One of the most important things you can learn to do is to track your expenses. If this is the case in your personal life then think about how important it is in your business. The process is painful but you will learn so much about your business and the insights you gain may be well worth it. Circumstances differ of course; perhaps you have a well-established business that is profitable and money is no obstacle. You may be on the other end of the spectrum and just starting a business and want to make sense of things. There is an expense for these circumstances and everything in between. Let’s do a run through some of the best business expense tracking apps for 2022.
Expensify
Expensify takes the expense tracking game to the next level. Expensify is designed for business expense tracking and has some features that certainly belong on that level. It uses what they call SmartScan technology to eliminate manual data entry. That’s right! Use your device’s camera to capture a receipt and it will read and organise the text on the receipt. This is a great feature if technology sometimes presents you with some challenges. From there Expensify will help you keep track of your business and generate useful quick reports based on the information you enter. Perhaps the one downside is that you will not be able to take advantage of all its features in Zimbabwe. This is a premium product and even supports integration with popular accounting software such as Quickbooks and Xero.
Zoho Expense
Another business first tracker, Zoho expense is all about simplifying the work of tracking your expenses. Firstly Zoho allows the storage of digital copies of receipts so you don’t spend a lot of time entering details. It then further allows you to pin and colour code those digital receipts to organise them into categories. This is a really useful approach if your knowledge of accounting and bookkeeping is limited and you will later have someone else come in and have a look at the expenses. Zoho also has an optional built-in GPS tracker which is useful if you travel for business and need to log mileage. Zoho is a complete solution for business expense tracking and integrates with the Zoho expenses web application which will give you more insights and features. Much like other Zoho products it is designed with the visual person in mind and uses colour to easily keep track of what’s what. You might find Zoho an enjoyable experience if you are better at seeing things than you are working with numbers.
Quickbooks
Quickbooks is a trusted name in computerised accounting and bookkeeping that successfully made the jump to the app and mobile age. This brings the full accounting functions that Quickbooks is known for to a smaller format, so once it’s set up it automatically organises the information provided into accounting information complete with reports and statements. It has full function expense tracking though it is a manual entry system. The advantage of Quickbooks as an expense tracker is that it begins with the end in mind. Due to Quickbooks being built for the accounting function of the business you will find it works with a very much bottom-line mentality in all it does. This is an advantage compared to other trackers which may not focus on the end goal. You can also expect to get the best in class features when it comes to invoicing creation and management with Quickbooks,
Spending Tracker
The perhaps rather plainly named Spending Tracker is a brilliant application for those who are just getting to grips with things. While it is designed as a personal tracker first you will find it is adept at tracking business expenses. I recommend this one for the person who has just started a business and is simply trying to make sense of everything that’s going on around them. It can be very difficult to separate yourself from the business especially as there is little to separate in the early days. The application is a manual entry system but allows you to create multiple accounts (for different business and personal one) and multiple custom expense and income categories to also keep track of where your money is coming from. It generates some visual reports within the app to keep you on top of things. I recommend this one highest for the smooth transition from personal to business expense tracking. It also serves as a great introduction to someone who has never done it before.