Best Expense Management Software for Canadian Businesses

Trying to keep a handle on company spending without the right tools? It may be time to scout out the best expense management software to help your team spend smarter without adding to your admin workload. 

Through 2025, Canadian businesses will likely be operating in an uncomfortable state of uncertainty. Inflation, rising supplier costs and tighter margins are forcing business owners to keep a closer eye on spending. 

It may sound simple, but 55% of business owners are struggling with financial tools that don’t integrate well, leaving them scrambling for receipts and vulnerable to overspending.

The right software helps you budget better, spot savings sooner and respond faster to financial pressures. We’ll walk you through what you should know about expense management solutions, how to compare the options on the market today and best practices for success.

What is expense management software?

Expense management software helps businesses stay on top of spending. It simplifies how teams track, record and review expenses—but today’s platforms go far beyond the basics.

Modern tools automate administrative tasks like receipt collection and report generation, enforce company expense policies, speed up reimbursements and provide real-time insights into where money is going. For finance teams, this means fewer errors and more reliable data. Plus, it’s a faster, smoother way for employees to handle expenses and get reimbursed on time.

Expense management software boosts accuracy, streamlines workflows and makes spending visible and policy-compliant. It helps companies of all sizes stay sharp, spot trends and make better decisions.

Expense management vs expense tracking

While the terms are often used interchangeably, there’s a big difference between tracking expenses and truly managing them. 

Expense tracking

Tracking is the bare minimum. It mainly entails logging what people spend after the fact. Many businesses use spreadsheets, accounting tools, or basic apps to reconcile reports and receipts. This gets the job done, but it won’t stop overspending or simplify your process.

Expense management

Expense management is proactive. It puts systems in place to guide, control and automate spending before it happens. The best expense management software uses approval flows, spending limits, policy enforcement and real-time data to keep things in check.

For businesses that want to move faster, stay compliant and spend smarter, expense management software is a clear step up.

Which does my business need?

Every business tracks expenses. This helps you get through tax time, whether you’re looking at a spreadsheet or a shoebox of receipts. (Finance folks still pale at the site of any shoebox, but we digress.) Even when it’s accurate, it’s reactive. You’re looking back at what’s already happened.

Expense management flips that around. It’s about setting the rules, automating the process and getting visibility before money goes out the door. Budgets, approvals, restrictions and policy enforcement are all built in.

You’ll likely notice a tipping point when you’re tired of overspending surprises, approval delays or hefty manual admin. Expense management helps businesses of any size—not just the big guys.

Use case study: BenchSci

BenchSci, a fast-growing Canadian AI company, was feeling the pain of outdated expense workflows as it doubled in size. Manual spreadsheets, receipt chasing, and slow reimbursements were eating up time and delaying finance operations. “Without Float, we’d be in the position of needing to expand our team,” says senior accountant Bonnie Kershaw.

Switching to Float allowed the team to automate expense management and issue corporate cards, cutting bottlenecks and reclaiming over 40 hours a month. “We wanted to alleviate the pressure of employees having to pay with their own funds and waiting for reimbursement,” Bonnie explains.

Float also supported BenchSci’s culture of freedom and responsibility, empowering employees while keeping spend within policy. 

Best expense management software for Canadian businesses

With so many expense tools on the market, how do you know which fits your business best, especially if you’re operating in Canada?

We’re clearly partial to Float, but we’re happy to get into the weeds on why so you can make the best choice for your business.

Below, we break down some of the top options, what they offer, and how they compare.

Float

Float is a modern expense management platform built for Canadian businesses. It streamlines finance operations by combining real-time spend tracking, unlimited virtual and physical corporate cards and accounting integrations. Read the benefits of built-in approval workflows, automated receipt capture and fast reimbursements, 

Float makes it easy to stay in control of company spending. It’s designed to scale with your team without adding headcount or hassle, and members at the Essential level have access to free expense management software.

BMO Travel & Entertainment MasterCard

Many of Canada’s big banks offer business credit cards, but it’s rare to find robust expense management. BMO offers a traditional expense management option through its T&E corporate card program, which includes centralized billing and some reporting functionality. 

However, it lacks modern features like receipt capture, automation or policy enforcement and doesn’t support real-time integrations or virtual cards.

Expensify

Expensify simplifies employee expense reporting, especially for companies using reimbursement-heavy workflows. It features automatic receipt scanning, mobile submission and integrations with popular accounting tools. It also offers a corporate card, though it’s not the primary focus. 

While great for basic reporting and reimbursements, Expensify may lack the advanced spend controls or real-time card management growing teams need.

Concur

Concur is a global enterprise platform offering highly customizable travel and expense solutions. It supports complex workflows, multi-currency accounting and integrations with large enterprise resource planning systems, making it a fit for enterprise-level operations. 

However, many find the platform overly complex, expensive and slow to implement (or so say a ton of Reddit users in this thread), so it may not be the best expense management software for small businesses. The user experience might feel dated compared to newer, more intuitive tools.

Compare Top Expense Management Software Solutions for Canadian Companies

Let’s look at how these stack up side-by-side in this expense management software comparison chart.

*Float Professional plan members. Essential members get unlimited virtual cards and 20 physical cards.

5 tips for choosing the right expense management solution

Not sure where to start?

Here are five key factors to consider when choosing the best expense management software for small businesses in Canada.

1. Know what you really need: tracking or management?

Basic tracking tools might suffice if you’re just logging expenses after the fact. But you’ll need full-fledged corporate credit card expense management software if you want proactive control, like setting spending limits, enforcing policies and managing approvals.

2. Look for automation that actually saves time

Choose a tool that doesn’t just look good on paper. The right platform should reduce manual work (think auto-coding transactions, syncing with your accounting software, prompting for receipts) and reclaim hours for your team every month.

3. Make sure it grows with you

As your company scales, your spending will become more complex. Look for corporate credit card expense management software that supports multi-user controls, customizable policies, and automation. This software can handle increased volume without expanding your finance team.

4. Prioritize real-time visibility and controls

Proactive spend management means you’re not waiting until month-end close to spot issues. Choose a tool that gives your team real-time access to spending data, approvals and alerts so you can course-correct instantly.

5. Consider local compatibility and support

Some global platforms aren’t built with Canadian businesses in mind. If you’re operating in Canada, make sure the software supports CAD and local tax codes and has an easy path to onboarding Canadian entities. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck filling in the gaps manually.

About Float expense management software

Float is an expense management platform built to give businesses real-time control over how money moves. With corporate cards, automated approvals and seamless accounting integrations, it takes the mess (and stress) out of managing team spend. Essential members get access to free expense management software, so it scales as you do.

Here’s how it works: Employees request funds, managers approve with a click and cards are issued with smart limits and built-in policies. Receipts and categories are handled automatically, making month-end close a breeze instead of a scramble.

When BenchSci made the switch, they were able to drive efficiency and strategic financial planning. As senior accountant Bonnie Kershaw puts it, “I can’t even imagine going backward to that old time when we had to do things manually.”

Made for Canadian businesses, Float helps you ditch the hassle and get back to what matters.

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