12 Best Finance Automation Tools for Small and Mid-Size Businesses

Finance automation tools make your internal processes faster and more efficient.

They streamline core workflows and turn complex data into readable reports, giving you better control and visibility over your business finances.

If you are exploring finance automation tools, I have found some good software products for you. They are built for small and mid-size businesses and work well with popular accounting systems.

What Is Finance Automation Software And Which Tools Are Best For Small And Mid-Size Businesses?

Finance automation software digitizes and automates key financial workflows.

It simplifies not only the core operations but also provides scalable workflows, making finance management easier.

Top Features To Look For In a Finance Automation Tool

• AR/AP automation.
• Reconciliation.
• Expense management.
• Forecasting or budgeting.

Here are the 12 best finance automation tools that are ideal for small and mid-size businesses. 

I have included general automation platforms, forecasting apps, spend management software products, and planning tools.

1. Bill

Bill is designed for day-to-day finance operations.

You can use it to set up an approval system for accounts payable and receivable, automating your receipts and payments.

The software is AI-powered and comes with some really helpful tools. You can easily upload and manage bills, create invoices, and track all your vouchers.

Apart from AP and AR, Bill offers a spend management product. You can access credit lines, prepare budgets, and issue virtual cards to employees.

You’ll also get cash flow forecasting in the subscription. You can monitor your business performance, predict cash needs, and track specific entries.

Bill integrates with all the popular accounting platforms and provides API access to customize your workflows.

Core Features

• AP and AR automation.
• Team collaboration and approval system.
• Automated reminders.
• Flexible payment options.
• Procurement and invoicing.
• Virtual cards and expense management.
• Business credit lines.
• Cash flow forecasting.
• Analytics and reporting.
• Mobile app.
• API and integrations.

Price

Bill prices start at $49 per month. You can take a free trial.

2. Tipalti

Tipalti is also a good finance automation app.

It focuses specifically on liabilities, simplifying procurement and cash flow management for you.

You’ll get a supplier portal to access bills online and a smart scanning tool to create vouchers.

To control your AP workflows, you can set up an approval and a payment fraud detection system.

The app supports both domestic and global payments and processes transactions in bulk. You can keep an eye on your cash flow in real time and run projections to utilize the funds smartly.

Other notable features of Tipalti are PO matching, payment reconciliation, compliance management, and reporting.

Core Features

• Accounts payable automation.
• Domestic and global payments.
• Mass payments and automatic reconciliation.
• Compliance and fraud detection.
• Cash flow forecasting.
• Procurement and supplier management.
• Self-service portal.
• Analytics and tracking.
• Real-time visibility.
• Mobile app.
• Integrations.

Price

Tipalti charges €99 to €219 per month. You can ask for a demo.

3. Ramp

Ramp is a spend management app for small and mid-size businesses. It delivers a suite of finance products to manage the company’s expenses and liabilities.

Through Ramp, you can handle procurement, automate your accounts payable, and track travel expenses. With its OCR technology, you can process invoices in bulk and send payments globally.

You can set up an approval workflow that automatically routes bills to the right person. You can let Ramp’s AI agent handle the low-priority approvals, so the upper management doesn’t need to be notified for every small expenditure.

One of Ramp’s unique selling points is its corporate cards. You can issue virtual cards to your employees for petty cash and set a spending limit to restrict overuse.

Ramp also offers business accounts to earn interest on your operating cash flow. There is no minimum deposit requirement, and you’ll receive alerts when your funds run low for operating expenses.

Core Features

• Procurement and accounts payable automation.
• Easy bill scanning.
• Batch payments.
• Global access.
• Corporate cards and business accounts.
• Smart approval system and fraud detection.
• AI and automation.
• Budgeting and reporting.
• Vendor management.
• Integration.
• Mobile app.

Price

Ramp charges $15 per month. The basic plan is free.

4. Pleo

Pleo is another excellent spend management app. It covers liabilities, expenses, reimbursements, and petty cash.

Some of the things you can do through Pleo include automatic billing and approval, vendor payments, reconciliation, and expense tracking. You can connect your bank to your Pleo account and set triggers to automatically transfer funds when the balance is low.

Budgeting, spending limits, and approvals are all built into the system. You can easily set up controls to manage your business operating funds.

One more thing. 

Pleo can issue physical and virtual corporate cards for petty cash. You can view the card transactions and freeze them at any time.

Overall, it’s a decent finance automation app for small businesses.

Core Features

• Accounts payable automation.
• Physical and virtual corporate cards.
• Expense and cash management.
• Invoice capture and reimbursements.
• Spending controls and approvals.
• Accounting automation.
• Multiple users.
• Credit line.
• Tracking and reporting.
• Third-party integration.
• Mobile app.

Price

Pleo’s monthly subscription starts at £9.5. You can take a free trial.

5. Plooto

Plooto is accounts payable and receivable software. 

You can manage all your bills and invoices from one place and process both domestic and international payments.

The platform sells separate packages for SMBs and independent accountants. 

In the business package, you’ll get a business account, flexible payments, approval controls, and reconciliation.

You can connect Plooto with QuickBooks and Xero and enable two-way syncing to reconcile entries automatically. Plooto also keeps an audit trail of all your transactions and notifies you when your invoices are paid.

Core Features

• Accounts payable and receivable.
• Custom approval workflows.
• Domestic and international payments.
• Mass pay.
• Business account.
• Invoice management.
• Reconciliation.
• Automated alerts and reporting.
• Accounting software and bank integration.

Price

Plooto charges $32 to $99 per month. You can take a 30-day free trial.

6. Upflow

Upflow is an accounts receivable and relationship management app. 

It provides you with tools to collect revenues from customers and strengthen your working relationships.

Let me briefly explain how it works.

You can build a branded payment portal for your clients and offer them multiple ways to pay you. Plus, you can segment your clients and create tailored follow-up campaigns.

This helps you automate your receivables while also personalizing your interactions.

Upflow’s analytics section is excellent as well.

You can generate cash flow forecasts and aging reports to identify bottlenecks and optimize the collection process. With Upflow’s AI capabilities, you can speed up your workflows and automate time-consuming processes.

Core Features

• Accounts receivable automation.
• Flexible payment methods.
• Branded portal.
• Personalized reminders.
• Automated reconcilation.
• Live dashboard with smart analytics.
• Cash flow forecasting.
• Team collaboration.
• Integration.

Price

Upflow shares prices on request. You can try the software for free.

7. Float

Float is a cash flow forecasting tool for SMBs.

It lets you generate a 13-week cash flow forecast and create different scenarios to predict the outcome of your financial decisions.

The software is incredibly user-friendly and allows multiple users. You can compare various projections and share them with your team.

Float also supports multiple entities, which means you can generate forecasts for your clients. You can set thresholds to get alerts and run daily and weekly reports to monitor cash movement.

You can integrate Float with your accounting software to pull data for forecasting. When you make changes in your accounts, the app automatically updates the charts accordingly.

Core Features

• 13-week cash flow.
• Scenario planning.
• Forecast comparison.
• Daily, weekly, and monthly views.
• Automated data updates.
• Cash threshold and early warnings.
• Team collaboration.
• Accounting software integration.
• Reporting.
• Mobile app.

Price

Float prices start at $267 per month. You can take a 14-day free trial.

8. Cash Flow Frog

Cash Flow Frog is a forecasting app. But unlike Float, it focuses on long-term prediction.

Here, you can predict your cash flow for up to three years and compare it with your actual operating expenses. The app supports daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly views, allowing you to see your forecast from different perspectives.

You can connect Cash Flow Frog with your accounting software to automatically update your forecasts. Data is updated in real time, generating an accurate forecast based on your current cash movement.

Scenario planning is also a core function of Cash Flow Frog. You can run unlimited cash flow projections without affecting your financial data.

Core Features

• Long-term cash flow forecast.
• Scenario planning.
• Estimated vs. actual comparison.
• Daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly views.
• Automated updates.
• Multiple users.
• Branded reports.
• Customer insights.
• Integration.

Price

Cash Flow Frog charges $29 to $39 per month. You can try it for free.

9. LiveFlow

LiveFlow is financial planning and analytics software. It handles the strategic side of the finance department, helping SMBs manage their operating expenses smartly.

Core capabilities of LiveFlow are forecasting, budgeting, and reporting. You can consolidate all your financial statements and generate user-friendly charts.

You can also give your team access to your budgets and set up an approval system to control the flow of information. Or, you can freeze dashboard values and share them with your team.

What I love most about LiveFlow is its integrations.

You can sync it with your Google and Excel sheets to automatically update them without disrupting formulas. This feature is best for professionals who prefer to work on spreadsheets.

Core Features

• Financial planning and analytics.
• Multi-entity consolidation.
• Budgeting and forecasting.
• Estimated vs. actual performance comparison.
• Custom reporting.
• Team collaboration.
• Live dashboard.
• Excel and Google spreadsheet syncing.
• Integrations.

Price

LiveFlow shares prices on request. You can book a demo.

10. Jirav

Jirav is a planning and forecasting tool. It’s a user-friendly platform built for small and mid-size businesses.

Top notable features of Jirav are cash flow forecasting, scenario planning, budgeting, and reporting. You can connect your spreadsheets and accounting software for reporting and use templates to run both long-term and rolling forecasts.

Budget planning is one of Jirav’s strengths. 

You can use data from your projections to create annual budgets and invite team leads to plan department-level budgets. You’ll have the flexibility to add permission levels and restrict editing.

I recommend requesting a demo to explore its features. The app has some excellent forecasting tools.

Core Features

• Short and long-term cash flow forecasting.
• Dynamic budgeting.
• Scenario planning.
• Custom reporting.
• Estimated vs. actual budgets.
• Accounting software and spreadsheet integration.
• Team collaboration.
• Expert guide.

Price

Jirav shares prices on request. The demo is free.

11. Invoiced

Invoiced delivers AR automation tools.

With this app, you can receive domestic and global payments and automate the collection process.

The software is AI-powered and comes with some really good smart features. 

For example, you can automatically scan and record offline payments and auto-reconcile entries. For online payments, you can apply conditions–like partial payment–and set the collection process on autopilot.

There are several other time-saving features on Invoiced. You can build a personalized follow-up workflow and tie it to specific clients or invoices.

Cash collection forecasting is also built into the system. You can generate forecasts based on your historical payment patterns.

Core Features

• Accounts receivable automation.
• Flexible payment collection.
• Personalized follow-ups.
• Built-in inbox.
• Customer portal.
• Forecasting and reporting.
• Real-time monitoring.
• Integration.

Price

Invoiced shares prices on request. Get a demo to know more.

12. MoneySpire

MoneySpire is a finance management app for small businesses. It helps you automate routine activities and manage money more effectively.

Through MoneySpire, you can keep track of all your bank accounts, create estimated budgets, monitor your income and expenses, and reconcile bank statements. 

You can set up reminders to get notified of upcoming bills and forecast your cash flow to keep an eye on your operating funds.

MoneySpire also lets you manage your personal and business finances together. You can add tags and categories to keep the expenses separate and use budgeting features to control your spending.

Core Features

• Money management for personal and business.
• Income and expense tracking.
• Budgeting and forecasting.
• Reconciliation.
• Flexible reminders.
• Tracking and reporting.
• Global coverage.
• Desktop and mobile apps.

Price

MoneySpire charges $60 for the license. A 30-day money-back guarantee is included in the package.

Conclusion

There are different types of finance automation tools available in the market. 

Some focus on routine workflows, while others provide strategic support.

For example, Bill and Tipalti automate AP and AR, and Floar and Liveflow generate actionable insights.

Both automate the finance operations, but they target different areas.

Try some of these apps and pick a software product that meets your specific requirements. Good luck!