Rippling Spend review

Rippling Spend is an all-in-one spend management platform designed to streamline how businesses control their spending, which means it’s far more than just an expense or bill tracking tool.

The spend tracking tools are just one part of Rippling’s offering, which already spans other areas like HR, IT and other finance solutions.

Because of this unified approach, it means everything is kept under the Rippling roof which allows companies to simplify their software stacks. While it reduces the interoperability challenges posed by having to use multiple providers, it could result higher costs from weakened competition.

It’s designed primarily for mid-sized and growing businesses, so if you’re a startup with just a few people on the books and minimal spend tracking requirements, it might be too much for you.

Spend is one of Rippling’s newer products, launched in September 2024. Because it ties in with the rest of the platform, it with employee data like roles, departments and locations, for granular controls and approval automation.

Rippling says this helps streamline month-end processes and cut administrative time by up to 75%.

• Our guide to the best payroll software

Rippling Spend: Plans and pricing

Rippling has a series of different packages to pick from, but one thing’s consistent across the entire ecosystem – you’ll struggle to find any explicit pricing, because Rippling wants to share this via a consultation.

The principle offering Rippling Platform, comes in two flavors – Core and Pro. Both have add-ons like unlimited workflows, custom no-code apps and an API platform with over 600 third-party apps and integrations.

If you’re just going down the Rippling Spend route, the Expense Management package is the one for you.

It includes tracking and reimbursement across any currency in over 100 countries, expense viewing and reimbursement via payroll, policies, receipt matching and the mobile app.

Again, Rippling does not disclose pricing.

We understand tailoring packages to different sized companies is essential to maximizing value, but by simply not declaring prices to start with could leave many customers looking elsewhere.

Rippling Spend: Features

Rippling’s unified spend management platform includes expense management, corporate cards, bill pay, payroll and travel into a single interface, so it can just about handle any mainstream expense you or your employees can throw at it.

It’s a great fit for bigger companies, because it allows admins to set up custom rules based on employees, such as department, role or location, meaning some processes and even approvals can be complete with automation.

In fact, it’s the automations that Rippling Spend such an easy system to use. For example, you can allow certain employees to book different cabin types on flights, or issue corporate cards to individuals with allocated budgets and spending categories.

It all means finance teams will have fewer requests with the correct setup.

For admins, a handy dashboard offers a consolidated view of live spending across departments, projects and other categories, which can be especially handy in the third sector where grant-led projects require funding to be allocated from different pots.

Another power of Rippling’s is that it integrates well with third-party applications, including over 600 accounting, HR and productivity tools like QuickBooks and Xero.

Finance teams will also love how Rippling Spend integrates bill payments and invoice processing – one less reason to have to jump between different apps.

Rippling Spend: Ease of use

Rippling is a big name in this space, so it should come as no surprise that everything feels very unified and simple across the entire ecosystem.

This consistent UI isn’t just nice to look at and easy to use, but it also helps from a staffing point of view because, if you’re using other tools in the Rippling suite, you’ll have fewer onboarding and training challenges.

It’s as easy to manage Rippling Spend as a finance exec as it is to use it as a worker – and the latter can submit expenses through email, receipt upload or manual entry, which are then automatically routed to the right approvers.

Rippling Spend is at its most powerful on the desktop, but there are mobile apps for on-the-go tracking and claim submissions, which is really handy for keeping tabs on costs during business trips.

It’s one big app – not just spend-tracking – so again, it’s better when a company commits to using the entire Rippling ecosystem.

Rippling Spend: Support

Rippling encourages users to schedule a demo to determine the features they need, and this is where the pricing will be revealed.

In terms of learning resources, the company has its own help center, webinars and documentation to guide users through most processes, but the platform is on the simpler side to use anyway.

Although direct support response times aren’t publicly detailed, user ratings suggest a fairly responsive customer service.

Apart from the online chat pop-up, there’s an online form to reach Rippling, but no email address or phone number.

Rippling Spend: Final verdict

Rippling Spend is an easy-to-use spend management platform that consolidates corporate cards, expense tracking and bill payments into one integrated platform, as well as all the usual smaller expenses that add up.

Because it forms part of a wider Rippling ecosystem, it means companies can tap into existing knowledge about processes, projects and workers, which can significantly reduce administrative time – Rippling says by 75%.

The interface is about as easy as it gets on the desktop, and a handy complementary mobile app keeps workers connected on the go when they need to out-of-office expenses.

For admins and finance teams, real-time visibility across projects and teams eliminates last-minute surprises, and powerful automations keep things flowing with little human interaction needed – ultimately freeing up workers to product more meaningful work and saving the company time and money.

For mid-sized to larger organizations looking to centralize spend, Rippling Spend is a strong contender, but smaller teams might find just as much value from cheaper, smaller-scale solutions elsewhere.