2025 top spend management software: a comprehensive comparison

According to a survey by Deloitte, 58% of UK CFOs expect to cut discretionary spending in 2025, making proactive spend control a top priority. Hence, spend control is no longer just about tracking expenses after the fact; it’s about proactively controlling the entire lifecycle of company spending to protect cash flow and drive growth. 

In a litany of different solutions, we take a look at market leaders from different angles, different types of platforms, and explain why integrating spend control with cash flow management is the key to achieving true Treasury Excellence.

Why is spend management a top priority for UK businesses now?

In the challenging current UK economic climate of low growth and high inflation, mastering spend is essential for business survival and growth. While the UK may be avoiding a technical recession, forecasters from the Bank of England point towards a period of continued low growth and persistent inflation.

Research shows most CFOs face major challenges from untracked "maverick" spending which undermines budgets and goals. Effective spend management software provides the real-time visibility and control needed to navigate market instability and outcompete rivals.

By tackling maverick spending head-on, this software gives companies the financial resilience and proactive cost control that are top priorities for CFOs and business leaders wanting to withstand economic pressures.

Core capabilities of spend management platforms

A comprehensive spend management platform typically unifies several key financial processes:

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  Procurement: sourcing services and products.

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  Budget Control: Setting spending limits, enforcing policies, and providing real-time tracking against departmental or project budgets.

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  Expense management: managing employee expenses.

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  Pre-accounting: Ensuring all spend data is categorised correctly and synchronised seamlessly with your ERP or accounting system.

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  Accounts Payable (AP): managing the payment for these services and products.

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  Corporate cards: for employees (often treated as a separate module because of its technological complexity, although theoretically a key part of expense management).

However, many solutions are either tied in with special ERP systems or only with a select set of modules.  

Making tax digital’ — Why spend management software is crucial

The regulatory landscape has changed with the introduction of Making Tax Digital — effective spend management is now even more important because:

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  Spend management software helps automate creating the digital records and clear audit trail HMRC requires, protecting businesses from compliance risks.

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  VAT registered businesses are required to keep digital records and file tax returns using HMRC compliant software.

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  VAT reclaim requires meticulous record — software helps by automatically capturing invoice data and confirming business use, simplifying compliance for maximising VAT reclaim.

Spend management software supports VAT reclaim in the UK by automating capture and secure storage of digital receipts and invoices, flagging any missing information, and simplifying compliance with UK-specific rules. This transforms the manual administrative burden into an automated process to maximise VAT reclaim.

Beyond spend control: why cash-first integration matters

While standalone spend tools offer significant benefits, their focus is often narrow. They can tell you what you've spent, but not always what it means for your future liquidity. This is where many solutions fall short for strategic finance leaders.

Integrating spend management with real-time cash flow forecasting provides a complete financial picture. It allows you to see how every purchase order, invoice payment, and employee expense impacts your cash position today, tomorrow, and months into the future. This holistic visibility is essential for optimising working capital, making confident investment decisions, and navigating market volatility without the limitations of standalone spend tools.

2025 Comparison: The best spend management software tools

A short-list of the top spend management software solutions available for UK businesses, to give you a clear, at-a-glance overview to help you understand what fits your bill:

Key areas to evaluate include:

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  Regulatory compliance — HMRC Making Tax Digital and VAT rules

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  UK-based integration and support with key ERP and accounting systems 

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  Functionality for proactive budget control and managing maverick spending

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  Scalability as your business grows

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  Flexibility and complementary modules for holistic spend management and cash-flow visibility and tracking 
  

In-depth look at the top spend management tools

Spendesk

Spendesk is a major UK spend management provider. Their all-in-one solution for SMEs and mid-sized firms combines virtual and physical cards, expenses, and invoicing in a user-friendly platform. Spendesk's comprehensive features and interface make it popular for spend management.

The software simplifies the spend process for employees and finance from request to reconciliation. Spendesk is known for its user-friendly interface that makes employee spending easy. However, it works mainly as a standalone spend control tool, not a fully integrated treasury platform.

Key features:

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  All-in-one spend management platform that includes invoice processing, expense claims, budget management, and customisable approval workflows.

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  Provides employees with virtual and physical corporate cards that enable real-time spend tracking and customisable spending controls.

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  Uses OCR technology for automated data capture from invoices, streamlining pre-accounting and reconciliation.

Pricing: 

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  Spendesk has a pricing model with a fixed platform fee plus variable fees based on transaction volume.

Tipalti

Tipalti is a leader in Accounts Payable automation. Their platform handles complex, high-volume, global payments excellently. It automates invoice processing, purchase order matching, and mass supplier payments in 200+ countries. Tipalti is a strong choice for complex AP needs.

Tipalti introduced its expense management module recently, which can be added to its core platform. Its strong invoice processing, purchase order matching, and mass supplier payment capabilities make Tipalti a leading choice for complex AP needs, especially for mid-market and enterprise companies.

Key features:

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  Accounts Payable automation platform for high-volume transactions with OCR invoice scanning, multi-step approval workflows, and supplier onboarding.

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  Capabilities for executing global mass payments to over 200+ countries and 120+ currencies.

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  Integrated Expense Management module that works with the core AP platform.

Pricing: 

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  Starts from £99 per month for a start AP module, with custom pricing plans available for its more advanced features. 

Coupa

Coupa provides a comprehensive Business Spend Management platform aimed at large enterprises. It focuses heavily on procurement with robust tools for sourcing, contracts, and supplier management. Coupa is tailored to the needs of complex global organisations.

However, its complexity and high pricing are not typically the best fit for most small or medium businesses.

Key features:

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  Business Spend Management platform for large enterprises, with a focus on strategic procurement and sourcing.

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  Integrated modules provide control over the full procure-to-pay lifecycle, including invoicing, expenses, and contract management.

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  Advanced analytics and controls to enforce compliance, guide employee purchasing, and eliminate unapproved maverick spending.

Pricing: 

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  Fully custom pricing through an enterprise-level subscription model, tailored to the specific needs of large organisations.

Expend

Expend is an expense management platform for UK SMEs. It offers a practical solution for managing employee expenses with budget-controlled cards, automated receipt capture, and integrations with Xero and QuickBooks. Expend is tailored to SME needs.

It offers budget cards, automated receipt capture, and integrates with Xero and QuickBooks. Expend handles UK requirements like HMRC mileage tracking and VAT. Its domestic focus and SME pricing make Expend a strong, cost-effective choice for UK businesses.

Key features:

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  Expense management tool for UK SMEs with a dedicated, HMRC-compliant mileage tracking system.

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  Budget-controlled smart corporate cards for employees, combined with automated receipt capture and processing to simplify expense reports.

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  Key UK accounting system integrations including Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage, ensuring synchronised bookkeeping.

Pricing: 

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  Expend uses a transparent per-user pricing structure, with plans available starting from £33 per month for a team of 3 users.

Soldo

Soldo is a European spend management platform with a strong UK presence, regarded for assisting businesses with real-time spending control. Built around smart prepaid corporate cards, it's a suitable choice for SMEs and mid-market companies looking to eliminate slow expense reports and employee out-of-pocket spending.

The platform's core strength lies in giving finance teams granular control over expenditure before it happens through customisable budgets and spending rules for each card, allowing to proactively simplify expense management.

Key features:

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  Smart corporate cards, offering both physical and virtual prepaid cards that can be assigned with pre-set spending limits and rules.

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  Automated expense management where employees use the mobile app to capture receipts at the point of purchase.

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  Real-time control and tracking allowing to adjust budgets instantly, and block cards directly from the admin dashboard or mobile app.

Pricing: 

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  Soldo has a tiered, per-user, per-month subscription model with plans like Standard starting from £21 fixed fee and £7 per additional user above three.

I've chosen a platform, now what? A guide to successful implementation

1. Define and communicate a clear policy

Before implementing spend management software, create a clear, simple company spending policy outlining permitted expenses, approval processes, and receipt submission. Communicating this widely prevents confusion and encourages compliance from the start.

2. Start with a pilot group

Roll out the software to one department or a small, tech-savvy team first instead of a company-wide launch. This allows identifying any process issues and gathering feedback in a controlled way before expanding.

3. Provide practical training

Host training focused on the most common tasks. Ensure employees understand the platform and its benefits like faster reimbursements. This gets everyone comfortable with it.

4. Digitise everything from day one

The goal is to eliminate manual entry and paper by enforcing all payments and expenses go through the digital system. This creates the single source of truth needed.

5. Review, optimise, and enforce

Analyse spending data regularly using the dashboards once live. Identify trends, flag anomalies, and use the information to create smarter budgets and enforce policies consistently.

Which spend management software is right for you?

Does “maverick spending” sound familiar? It can silently drain cash flow. CFOs face challenges from this kind of rogue spending. This highlights the critical difference between simply tracking expenses after the fact versus proactively controlling spending from the start.

When choosing spend management software, ask strategic questions to test it. Key considerations include:

1. Visibility: How much control do you really need?

Do you need a simple expense logging tool or a complete view of how every pound spent impacts current and future cash flow? The best platforms connect spending to company liquidity.

2. Integration: Will it connect to your existing financial puzzle?

The ideal platform should reduce manual work, not create more. Ensure it integrates with existing UK accounting and ERP systems to create a single source of truth.

3. Compliance: Is it built for UK audit-readiness?

The software should provide more than digitising receipts. It should have clear, HMRC-compliant audit trails, enforce spending policies automatically, and simplify VAT recovery.

How to choose spend management software ?

1. Empower with proactive control, not reactive limits

Give your teams spending autonomy without ever losing control. Agicap allows creating and distributing corporate cards instantly, each with customisable spending limits by team, project, or individual. Real-time transaction alerts let you adjust budgets or block cards to stop overspending before it impacts your budget. This system gives spending autonomy with control.

2. Turn raw data into real-time strategic foresight

A lack of visibility leads to budget overruns and makes accurate forecasting impossible. Agicap provides a live dashboard consolidating all company spending. The system forecasts cash flow impact of committed expenses and pending payments in real-time. This transforms spend data from a historical report into a strategic decision-making tool. The visibility allows accurate forecasting and prevents budget overruns.

3. Unify your workflow into a single source of truth

Stop wasting time toggling between separate tools for purchase requests, invoice payments, and employee expenses. Agicap is a unified platform covering the entire spend and cash management lifecycle. It connects purchase requests, approvals, bill payment, and ERP syncing. This breaks down data silos and provides one source of truth for finance teams.

4. Make compliance an effortless outcome

Chasing employees for missing receipts is a drain on resources and a risk to your bookkeeping. Our platform centralises receipts and automates compliance through AI data extraction from uploaded receipts. The platform can block cards if receipts aren't submitted, ensuring accurate books and audit readiness without chasing employees.

Ready to turn spend control into a strategic advantage? Try Agicap, the all-in-one spend and cash management tool trusted by over 8,000 European companies.

FAQs on Spend Management Software

What is the main difference between spend management and expense management?

Expense management focuses on employee expenses like travel and reimbursements. Spend management is broader, covering all spending including procurement, supplier invoices, and corporate cards. It provides a complete picture of outflows.

What is an example of spend under management?

Spend under management is the total amount of a company's external spending controlled by a spend management system. This includes raw materials, software, marketing, and employee travel.

Can spend management software help prevent fraud?

Yes.Spend management software reduces fraud risk by automating approvals and providing real-time oversight. Features like spending limits, duplicate invoice flags, and transaction audit trails are powerful fraud prevention tools.