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    Top Spend Management Software Solutions in 2024

    • By ProcureDesk
    • August 15,2024
    • 10 min read

    Top Spend Management Software Solutions in 2024

    Top Spend Management Software Solutions in 2024

    An effective spend management software should allow a business to control costs by automating the purchasing process and providing better cash flow visibility.

    A spend management system should help you achieve:

      1. Control spending and increase profitability through the cost control process and budget management.
      2. Increase employee productivity through a streamlined purchasing process.
      3. Enhance cash flow visibility for the finance team and senior management.
      4. Integrate well with your current tech stack or accounting system.
      5. Help you track all expenses, including employees’ credit card expenses.

    Many spend management platforms can automate the purchasing process, but in our view, one size doesn’t fit all.

    A small business with fewer than 100 employees has very different business needs than a company with 1000 employees and a dedicated procurement team.

    So, we created this guide to help you choose the best spend management tool to streamline your expense management process. The guide covers complete spend management software that caters to businesses of all sizes and expense management software designed for managing credit card spending.

    We will start with covering our solution ProcureDesk and then provide additional tools that are grouped based on the size of the business (Small, Medium, and Enterprise)

    To learn more about our solution, keep reading schedule a free demo of ProcureDesk.

    ProcureDesk

    ProcureDesk Homepage

     

    Flexible Spend management software built to your requirements

    ProcureDesk is a complete spend management platform that allows growing companies with spend management, purchasing automation, AP automation, and expense management.

    We’ll discuss our key features and how they work below, but you can also schedule a personalized demo of ProcureDesk.

    During the demo, our team will consult with you to understand your current spend management process and how you currently manage purchasing and employee expenses. Then, the team will tailor the demo to show you exactly how ProcureDesk addresses these challenges.

    Control Costs Through Budget Management

    A cost control process is essential for effective spend management. The process allows your organization to optimize spending by ensuring appropriate managers approve purchase requests and check for budgets.

    ProcureDesk makes it super easy to control costs through approval workflows.

    A configurable workflow engine makes the cost control process easy to configure. The system also allows you to set up auto-approval rules to automatically approve requests below a certain amount.

    Here is how to setup approval workflows in ProcureDesk:

    Purchase Order Approval Workflow

    The system sends automated notifications so managers can stay on top of their approvals. Approvals can be managed on the mobile app, through a web portal, or directly from your Inbox.

    The second aspect of cost control is ensuring that budgets are available before purchasing, especially when managing capital projects where precise budget adherence is essential.

    Related: Procurement Cost Control

    ProcureDesk plays a key role by linking purchase requests directly to budget data, offering real-time visibility into available funds.

    When a purchase request is made, the system automatically checks if it fits within the allocated budget. If a request risks exceeding the available funds, the system immediately flags it, preventing unintentional overspending.

    By integrating budget controls into the purchasing process, ProcureDesk ensures that every expense is aligned with financial goals from the outset. Managers and project leads can quickly assess whether funds are available, allowing for better planning and timely decisions.

    The budget dashboard provides continuous tracking of budget status, enabling teams to monitor spending throughout the project lifecycle. This transparency enhances accountability and reduces the likelihood of unexpected financial challenges.

    By combining automated budget checks with real-time reporting, ProcureDesk offers a comprehensive approach to managing capital project spending, keeping both day-to-day operations and long-term investments on track.

    Monthly Budget Detail

    Enhanced Purchasing Process

    An easy-to-use purchasing process best supports an effective spend management strategy.

    The simpler the process to adopt, the better results from your spend management initiative.

    ProcureDesk makes it super easy to order supplies your employee needs to run the operations.

    Imagine you’re an employee trying to order supplies for your department.

    You don’t want to spend time figuring out a complicated procurement system—you want to shop like you do at home. That’s where ProcureDesk’s punchout catalogs come in.

    With over 200 punchouts available, you can easily browse and order from your favorite suppliers, just like shopping online.

    Let’s say you need to order some office supplies. You click on the supplier’s punchout, which takes you straight to their website.

    You pick what you need, add it to your cart, and when you’re done, all the details—like the products, quantities, and prices—automatically flow back into ProcureDesk.

    Here is how it works:

    purchase_requisition_from_Amazon

    Everything is tied to your company’s purchasing rules, so you’re not overspending or bypassing approval processes.

    It’s like having the convenience of online shopping but with built-in checks to ensure everything aligns with your company’s budget and compliance needs.

    What makes it even better is the visibility you get with the dashboard.

    You can track your order from start to finish—no more wondering where it’s stuck. You see if it’s waiting for approval, if it’s been ordered, or when it’s expected to arrive.

    This transparency makes the process smoother for you and the finance team. It also saves time because you don’t have to follow up constantly or guess what’s happening with your request.

    Supplier Catalogs: Purchase Order Dashboard

    This central hub ensures that nothing slips through the cracks, whether it’s a delayed approval or an order that has yet to be placed.

    In short, ProcureDesk takes the hassle out of buying what you need. It’s familiar, easy, and gives everyone the necessary visibility to stay on top of their orders. You don’t need to chase down approvals or worry about where your request is in the process. Everything is clear, simple, and in one place.

    Related: Why Mid-Market Companies Should Automate Purchasing Process

    Enhancing Accounts Payable Workflow

    Managing accounts payable (AP) effectively requires more than just paying bills—it involves accurate cash flow forecasting and a well-organized approval process.

    ProcureDesk simplifies this by offering tools that keep every aspect of the AP workflow in check, from invoice approvals to running accrual reports.

    First, let’s talk about tracking invoice approvals.

    With ProcureDesk, the status of every invoice is visible at all times. No more chasing down department heads or wondering where an invoice is stuck.

    The system automatically routes invoices through the necessary approvals, ensuring nothing gets held up and that you’re always aware of pending approvals.

    Invoice_payment_dashboard

    ProcureDesk also streamlines the AP process through automated 3-way and 2-way matching. For those unfamiliar, the 3-way match verifies that the purchase order, receiving document, and invoice all match before payment is made.

    The 2-way match focuses on matching the purchase order and invoice.

    By automating these checks, ProcureDesk helps you avoid discrepancies, reduce errors, and keep the process running smoothly. The result? Faster approvals and fewer back-and-forths between finance and procurement.

    Invoice_matching_Dashboard_ProcureDesk

    When it comes to cash flow forecasting, one of the biggest challenges is knowing what’s owed and when. ProcureDesk offers detailed accrual reporting that gives you a clear picture of what’s invoiced but not received and what’s received but not yet invoiced.

    These reports allow you to anticipate future payments more accurately and avoid surprises when it comes time to close the books.

    Managing Employee Expenses And Reimbursements

    With ProcureDesk, managing credit card expenses is straightforward.

    The platform automatically pulls transactions from various credit card providers and notifies users as soon as new charges appear.

    This gives finance teams instant visibility into company spending without the need for manual data entry or chasing down receipts.

    Categorizing expenses, matching them to budgets, and keeping records accurate becomes much easier.

    The mobile app experience takes convenience a step further. Employees can manage expenses directly from their phones—whether they’re traveling or working remotely.

    The app allows users to upload receipts by taking a picture, categorize transactions quickly, and even approve expenses on the go.

    The interface is designed for simplicity, making it easy for everyone to stay on top of their expenses without getting bogged down by paperwork.

    Mobile app for approvals

    Additionally, employees can submit reimbursement requests for out-of-pocket expenses directly through the app. They can attach receipts, submit the request, and track the approval status from start to finish.

    This streamlined approach speeds up reimbursements and ensures that employees are never left wondering when they’ll be reimbursed.

    ProcureDesk makes expense management smooth and efficient. With automatic transaction tracking, an easy-to-use mobile app, and the ability to manage reimbursements on the go, employees and managers benefit from greater transparency and less hassle.

    Improving Spend Visibility Across The Organization

    Visibility into company spending is essential for financial control and efficiency. ProcureDesk’s dashboard and reporting features are designed to ensure all stakeholders have a clear and up-to-date view of expenses.

    The dashboard centralizes critical data, offering real-time insights into budgets, approved purchase orders, and invoices. Whether you’re a CFO, controller, or department manager, the dashboard provides at-a-glance summaries of key metrics like total spend, pending approvals, and upcoming payments.

    You can easily identify categories where you are spending the most money, for example – SaaS subscription, Marketing, Sales, Raw materials etc.

    Here is a quick overview of the Spend dashboard:

    Beyond the dashboard, ProcureDesk’s reporting tools allow users to generate detailed reports tailored to specific needs. For example, a controller can quickly pull a report showing spend against budget across departments or review detailed transaction histories. A member of the strategic sourcing team needs item-level data to report on spending in a category.

    These reports can be customized by date, vendor, category, and other filters to ensure decision-makers have the information they need in the preferred format.

    This level of visibility ensures that everyone involved—from procurement teams to finance—can track spending trends, catch issues early, and make informed decisions that align with business goals.

    Pricing

    Different pricing plans cover different functionality of the spend management software.

    Here are the different packages:

    ProcureDesk Pricing

    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.

    Integration With The Accounting or ERP 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 various accounting systems, including QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, Sage Intacct, NetSuite, and Microsoft Business Central. The system offers an out-of-the-box integration with bill payment software like Bill.com.

    Procurify

    Procurify HomePage

    Procurify provides a complete suite of spend management solutions that help companies keep costs under control.

    Procurify provides a complete suite of spend management solutions that help companies keep costs under control.

    Notable 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.
    Related: ProcureDesk vs Procurify

    Pricing

    Procurify doesn’t mention pricing on its website. But they do offer a complete procure-to-pay automation solution.

    You can visit Procurify’s website to request pricing.

    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.

    1. We recommend that you start with the Pioneer package.
    2. If you need single sign-on capabilities, then upgrade to the voyager plan.

    Precoro

    Precoro Homepage

    Precoro helps companies with spend management by automating their manual processes.

    Notable 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.
    Related: ProcureDesk vs Precoro

    Pricing

    Precoro Pricing

    • Precoro’s pricing begins at $249 when billed annually.
    • They offer 3 tiers, namely Core, Automation, and Suite.

    Visit Precoro’s website to explore their packages and 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:

    1. Creating and managing supplier information.
    2. 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.

    Kissflow

    Kissflow Homepage (1)

    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.

    Notable 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.

    Pricing

    Kissflow Pricing

    Kissflow’s pricing starts at $1,500/month. Enterprise package is at custom pricing. You can visit their website to explore more on their packages.

    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.

    Coupa

    Coupa Homepage

    Coupa is the market leader in 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.

    Notable 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.
    Related: Best Coupa Procurement Alternatives

    Pricing

    Coupa doesn’t mention the pricing on their website. You have to connect with a sales representative to get the pricing.

    Airbase

    Airbase Homepage

    Airbase is a comprehensive spend management platform designed for small to mid-sized businesses, offering solutions for expense tracking, approvals, and payments.

    Notable Features

    • Unified platform for AP, expense management, and corporate cards.
    • Real-time spend tracking with built-in approval workflows.
    • Automated accounting and integrations with major ERP systems.
    • Virtual and physical corporate cards with customizable controls.
    • Flexible reporting and visibility tools for budget tracking.

    Pricing

    airbase pricing

    Airbase offers three package options: Enterprise, Premium, and Standard. Pricing details aren’t listed on their website, so you’ll need to visit and request a custom quote.

    Jaggaer

    Jaggaer Homepage

    Jaggaer offers an extensive procurement platform focused on spend management, supplier management, and sourcing, catering to large enterprises and organizations.

    Notable Features

    • Comprehensive supplier management and sourcing capabilities.
    • Advanced analytics for spend visibility and cost control.
    • Integrated procurement solutions covering the entire source-to-pay process.
    • Flexible contract management with automated compliance checks.
    • Supplier risk management tools for better decision-making.

    Pricing

    The vendor doesn’t provide pricing on their website, please reach out to the vendor directly.

    SAP Ariba

    SAP Ariba Homepage

    SAP Ariba is a leading procurement and supply chain solution that connects businesses to a vast network of suppliers, providing robust tools for sourcing, procurement, and supplier collaboration.

    Notable Features

    • End-to-end procurement solutions from sourcing to payment.
    • Integration with the SAP ecosystem for seamless data flow.
    • Access to the Ariba Network, one of the world’s largest digital marketplaces.
    • Advanced spend analytics and reporting tools.
    • Supplier collaboration features for better visibility and relationship management.

    Pricing

    The vendor doesn’t provide pricing on their website, please reach out to the vendor directly.

    Spend Management For Credit Cards

    Ramp

    Ramp Homepage

    Ramp is a corporate card and spend management platform focused on helping businesses save money through smart expense controls and automation.

    Notable Features

    • Automated expense categorization and receipt matching.
    • Real-time reporting and spend insights.
    • Built-in savings insights to help cut unnecessary costs.
    • Unlimited virtual and physical cards with customizable limits.
    • Tight integrations with accounting software for simplified reconciliation.

    Pricing

    Ramp Pricing

    Ramp provides three package options tailored to different business needs. To explore the features and inclusions of each package, visit their website and find the best fit for your company.

    Brex

    Brex Homepage (1)

    Brex offers an all-in-one finance platform tailored for startups and scaling companies, combining corporate cards, spend management, and business banking.

    Notable Features

    • Rewards program optimized for business growth.
    • Flexible credit lines without requiring personal guarantees.
    • Automated spend controls and real-time tracking.
    • Multi-currency support for global transactions.
    • Integration with accounting tools for streamlined expense management.

    Pricing

    Brex Pricing (1)

    Brex offers three packages: Essentials, Premium, and Enterprise. The Essentials package starts at $0/month, while the Premium package is $12/month, ideal for mid-sized companies looking to scale. To learn more about their features and smart cards, reach out to Brex directly.

    Expensify

    Expensify HomePage

    Expensify is a popular expense management tool known for its user-friendly interface and automation features for tracking receipts, submitting expenses, and reimbursing employees.

    Notable Features

    • Automated receipt scanning and SmartScan technology.
    • Direct reimbursement and corporate card reconciliation.
    • Customizable approval workflows and expense policies.
    • Integration with accounting and payroll systems.
    • Mobile app with full expense reporting functionality.

    Pricing

    The vendor does not disclose pricing on their website. To get detailed pricing information, contact their sales team directly.

    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.

    Related: 7 Best Purchasing Management Software In 2024

    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.

    Related: Purchase Order Software Compatible with Sage Intacct

    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.

    What you should do now

    Whenever you’re ready… here are 4 ways we can help you scale your purchasing and Accounts payable process.

    1. Claim your Free Strategy Session. If you’d like to work with us to implement a process to control spending, and spend less time matching invoices, claim your Free Strategy Session. One of our process experts will understand your current purchasing situation and then suggest practical strategies to reduce the purchase order approval cycle.
    2. If you’d like to know the maturity of your purchasing process, download our purchasing process grader and identify exactly what you should be working on next to improve your purchasing and AP process.
    3. If you’d like to enhance your knowledge about the purchasing process, check out our blog or Resources section.
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