7 Best Small Business Expense Tracking Apps

Rachel Abraham

Looking for a smarter way to manage your expenses as a small business? You might want to consider using one of the many expenses tracking apps out there. Some even have free plans or trials, so you can test them out before committing to one.

In this guide, we’ll run through 7 of the best small business expense tracking apps available in the UK right now. This includes the likes of Zoho Expense, Rydoo, QuickBooks, FreshBooks and many more.

And while you’re researching smarter solutions for your company, make sure to check out Wise Business. It’s a powerful international account for managing funds in multiple currencies, while also integrating seamlessly with accounting tools like Xero, Quickbooks and more.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Small business expense tracking app

Regardless of what industry your company operates in, it’s essential to have an efficient, streamlined process for managing business expenses. Apps and software can help enormously, automating the process to save time and improve accuracy.

Below, we’ll take a look at 7 of the most popular small business expenses apps in the UK:

  • Zoho Expense
  • Rydoo
  • QuickBooks
  • FreshBooks
  • Expensify
  • Ramp
  • Xero

Best expense tracking software for small business: overview

Before we look at each app in more detail, here’s a quick at-a-glance comparison of them all:

ProviderTrustPilot scoreMonthly costBest known for
Zoho Expense4.1 - Great¹£0 to £7 per active user (custom pricing available)²Expenses management
Rydoo3.1 - Average³£8 to £10 per user (custom pricing available)⁴Expenses management
QuickBooks4.3 - Excellent⁵£10 to £115⁶Accounting
FreshBooks3.9 - Great⁷£15 to £35⁸Accounting
Expensify4.4 - Great⁹From £5 per user¹⁰Expenses management
Ramp3.8 - Great¹¹$0 to $15 per user (custom pricing available)¹²Expenses management
Xero3.9 - Great¹³£16 to £59, plus £2.50 per user for Expenses add-on¹⁴Accounting

Comparing business expense tracker apps: criteria

To help you choose the right business expense app for your needs, we’ll focus on the criteria that really matters.

This includes - features and services, monthly subscription costs and integrations.

So, let’s dive right in.

Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is the online expense reporting app from the cloud software suite Zoho, commonly known for its accounting software.

It offers features such as:

  • Auto-scan, tracking and digital storage of receipts
  • Expense management for all kinds of expenses, including multi-currency purchases
  • Mileage tracking
  • Per diem allowances
  • Petty cash tracking
  • Personal and corporate card management
  • Automated employee expense reports
  • Travel expense management, including travel itineraries and configuration of travel policies
  • Employee purchase requests
  • Simple, customised and automated approvals
  • Reimbursements
  • Audit and compliance tools.

Zoho Expenses integrates with lots of different apps, including accounting software such as Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Xero and Sage. It also works with travel planning tools like Uber for Business, Lyft and GetThere, as well as other apps like Slack, G Suite, Office 365 and HSBC (for online reimbursement).

There are three plans to choose from with Zoho Expense - Free, Standard (£5 a month per active user) and Premium (£7 a month per active user).²

Free trials are also available, along with custom plans for businesses with over 100 users - contact Zoho for a quote.

Zoho has an ‘Great’ TrustPilot rating of 4.1, based on over 5,300 reviews.¹ Bear in mind though that many of these will be for Zoho’s other software, not just for its expenses app.

person-working-on-reports-with-documents-laptop-and-calculator

Rydoo

Rydoo is an expense specialist, an app just for managing employee spending. Its features include:

  • Fast, accurate, AI-powered receipt scanne
  • Automated credit card reconciliation
  • Mileage tracking, plus CO2 tracking for CSRD compliance and carbon accounting
  • Per diem management
  • Customisable policies
  • Real-time reporting
  • Improved compliance tools
  • Rydoo Smart Audit - an AI-powered tool for automatically detecting and flagging out-of-policy spending.

It integrates with 35+ other business tools,¹⁵ including Oracle NetSuite, Sage, QuickBooks, Xero, Workday, Uber for Business, Lyft, Bolt, Slack and Wise (ideal for reimbursing expenses in different currencies).

Rydoo has four plans available:⁴

  • Essentials (online self-service) - £8 per user, per month
  • Pro (online self-service) - £10 per user, per month
  • Business (personalised guidance) - custom pricing
  • Enterprise (personalised guidance) - custom pricing.

Rydoo has an ‘average’ rating of 3.1 on TrustPilot, although this is only from 10 reviews.³

QuickBooks

Intuit QuickBooks is known as accounting software, but one of its useful features is Business Expenses. This offers tools for automating the expense management process, through tools such as:

  • Connection to authorised banks and credit cards
  • Travel expenses and mileage tracking through the QuickBooks mobile app, along with on-the-go receipt capture
  • Real-time figures for easy collaboration with your accountant
  • Automatic organisation of expenses into tax categories.

QuickBooks integrates with a whopping 750+ business apps,¹⁶ including PayPal, Expensify, Zoho Expense and veryfi. It also integrates seamlessly with the Wise Business account.

QuickBooks has a choice of plans available, ranging from £10 to £115 a month, but all offer Business Expenses as standard.⁶

The accounting software has an ‘excellent’ rating of 4.3 on TrustPilot, based on over 15,900 reviews.⁵

Connect QuickBooks and Wise Business to manage and track employee expenses in multiple currencies.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

FreshBooks

Also known primarily as accounting software, FreshBooks offers Expenses & Receipts as one of its standard tools.

Features include:

  • Connect with your bank accounts and credit cards - recent spending updated daily
  • Automatic mobile receipt scanning in the app
  • Automatically bill clients for expenses
  • Tax-friendly categories
  • Project and budget-specific expense management
  • Multi-currency expenses.

The software integrates with 100+ business apps,¹⁷ including Slack, Todoist, HubSpot CRM, Square and Expensify. It also integrates seamlessly with the Wise Business account.

FreshBooks has the following plans available - Lite (£15 a month), Plus (£25a month) and Premium (£35 a month), along with a Select custom plan.⁸ It’s important to note though that not all of the app’s expense management features are available with the Lite plan.

The company gets a ‘Great’ rating of 3.9 on Trustpilot, based on over 940 reviews.⁷

man-checking-document-and-working-on-laptop

Expensify

Expensify is a specialist spend management app for businesses, offering the following features:

  • One-click, automatic receipt scanning
  • Import credit card transactions
  • Customisable workflows
  • Corporate card reconciliation
  • Multi-level GL coding
  • Advanced tax tracking
  • Audit and compliance
  • Delegated access
  • Custom business expense reporting
  • Spend trend analysis
  • Split expenses feature

The app also integrates with other business software, including QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, Workday, Uber for Business, Lyft, Trainline and Kayak Business.

Expensify has two plans available - Collect (£5 per user, per month) for small businesses, and Control (custom pricing, from £14 per user, per month) for larger businesses.¹⁰

The app gets an ‘Excellent’ rating of 4.4 on Trustpilot, based on over 500 reviews.⁹

Ramp

Ramp is a spend management platform, offering solutions for businesses of all sizes. Key features include:

  • Custom workflows to pre-build budgets
  • Full control over spending limits and submission requirements
  • Custom policies
  • Receipt capture and submission on the go
  • Automatic flagging of non-compliant expenses and out-of-policy spending
  • Sync with your ERP
  • Instant access to real-time expense reporting
  • Automatic reminders to staff.

The platform also has solutions available for travel, corporate cards, procurement, accounts payable and more.

It integrates with business software and tools such as Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, Outlook, Google Suite, Slack, Lyft and many more.

Ramp has two available plans - Free ($0 per user, per month) and Plus ($15 per user, per month - plus a platform fee based on team size). There’s also an Enterprise plan for larger companies, which has custom pricing. All offer automated expenses management, although all tools and features may not be available with the free plan.¹²

The company has a ‘Great’ rating of 3.8 on Trustpilot, although this is based on just 126 reviews.¹¹

Xero

One of the big names in accounting software, Xero has expense management as one of its standard features. Here’s what Xero Expenses has to offer:

  • Capture receipts and upload photos on the go in the Xero app
  • Analytics to monitor employee spending
  • Track mileage with built-in GPS
  • Self-service - where employees can claim expenses in the Xero app
  • Notifications when expense claims are submitted and reimbursements are due
  • One-click approvals
  • Real-time expense reports to see how business spending affects cash flow, identify trends and create accurate forecasts and budgets

Xero integrates with a number of other business tools and apps, all available through the Xero App Store. This includes Airwallex, Square, Stripe, HubSpot, Expensify and Revolut Business. It also integrates seamlessly with the Wise Business account.

Pricing for Xero ranges from £16 to £59 a month, depending on plan. Some basic expenses tools are included, but the full Xero Expenses package is an add-on costing an extra £2.50 a month per active user. It’s not available for the cheapest plan. ¹⁴

Xero has a ‘Great’ score of 3.9 on Trustpilot, based on over 9,040 reviews.¹³

Connect Xero and Wise Business to manage and track employee expenses seamlessly in multiple currencies.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

FAQs - Small business expense tracking

How to organise expenses for a small business?

All businesses will need to start with an expenses policy. This will outline the processes for submitting claims, timeframes for reimbursement, spending limits and lists of what is and isn’t a reclaimable expense.

You may also want to save time by automating processes, using one of the apps we’ve looked at above. These offer self-service tools, letting employees capture receipts and submit claims in handy mobile apps.

How to record expenses without receipts?

It’s really difficult to manage expenses properly without receipts, as these verify purchases and provide a paper trail for accounting purposes.

If a receipt is lost, it is still possible for the employee to reclaim the expense. However, they’ll need to provide some proof of purchase or a signed statement explaining the reason for the missing evidence. You may want to add a section into your company’s expense management policy to cover this kind of situation.

What business expenses should I keep track of?

There are lots of categories of business expense, such as:

  • Travel expenses, including fuel and mileage
  • Meal and entertainment expenses
  • Office supplies and equipment
  • Professional services
  • Software or professional subscriptions
  • Telecommunications
  • Training and education
  • Marketing and advertising
  • Maintenance and repairs
  • Miscellaneous expenses.

What is the best app to keep track of small business expenses?

Each business is different, so it’s important to find the tools that work for the specific needs of your company. Price is important, so look for an app that offers a free or affordable plan - with the option to scale up and upgrade as your business grows. All of the apps on the list offer this, including Xero, QuickBooks, FreshBooks and Zoho Expense.

Price isn’t everything though, as you need a solution that offers all the features and services you need. These aren’t always available (or are limited) on free plans.

Other key things to look out for include customer service and support, how user-friendly the interface is, and what other small business users think of the solution (you can find this information on review sites like Trustpilot).

Wise Business expense cards: international expenses made easy

If your business operates internationally and your employees are regularly spending time abroad for work, Wise Business expense cards could be the ideal solution for managing expenses.

wise-business-expense-cards

These contactless international debit cards work for spending and cash withdrawals in 150+ countries worldwide, with no foreign transaction fees or subscription fees.

Whenever someone spends or withdraws cash overseas, the currency is converted at the mid-market exchange rate, with just a small conversion fee to pay.

There’s also 0.5% cashback paid on all eligible spending.

Once you have a Wise Business account, you can order unlimited expense cards for just a one-off fee of £3 a card. You can add employees to your account, with controlled access - and you get full control over spending their limits.

What’s more, it’s easy to integrate Wise with your accounting tools, including Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, FreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite and many more. Plus, your accountant can easily access team spending insights.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀


Sources used:

  1. TrustPilot - Zoho
  2. Zoho - Pricing
  3. TrustPilot - Rydoo
  4. Rydoo - Pricing
  5. TrustPilot - Intuit QuickBooks UK
  6. QuickBooks - Pricing
  7. TrustPilot - FreshBooks
  8. FreshBooks - Pricing
  9. TrustPilot - Expensify
  10. Expensify - Pricing
  11. TrustPilot - Ramp
  12. Ramp - Pricing
  13. TrustPilot - Xero
  14. Xero - Pricing plans
  15. Rydoo - Marketplace
  16. QuickBooks - Integrations
  17. FreshBooks - Home

Sources last checked on date: 09-07-25


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This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.

We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.

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