Travel and Expense
Best Expense Management Features for Small Businesses
As your small business considers investing in expense management software, here’s a detailed overview of the best features to look for.
Why Small Businesses Need Scalable Expense Management Software
With limited time and resources, small businesses don’t need a complicated tech stack. Rather, they need software with advanced capabilities and flexibility. A solution that is scalable, user-friendly, and automated is far more valuable—and may be more affordable in the long run—than a handful of different software.
Must-Have Expense Management Features for Small Businesses
When evaluating expense management software, look for these must-have features:
- Receipt capture: Automatically turns receipts into digital data using optical character recognition (OCR) technology, reducing manual input and paper copies.
- Mobile expense submission: Allows users to submit expenses with mobile devices and gives managers the ability to easily approve on-to-go, speeding up the reimbursement process.
- Approval workflows: Standardize the approval process with a structured chain of reviews, creating a trackable, scalable system.
- Expense policy controls: Enforce compliance with built-in policy checks that flag out-of-policy expenses, maintaining consistency in real time.
- Real-time reporting: Provides a full picture of spending, giving small businesses up-to-date visibility into cash flow.
- Corporate card support: Automatically uploads card charges to user accounts, reducing manual labor and simplifying the reimbursement process.
- Accounting integrations: Enable expense data to flow directly between systems, centralizing spend information and eliminating manual re-entry.
- Reimbursement automation: Automatically and accurately reimburses employees in their preferred currencies, reducing errors and accelerating reimbursement.
Expense Management Features by Business Growth Stage
A growing business needs different support at different times. Throughout the four stages of business growth—Startup, Growth, Scale, and Maturity—certain features will matter more than others. Here’s what to consider and when:
- Startup: A business that is just getting started will need visibility and a strong foundation to build on. At this stage, accounting integrations, mobile expense submission, and receipt capture will reduce administrative overhead and provide more control over spending.
- Growth: As a business grows, it needs added control to reduce liability. Expense policy controls and approval workflows will ensure accuracy and compliance, while mobile expense submission and reimbursement automation reduce friction, errors, and delays.
- Scale: A scaling company is gaining complexity and needs consistency across the entire business. Real-time reporting, expense policy controls, and accounting integrations will provide visibility and maintain compliance, while corporate card support further streamlines processes.
- Maturity: By maturity, a company is focused on future strategy. Real-time reporting and accounting integrations will provide the necessary insight for budgeting and planning, while corporate card support and expense policy controls ensure spending remains compliant and in alignment with the company’s long-term financial goals.
How to Choose the Right Expense Management Software for Your Business Size
Many companies, especially small businesses, make the mistake of buying software with today in mind instead of tomorrow. Underbuying leads to software that is easily outgrown as the company expands, while overbuying means paying for complexity that only creates friction. Ultimately, a small business should look for a platform that is robust enough for its current needs but flexible enough to scale as it grows.
To avoid overbuying or underbuying, focus on these four areas:
- Platform vs. point solutions: Point solutions are the easiest way to fall into the overbuying trap because they’re built to solve specific issues and don’t often pair well together. A platform, on the other hand, is designed to house everything in one place, as well as integrate with other tools, creating a solid foundation that can scale alongside your business.
- Pricing: Expense management software differs in price depending on the provider. Familiarize yourself with the various pricing structures so you have a clear idea of what you will be spending now and how it will change as your business grows.
- Ease of use: No matter how much or how little technology costs, employees won’t use it if it’s confusing or difficult. The tech you invest in should make their jobs easier and not add to their workload. The SAP Concur mobile app and card feed integration, for example, take the guesswork out of expenses for business travelers. In a recent case study, John Lovasz, global Concur administrator at Crane NXT, said: “They get the feed from the credit card right into Concur. They don't have to go back and remember—was this on this day, which one is this? They have everything all set.” Consider how easy the technology will be for all roles to use, especially when traveling, before you seal your company into a contract.
- Future capabilities: Take the long view when evaluating expense software and consider how it will adapt as technology advances. The software you choose should be able to automate processes today but also have the ability to incorporate AI and other advanced technologies as they arise. SAP Concur, for one, has introduced Joule, a conversational AI assistant that is getting customers talking. Payal Bhattacharya, senior manager of financial technology solutions at BeOne Medicines, said in a recent case study: “For Joule, I'm super excited. You can literally ask anything and Joule will respond. The part that excited me most is that the expense report just gets created. For busy travelers—why not?"
Choosing the right expense management software for your small business can make all the difference. Talk to an SAP Concur solutions expert to learn about how Concur Expense can set your company up for success now and into the future.
FAQs
What expense management features do small businesses need most? Small businesses benefit most from expense management features that eliminate manual work and reduce the time employees and managers spend on administrative tasks, including mobile receipt capture, automated expense report creation, and straightforward approval workflows. Visibility into spending across the organization, even at small scale, is equally critical, as is the ability to enforce a consistent expense policy without requiring dedicated finance staff to monitor compliance manually.
How does Concur help small businesses manage expenses? Concur helps small businesses replace manual, spreadsheet-based expense processes with automated workflows that capture receipts, categorize expenses, and route reports for approval, reducing the administrative burden on employees and managers alike. The platform also gives business owners and finance teams real-time visibility into spending, making it easier to enforce policy, identify trends, and maintain accurate records without dedicating significant time or resources to expense management.
Can small businesses afford Concur solutions? Concur offers solutions scaled to the needs and budgets of small and growing businesses, with pricing structured around the usage rather than seats. When evaluating cost, small businesses should also consider the return on investment — the time saved on manual expense processing, the reduction in errors and out-of-policy spend, and the elimination of reimbursement delays can collectively offset the cost of the platform significantly.
What is OCR receipt capture and why does it matter for small businesses? OCR, or optical character recognition, receipt capture uses intelligent technology to automatically read and extract key information from a receipt, including the merchant, date, and amount, and populate an expense entry without requiring manual data entry. For small businesses, this capability meaningfully reduces the time employees spend on expense reporting and the errors that result from manual entry, while also creating a reliable digital record that supports accurate bookkeeping and audit readiness.
What is the difference between a platform and a point solution for expense management? A point solution addresses a single, specific function, such as receipt capture or mileage tracking, while a platform like Concur solutions integrates expense management with travel booking, invoice processing, and broader financial workflows in a single connected environment. For small businesses, the distinction matters because a platform approach eliminates the inefficiency and data fragmentation that comes from managing multiple disconnected tools, and provides a foundation that can scale as the business grows without requiring a disruptive system change later.
