changed the landscape and made finance management more holistic and clutter-free. It has brought about greater efficiency and enabled businesses to deploy their human resources better. 

Managing business expenses to the optimal level is one of the key endeavors of every business, and manually doing so may not prove as fruitful as a business would desire.

What is expense management software?

Expense management software is often brought into the mix to cut unwanted slack and ensure that expenses are paid on time. This software automates the recording, tracking, approval, and payment of reimbursable expenses incurred by the organization. It also helps them compare the standard costs with actuals, enabling them to understand the areas of improvement and those running optimally. 

While having expense management software is vital for your business, how do you choose the right one for your specific needs?

Suggested readings: Benefits of Expense Management Software

Here’s a short video on how Emkay chose the right one for them.

To help you further, we have created a list of the top 15 expense management software in India. Read further to know the right time to integrate an expense management solution and how to choose the one that fits your needs. 

List of TOP 15 Expense Management Software in India

• Happay
• SAP Concur
• Expensify
• Itilite
• Zoho Expense
• Fyle
• TravelPerk
• QuickBooks
• Brex
• TripActions
• Zento
• Finly
• Gorilla Expense
• Coupa
• Curio

Top 15 expense management software in India – Comparative Table

It takes a lot of work to track and manage expenses daily, let alone monthly, quarterly, or annually. That’s where expense management software comes in! These software companies help you manage your finances by tracking your expenses, categorizing them, and providing regular reports. 

Here is a list of the top 15 expense management solutions in India

Company Name	Top features	Pricing	ROI	Customer support	Ease of use	Feature rating
Happay	-Expense Auto Capture from 7+ sources -SmartAudit for policy violations -Quick approval process	Contact for pricing
SAP Concur	-Quick approval workflows -Real-time expense tracking	Starts from $8
Expensify	-Simplified expense approval process -Automated admin reminders	$5/-$9
ITILITE	-Receipt capture -Expense Report Creation	$6.99- $7.99
Zoho Expense	-Detailed reporting capabilities -Smart categorization	$5/ – $8/
Fyle	-Approval process control -Accurate receipt tracking	Starts from $6.99/
TravelPerk	-Manage travel policies -Pay and manage invoices on the go	Starts from $99/ per month	NA			NA
QuickBooks	-Support for multiple integrations -Advanced accounting features	Starts from $40/ per month
Brex	-Third-party integrations -Detailed expense reports	Contact for pricing
Navan(TripActions)	-Real-time trip notifications  -Travel itinerary and flight status updates -Digital receipt management	Contact for pricing
Zento	-Custom management reports -Seamless ERP integration	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA
Finly	-Expense aging tracking -Approval process control	Starts from $1,000 per month
Gorilla Expense	-Expense reimbursement management -Real-time expense tracking	Starts from $1,750/ flat
Coupa	-Streamlined payment features -Dedicated supply chain planning -Strategic global sourcing	NA
Curio	-Catalogue management	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

1. Happay

Happay’s expense management software is an end-to-end cloud-based solution that tackles all your spend management problems. It has unique features like smart audit, automatic GST calculation, robust deviation workflows, multi-system integrations, and more. 

Happay’s interactive dashboards give you a 360-degree in-depth view of all travel and expense data. They give you pre-generated reports from the first day of usage and control over every penny spent. 

What’s more? 

Happay offers a coveted petty cash management module that lets you control spending at various micro levels from one central seat. For example, a company can use the petty cash module to effectively disburse and monitor cash to various branches without any loss in data or cost leakages. 

Read also – A Guide to Expense Management

2. SAP Concur

SAP Concur is a SAP SaaS solution for corporate travel and expense management. It is a cloud manager capable of collecting and monitoring data in real-time. It integrates with SAP on-premise solutions and aims to bring efficiency to business processes. 

Looking for SAP Concur alternatives? Read this comprehensive blog on 5 Best SAP Concur Alternatives for detailed information. 

3. Expensify

Expensify is an easy-to-use expense management software suitable for all business sizes – from small entrepreneurs just starting to large corporations needing streamlined expense tracking. The software offers detailed reports to help you identify areas where you can save money on your expenses. Its intuitive design makes it easy for non-tech-savvy business owners to use it effectively.

4. ITILITE

Designed for business owners, ITILITE is an expense and travel management software that offers easy-to-use tools to track and manage expenses. You can use the software for budgeting, project management, and invoice processing.

It also offers real-time audits to find and manage cost leakages proactively. In addition, it offers integrations with several ERP tools to ensure hassle-free travel and spend management for organizations of all sizes. 

Future read: Best ITILITE Alternatives and Competitors

5. Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is an expense management software platform that offers an array of features to help you stay organized and track your expenses. The app has three default user roles – Submitter, Approver, and Admin for clutter-free expense reporting and approval. Also, it is available on iOS and Android platforms, making it easy-to-use, and available on the go. 

Future read: Best Zoho Expense Alternatives and Competitors

6. Fyle

Fyle is an expense management software that helps you track and manage your expenses. It offers an easy-to-use interface and categories for all expenses, such as travel, food, entertainment, etc. You can add notes and make monthly expense comparisons for deeper insights and improved tracking.

7. TravelPerk

TravelPerk offers state-of-the-art technology combined with a simple and intuitive user interface for diverse corporate spend management. It offers a centralized dashboard to book and manage travel reporting coupled with state-of-the-art technology and several management features to help you manage your business expenses. 

Future read: Best TravelPerk Alternatives and Competitors

8. QuickBooks

QuickBooks is an expense management software that makes things simpler for businesses. It supports real-time bills and expense tracking. It also has support for employee time tracking to simplify billable expenses. In addition, it’s available in multiple languages, so businesses operating across the globe can use it with utmost ease. 

9. Brex

From payments, capital, cards, and spending management, Brex software supports all business needs and helps automate many spending requirements. It lets you create budgets and custom expense policies to delegate tasks efficiently and ensure optimum accountability throughout the team. 

10. TripActions

Suitable for business travelers, TripActions is a travel management software that helps you track your expenses and stay organized while on travel. It comes with features like budgeting, forecasting, and receipt management. You can also add custom fields and integrate TripActions with various accounting software applications to make tax filing easier. In addition, it also provides plans for different business sizes.

Future read: Best TripActions Alternatives and Competitors

11. Zento

Zento allows users to categorize their expenses into buckets, control their spending limits, and review their finances in real time. It also has features such as automatic import and export of transactions, cloud storage compatibility, claims tracking, etc.

12. Finly

Finly offers a range of spending management tools to provide insights into business spending and other departments, such as payments and procurement. It offers real-time business expense tracking to help companies find their pain points and resolve them proactively. 

Future read: Best Finly Alternatives and Competitors

13. Gorilla Expense

Gorilla Expense is an expense manager for those looking for an easy-to-use and comprehensive expense-tracking solution. Its variety of features and clear reporting format make managing your finances easy. 

14. Coupa

Coupa’s T&E (travel and expense) Spend manager is a solution that automates data entry for all your spend reporting needs. It offers its users seamless integrations combined with advanced OCR to streamline data entry and report generation. 

Read More: TOP 7 Coupa Alternatives and Competitors: A Closer Look

15. Curio

Curio is a fully integrated and automated travel and expense management solution offering various fulfillment services. These include real-time alerts, budgeting capabilities, and automatic reconciliation between accounts receivable and payable data, and they seek to automate the entire travel and expense lifecycle for their clients. 

Suggested reading: Tactics for Smart Expense Management in Business

When is the right time to find an expense management solution?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to when is the right time to find an expense management solution. 

For example, suppose you realize that your team cannot manage and keep track of all the expenses efficiently, and the current volumes are testing their human capabilities. In that case, you can consider switching from manual processing to an automated expense management solution. 

Alternatively, if the management believes that they want to deploy their human resources better, they can consider integrating any of the top expense management software in India listed above. It will open multiple avenues for improved utilization of human resources.

Read also – 10 Best Expense Reporting Software

What to consider when getting expense management software?

Expense management software is essential for anyone wanting to track their expenses. The right software can help you stay organized and manage your expenses effectively. 

But how do you choose the right software that caters to all your business needs? Here are some criteria to keep in mind while making a choice – 

1. Assess your needs and goals

The key to choosing any software for your business is to understand why your organization needs it and the challenges you are trying to counter with such an integration. 

For example, if you are suffering from high spend leakage and can not find the root cause of it, expense management software can help figure out the reasons and work on them. 

If any department is suffering from any expense-related constraint, you can get in touch with the team to understand their needs and find software capable of resolving their issues. 

2. Identify and decide on the most important features

Based on your assessment of needs and goals, the next step is to identify the features that your team would require. Divide these into must-haves and can-haves and use them to filter amongst the plethora of software available out there.

Ensure you prioritize user experience and an acceptable learning curve to ensure your team doesn’t face difficulties getting used to the new integration. Also, consider if employee training is necessary to help fast-track adoption.

3. Determine the project parameters

Expense management software can be a valuable tool in tracking your business’ spending. However, before making a purchase, it’s important to determine the project parameters you need monitoring for. 

It includes the type of expense tracking (individual or team software), level of detail (category, account, specific transactions, etc.), and frequency of data updates (daily, weekly, monthly). Once you have a good understanding of your project parameters, it’s time to assess the features offered by each program and decide which one best meets your needs. 

4. Consider pricing

ROI is one of the most vital considerations when choosing expense management software for your business. Look for software that’s adaptable and offers additional integrations, albeit at a cost. It would enable you to pay only for those features you will use.  

5. Customer support availability

No one wants to spend their time dealing with software glitches. That’s why choosing an expense management software with good customer support is important. 

Choose a company that is responsive and resolves problems quickly. In addition, be sure to consider the type of support available – telephone or online. Also, be on the lookout for software updates that can fix any existing issues and add new features. 

Read also – 9 Expense Management Best Practices

Why is the expense management software industry still booming in India?

The expense management software industry is booming in India for a few reasons. A rising middle class with increasing spending power, a growing number of small businesses and startups, and a wide array of payment options available to shoppers are just a few. 

But, most SMEs do not have access to funds needed to have a full-fledged expense management team to counter the rising intricacies of expense tracking. So, having expense management software acts as an alternative and helps them automate many of their expense tracking needs. It also enables them to operate at a higher productivity level and deploy their limited workforce with improved efficiency. 

Suggested reading: Best wireless expense management software

What makes Happay different from the other expense management companies in India?

Happay is one of the top expense management software in India. Here is what makes it stand out from the rest 

• Get 100% visibility into your expenses to bring more predictability and improved decision-making.
• Create enterprise-grade workflows and deploy enterprise-grade policies to minimize deviations across departments. 
• Get SAML-based single-click login, no need to memorize passwords.
• Save hundreds of man-hours with faster query resolution and improved compliance. 
• We help cut down paper usage by up to 95%, which helps cater to your sustainability endeavor. 

Conclusion

There is no dearth of expense and travel management software in the market. But businesses need to understand their specific needs to help find solutions that could work the best for them. 

For example, while OCR support would be useful for most businesses, support for mobile applications may not be a necessity for some. So, choosing an expense management solution requires detailed consideration and an in-depth understanding of how your business functions. 

At Happay, we believe in the idea of having a centralized management solution for all your expenses. So, be it expense, travel, or card outflows, our tool can integrate them all in a single place and offer a comprehensive view to our users. 

Click here to try Happay today. 

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