As a finance leader, you already know the importance of managing your spending well.
Having a good spend management software is a great start to help your business control your costs, and even see your real-time spending. It’s important if you want to stay competitive in today’s industry.
In this blog, we’ve picked out the top 5 spend management software options. These software solutions help businesses like you get smarter about spending. We’ll start with our tool Procuredesk. It helps small companies see and control costs better.
Each software we cover has different features. We’ll explain them simply. This way, you can find the best fit for your company’s size and needs. Let’s find the right tool to make your spending smarter.
Top 5 Spend Management Software In 2023
1. ProcureDesk
Pricing starts at $380/month.
ProcureDesk is complete spend management and procurement software that allows you to track all the cash going out of the door.
Whether purchase orders, invoices, or credit card expenses, ProcureDesk offers a single platform to track your spending, set up controls for effective spend management, and automate invoice management.
Pros
- Strong punch-out support that makes it easier to purchase from different websites without losing any discounts or manually copying and pasting the data
Cons
- There is no payment option like many other procure-to-pay systems. That means you can either pay from your accounting system or use a third-party payment platform like Bill.com
Best For:
ProcureDesk is best suited for small to medium-sized companies. The tool is domain agnostic and used by companies across verticals like Biotech, Professional services, construction, and many more.
If you are an enterprise company with more than $250M in revenue, ProcureDesk is not your solution.
Top Features:
Here are the top expense management features of ProcureDesk:
- Configurable requisitions make setting up a purchase requisition process that suits your specific needs easier.
- Budget internal controls ensure that you don’t go over budget. Define budgets at a granular level, like account, class, department, etc.
- Configurable approval workflows ensure that the purchase request is reviewed and approved at the appropriate level. Configure it once, and then forget about your compliance needs.
- Punchout catalogs to build your marketplace of your top vendors. No need to continuously update price sheets or copy-paste data from the different vendor’s websites. ProcureDesk supports integration with major favorite vendors like ThermoFisher, Fisher Scientific, VWR, and many more.
- Purchase order automation so scientists don’t need to spend their precious time creating and sending the purchase orders to the vendors. The system automatically sends the purchase orders to vendors.
- Purchase order tracking allows you to track the order acknowledgment and Advance shipping notice (ASN). Always know the whereabouts of your delivery without chasing the vendors and multiple email follow-ups.
- Receipts with lot tracking allow you to track granular receipt data. The lot tracking information ensures you know the expiration date of items like reagents.
- Visibility Into Inventory Levels so that you know the exact quantity of lab supplies you have at any time. Track inventory as per granular locations in your lab.
- Invoice matching ensures that your Accounts Payable and lab team are not spending time manually matching the invoices with the purchase orders.
- E-invoicing capabilities ensure that invoices are automatically captured from the vendors—no need to import invoices from emails. The system automatically receives and matches the invoices with the purchase order and sends it to your accounting system.
- Strong reporting and dashboard that provides cashflow visibility at your fingertips. Know exactly how much you spend on each experiment and forecast future costs.
- Mobile app support to ensure that you are continuing with the process on the go. No need to be in front of a computer to create, approve, or receive purchase orders and invoices.
Pricing:
Different pricing plans cover different functionality of the spend management software.
Here are the different packages:
Integration With The Accounting System:
If you don’t have an integrated spend management system, you must create the same transaction in your accounting system.
With integrated spend management software, the system automatically syncs the data with the accounting system so you don’t have to recreate the data.
Moreover, ProcureDesk imports master data like cost codes, charts of accounts, and department codes.
ProcureDesk integrates with different accounting systems that include:
2. Procurify
Starts at $1,000/month.
Procurify provides a complete suite of spend management solutions that help companies keep costs under control.
Pros:
- Product Catalog: Comprehensive product catalog for easy and organized procurement.
- Approval Routings: Flexible approval routings to accommodate various authorization needs.
- PO Punch-out for Some Vendors: Streamlined purchase order process with punch-out functionality for select vendors.
Cons:
- Ability to Have Concurrent Budgets Open for Different Years: Limited capability to manage concurrent budgets for different fiscal years.
- Inventory Capability: Lack of inventory management features within the system.
- Switch Items on a Requisition to a Catalog Item Before Cutting the PO: Inability to seamlessly switch items on a requisition to a catalog item before generating the purchase order.
Best For:
Procurify caters to small to medium-sized companies looking to automate their purchasing process.
Top Features:
- Purchase Request Management: Robust functionality, easy creation, and multiple submission methods, supporting both internal and limited vendor catalogs.
- Budget Management: Configurable budgets based on GL account, streamlined structure mapping, and real-time checks with visibility for approvers.
- Purchase Approvals: Flexible workflow based on approval groups, allowing different hierarchies for various locations or departments.
- Credit Card Expenses: Mobile app for easy expense report creation, consolidation of credit card spending, and a corporate card program.
- Spend Reporting: Detailed spending reports with user-friendly filters for better spending management.
- Integration With The Accounting System: Supports integration with QuickBooks and Netsuite, offering a bulk export feature and Procurify Open API for custom integrations.
Click here to read more about Procurify Features
Purchase Requisition Management
Procurify requisition management modules help employees to create purchase requests easily.
With the inbuilt catalogs, it is easy for employees to create purchase requisitions.
Procurify supports both self-managed catalogs and catalogs managed by the vendors, also called Punch-out catalogs.
You can create unlimited catalogs; however, the support for punchout catalogs is limited to a few vendors.
With the customizable workflows, you can route the request for approvals to different stakeholders. Procurify also supports approvals using a Mobile app. It makes it easier to approve requisitions on the go.
You can set up workflows based on the amount, location, department, GL account, and other common variables.
With built-in budget management, you can track budget consumption in real-time. This supports better Spend management and ensures the departments stay within the budget.
Purchase Order Management
With purchase order management, you can convert a purchase requisition into a purchase order.
You can also consolidate the purchase requisitions into a single purchase order.
The purchase order gets dispatched to the vendor.
It is not clear whether the system has any inbuilt vendor acknowledgment process. It might be a manual process to confirm the order receipt by the vendor.
However, you can create a receipt to track the purchase order delivery. This helps with the 3-way match process because the system can match the invoice with the purchase order and receipt.
Procurify has most of the common purchase order management system features.
Inventory Management
As per the Procurify website, there is no capability to track the purchased items’ inventory.
Supplier Management
Procurify allows you to track all your suppliers in one single place.
You can create and manage existing suppliers.
In addition to the basic supplier data management, Procurify also provides you with a performance scorecard.
With the supplier performance scorecard, you can track the supplier’s overall performance. The system calculates the performance score using delivery time, quality, and user ratings.
You also have the capability for the employees to rate the vendors.
Cost Control Dashboard
With a central Spend dashboard, you can see all your purchases in one single place,
For example, you can see total orders by the department and the top Spend categories.
You can then filter the Spend report by different date ranges and so on.
Pricing
Procurify doesn’t mention pricing on its website. But they do offer a complete procure-to-pay automation solution.
Here are the multiple packages on their website. You can call the vendor to get a price quote.
- We recommend that you start with the Pioneer package.
- If you need single sign-on capabilities, then upgrade to the voyager plan.
Pricing:
Integration With The Accounting System
Procurify supports integration with QuickBooks and Netsuite.
In addition to these two systems, the tool offers a bulk export feature to export the data in a CSV and then import it into your accounting system.
Alternatively, you can use Procurify Open API to set up integration with your accounting system.
3. Precoro
Starts at $35/month, billed annually
Precoro helps companies with spend management by automating their manual processes.
Pros:
The platform excels in offering comprehensive automation, seamlessly handling tasks from purchase requisitions to invoice approvals. This eliminates manual data entry, significantly reducing errors. There are no distinct packages; users gain access to all functionalities spanning from purchasing to invoice processing.
Cons:
For businesses requiring only a basic tool, Precoro might seem overly comprehensive, potentially adding complexity to the user experience.
Best For:
Precoro is best for small companies looking to automate their manual purchasing process and doesn’t need vendor punchouts.
Top Features:
- Purchase requisitions to automate the paper-based purchasing process.
- Automated Purchasing: Generate POs based on approved requisitions.
- Budget controls to ensure that you can control your spending.
- Customizable Workflows: Adjust the procurement process to match company needs, which includes approval by locations, departments, projects, and custom fields.
- Visual Spend Analytics: Gain insights into spending patterns.
- Cloud-Based Access: Securely access from anywhere, anytime.
- Integrated Supplier Database: Centralized vendor information and performance.
- Invoice matching that includes 3-way invoice matching.
Click here to read more about Precoro Features
Purchase Requisition Management
Precoro purchasing requisition module allows employees to create purchase requests quickly.
Employees can create purchase requests by entering the information manually, or you can select an item from an internal catalog.
When writing this article, there is no capability for punchout catalogs. That means you have to spend more time creating and managing catalogs.
The purchase request is sent for approval, and once it is approved, you can issue a purchase order for the vendor.
Purchase Order Management
With the purchase order module, you can create purchase orders from a purchase requisition or create a purchase order without a purchase requisition.
There is support for budgets so that employees can assign the budgets to a purchase order request.
You can also set up recurring purchase orders.
Inventory Management
Precoro supports basic inventory management features. You can set up new items for which you want to track the inventory.
Once the inventory item is set up, you can track inventory across multiple warehouse locations.
The users can then request an item from the inventory or purchase from the vendor.
The system also provides granular access control on who can order and request the release of inventory items.
Supplier Management
Precoro offers supplier management capabilities that include:
- Creating and managing supplier information.
- Inviting vendors for self-onboarding.
You can create suppliers one at a time or simply import the suppliers in bulk.
With the self-service, it is easy to onboard new suppliers.
The system also allows you to gather supporting documents like insurance certificates.
Cost Control Dashboard
The tools lack detailing reporting and a cash control dashboard.
However, there are three reports that a user can customize.
There is a purchase request report, order report, and a Bills report.
You can then filter and customize the report to find what you are looking for quickly.
Pricing:
- Precoro’s pricing begins at $35 per user when billed annually, encompassing all features with no distinct tiers for varying functionalities.
- The pricing also covers standard onboarding, support, and unlimited document storage.
Integration With Accounting System:
Precoro supports integration with different accounting systems – specifically. QuickBooks Xero and Netsuite.
The vendor also has an open API to export and import the transactions into your accounting system.
4. Kissflow
Price starts at $2,499/month (billed annually)
Kissflow offers procurement teams a simple way to automate their core business processes, and do away from manual tasks. It is a workflow engine that you can use to automate any process and its related workflows.
Kissflow has a procurement cloud module that offers spend management capabilities.
Pros:
Its primary strength lies in its versatility. Kissflow goes beyond procurement, offering the flexibility to manage various business processes and providing a centralized system.
Cons:
This versatility can be a drawback for companies specifically in search of a specialized procurement solution, potentially adding complexity to the user experience.
Best For:
Kissflow is best for medium to large-sized companies. Especially for companies that can leverage a general-purpose workflow tool for other applications in your company. For example, the IT ticket management process.
Top Features:
- Customizable purchase request process for creating the forms and fields to automate the purchase requisition process.
- Automated purchase order generation from approved purchase requisitions.
- Vendor management for setting up a vendor onboarding process through vendor registration and tracking vendor performance management.
- Analytics module to drive actionable insights from the purchase and invoice data.
- Process purchase invoices and perform 3-Way Match of invoices.
Click here to read more about Kissflow Features
Purchase Requisition Management
With the purchase requisition module, employees can create purchase requisitions electronically.
You can eliminate the manual paper process with purchase requisitions.
Like other vendors, Kissflow supports catalogs; however, the support for catalogs is limited to internal catalogs – the catalogs that are self-managed by the customer.
This could be an issue when the vendor provides many items, and the pricing often changes based on the market demand.
You can also set up Budgets for cost control.
The users can select the budget when creating a purchase request.
The approvers can see the budget consumption in real-time without calling their finance department.
Purchase Order Management
You can convert purchase requisitions into purchase orders with the purchase order management module.
One unique purchase management feature is that the approvers can see Spend insights while reviewing the purchase order.
The spend insights provide you with past purchase history. You can see past Spend and transaction details.
Inventory Management
At the time of the writing of this blog post, Kissflow doesn’t support inventory management capabilities.
Supplier Management
Kissflow allows you to set up and manage vendor information. You can create new vendors as well as edit information for existing vendors.
Kissflow also allows you to set up a workflow for vendor evaluation.
Let’s say you are a manufacturing company with very specific requirements around documents, certifications, etc.
You can set up a new workflow so that the vendor request gets routed to different stakeholders that need to review and approve the documentation provided by the vendor.
That speeds up the process and gives you a central place to document all vendor-related documents.
Cost Control Dashboard
Kissflow has analytics capabilities to support different reports and a cost control process.
You can see the budget vs. accrual trend or overall vendor performance.
The system allows you to track vendor quality trends and delivery performance like lead times.
Pricing:
The pricing variables are the number of users, transaction volume, and features.
Please check the vendor’s website for the latest on the pricing.
Integration With The Accounting System:
Kissflow provides out-of-the-box integration with different accounting and ERP packages.
That includes QuickBooks, Xero, Oracle Netsuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Salesforce CRM.
5. Coupa
Coupa is the market leader in the business spend management software (as per Gartner’s research).
Coupa provides a complete procure-to-pay solution for companies looking to automate their purchasing and AP(Accounts Payable) process.
Along with Procure to Pay automation, Coupa also has a suite of products designed for Procurement and Spend management professionals. For example, e-sourcing, spend analysis, and so on.
Pros:
Coupa stands out for its extensive spend visibility, providing a clear overview from requisitions to payments.
Cons:
Smaller organizations may find the platform overwhelming and less intuitive due to its extensive features.
Best For:
Coupa is suited for large enterprise companies with more than $500M in revenue.
Top Features:
- Unified Procurement Platform: Coupa provides a centralized solution for all procurement tasks, ensuring a streamlined and holistic experience.
- Guided Buying: The system actively guides users to make compliant, cost-effective choices, simplifying purchasing.
- Supplier Collaboration: Strengthen partnerships by easily collaborating with suppliers directly within the platform, facilitating effective communication and smoother transactions.
- Real-Time Visibility Benchmarking: Leveraging the power of Coupa’s community data, users can gain insights and benchmarks on their spending habits compared to industry standards.
- Advanced Approval Workflows: Customize and automate approval processes based on specific organizational needs, ensuring timely and compliant purchasing.
Pricing:
Coupa doesn’t mention the pricing on their website. You have to connect with a sales representative to get the pricing.
Integration With Accounting System:
Coupa as a management platform, leverages partners to implement the solution.
The partners leverage third-party ware systems to integrate the Coupa procurement system with other ERP systems.
It is unclear if Coupa has any built-in adapters for different accounting systems.
Coupa’s website shows the average implementation time is 6 to 9 months.
What Is Spend Management?
Spend management is an approach toward effectively managing company Spending with external vendors, resulting in better supplier relationships.
An effective spend management process ensures the company spends its money wisely and gets the best value from the vendors, thus boosting supplier management.
A Spend management process ensures that all corporate spending gets reviewed at the appropriate management level. It ensures that the management is completely aware of where the money is spent, with whom, and by whom.
Effective Spend management doesn’t stop at just management and avoiding unnecessary spending; it ensures that the department owners and key employees have full visibility into spending.
It enables the key stakeholders to review the spending and ensures they are spending it effectively.
Spend management is key to building a cost-conscious culture and effectively managing your company’s buying process.
What Is Spend Management Software?
Spend management software provides a complete platform for effective spend management.
Spend management software automates the entire purchasing process from purchase request to the time purchase order is issued to the vendor.
An all-in-one expense management solution provides a cost control process for management to ensure they can influence the Spend at the time of purchase.
It also provides granular spending visibility so the management can make better decisions about future cost allocation.
The scope of spend management tools is based on the organization’s maturity.
For example, a large organization with a procurement department would need end-to-end capabilities that include e-sourcing, contract management, procure-to-pay, and AP automation.
On the other hand, a small to mid-sized company might not have a procurement department and only need Spend management software for real-time expense tracking. We are mostly focusing on the needs of small mid-sized companies
6 Spend Management Features To Consider When Evaluating Software For Your Organization
1. Purchase Request Management
The purchase request module automates the purchase requisition process so your employees don’t have to fill in paper requisition forms.
It increases the whole company’s efficiency by automating the manual purchasing process.
It enhances the employee experience by leveraging vendor catalogs and providing an online shipping experience for your employees.
2. Budget Management
Budget management allows companies to control spending by implementing budget controls within the supply chain, and ensure business finances are in good shape.
By implementing budget control, your finance department can make sure that you’re not exceeding your budget at all.
Companies also get real-time reporting about spending trending against the allocated budget.
3. Purchase Approvals For Spending Control
Purchase approvals automate compliance with the purchasing policy and provide an easy way to approve purchase requests.
The purchase approval process in your procurement process allows you to set up automated approval workflows so employees don’t need to determine the appropriate approver based on the purchase amount.
It also provides a simple and easy way to approve purchases.
4. Expense Reports (Credit cards)
With credit card expense management, you can provide a single place for your employees to submit their expense reports.
Whether for expenses on a corporate card (Physical or virtual cards) or reimbursable expenses, the expense reporting features enable easy ways to capture and report business expenses.
5. Spend Reporting
Accounting tools with spend reporting provides complete visibility into your company spending, giving detailed cost savings insights. With a single dashboard, management can see what is happening in the company.
Are there new office supplies being purchased?
Is there anything logged under recent employee travel?
All of these things can be monitored by simply using a spend management tool for your business purchases.
There is no need to export GL reports and match them with vendor reports. The intuitive spending dashboard provides all those details.
6. Integration With Accounting Software
Accounting integrations are important features when looking for a software to use. Your accounting teams will find it easier if you have a spend management software that manages all the purchase transactions offering cost savings opportunities.
You need those transactions in your accounting system to book the cost and gain better insight into employee spending.
With accounting software integration, the cloud-based spend management solution automatically syncs the data with the accounting system. Thus, making it easier for you to understand your bottom-line savings.
There is no need for redundant data entry when you have Spend management software that integrates with your accounting package.
FAQs
What Is Spend Data Management?
Spend data management is a crucial part of organizing, cleansing, and analyzing the spending information of your company.
To keep it simple- spend data management is about ensuring you have accurate and accessible data about all your expenses. This will help you get important insights to make better financial decisions for your company.
Let’s put it this way.
Think about spend data management like your cluttered drawer filled with receipts, invoices, and purchase orders. If you sort and categorize them, it becomes easier to search for what you’re looking for, right?
Now, it becomes easier for you to understand your company’s spending habits!
How Do You Choose The Right Spend Management Software?
Choosing the right spend management software for your business can be overwhelming, considering all the available options.
But to help you make things easier, here are some simple tips to help you choose the right accounting solutions for your business:
- Define your needs: Different platforms cater to different company sizes and industries. When you understand what your company needs, your pain points, and what you require from a tool- it becomes easier to filter out choices.
- Set your priorities: What features are you seeking in spend management software? Are you looking for expense tracking? Approval workflows? Reporting tools? Something to help you with management of contracts? Fraud prevention? List down all of these to make it easier for a tool.
- Research and compare: Create a shortlist of software options that fit your business well. Then, compare and contrast all of these with each other. Which one fits your business well? Which one has the features you’re looking for? Is there a tool that helps you manage your debit cards or even company credit cards?
The Bottomline
Overall, your finance teams can benefit by simply using a spend management software.
Using your expense management software, an effective Spend management strategy can save money and ensure compliance with your purchasing policies and other employee expenses.
Here are the typical results(based on our experience) you can expect for your accounts payable process with spend management software:
- Reduced purchase order cycle time by 40-50%.
- Reduced cost through better cost controls. Your results would vary, but most companies see anywhere between 1-2% of their annual purchase cost.
- Close books 30.5% faster because the purchase orders are in one place, and invoice matching is easier.
