10 must-have features in any expense management platform

When you’re scaling a business, there comes a point when relying on spreadsheets and email approvals for expense management simply isn’t enough. Growing transaction volumes, complex approval chains, and slow month-end closes are signs that you’re probably spending more time on administrative tasks than strategic ones, which is never a good thing.

Today’s expense management platforms use automation, AI, and real-time insights to help you get the visibility, control, and efficiency you need to scale your business. However, not every platform delivers the same capabilities, which is why you’ve got to choose one that can solve your biggest operational challenges.

In this article, we explore 10 key features of expense management software and highlight the ones that reduce manual work, improve financial visibility, and support your business as it grows. By the end, you’ll be better equipped to evaluate expense management software and find the right choice for your company.

Here are the key features of spend management that you’ll need for growing your businesses. Without these capabilities, you may be stuck doing things the hard way.

1. Customizable spending controls and approval policies

Opt for expense management software that lets you set spending controls based on employee, role, department, project, or merchant and allows you to configure receipt requirements and approval thresholds. You’ll also want approval workflows that automatically route expenses to the right person, which can prevent bottlenecks and reduce reimbursement delays.

With these features for automated expense management, you can establish guardrails for spending, without having to personally review every purchase. These automations can also flag out-of-policy purchases, duplicate submissions, or transactions that require additional review, ensuring that all submitted expenses meet your company’s spend policy guidelines. This way, you can scale your business more easily, without creating additional administrative work.

2. Corporate card issuance and card-level controls

One of the key features to look for in expense management software is the ability to issue physical and virtual credit cards to employees, contractors, and teams. Being able to set spending limits, restrict where cards can be used, and generate cards for specific purchases means your company retains a granular level of control while giving your teams the flexibility needed to keep up with the pace of business.

Using company-issued cards reduces the need for reimbursement, and built-in, card-level control prevents unauthorized spending. It can also simplify subscription and vendor management, making it easier to track recurring charges or cancel unused subscriptions and services.

3. Mobile receipt capture and expense submission

Having to nag employees to submit receipts or expense reports is the bane of every founder’s existence. With mobile receipt capture and expense submission features, this task gets crossed off your list. Employees can capture their receipts using a mobile app at the point of purchase. Then, all digital copies of the receipt and expense documentation automatically get stored in a centralized system, and they’ll be available whenever you need them.

These features help to limit missing receipts and speed up the reimbursement process. They’re ideal for businesses with remote or travelling teams, since employees can submit expenses from anywhere. Plus, you’ll retain an audit trail, which is helpful for tax preparation, too.

4. Automated transaction matching and categorization

One of the best features of modern startup spend management platforms is automated transaction matching and categorization.

Here’s how it works: The software matches the card or bank transaction with receipts or other supporting documents, and categorizes expenses based on merchant, expense type, accounting rules, or other categories. It can also flag any unmatched transactions or missing documentation.

Since transactions get categorized throughout the month, this feature speeds up month-end close and reduces the amount of administrative work required during reconciliation. It also helps businesses maintain consistent financial data and clear visibility into where money is being spent. Automated transaction matching and categorization can help your company scale, since the administrative burden doesn’t grow along with transaction volume.

5. Real-time spend visibility and reporting

A spend management feature that busy CFOs and founders need is real-time spend visibility and reporting. Instead of waiting till the end of the month, you can get access to real-time expense numbers whenever you need them. Dashboards display company spending as transactions occur, and you can quickly generate reports that break down expenses by employee, department, project, cost center, and other categories.

This makes tracking budgets against actual spending easier and enables you to pinpoint trends over time. You can also generate custom reports for tax preparation, audits, and forecasting, to increase financial visibility and strengthen accountability. Having up-to-date spending data also can help your teams make better spending decisions and, in turn, improve cash flow for the business.

6. Accounting software and ERP integrations

When you’re comparing features of the top expense management apps, assess the ways that the tool aligns with the rest of your tech stack. Ideally, it should have native integrations to your accounting tools, enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, payroll systems, and any other financial tools that you use. Integrations automatically sync expenses, receipts, account codes, tax information, vendor information, and other data across systems, which helps keep your financial systems aligned and up to date.

Integrations significantly reduce duplicate work and improve data accuracy. They also help speed up month-end close, since transaction information automatically flows to your accounting systems throughout the month. With a connected workflow, you can have better financial visibility at all times, without needing to wait for a team member to manually update the system. Integrations especially come in handy when your business and transaction volume grow and complexity increases.

7. Reimbursement and mileage management

For small businesses and startups, expense management software with reimbursement and mileage management features can greatly reduce administrative work. With these tools, you can process reimbursement requests, receipts, mileage logs, and supporting documentation, and route claims through predefined approval workflows. This can strengthen compliance by helping ensure that claims adhere to company policies and tax requirements. It can also improve the employee experience by providing a clear and straightforward reimbursement process. And for founders and finance teams, having greater visibility into upcoming reimbursements makes it easier to track expenses and anticipate cash needs.

8. AI-powered anomaly detection and workflow automation

AI features in modern expense management software can help detect problems quickly and minimize  manual reviews. These tools can identify unusual spending patterns, duplicate transactions, out-of-policy purchases, potential fraud, and other issues. The AI can then automatically highlight transactions that require additional review.

Routine workflows — such as receipt matching, expense categorization, approval routing, and exception handling — can also be enhanced with AI. These features can help free up your finance team’s time to focus on budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning, rather than administrative tasks — a win for operational efficiency.

9. Multi-entity and multi-currency support

If you work with international vendors, merchants, or customers, you’ll need an expense management tool that can support multiple currencies with automatic exchange rate calculations and currency conversions. And if your business has multiple legal entities, subsidiaries, and business units, it’s important that a single platform can support all of their needs.

Multi-entity and multi-currency features can help simplify complex operations, reduce manual currency conversions, and improve the accuracy of global expense reporting. They can also support your business growth as you open more locations and offices, since you won’t need separate expense systems for every new place.

10. Security

When evaluating expense management tools, be sure to assess the level of security they provide. Your financial data should be encrypted both in transit and at rest, and the platform should have multiple security features, such as multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and automatic session control. It should also have detailed audit logs that show who has viewed, submitted, approved, or changed records.

Security features are important for preventing fraud, protecting your financial data, and strengthening your organizational accountability. Also, a secure platform protects business continuity by reducing the risk of financial disruption or data loss. The ROI of this spend management feature is clear.

Narrowing down essential features to just 10 is no easy task. It’s important to take a look at these additional features, too, which deserve an honorable mention:

• Scalability: Opt for an expense management platform that’ll support your business as you expand. More employees, higher transaction volumes, additional entities, and other aspects can create more complex expense and approval workflows.
• Role-based access: Every employee doesn’t need access to every feature. Role-based access features ensure that employees only have access to the functions they actually need, and granular permissions protect your sensitive data and improve security.
• Straightforward implementation: Go with an expense management tool that has a clear onboarding process and offers data migration support. This will help you minimize business disruptions.
• Customer support: Review the platform’s technical materials, user training guides, and customer support resources to make sure you’ll be able to get the most value out of the platform from the very beginning.
• Mobile app: When your employees are on the go, they’ll still need to submit expenses, capture receipts, and track reimbursements. Choose a platform that has a mobile app that can support the functions you need.

The most effective expense management platforms can help you build strong financial processes that grow alongside your business, provide more visibility into spending, and help you make better decisions for your company.

Mercury offers smart expense management software that helps you effortlessly control spend and simplify month-end close. With corporate cards, reimbursements, granular controls, accounting integrations, and more, you can cut out the administrative busywork and let your team focus on strategic tasks.

Explore how easy it is to get started with Mercury’s expense management tools today and set yourself up with a platform that delivers long-term value for your business.