Almost all employees are familiar with expense reports. You know, that dreaded form that employees use to capture all the most important information about a business expense? Yes, that very same one.
Expense reports document every detail of a business expense, making it easier to write off the expense on your business tax return. They also allow employers and managers to determine how much they’ll reimburse an employee who used their own money for a business expense. This simply means that as an employee, you need to submit your expenses to get reimbursed.
Financial planning, bookkeeping, and budgeting have been made easier with access to more apps and software like Expensify. The combination of cloud based receipt scanning and accounting software allows you to save time and resources while giving you the luxury of accessing the data anywhere at any time.
Expensify is a web-based cloud accounting software that is compatible with both android and IOS processing software. This tax software is ideal for professionals, freelancers, small and mid-size businesses as well as large enterprises.
Expensify is easy to use with its user-friendly interface and functionality making it easy to keep track of your reports.
But even though app has these features, people are still looking for Expensify alternatives. Why is that? Let us explore the reasons;
Privacy is a big deal right now with stringent measures taken to curb the violation of privacy. One of the biggest concerns for Expensify users is that the app violates their privacy policy which a user signs as a term for agreement to use the app.
Users are complaining that Expensify is sending non-product-related information to them, flooding their emails with this information. This is a clear violation of their privacy policy in which you as a user get to choose the type of information you want to receive from Expensify.
One user recently complained that they had only used the app for a short while but was charged for a whole year’s worth of use. And the worst part is that the app will not allow the user to cancel the billing. This can only be described as robbery and it does not inspire trust in the software.
These and among other complaints are what has prompted users to look for alternative invoicing apps that meet their needs. Let’s take a closer look at these Expensify alternatives.
Let’s take a closer look at other apps that are considered a better alternative to Expensify so you can compare.
This is a great feature of the Bonsai's 1099 expense tracker software that will help freelancers all over save their hard-earned cash when they use this feature.
According to Bonsai’s customer research, an average freelancer stands a chance of saving up to $5,600 per year by using this feature which helps you track your expenses and maximize your tax write-offs.
Bonsai Tax will keep your accounts and finances in order and organized for tax time (and store them for at least three years in case you get audited). By keeping track of all your expenses including your 1099 expenses, you are able to easily calculate and determine your tax write-offs and you won't have much trouble come tax time.
Bonsai Tax's expense management feature allows you to organize as well as keep your receipts and income for purposes of bookkeeping.
You can now easily create a new expense for your account from any connected device be it mobile or desktop.
With Bonsai Tax, you can also import your bank transactions directly to its platform for transparent expense management.
This feature is fantastic as it also allows you to attach billable expenses for a project directly to its invoice for payment. Now you can track the expenses associated with the project; its execution, taxation, and other expenditures.
Try our free self-employment tax calculator to estimate how much you'll owe at the end of the year.
Our handy expense tracking app for 1099 workers will also send you notifications to pay your quarterly taxes and file your 1099 on time. This is key because if you are late, you could receive a penalty from the IRS. Not to mention, we can help you calculate your quarterly payments.
If you send the IRS less money for your estimated taxes, you can receive an underpayment tax penalty.
There's more benefits you get on top of your expense management software.
Bonsai is a free online freelancer tools platform that takes these tedious tasks off your plate. It combines time tracking, invoice templates, and project management to help freelancers better manage every aspect of their work.
This mobile app takes into consideration the myriad of aspects of your work and places them into one platform from where you can manage them all. This helps you keep your focus on the most important thing: doing great freelance work.
For your freelance gig to succeed, you obviously need to get clients. And you get those clients by pitching your great ideas to them. But what happens when the clients like what you are selling and when they want to look you up, they can’t find you?
This is where Bonsai comes in handy. It helps you create your very own portfolio, complete with a link that you can give to your clients so that they can see all your accomplishments, all in one place.
With Bonsai, you can link up your LinkedIn and GitHub accounts which your potential clients can access quickly.
Okay, so you may not get clients the first time you pitch to them. But, there are inbound leads that might decide to reach out to you. The trick is getting them to reach out to you in a hassle-free manner.
Bonsai’s contact form allows your potential clients to reach out to you. And the best part? Your portfolio also links to the contact form. So whenever a potential client clicks on the Reach Out button on your portfolio page, they are redirected to your contact form.
Not only are we rated the best receipt tracking app, we have a built in CRM system to help you organize all of your tasks. A CRM system basically offers a central location where you as a business owner can store your customer and prospect data as well as record customer interaction.
Bonsai’s CRM is linked to your contact form so anyone who reaches out to you through the contact form is tagged as a lead.
It also allows you to distinguish between prospective clients, clients that you have previously worked with, and those that you are currently working with. This offers a clear and organized overview of your client base.
Writing a proposal from scratch is a taxing task. Never mind the fact that the last time you actually wrote one was during your college days which are now long gone, and you have probably forgotten how to go about it.
Enter Bonsai’s pre-installed proposal templates. These are a lifesaver. Bonsai offers six ready-to-go templates depending on the kind of work you do, be it graphic design or freelance writer.
As the basic structure of the proposal is already set, all you have to do is fill out the details about your project and the proposal is ready to go.
Bonsai also offers flexibility in the format of the proposal, keeping in mind that different clients like to receive their documents in different formats.
You can convert the document into a PDF file, email it as is, or send a link to it to your clients. Whichever way you choose, you are guaranteed that it will please your client by thinking of their preferences.
Bonsai deals with all the legal mumbo-jumbo so you don’t have to. It provides contracts that are verified by professional lawyers which ensures that you and your client are both protected legally.
And just as it is with the proposal templates, Bonsai also offers easy contract templates that you only need to fill in the blanks and send to your clients to read through and sign.
Get ready to be an international entrepreneur because Bonsai has international contracts that are also legal in other countries and not just in the USA and Canada. You will have to check with local lawyers though but oftentimes, the contract laws are very similar in most countries.
They also accept e-signatures for your contracts but if the clients prefer to physically sign the contract, they can too, they just need to convert it to PDF, print it, sign it and then send it back over and the contract signing business is concluded.
Unlike with other apps, you do not have to pay for or install other apps to help you manage your projects. Bonsai allows you to do all that from one single app.
With its built-in time tracker, you can assign time for your different projects and make sure that you do not spend too much time on one project. This helps with billing as when you are working on multiple projects, you are able to see which ones you have completed and send invoices for those.
Bonsai Tax offers a 14 day free trial to new users. Try our expense management app for free and if it doesn't make your life easier, just cancel it. No hard feelings. Our app can discover all your potential write-offs at the push of a button so you can focus on your small business. For no risk, see for yourself why Bonsai is the best tax software for 1099 workers and alternative to Expensify.
Zoho Expense is an accounting and finance application as well as an expense management software solution that seamlessly integrates with other business applications and speeds up report approvals by eliminating needless data entry thereby increasing overall business productivity and profitability.
It is a travel and expense management solution that simplifies expense reporting by automating processes. This is a great investment for people who travel for business. It has a free trial that allows you to try the app for free giving you ample time to decide on whether it is a worthwhile investment for you and your business.
The automation of all workflow processes eliminates the need for tiresome data entry which maximizes business efficiency. Zoho has perfected automation to ensure zero data entry when creating expenses.
The Zoho Expense app allows you to scan your receipts with auto scan so that you do not have to manually execute that and other expense reporting tasks that are crucial in creating financial statements.
Zoho allows you to make travel arrangements including bookings, creating travel itineraries, and traveler profiles through the app. It enables you to manage all the stages of your business travel. You no longer have to wait until you get to the office from a business trip for you to submit expenses and make your expense report. With Zoho expense, you get to make it on the go reducing the chance of you forgetting a deduction.
Zoho expense allows you to sync your credit cards so that all your credit card transactions are collected daily which are then automatically converted into expenses and grouped.
So, to create an expense report, all you have to do is select a group of expenses and create the report, all with one click of a button.
This app offers a 30-day free trial so you can test out the Zoho expense software and all it's features.
Freshbooks is one of the most popular web-based accounting solutions for small businesses and freelancers mainly because it bills by the hour. It is perfect for freelancers who do not have too many clients to manage.
Freshbooks pricing is very affordable with four different subscription pricing plans that range from $5 to $15 or more which depends on the number of billable clients and additional features that would be required by the user.
The listed price is for one user with an additional $10 per month for additional users.
Depending on your business needs, you get to choose from a variety of plans with different pricing which include Lite, Plus, Premium, and Select.
If you are looking at FreshBooks as an expense management solution, here are some of the highlights and benefits of using them.
Freshbooks is a great alternative to Wave Financial.
On top of expense management, let's discuss the other features you can get access to.
The Chart of Accounts feature allows you to have a view of all your business’ accounts in a comprehensive and easy-to-understand way. And with Freshbooks' pre-populated COA, you get to reduce the time it would take you to set up, meaning that you can get things up and running so much faster.
This feature also helps your clients, as well as yourself, classify your transactions, pairing them with the correct accounts allowing you to review your financial statements easily.
This feature also strengthens the client-accountant relationship by keeping the client in the loop about their financials.
The many different functionalities that accompany this feature make Freshbooks aesthetically pleasing that you just fall in love with it.
It is so much easier to create proposals that clearly define your project. It also allows you to track the progress of your proposal at every stage that it’s at from viewed, approved, and finally invoiced.
Its online e-signature means you don’t have to wait for your clients to print out a copy of your proposal, sign it, then scan it and send it back to you. This functionality allows for your clients to approve and sign your proposal online and you can get to work that much faster.
The customized estimates mean that you can convert them to invoices that are ready-to-pay faster thereby simplifying your onboarding process as well as set up and billing.
Freshbook offers peace of mind for its clients by coming up with Checkout Links which requires one to pay for services upfront so you don’t have to chase down your clients for payment later.
And seeing how people are concerned about the safety of their finances, by partnering with WePay, Freshbooks guarantees complete security.
Freshbooks easily integrates with other apps such as G Suite, Dropbox, and Hubspot allowing you to do all your payroll and accounting tasks in one place.
Integrating with an app such as Squarespace also gives you both marketing and bookkeeping services in one cloud-based platform.
You get to maximize the time you have with your clients by integrating Freshbooks with Zoom which automatically integrates your meeting minutes, eliminating the need for manual entries.
And in case of a tax audit, you can be sure that all your clients' accounts information and expenses are well documented and organized by integrating with Dropbox.
Freshbooks offers a free trial for 30 days for you to test out the expense management software along with all the other features. Check out this article for more Freshbooks alternatives.
Fyle is a great cloud-based expense management solution out there in the fast-paced business world. Its intuitive user interface helps you keep all your expenses organized.
It is a paid application that has set the pricing for each active user. And although it does not have a free version, it does have a free trial which allows you to test-drive the app and see whether it is worth your while but you have to sign up for a demo.
With Fyle, you can easily extract expense information from a photograph of your receipt which is automatically scanned by the app. With just a single click, one can automatically capture receipts in real-time.
Most apps do not track mileage expenses but Fyle does. With the help of Google places, all you have to do is enter your location name and Fyle will deal with the rest.
By simplifying expense reporting, Fyle allows you to streamline your reporting so that you never lose track of your expenses. It also does away with the red tape around expense approvals, streamlining the approval process as well.
Fyle has an Outlook add-in as well as a G suite extension which allows you to track all electronic receipts without having to leave your inbox.
This ability allows one to use the app either from a mobile device or a laptop or tablet. The compatibility together with the ease of use and access means that anyone can use the app from anywhere without the need for technical skills. Both Android and IOS systems can support the app making it available to various users.
Fyle integrates seamlessly with other accounting software such as Sage, Xero and, Quickbooks Online helps for proper and efficient management of your accounts and finances
Voted as the best overall small business accounting software, QuickBooks is an exemplary choice for all types of businesses, even more so for product-based businesses because it allows for tracking inventory costs.
With its time tracking and integrated payroll, this accounting software is best for businesses that would like to process payroll without third-party integration.
This accounting software automatically records the income and tracks how much a customer owes you. It allows you to easily create invoices which you can then send to your clients through email.
It also allows you to view your accounts receivable (A/R) as well. You can also run an Accounts Receivable Aging Report to calculate how many days your Accounts Receivable are overdue.
You can have a clear view of how your business is performing by creating clear financial statements. Quickbooks allows you to manage your cash inflow and outflow which enables you to create comprehensive financial statements.
With just the click of a button on the accounting platform, you can create a Profit and Loss Statement, Statement of Cash Flows, and a Balance Sheet report.
Of all the other account software, this is the only one that allows you to run payroll without third-party integration. This unique feature allows you to run the payroll on time without mistakes in calculating the paychecks that can happen when you do it manually.
Quickbooks’ payroll function automatically calculates the paychecks and runs payroll making sure that every employee is paid the correct amount and on time. Large companies and enterprises can benefit greatly from this feature.
And although you need to purchase a Quickbooks payroll subscription, the functionality is integrated with QuickBooks. This ensures that as of the latest payroll run, your financial statements are up to date as well.
Perhaps one of the biggest selling points for Quickbooks is its cloud accounting functionality. This allows you to securely store your information on the cloud where you can access it at any time from any device.
It guarantees that your data is safe as only those who are authorized can access the data.
The expense management and accounting software offers a 30 day free trial for you to try the app. See our full list of QuickBook Self-Employed alternatives.
Deciding on the best alternatives to Expensify for your needs takes time and a lot of research. This is because there are so many of them out there with different features that it gets confusing.
Once you have determined your needs, you can sign up for a free trial to try the different apps. Figure out which one meets all your needs and provides the best ease of use. This is easily done as most of them offer a free trial version of each expense management solution.
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