When you are self-employed, run your own business, or get sent out of town for work, keeping track of what you spend is very important. If you don’t report how much money you spent on a cup of coffee to keep you awake during that presentation, you won’t be reimbursed for it later.
Whether you file a 1099 each year, are a member of the Frequent Flier Club, or only travel once or twice per year, we’ve got a list of the best expense tracking apps for iPhone that are perfect for work-related travel and business-related finance…
EasyBiz
If you are lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on your viewpoint) to have your daily driving expenses reimbursed, having a good mileage tracker is a must-have. Self-employed business owners would benefit from tracking mileage for tax purposes. This app tracks your drive using GPS and estimates fuel costs with a few simple inputs. This app is available for $0.99.
Mileage Log+
This is another app that is incredibly useful for keeping track of mileage and expenses for your car. It was specifically designed to adhere to the IRS guidelines for using transportation as a write-off. Users input information and expenses are displayed on an Excel-compatible graph. Sync with Dropbox for easy access when you are doing your taxes. This app is available for $2.99.
Scanner Pro
Instead of walking around with a wallet full of business receipts that get crumpled and messy, why not take a quick scan and send it directly to your accountant. Readdle’s scanner app is perfect for making copies of documents and quickly storing or sharing them. You’ll never have to worry about what you did with that lunch receipt again. This app is available for $2.99.
Xpense Tracker
This expense organizer is perfect for the businessperson who needs to keep everything consolidated in one location. You can organize data based on frequently used expenses, customize input data fields to reflect your specific needs, and mark when an expense has been submitted and reimbursed. It includes a camera feature to capture receipts and tag and filter options for easy searching of items. This app is available for $4.99.
Concur
For companies already invested in the popular expense tracking software from Concur, it is now easier than ever for employees to manage and track expenditures from business trips. You can itemize hotel charges, submit and approve expense reports, and even keep track of meetings with the in-app calendar. Book airfare and hotels with TripIt integration. This app is available for free.
iExpensIt
This app is an all-around useful financial organizer, no matter what your business status is. It features a bill reminder, quick data entry for transactions, account balance and transfer features, budgeting, income, expense and cash flow trending charts, and more. Add expenses and income to get a monthly overview of what you spend on a daily basis. This app is available for $4.99.
Expensify
Some people love keeping track of every detail of a business trip. Others would rather be enjoying happy hour than filling out tedious reports about money spending. This app makes expense reporting easy with the in-app scanner. Create file folders for various expense reports. Then, take a snapshot of a receipt and send it to one of the report folders. You won’t miss another happy hour again. This app is available for free.
Receipts
The best way to keep track of receipts is to take pictures. That way, if something happens, there is always a digital backup. Even with receipts, you would normally still have to enter expense information manually somewhere. Not with this app. It features an OCR scanner that translates images into text so you won’t have to type out everything you’ve purchased on your business trip. The scanner populates the information for you. This app is available for free.
Don’t forget to check out some of our previous Best Apps lists.
Now you don’t have any excuse for not taking care of your expense report. Your accountant will thank you for it. What are your favorite expense tracking apps?