Expense Tracking Tools for IT Startups: Which One to Choose?
Published: 2021-05-19 11:03:13

Speaking of accounting in IT startups and companies, it’s impossible to omiss expenses tracking. Even if the team’s using outsource accounting services, being in sync with the bookkeeper at all times is a must.

It’s especially important nowadays when so many companies allow employees to work from home to keep people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

And here come the expense tracking solutions that provide a way to always stay in touch with a bookkeeper, submitting expenses in real-time. There are so many of them it’s even difficult to tell how they are different. 

That’s why we’ve prepared this expense tracking tools overview that should help you better understand which product suits your business goals best, no matter how small or large your business is. 

But first things first, let’s see why expense tracking applications keep gaining in popularity. 

## What’s the point in using expense tracking tools?

Only several years ago accountants and bookkeepers had to collect receipts and expense reports manually. If the company ever provided reimbursements, the workflow was overstuffed with such things as due date for every report, keeping everything to one unified form, etc. If something wasn’t filled correctly, a receipt wasn’t attached or a mistake crawled in, employees were not getting any expense reimbursements on time. That resulted in unwillingness for the teams to use tuition reimbursements, and in difficulties when employees had to go on business trips. 

Moreover, the more people went on business trips, the less uncommon were the mistakes. That’s why it was only a matter of time when someone first thought of creating a business expenses management application. Indeed, it was meant to make things easier for everyone. 

Speaking of today, there are so many solutions for business expenses tracking and management, it’s hard to name all of them. However, here’s the list of the applications you might consider trying out to pick one that’s more comfortable to use and covers your business needs better. 


## Expense Sensei

Expense Sensei is an application suited for team expense management, as comes from its name. It’s free for teams that have less than 15 employees, and helps track business expenses and provide reimbursements in time. 

It has all the basic features, like export and import of the collected data, that you can use then for more detailed expense analysis. Another benefit provided within Expense Sensei is that it allows employees to take photos of receipts and attach them to actual expense reports using a lightweight application. 


## Rydoo

Rydoo is an application that is mainly centered on travel expenses tracking and reimbursements, providing integration of the most popular booking systems. It is a powerful tool if you’re looking for a solution that fits best for mileage tracking. 


## Expensify

Expensify is a popular application that can be used by entrepreneurs as well as by business owners with large teams. It provides multiple plans that differ by options, so you can pick the one that’s better for your unique purposes. The prices also differ depending on the options you want to see in an application (e.g., in order to use a plan for a larget team that includes a credit card for business expenses, you’ll have to upgrade to a plan that has this feature). 

However, Expensify is a free app as long as we speak of individual expenses tracking. 


## Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is another application to pay attention to when we speak of expenses tracking as a part of the whole business management and accounting process. Its main goal can be described as to integrate all the workflows around accounting in one smooth process, and this includes expenses management. The solution comes with a variety of integrations and is built to provide you with a reliable 


## Quickbooks 

This application doesn’t have a mileage tracker and can’t provide reimbursements in advance, yet it’s still good as a part of a powerful package of accounting and business management tools. It provides a solid pack of integration solutions as well. 

## Conclusion

It’s amazing that companies and startups don’t have to overthink when it comes to expenses management and employee expense reports. Choosing the right application for expenses tracking is a great way to simplify things for the team as well as for the accountant.