7 Best Expense Trackers for Business Owners (Updated for 2022)
Let’s face it. As a business owner, sorting through receipts and invoices is time-consuming, frustrating and incredibly dull. Your focus should be on scaling your business – not on labouring over crumpled pieces of paper and scouring through emails looking for receipts you were issued over the past year.
Having the right expense tracker in your toolkit can significantly help streamline the expense management process, getting you completely across the financial status of your company at all times.
Below, we’ll look into why you should invest in a high-quality expense tracking software – and suggest which ones we think are the best for small and medium business owners.
Why invest in an expense tracker
There’s always an excellent reason to invest in an expense tracker, whether that’s on your computer on your smartphone.
- Reduce headaches at tax time
When it comes to complying with your tax obligations at the end of the financial year, you can completely eliminate the need to spend the weekend sorting through all your receipts over the past twelve months. Everything will be on your expense tracking system – right there for you.
- Maximise accuracy and minimise mistakes
In every human process, there’s about a 2-3% error rate. Automation has ushered in a new era for expense management. It means we can massively reduce the number of mistakes we make when calculating how much we’ve spent over the past 12 months. And in accounting, something as simple as an extra zero can make all the difference.
- Boost your company’s transparency
Through robust and accurate expense tracking, you’ll know exactly where your expenses are going every single month. This puts you in a much better position to plan for the future and develop long-term strategic objectives to scale your business to the level you want.
The 7 best expense trackers we love
Here’s what you want to know. Below, we’ve outlined what we think are the best expense management tracking software on the market today.
- Xero ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Xero is single-handedly the best expense tracker for business owners no matter your size. It’s incredibly easy to use and is often referred to as the accountant’s tool for ‘non-accountants’.
You can easily integrate Xero with your bank account. It features various customisable options so you can generate virtually any report your business needs. It’s also extremely simple to navigate.
Xero’s dashboard is simple to use and beautiful to look at, where you can easily see at a glance all invoices owed to you, your bank account status, your expenses due and the total cash flowing in and out of your business.
You can also read our review on how Xero compares to other accounting programmes, such as MYOB and Quickbooks.
Platform: iPhone, Android, your web browser
Cost: Starting at $27 per month
See the most recent pricing on Xero’s website here.
- Divipay ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Divipay is one of the easiest expense tracking apps we’ve discovered. It’s great for small to medium sized business as well as startups who are looking to reconciliate their debit and credit cards, while easily managing their expenses.
DiviPay allows business owners to create an online credit card for themselves and for their employees. You can even set up a spending limit. After that, everything you spend on your card is automatically reconciled into DiviPay.
You can see transactions on your app real-time, as well as stop, cancel and pause any card activity you want.
Platform: iPhone, Android, your computer
Cost: Starts at $6 per user, per month.
- Quickbooks ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Quickbooks is one of the market’s leading (and affordable) examples of accounting software and expense management trackers. It places a heavy emphasis on its expense tracking feature and you can download it to various platforms.
You can access dashboards to manage your expenses in real time, and always keep up to date with every transaction your business executes. Track invoices, make sure you get paid on time and also stay on top of your taxes.
Why we didn’t give it 5 stars: It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Quickbooks can be a little complex and there’s lots to learn when you first download it. Sometimes it feels like you have to be an accountant to truly take advantage of its features.
Platform: iPhone, Android, your web browser
Cost: Starts at $17.50 per month (for small businesses) and $14 per month (for the self-employed)
See the most recent pricing here.
- Rydoo ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Rydoo is an excellent app for those who want something simple to manage their expenses. In that way, it’s ideal for businesses who are still growing and in their early stages.
It’s great for streamlining the way you track your expenses and allows you to do it without paying money to an accountant. It saves you a great deal of time, eliminates the need to input all your expenses manually and it does away with paper reporting.
You can upload your receipts using the app or using email, and the app automatically takes out the critical data from receipts and orders such data according to categories. You can input cash expenses, mileages and also generate nifty reports.
Why we didn’t give it 5 stars: It’s a bit too simple for our liking. For medium sized businesses, the app won’t be enough.
Platform: iPhone, Android, your computer
Cost: Starting at $10 USD per month
- Expensify ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Expensify is great if you work from home or are constantly travelling. When you have the Expensify app on your phone, you can simply take pictures of paper receipts and submit them into the app.
It can also import receipts from Airbnb, Uber and other resources you might use to get to and from places you need to be. You can import your expenses directly from your company card, eliminating the need to go through statements at the end of your travel.
It’s super convenient and also integrates seamlessly with most accounting software out there.
Why we didn’t give it 5 stars: It doesn’t track your balance. It’s literally just an expense tracker. Which is fine if that’s what you’re after.
Platform: Android, iPhone, your web browser
Cost: Starting at $14 per user, per month. Free options available.
Check the most recent pricing here.
- Freshbooks ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
Freshbooks is a great alternative to traditional expense management work on spreadsheets. It’s simple to input your business expenses through the app on the desktop or on your phone.
The interface is simple, the reporting is basic and you can very easily see your profit and loss status at any time. You can also sync it to your bank account, meaning you won’t have to manually input your expenses every time your bank statement.
There are also various plans you can download to accommodate your various needs, including Freshbooks Lite, Plus, Premium and Select.
Why we didn’t give it 5 stars: The mobile app is limited, as you can’t access your reports when on the go. It also doesn’t offer as many features as its competitors – especially its main rivals Xero and MYOB.
Platform: Android, iPhone, your web browser
Cost: Starting at $6 per month (Freshbooks Lite).
Check out the most recent pricing for all plans here.
- Microsoft Excel (yep, seriously) ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
While we all make fun of how painful spreadsheets are, there’s a reason why Microsoft Excel is still used by virtually all businesses across Australia. We’ve rated it 5 stars, but listed it here as #7 because, honestly, we thought we’d give some of the other apps a chance to show what they can do.
Excel spreadsheets have withstood the test of time when tracking your expenses – and it’s all free. No overthinking needed. Just get a great template, learn some basic formulas, and make it a habit to enter in your expenses once a week.
Platform: Your computer
Cost: Free (it’s usually pre-installed when you buy your computer)
Tired of doing your own expense tracking?
If you’ve looked over a number of expense tracking programs and have realised you’d rather not worry about it all, then you’ve come to the right place.
At 2account, we can manage all aspects of expense tracking. Our friendly, laser-accurate and high-quality accounting services are here for your business no matter its size.
We can handle all aspects of your expense management, so that everything you spend is automatically reconciled in the background and you always know exactly how much you’re spending on your outgoings.
Book a call with Renee, 2account’s lead accountant, or submit a query through our website. We’ll be more than happy to carry the burden, so you can focus on scaling your business the way you know best.
Please note that software is updated on a regular basis. The information in this article may be incomplete, inaccurate or outdated. Please do your own independent research and ensure the software you pick is right for your business before making any investment.