The 4 Best Employee Reimbursement Software Platforms

Let’s just say what most employees are thinking: the employee reimbursement process is awful. They make purchases to snag a new contract, entertain clients, or cash in their perks, and they’re rewarded with weeks or months out of pocket before they get that money back. Even if it doesn’t pose a financial burden, slow-moving reimbursements are a scourge on the employee-employer relationship — something that’s awfully difficult to repair once it’s strained.

But there’s an unfortunate truth in the business world. Employee reimbursements aren’t exactly at the top of the operational priority list. Slow reimbursement isn’t intentional; it’s just not on the radar of anyone outside finance teams.

Even then, responsibilities can waver, and reimbursements can get left by the wayside, much to employees' detriment. According to one study, around one-third of employees wait over a month to receive reimbursements, and 28% believe that submitting expenses shouldn’t be part of their job duties, underscoring employee sentiment on the topic.

Given the backlash from employees and the potential detriment to professional relationships, employers should pay closer attention to reimbursement processes. They just need a suitable tool to facilitate the process.

To streamline expense management, proper company spending, approval processes, and payments, only the best employee reimbursement software will do. Discover how these top platforms turn a tumultuous situation into an afterthought that leaves everyone satisfied.

What To Look for in the Best Employee Reimbursement Software

Ultimately, the best employee reimbursement software is the one that fits your budget and needs. If you’ve never used this type of software, learning about the various features to make your life easier is essential — because, as you surely know, not all software is created equal.

Before you cut a check for a new reimbursement software, familiarize yourself with some of the top features. By understanding your requirements and available software features, you can find the optimal solution for your employee reimbursement needs.

Receipt Capture

Manual data entry is a major annoyance, especially for companies with traveling workers, stipends, perks, and per diems. To counteract this time-consuming process and decrease the chance of errors, receipt capture automation is ideal.

Workers use their email or a mobile app to upload qualifying business expenses, and receipt scanning automatically uploads the expense data, complete with categorization and notifications sent to the right person. Due to the user-friendly process, you can get real-time visibility of employee expenses and reimburse expenses rapidly.

Multi-level Approval Workflows

Employee reimbursement and expense management software can capture receipts and make repayment simple, but only when the transactions are approved quickly. The best employee reimbursement software provides instant expense approvals or flags employee spending that exceeds your expense policies.

To ensure expense policy compliance, the software notifies the right people when a purchase is outside spending policies, as well as any flagrant spending patterns or card transactions that don’t meet spending guidelines. On the other side, valid expenses are approved quickly or automatically, speeding up reimbursement.

Corporate Cards

Without a company card, you’re adding extra steps to your reimbursement process, not to mention your accounting systems. One way to circumvent these extra steps is to use an employee reimbursement software that also offers corporate credit cards.

By using a Visa, AMEX, or MasterCard, you ensure that your employee can make purchases just about anywhere. Plus, you can tie them to business spend controls and company policies to shore up your expense tracking, provide an audit trail, and facilitate reimbursement approvals.

Expense Reports and Real-time Analytics

Employee reimbursement is one part of a more expansive expense management solution. Don’t be surprised if the best expense management software has reimbursement options, but so much more.

With a robust expense management platform that includes reimbursement features for your business needs, you also get a suite of cloud-based expense management tools that far exceed what you can do with an Excel spreadsheet.

Through the dashboard of these platforms, you can track employee spending, business travel expenses, and customizable templates that simplify your expense reporting process.

Multi-currency Support

If you have a globally diversified team, ensuring they receive benefits in their local currency is important. The best employee reimbursement software has multi-currency support for reimbursement, receipt capture, travel booking, and reporting.

Security Features

When you’re dealing with bank accounts, Social Security numbers, and employee information, security is paramount. Look for an employee reimbursement platform that includes encryption, data access controls, and fraud prevention to protect your most sensitive information.

Integration

Good software streamlines your expense reimbursement process, but the best employee reimbursement software extends functionality through integration. Through automated or AI-powered reimbursement software, you can seamlessly connect accounting software, accounts payable, or ERP to reduce time-related hassles, eliminate manual work, and improve overall ease of use.

You should find that top reimbursement software solutions work with some of the most popular business platforms, including QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite, and others.

The 5 Best Employee Reimbursement Platforms

Reimbursing employees quickly and easily is the core of any reimbursement software solution, yet many offer additional tools and features to streamline the process. Now that you have a basic idea of what these platforms offer, you can make an educated decision on which one of the best employee reimbursement platforms will work for you.

1. Hoppier

For a simplified approach to reimbursement and spend management, Hoppier might be your best bet. Using digital gift cards, Hoppier allows you to send and automate perks, stipends, benefits, and reimbursements with ease, acting as a spend control and expense management system in the process.

How Hoppier Works

Setting up an employee reimbursement program is extraordinarily easy with Hoppier. Start by naming your program and then add your company colors and logo to the digital card. Then, select a monetary value for each card based on your budget and company policies.

At this point, you can also choose an expiration date and specific vendors that align with your spend controls or policies. With tens of thousands of vendors, you can always ensure your employees spend money only within your scope — or you can choose to let them use it like any other Visa card — making it perfect for perks and stipends.

After you make these decisions, your digital card is ready to send to recipients in over 60 countries. Add your employee email addresses or upload a CSV, click submit, and the cards and instructions on how to use them are sent to their inbox.

If you choose an expiration date, any leftover money on the card goes back into your account, giving you some extra funding for your next round of reimbursements, stipends, or perks. Plus, you can track spending and card usage via the platform.

Whether you’re a mid-size company or a small business, Hoppier takes the hassle out of the expense reimbursement process.

2. Brex

Brex handles the ins and outs of employee reimbursement in over 120 countries, but does so much more. Dubbed the “Modern Finance Platform,” Brex lets you set up an employee reimbursement plan with or without the Brex MasterCard — a card that can simplify your reimbursement processes.

Beyond its employee reimbursement capabilities, the platform also provides banking with up to a 4.02% APY, bill pay, spend management, travel booking, and more. And with multiple pricing tiers starting at $0/mo for small businesses, Brex fits nicely into even the tightest budgets.

3. Expensify

Offering 45 integrations, an AI-powered platform, and the ability to migrate your corporate cards, Expensify has its rightful place as one of the best employee reimbursement software platforms. As one of the original expense reimbursement platforms, Expensify spearheaded receipt capture technology, and its tech remains one of the selling points of its platform.

Expensify is a sound solution for companies with global reach, offering real-time tracking and automatic compliance in 140 currencies to recipients in over 190 countries. Add in bank-grade security and built-in fraud detection, and you won’t have to worry about reimbursing employees, no matter where they live.

4. Ramp

Ramp has garnered critical acclaim as one of the best employee reimbursement software platforms available today. It has many of the features of competitors, but makes reimbursement simpler with a variety of features.

Through the platform, users can automate expense workflows, set granular spending limits and vendor control, send ACH reimbursement payments, and view real-time tracking and analytics for insightful decision-making.

Beyond its reimbursement capacity, Ramp functions as a procurement and accounts payable solution, speeding up intake-to-pay and ensuring vendor payments are made on time in the correct amount.

The final coup-de-grace of Ramp centers around its travel booking capabilities. Lodging and transit automatically link to your set limits, but you can also encourage lower spending through savings splits. In the Ramp platform, you can choose to split any cost savings with your employees, saving cash while giving incentives to your team.

The Best Employee Reimbursement Software for You

To some degree, the best employee reimbursement software is subjective. Many of these platforms offer similar features, so only you can decide the top solution for your business. So whether you want an all-in-one expense management process solution or a lightweight, user-friendly platform, you have plenty of options. Choose wisely.