Business Travel & Expense

For currency / FX cards see Currency, FX & Banking. For loyalty / status see Loyalty, Points & Newsletters. For broader subscription tracking, see Subscriptions & Billing. For ERP-flavored expense management, see Expense Management.

The corporate-travel landscape consolidated 2022–24 (Navan = TripActions + Reed&Mackay, Spendesk + Okta, Brex + Mailroom). For a solo traveler or small team, the right answer is usually one app for receipts (Expensify or Zoho Expense) plus one no-FX-fee card.

Personal expense / receipt tracking

• ★ Expensify — paid + free (limited); ★ classic receipt-OCR + categorization; SmartScan reads receipts from photos.
• ★ Zoho Expense — paid + free up to 3 users; ★ for small business — clean UI, good rules, integrates with Zoho Books.
• QuickBooks Self-Employed — paid; for US 1099 contractors; track-mileage feature is good.
• MileIQ — paid; mileage tracking specifically.
• Wave Receipts — free; was free, integrated into Wave Accounting (paid since 2024).
• Genius Scan / Adobe Scan — free + paid; just receipt scanning; pair with anything.

Personal-finance apps that handle travel well

• Monarch Money — paid (~$100/yr); ★ post-Mint successor; categorize travel automatically; great budget views.
• Rocket Money — paid + free; subscription tracking + cancellation; useful for "what's still draining my account while I'm abroad."
• Copilot (iOS) — paid; clean Apple-native budget app.
• YNAB (You Need a Budget) — paid (~$100/yr); envelope-style budgeting that handles a "Travel" category well.
• Tiller Money — paid; spreadsheets + bank sync; for the spreadsheet-inclined.

Corporate travel platforms

• Navan (was TripActions / Reed&Mackay) — paid B2B; ★ all-in-one corporate booking + expense + cards.
• TravelPerk — paid B2B; EU-strong; flexible-policy oriented.
• SAP Concur — paid B2B; the enterprise standard; clunky.
• Egencia (Expedia, sold to Amex GBT 2021) — paid B2B; mainstream.
• Spotnana — paid B2B; modern API-first; powers some of the above white-label.
• Brex / Ramp — paid B2B; corporate cards with travel + expense; especially aimed at startups.

Per-diem / allowance approaches

• GSA per-diem rates (US, free) — gsa.gov/travel/plan-book/per-diem-rates; the federal scale used by many companies.
• EU and many country governments publish per-diem tables — used by EU institutions and many EU companies.

Corporate cards (for distributed teams)

• Brex — paid; integrated travel.
• Ramp — paid; aggressive savings recommendations.
• Mercury IO — paid; banking-flavored.
• Wise Business — paid; international payments + cards.
• Revolut Business — paid; multi-currency.
• Spendesk, Pleo, Soldo — paid; EU-strong T&E.

DIY / no-app

• Spreadsheet (Google Sheets / Numbers) — free; with photo-attachment columns linked to Drive / iCloud folders.
• Apple Notes / Google Keep — free; quick capture; reconcile at home.
• Photo-of-receipt + naming convention — free; archive folder per trip.

What gets reimbursed (typical US corporate policy, 2026)

• Flights: usually economy domestic, premium economy or business international > 6 hours, varies by company.
• Hotels: pre-approved nightly cap or city per-diem; some companies use Hotel Engine, AmexGBT, etc. for negotiated rates.
• Meals: per-diem ($75/day urban US, varies city; $50–$150 international per GSA-equivalent).
• Local transport: actual cost; airport-shuttle / rideshare typical.
• Internet / cell: international data is increasingly reimbursed; eSIM bills as "communications."
• Entertainment with clients: separate rules; usually pre-approval.
• Tips: covered when on the receipt; cash tips with note.

Practical rules (2026)

• Photo every receipt at the moment. Don't trust paper to survive the bag.
• One credit card for all business travel — easy reconciliation.
• No-FX-fee card for international; saves 2–3% on every transaction (see Currency, FX & Banking).
• Expensify SmartScan + email-to-Expensify turns the post-trip claim into 30 minutes instead of 4 hours.
• Receipts in foreign languages: OCR works; convert to local currency on the report (per the corporate FX rule — usually credit-card statement rate or Wise mid-market on the date).
• Corporate vs personal mileage: keep them separate; 1099 tax / business-deduction implications.
• Per-diem countries change quarterly — consult GSA / your country's table for current rates.
• Pre-trip approval: keep the email; receipts alone aren't enough at audit.

Pick this if…

• Default solo / small business expense: Expensify (paid) or Zoho Expense (free up to 3 users).
• Personal travel budgeting: Monarch Money or YNAB.
• Subscription scrub before a long trip: Rocket Money.
• Startup with distributed team: Brex or Ramp + Navan or TravelPerk.
• Enterprise with a TMC requirement: Concur + AmEx GBT or BCD Travel.
• You need only mileage: MileIQ or QuickBooks Self-Employed.