The 10 Best Mobile Apps to Keep Track of Your Business Budget

When you are running a business, you’ve got a lot to manage. Tracking expenses, fortunately, doesn’t have to be one of the more tedious tasks. The world of mobile apps is exploding, including many that offer companion desktop apps and others that standalone or integrate with other tools that you use. Of course, with so much to choose from, how are you possibly supposed to choose the best solution?

You have a business to run. You can’t afford to get hung up on every single decision. Fortunately, we’re here to help with this one. In this blog, we’ll discuss the best mobile apps to help you track your business budget, including those that offer expense reporting and submitting, and more. You’ll find a host of different solutions at various price points, including plenty of free apps that offer all the dynamic features that you need. 

Ultimately, it will be up to you to choose what’s best. However, we’ll do our part by helping you understand what to look for when choosing mobile budgeting and expensing apps, as well as which of the apps out there are the best ones on the market right now. The great thing about apps is that they come in all shapes and sizes, so it shouldn’t be hard for any business to find what they need. 

What to look for with budget and expense tracking apps

If you’re searching for the best solutions for your business, you probably already have a little bit of an idea of what you need. You also might still be unsure of what’s out there or what you even should be looking for. We’ve got you covered, though. Before we dive into the best mobile apps for tracking business budgets, let’s look at the features that should be on your list when you’re looking for a mobile budget or expense tracking app. 

App functionality: You need to make sure that the app actually functions and works like it should. This includes simple navigation and plenty of mobile-friendly features and access options. Also, pay attention to platforms that it’s available on so that you don’t fall in love with an app that’s not on your device. 

Included features: Obviously, you’ll want to consider all the features and tools that come with the expense and budget apps that you choose. Look for inclusive features and tools that will benefit you. 

Customization and scalability: The best apps are designed to be scaled to your exact needs. When you’re looking through the expense apps below, or any others, consider what kind of customization they offer and whether you can scale the expense tracking tools to your business’s needs. 

Dedicated business tracking: There are tons of mobile budgeting apps designed for personal use. You don’t want to waste your time on these. Your business needs dedicated business expense and budget tracking tools and resources, so make sure that you limit your search to those providers that have business apps. 

The 10 best mobile business budgeting and expense tracking apps

1. QuickBooks Accounting

QuickBooks has been around for a long time, and for good reason. It makes the top of the list because it’s still one of the best accounting and expense reporting solutions available today. You’ll be able to manage all of your expenses in one place and even export and import as needed. 

You can scan receipts, track expenses by category, send invoices with a single click, accept payments, and so much more. Plus, you can manage it all from the seamless, simple mobile app that offers dynamic solutions to handle budgeting and expensing on the go. If you want a full-service accounting solution, you can upgrade to a premium plan for additional features. 

Highlights:

• Price: Plans start at $12.50 per month
• Live bookkeeping assistance available
• Payroll and tax solutions offered
• Expense tracking and reporting
• Scalable platform
• Easy integrations

2. Zoho Expense

Zoho is one of our favorites when it comes to integrated business tools and solutions. Their own platform is robust and includes the popular Zoho Expense tool, which makes expense tracking and approvals easier than ever. You can store digital receipts, sort expenses into categories, and even log mileage automatically with the built-in GPS and maps features. 

With Zoho Expense, you can record and add details even when you’re offline, syncing once a connection returns. Enhanced analytics are available, and it can be combined with the Zoho Expense web application for a dynamic budgeting and expense tracking solution for your business. 

Highlights:

• Price: Free for up to three users
• Batch approvals for expenses
• Advanced analytics
• Integrates with web application
• Integrated maps and GPS
• Automatic transaction importing

3. Wave

Wave has been awarded several nods for its successful financial solutions and well-designed app, including the Editors’ Choice Award from PC Magazine. It is a free tool that you can use to generate expense reports, track expenses, handle accounting, and more. You will find a lot of features packed into this platform for those who are just starting out. 

Wave charges for payment processing and payroll services, but they offer a lot of free tools and features for every user. If you want something that takes care of all the basic stuff that you don’t remember from your high school math and accounting classes, this app has you covered. 

Highlights:

• Price: Free 
• Income and expense tracking
• Receipt scanning available
• Mobile access for easy accounting anywhere
• Payment processing available for a fee
• Easy integrations with other software and tools

4. Rydoo Expense

If you’re looking for an expense tracking app that makes integrations easy, this is the one you need. It offers real-time expense analysis, mileage tracking, and more. Plus, it will easily integrate with tons of other software and tools without much effort on your part. You can submit expenses on the go with the camera or through apps like Dropbox. 

Rydoo Expense can integrate seamlessly with SAP, NetSuite, Oracle, and others, and it’s easy to migrate into the platform from other platforms that you’re using, including Concur and Expensify. It offers custom per diems and mileage rates and other customization features. If you want a premium expense tracking solution, this one could be for you. 

Highlights:

• Price: $7 per user, per month
• Set spending limits
• Automated expense approvals
• Powerful reporting and insights
• Built-in local compliance

5. Abacus

Abacus offers an easy tool to manage and track expenses, reimburse your employees, reconcile credit and bank accounts, and more. You can even gather information from receipts and use tools like geolocation to handle mileage tracking and more. Expense approval can be automated, and rules can be customized for the needs of your business, too. 

Abacus makes reimbursement simple with direct deposits upon approval and you can sync with your other accounting software with ease. This app also offers custom reporting to analyze spending and expenses so that you can manage your business budget better. You can choose simple plans with basic features or upgrade to a premium membership for full access. 

Highlights:

• Price: $9 per user, per month to start
• Real-time expense reporting
• Strategic insights
• Automated expense approval
• Budget insights
• Expense capture from multiple sources

6. Shoeboxed

Shoeboxed is all about making receipt tracking easy. This app is used by more than one million companies that are organizing their expenses and it has been recognized by PCMag.com and The Balance SMB for its impressive features. You can send receipts by mail and scan them with the mobile app and ensure that your expenses are properly reported, organized, and accounted for in your budget. 

With Shoeboxed, you’ll get more expense reporting and budgeting done with less work. You can customize the reports that you get and choose from a variety of plans. There’s also a Gmail plugin for Google users who want to submit expenses via email. 

Highlights:

• Price: $18 per month to start
• Postage-paid envelope for paper receipt submission
• Mobile app for iOS and Android
• Automatic expense categorization 
• Detailed reporting 
• Data and receipt exporting

7. BizXpenseTracker (BXT)

Rated as one of the best tools for small business owners, this expense tracking app makes it easy to handle mileage, expense, and time tracking for small businesses and single users. This full-featured app offers tons of customization, and you can even create reports in PDF and CSV format for exporting, link files via email, and more.

One of the best features is probably the live mileage tracking and option to customize rates so that you can track everything with ease and automate more of your expense tracking and budgeting. BXT has been on the market since 2010 and is one of the most comprehensive tools you’ll find today. 

Highlights:

• Price: $6.99
• Live mileage tracking
• On-screen filtering
• File sharing and exporting
• Customized rates and time tracking
• Easy overtime calculation

8. Concur Mobile

For the business that needs to keep track of travel spending and manage expenses in a simpler way, Concur Mobile has the solution. This tool offers quick, accurate expense report creation with reports that are filled with details of your choosing. You can capture spending automatically and ensure that receipts are categorized accordingly, and more. 

Concur Mobile simplifies expense reporting and budgeting, as well as reimbursement and transparency. There’s even a TripLink feature that allows managers to see all travel expenses, even when employees book their travel directly. This is a higher-end solution that requires a bigger financial investment, but it’s a great tool for the ultimate expense tracking needs. 

Highlights:

• Price: Custom quote
• Easy invoice approval
• Exporting and custom reporting
• Automatic spend capture
• Receipt scanning
• Itinerary management

9. Everlance

If you need an expense tracking app that’s ideal for mileage tracking and reimbursement, this is one of the best that you’ll find. It makes expense tracking easy, as well as credit card syncing and bank account linking so that you can categorize expenses, track your purchases, and more. You can even set custom transaction rules and use GPS to track trips, and more.

Expense reports and mileage reports can be customized and exported through PDF or CSV (Excel) format, and you can track revenue from multiple sources with the app, too. Plus, you can manage your receipts with ease and even manage and separate personal expenses. Upgrade to a premium plan for customized training and customer support, and more. 

Highlights:

• Price: Free basic plan 
• Popular for self-employed and solopreneurs
• Simple reporting and exporting
• Custom rules for expenses and transactions
• IRS-compliant mileage log
• Annual billing discounts for paid plans

10. Expensify

Expensify is a great tool for beginners and one of the easiest apps to use for expense reporting and budgeting. Your small business can rest easy working with this app, which has been endorsed by several organizations and offers plenty of features. You can reconcile credit cards, integrate your accounting tools and software, track mileage, capture receipts, and more. 

There are real-time notifications and the SmartScan technology makes sure that all the right data is captured, and entered, properly. This platform is designed for travel and other expenses and includes the option to get notifications anytime changes are made. Plus, it can generate real-time reports to keep expense reporting and budgeting in line. 

Highlights:

• Price: Free basic plan
• Save 50% with annual pricing on paid plans
• Integrated expense tracking
• Custom reporting available
• SmartScan technology for easy receipt tracking
• Expensify Business Credit Card included free

Manage your business and time more efficiently when you partner with Smith.ai

Your budget isn’t the only thing that needs an upgrade. How are you handling the communications and admin for your business? If you’re still struggling to field calls and messages, be available for chats and consultations, and handle it all yourself, now is the time to change that. 

Even if you’ve got an in-house receptionist, are you really getting everything that you need? While you’re improving your budget, why not improve your other operations by partnering with Smith.ai? Our team is ready to help with 24/7 call answering, live website chat, and so much more. We’ll even help you create a dynamic strategy to manage all of it, no matter what you need. 

Learn more when you schedule your consultation to discuss how the virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can help with your calls, chats, and anything else you need. You will also find us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.