The Top 8 Free and Open Source Expense Management Software

Tracking expenses is vital when it comes to the overall financial planning of the company. Many companies end up overpaying for their employees' travel and entertainment expenses due to lack of accuracy and transparency in expenses management and reporting. Unavailability of systematic expense management software also increases the frustration of the employees as the time consumed and the effort required by them to report their expenses can otherwise be utilized in acquiring more business and revenue for the company.

The key challenges faced by the business finance professionals due to lack of accurate expense management system include -

In this context, using an expense management software becomes important as it helps in tracking, controlling, and monitoring the expenses of the employees while saving their time so that they can do their core job without any distractions.

Here, we have listed the top 8 free and open source expense management software which you can consider to streamline your expense management process for a bigger and positive impact on your business.

But, before you go through the details of each software, we would like to brief you about what exactly is an expense management software, how does it work?, its benefits, and tips to pick the right one for your business.

What is Expense Management Software?

Expense management software is a solution that is used by businesses to manage expenses associated with travel, business calls, lodging, meals, shipping of documents or work-related items, incurred by the employees, managers, officers, etc., during their business trips or within office hours. The expense management software cannot be confused with spend management that takes care of different expenses of an organization like procuring raw materials, investments, and availing services.

The expense management software simplifies, and automates the entire expense reimbursement and reconciliation process. It helps in eliminating paperwork and reducing manual errors. The employees don't have to juggle with paper receipts to get reimbursed. Also, the finance team doesn't have to spend hours calculating the expenses of each employee manually.

The expense management process was not as quick as it is today. Let’s have a glimpse at how the expense management software came into use and its future.

Evolution of Expense Management Software

Why is Expense Management Software Required?

It is a common perception that calculating expenses can be done using excel spreadsheets, so why is it critical to invest in an expense management solution? This task of managing expenses is not as simple as it sounds when it comes to reimbursing the expenses incurred by the employees accurately on time and in compliance with the company policies.

The laborious manual process of managing expenses is time-consuming and prone to errors, which can lead to high administrative costs, decreased productivity, and dissatisfied employees.

According to a report released by the Aberdeen Group -

If you multiply the above figures to the number of expense reports you manually prepare and approve for reimbursement, you may realize that the cost and time spent in this entire process is substantially higher than it ideally should be.

You may agree to the fact that "time is money." If your employees are consuming so much time in preparing expense reports manually, instead of focusing on their core jobs, then this can truly prove to be expensive for your company in the long run.

The below benefits can truly depict the significance of expense management software for business.   

Benefits of Expense Management Software

Every business traveler would agree to this fact that it is time-consuming and cumbersome to calculate expenses and submit receipts and spreadsheets after completing their trip. After that, it is much more difficult to wait for the approvals and to get accurate reimbursements. An expense management software can solve these issues and lead to happy employees resulting in improved productivity and business profitability.

How Does an Expense Management Software Work?

How to Choose an Expense Management Software?

As there is a plethora of expense management software available, it might become confusing to choose the software that suits your business requirements. So, here you go with a simple checklist to look for while choosing an expense management software.

User-Friendly

User-friendliness is the most important criteria you need to check in your expense management software. If the system is not easy to use, your business travelers will not use it. This will again make things difficult for your finance team despite deploying the software.

Scalable

The most important question you need to ask yourself before selecting an expense management software is - can this tool adjust with the growing team? An expense management tool which works for only 5 employees and is not capable of scaling as the number of employees grows, is of no use to you.

Integrations

You might be using several other tools for accounting, business traveling, attendance & reporting, etc. The expense management software you choose should integrate well with the other tools including time tracking software, travel management software, payroll software, accounting software, or workforce management software you have deployed, to make your business processes quick and easy.

Mobile Capabilities

Now, in this digital era, everything from shopping to banking is done using the smartphone. The expense management software you select should allow your business travelers to upload receipts and download the expense reports on the go using a smartphone.

Cost

Last but not least the cost matters a lot for a business, and you would agree to this. Here, we have listed free software, but if you are planning to buy expense management software for advanced functionality, you can check the list of top premium expense management software in the end. However, just ensure that the tool you select is worth its price.

Ideal Features of an Expense Management Software

Features of expense management software is a significant aspect which depends on your business requirements, and the way expenses are processed. Still, there are some standard features, as given below, which you can look for in an expense management software while selecting one -

Below-mentioned is a list of the top 8 free and open source expense management software with a detailed overview of their features which can help you in choosing one which suits your business processes.

The Top 8 Free and Open Source Expense Management Software

#1 InvoiceNinja

Invoice Ninja is a free and open-source invoicing and expense management software. It can help you in storing and managing all your earnings, expenses, client & vendor details in one system. It streamlines your invoicing system with a click of a mouse, supporting multiple currencies and languages. It helps users get a complete overview of your business expenses with extreme simplicity and ease.

(Source: InvoiceNinja)

Key Features

• Helps in creating, importing and viewing expenses
• Allows sending invoices to the clients
• Has the ability to import expenses from banks
• Allows to create vendors and organize categories
• Generates profit & loss reports
• Helps in creating recurring expenses
• Allows differentiating in paid expenses
• Can import/export expenses & vendors
• Automatically import bank transactions via Yodlee and GoCardless
• Convert purchase orders to billable expenses
• Dynamic data dashboard
• Approved quotes auto-convert to payable invoices
• Supports third party apps and integrations

If you have already used InvoiceNinja, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#2 HomeBank

HomeBank is an absolutely free expense management software designed for managing personal expenses, finance, and budget. It is easy to use software and includes powerful filtering tools to help you analyze your personal finance intricately. You can view your data in the form of beautiful charts and get a glimpse of your transactions and reimbursements quickly.

(Source: HomeBank)

Key Features

• It supports GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
• Data can be imported easily from Intuit Quicken, Microsoft Money or other software
• It can detect duplicate transaction while importing
• Allows automatic cheque numbering
• Can configure various account types like a bank account, cash, asset, credit card, liability
• Can schedule recurring transaction
• Facilitates internal transfer
• Provides powerful reports with dynamic charts
• Can be translated to 56 different languages
• Import/export budget to CSV files
• Rule-based automatic payee assignment
• Split transaction amount into different categories
• Supports multiple windows to compare data sets
• Directly add new categories and payees directly from the transaction register
• Convert any transaction to a template 
• Change values for several transaction at once
• Template list to edit a transaction
• Active filters in all report windows

If you have already used HomeBank, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#3 Firefly III

Firefly III is a self-hosted expense management software which can help you in keeping track of expenses, income, and budget. It can support different bank accounts, including credit cards, and household savings accounts. You can use it to organize your expenses and save money. It works on the principle of having visibility on where your extra money is going so that you can stop it from going there.

(Source: Firefly III)

Key Features

• Allows full financial management, including storing, editing, and removing withdrawals, deposits, and transfers.
• Helps in managing different types of accounts like asset accounts, shared asset accounts, saving accounts, credit cards, and liabilities
• Can organize transactions using tags & categories
• Helps in achieving savings goals
• View and manage income & expense reports
• Facilitates 2-factor authentication for high-end security
• Supports any currency including Bitcoin, and ξthereum
• Includes easy navigation
• Provides clear visibility of your expenses
• Provides attractive reporting in the form of charts
• Advanced rule engine
• Supports JSON REST API
• Import CSV files
• Audit log entries for transactions
• Split recurring transaction
• Predict expenses using bills

If you have already used Firefly III, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#4 Tems

Tems is a simple and straightforward expense and time tracking software ideal for small businesses and freelancers to manage their expenses and invoicing. It is a free and open source software which is used by consulting companies, lawyers, accountants, etc., who need to bill their customers regularly. It can also track the details of expenses incurred by the employees and calculate mileage automatically.

(Source: Tems)

Key Features

• Allows inputting expenses and separating them based on account and project
• Consultants and employees can enter time worked on different projects
• Creates a preview of the invoices with a single click
• Can generate expense reports instantly
• Calculates mileage automatically
• Highly scalable, accessible from web and multilingual
• Manage the prime and sub-contract arrangements with confidentiality
• Automatically separate expenses by account and project
• Easily review and approve expenses
• Create project level invoicing
• Report creation in PDF

If you have already used Tems, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#5 Skrooge

Skrooge is a free and open source expense management software which allows you to manage your personal finances. It is considered as the most powerful method to submit, track, and analyze expenses. It is based on KDE foundations and can run on multiple platforms like Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows, and Mac OS.

(Source: Skrooge)

Key Features

• Can import files from other spreadsheets, software, and bank’s website
• Allows multiple currencies
• Provides reports in the form of flexible charts
• Helps in managing budget by configuring simple rules
• Allows configuring different categories in expenses
• Schedules operations
• Manages payees
• Allows adding all properties required on all objects like transactions, accounts categories, etc.
• Support multiple formats to import transactions
• Infinite undo and redo
• Search conditions to automate process operations
• Track expense refund status 
• Instant report and operations filtering
• Facility to bookmark, graphs, pages, reports, etc.

If you have already used Skrooge, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#6 kMyMoney

kMyMoney is considered as a simple yet powerful personal finance management software which is absolutely free to download, customizable, and deployable as per your requirements. It uses double-entry accounting principles and ensures that your finances are streamlined. Extremely easy to use, this software provides all the important features required by personal finance managers.

(Source: kMyMoney)

Key Features

• Allows maintaining expense records
• Can streamline the entire approval process
• Ability to manage automated reimbursements
• Supports multiple currencies
• Allows time tracking
• Financial summary for overdue and upcoming scheduled transactions
• Different accounts, schedule and institution view
• Schedule, create and edit transactions, bills, deposits, or transfers
• Easily create, edit or delete categories
• Automated payee matching
• Direct ledger entry
• Online update stock and currency prices
• Create and configure custom reports
• GPG encryption to protect financial data

If you have already used kMyMoney, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#7 Money Manager Ex

Money Manager Ex is a personal finance manager used for managing expenses which is free to download and use. This open source and cross-platform software can keep track of the expenses and financial transactions. It includes versatile features that users would require in expense management software. Being simple and user-friendly software; it is powerful enough to streamline the expense management accurately.

  (Source: Money Manager Ex)

Key Features

• Helps in managing savings account, credit card statements, stock investments, and assets accounts
• Sends reminders for recurring bills and deposits
• Helps in budgeting and cash flow forecasting
• Provides one-click reporting with graphs and pie charts
• Allows importing data from any CSV format, and QIF
• It can run from a USB key and doesn’t need to be installed
• Includes non-proprietary SQLite Database with AES Encryption
• Supports 24 different international languages
• Search, filter, and sort the transactions
• Schedule transactions
• Stock and share tracking
• Track fixed assets and incorporate them within total financial worth
• Custom SQL queries and LUA functions for report creation

If you have already used Money Manager Ex, please feel free to share your reviews here.

#8 GNUCash

GnuCash is user-friendly financial accounting software which is freely licensed under the GNU GPL and is compatible with the platforms like GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. It is a powerful yet flexible software which helps you in tracking bank accounts, income & expenses, and stocks. It is quick and intuitive to use, similar to the checkbook style register. Based on professional accounting principles, it ensures balanced books and accurate reports.

(Source: GNUCash)

Key Features

• Based on the double-entry accounting system
• Manages stock/bond/mutual funds accounts
• Allows scheduling transactions
• Enables automated financial calculations
• Generates reports in the form of graphs
• Integrated module to display financial data graphs
• Full suite of standard and customizable reports
• Statement and account reconciliation
• Experimental database support
• QIF and OFX import
• Mortgage & loan repayment assistant

If you have already used GNUCash, please feel free to share your reviews here.

So, these were the top 8 free and open source expense management software which you can consider using instantly without any investment. Below given is the chart which would help you in comparing these solutions at a glance and taking the wise decision regarding selecting the expense management software that suits your business.

The Top 8 Free and Open Source Expense Management Software Comparison Chart

Still, if you are looking for an expense management software with advanced features not included in these free ones and budget is not a constraint for you, we would recommend Zoho Expense, a highly popular expense management software. Let’s go through the details of Zoho Expense in brief -

Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is a cloud-based expense management software designed for businesses of any size. Having high-end features; it is trusted by many organizations to automate their expense report creation, streamline approvals, and process quick reimbursements. It provides advanced features at affordable prices, though you can get a free trial before purchasing and check whether the software suits your business processes or not.

(Source: Zoho)

Key Features

• Helps in capturing receipts effortlessly using auto-scanning, and mileage calculation features
• Allows scheduling the creating and submitting of expense reports
• Sends notification if any company policy is violated
• Allows setting up auto-approval and auto rejection criteria
• Sends reminders about pending approvals and limit exhaustion
• Can reimburse through different payment options like NEFT, RTGS, IMPS, and ICICI Bank Fund transfer
• Sends real-time notification once the reimbursement is done
• Provides 25+ analytical reports which give a clear picture of each penny spent
• Generates Audit Trail Reports for accurate auditing
• Allows scheduling analytical reports regularly
• Corporate card reconciliation with direct fetching from providers
• Create purchase requests with custom approval flows
• Create and compare the budget for expense categories or types
• Robust customizations with custom roles and components
• Mobile app
• Accounting and ERP integration
• Single sign-on through Zoho, G Suite and Office 365

If you have already used Zoho Expense, please feel free to share your reviews here.

To help you further, with your selection, we would also recommend you to consider the following list of top expense management software as follows;

List of Top Expense Management Software Commonly Used

Expensify

Expensify is a top-notch expense management software for businesses of all sizes. The software is designed to easily automate expense reporting, setup reimbursements, send invoices, pay bills, split corporate bills, etc. It is used by churches, construction, nonprofits, professional service providers, real estate, schools & universities, startups, etc., to efficiently manage corporate cards, expenses, travel bookings, etc. The software features one-click receipt scanning, automatic receipt merging and coding, customizable workflows, ACH reimbursement, multi-level general ledger coding, advanced tax tracking, custom insights and reporting. Besides a basic and free plan, the premium package of Expensify starts from $5 per user/month, billed annually. 

Fyle 

Launched in 2017, Fyle is an easy-to-use real-time expense management platform for expense reporting automation, credit card reconciliation, reimbursing employees and expense syncing with accounting software. For accounting firms, the software offers premium features such as built-in spend controls, a dedicated partner dashboard, AI-powered data extraction and coding, rule-based auto-categorization, etc. Additionally, it supports unlimited expense tracking and reporting from mobile apps, Outlook, phone gallery, Slack, etc. Premium packages of the Fyle starts from $6.99 per user/month, billed annually.

Spendesk

Another leading expense management software that is rapidly gaining popularity among businesses is Spendesk, a scalable solution with centralized control, built-in rules and real-time visibility. Forget multiple tools and complicated processes to manage your expenses if Spendesk is there. The software has meaningful features including intuitive  dashboards, digitized expense reports, automated receipt capture,  customizable bookkeeping, unlimited virtual and physical cards, end-to-end invoice management, expense tracking & reimbursement, unlimited entity management, etc. 

Industry-Wise List Of Top Expense Management Software

Expense Management Software for the Healthcare Industry

In the healthcare industry, institutions must have complete visibility over their expenses. They need to keep track of every hospital transaction and outstanding patient payments to stay competitive, stabilize operations, and better serve patients. Expense management software greatly benefits the healthcare industry by reducing the time and effort to file expenses, automating manual forms, monitoring ongoing expenditures, reimbursing employees, etc., ensuring better transparency in the operations and patient care. Some of the leading expense management software for the healthcare industry are as follows;

Software	Best For	Pricing
TravelBank	Travel spend management and optimization	$10/user per month
DATABASICS	Expense reporting	$800 per month
ExpenseOnDemand	All-in-one expense management platform	$7.64 per user per month

TravelBank

When it comes to the list of top expense management systems for the healthcare industry, TravelBank is a prominent name that can optimize travel spend, enhance productivity, ensure better data visibility, easily comply with regulations and easily reconcile transactions. Healthcare professionals use this finance management tool due to capabilities like integration with HRIS systems, compliance with PPSA regulations, customizable expense categories, fraudulent spend detection, accounting automation, expense report synchronization, virtual card creation, etc. TravelBank expense management pricing starts from $10/user per month, billed annually. 

DATABASICS

Right from its launch, DATABASICS expense management tool has been helping  the healthcare industry maintain compliance, streamline administration and automate organizational spends, while focusing on cost effectiveness. Hospitals and clinics of all sizes can use this tool for receipt management, mileage tracking, audit control, workflows and approvals, card management, etc. The software also offers instant access to standard expense reports and a mobile app to simplify the expense management and reporting tasks on the go. The pricing starts from $800 per month/quarter billed annually. 

ExpenseOnDemand

ExpenseOnDemand is a great option for hospitals and healthcare institutions looking to digitize their expenses, quickly get approvals and automate repetitive expense management-related tasks. This hospital expense management solution also offers numerous functionalities to track employee mileage claims, eliminate fraudulent expense claims, easily approve expenses, manage paperless workflow, deploy AI-powered chatbot, etc. Additionally, it offers features such as customizable expense categories/cost codes, mileage tracking using GPS & Google and split expenses. The premium pricing of the software starts from $7.64 per user per month, billed annually. 

Expense Management Software for the Finance Industry

The finance industry deals with a huge influx of money. As a result, the need for real-time visibility, better transparency and auditing of employee-initiated expenses remains always high. An expense management tool can come handy in such scenarios that can be used by the finance teams and businesses to streamline expense tracking, financial reporting, payment processing , transaction capturing, etc. These tools also eliminate the manual data entry and paperwork, bringing better efficiency, reducing errors, improving real-time budgeting capabilities and productivity for the finance department. Following are the top expense management software for the finance industry;

Software	Best For	Pricing
Rho Expenses	Custom spending rules and approval automation	Flat 1% fee on foreign transactions
Procurify	Procure-to-pay functionality	Custom pricing
Emburse Certify	Automated expense reporting	$12 per user/month

Rho Expenses

For the finance industry, Rho Expenses is a comprehensive financial automation platform to easily optimize day-to-day spending, set clear policies, monitor transactions, reconcile transaction data and perform many more related functions. One of the unique features of Rho Expenses is the Rho corporate card that comes with strict merchant restrictions, spend controls, instant reimbursements and many more advanced card controls to monitor expenses in real time. Other notable features include custom spending rule creation, approval automation, real-time receipt capture, policy enforcement, etc. Rho Expenses is free to use and a flat 1% fee is applicable on foreign transactions.

Procurify

Procurify is one of the best expense management systems that offers enhanced control for finance professionals, allowing them to prevent risks, unlock new levels of efficiency and proactively take expense management-related decisions. This modern spend management software comes with electronic reimbursement forms, facility to integrate seamlessly with accounting and  ERP systems,  mobile receipt upload, prepayments, virtual card spending, automated bill creation, ACH payments, verified 3-way matching and many more features to ensure real-time spend visibility and cost control. 

Emburse Certify

Currently holding nearly 12M+ customers, Emburse Certify is gaining popularity as the easy-to-use, and best expense management solutions for the financial firms in eliminating complexity, errors and financial risks while ensuring higher performance. Features like automated expense reporting, built-in policy controls, visually appealing and actionable dashboards, 99.5% uptime, pre-approved spend requests tracking, etc., make the overall process hasslefree. Additionally, it can integrate with leading platforms like Salesforce, QuickBooks, Sage, Microsoft, Oracle, Paycor, etc., to streamline reconciliation, improve reimbursement times and automatically enforce compliance. The premium pricing of Emburse Certify starts from $12 per user/month.

Expense Management Software for the Manufacturing Industry

Budget overrun and rising costs are among the most crucial challenges for the manufacturing industry that directly threaten productivity and performance. However, they can use a manufacturing-based expense management software with robust features and functionalities for expense management and automation. Below are some of the leading expense management solutions that the manufacturing industry can use to minimize overhead costs and achieve better cost-effectiveness;

Software	Best For	Pricing
Yokoy Expense	Centralized expense management	Custom pricing
SutiExpense	AI-powered expense reporting	Custom pricing
Clyr	Expense tracking	Custom pricing

Yokoy Expense

When it comes to top and agile AI-driven expense management solutions, Yokoy Expense Is a popular name that offers detailed cost insights, full liquidity control and a centralized platform to manage expenses, invoices and corporate card payments. Its inbuilt AI and automation features help manufacturing units quickly capture data, streamline administrative tasks, simplify expense reporting, enhance fraud detection and fully automate reimbursements, enabling better revenue management. Additionally, its modern and intuitive features like integration with ERP and P2P systems, built-in compliance, automated audit trail and ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications make it a great choice for manufacturing firms of all sizes. 

SutiExpense

SutiExpense is a web-based expense management solution that the manufacturing industry can use to simplify expense reporting, and manage end-to-end spend processes.  Manufacturing firms from different sectors can use this AI-powered business expense reporting tool to track warehouse expenses, approve expense reports, enhance real-time visibility, manage GL codes across multiple locations, analyze spending patterns, etc., to improve operational efficiency and eliminate production risks. A few unique functionalities of SutiExpense include a chatbot, mobile app, expense audit rules, receipt processing and robust spend analytics to enhance the overall employee experience.

Clyr

Clyr is a smart expense management solution specifically tailored to enhance the throughput efficiency and performance of manufacturing firms. It comes equipped with features like real-time expense and material tracking, automated expense coding, vendor payment management, cost analysis, auto transaction matching, AI-based categorization, manufacturing system integrations, etc., that allow manufacturers to efficiently track, allocate and manage financial transactions. The company offers free demo and pricing details upon consultation. 

Expense Management Software for the Education Industry

In the present era, the cost of learning has been rapidly increasing, which demands both learners and educators to be well-informed of the expenses. Educational institutions leverage expense management software to deliver quality education and improved and real-time spend management visibility. Key benefits include quick access to current expenses, easy categorization of expenses, tracking and monitoring expenses in real-time, setting spending limits, periodically reviewing budgets and reports, etc., ensuring better transparency and accountability. Following are some of the widely used expense management software for the education industry;

Software	Best For	Pricing
Weel	Smart corporate cards	$119 per month
Emburse Chrome River	Intuitive reports and dashboards	Custom pricing
SAP Concur	Integrated travel, expense and invoice management	Custom pricing

Weel

Trusted by schools across Australia, Weel is an all-in-one spend management solution that the educational industry can use to ensure financial efficiency, oversee expenses across departments from one single dashboard, and be cashless. Teachers, faculties and institution managers can use this tool for easy approvals, accountability, expense claims, out-of-policy spend prevention, virtual card issuance, staff reimbursements, etc. Educational institutions are widely deploying this tool owing to the features like smart corporate card, built-in spending rules, subscription management, real-time feeds, accounting and Xero integrations, custom workflows, receipt keeping app, etc. Weel is available for a 14 day free trial and premium price starts from $119 per month.

Emburse Chrome River

Installed by schools and Universities in 120 countries, Emburse Chrome River is an end-to-end, reliable  expense management software that comes with automation and reporting solutions to simplify budget management. This software can revolutionize the spend management process of higher degree institutions, research facilities, colleges and universities by integrating travel data and corporate card data. A few notable features like split expenses, approval routing and conditional compliance rules, automated expense allocation, extensive per diem functionality, currency conversions, etc., offer exceptional benefits to the users. 

SAP Concur

SAP Concur is a scalable expense management software with a centralized platform to manage and track employee initiated expenses. Leading US universities and educational institutions are leveraging this tool to save their time and money, stabilize cash flow, perform AI-powered audits and remotely manage spending while ensuring compliance during spend and claim management. The software comes with  a comprehensive suite of features for compliance, risks, data analytics, reporting and spend management, besides supporting integration with various other platforms. 

Conclusion

You would agree to the fact that an efficient expense management software can speed up the entire process of submitting, processing, auditing, and reimbursing expenses and make the job easier for your finance team and business travelers. To stay competitive and sustain the revenue generation of your business. It becomes vital to deploy expense management tools that help you in minimizing the chore of tracking costs, and at the same time, keep your records up-to-date.

Choosing the right expense management software is also a challenge when there is a sea of options available. We hope that this article helped you gain enough information about expense management and the software available in this facet. If you have used any of the software mentioned in this article, please leave your valuable feedback.

Also, you can explore the complete range of expense management software here.

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