What is spend management?

Business spending includes different types of spend: Strategic spend is usually centralized and managed by C-level executives with dedicated spenders. It can be managed through invoices, wire transfers and purchase orders. Discretionary and operational spend is also centralized, but spending is done by managers and employees during their daily professional lives. It includes card purchases, subscription payments, digital ads, events, office orders, and business travel. Expenses , unlike strategic spend, represent a significant amount of small purchases that can be difficult to track. These include card payments, expense claims, team perks, and travel expenses. Spend management is the process through which companies manage business spending . It takes into account the end-to-end process when someone needs to spend: getting purchase approvals, providing payment methods, submitting and processing invoices, submitting and reimbursing expense claims, chasing receipts and invoices for reconciliation, and assigning the right analytical codes, expense accounts, and VAT rates to all those expenses for bookkeeping. Spend management tools become necessary when the number of employees increases and the need for clear processes, better visibility and control starts to grow for finance teams. Employees need flexible, user-friendly tools, in order to spend easily and be empowered to do their job. That’s when Spendesk can be a good fit.

BlogSpendesk

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Axel Demazy

Published on December 30, 2025

Spendesk

As 2025 comes to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on what we've accomplished together this year and to look ahead to the exciting future we're building.

Thank You

First and foremost, thank you. To our customers, our partners, and everyone who has placed their trust in Spendesk, this year's milestones belong to you as much as they do to us.

We know that managing finance operations isn't easy. You're juggling tighter budgets, growing compliance requirements, and the constant pressure to do more with less. Yet time and again, you've shown us that when technology truly serves your needs, remarkable things become possible. Our vision is simple: help you spend smarter, work better.

A Year of Transformation

2025 has been a defining year for Spendesk. In March, we became the first spend management platform to achieve profitability, a milestone that reflects not just financial discipline, but the strength of our partnership with you. This achievement has allowed us to accelerate our innovation roadmap and invest even more boldly in the future.

We launched over 85 new features this year, each designed to make your work simpler and smarter. We expanded our procurement capabilities, enhanced our AI-powered automation, and continued building out our financial services infrastructure, including major strides in payment flexibility. In 2025, we integrated Google Pay and Apple Pay, and introduced International Wire Transfers powered by Wise, enabling you to send payments to suppliers and partners across the globe in their local currencies.

The AI Revolution in Finance

This year, we also shared our vision for the future of finance: a new category we're calling Spend Planning & Analysis (SP&A). This isn't just about managing spend; it's about spending smarter through AI-powered optimisation and insights.

We've been pioneers in applying AI to finance since 2017, and today we predict and pre-fill more than 2 million accounting fields each month. But we're just getting started. The next generation of agentic AI will move us from reactive spend management to proactive spend optimisation, helping you look forward rather than backward.

Looking Ahead: Travel and Beyond

In November, we announced Spendesk Travel, launching in 2026. For most finance teams, travel is one of the largest spend categories, yet it remains a blind spot. Bookings happen outside your core workflows, receipts arrive weeks late, and policy enforcement is always reactive.

Spendesk Travel changes this by bringing booking directly into the platform where your budgets, approvals, cards, and expenses already live. Your policies work automatically. Your team books where they already work. And your month-end close gets faster because everything is connected, from budget request to booking to reconciliation.

We're delivering this with no subscription fees, no booking fees, competitive pricing on global inventory, and 24/7 traveller support.

But travel is just the beginning. Our 2026 roadmap includes AI-powered features that will proactively surface savings opportunities, predict spend patterns, and help you make better decisions faster across every category.

Strengthening Community: CFOC Pro

Beyond technology, we believe in the power of community. Our CFO Connect community has grown stronger than ever in 2025, and this year we launched CFOC Pro, a premium program designed to take finance leaders to the next level through exclusive masterclasses, peer groups, and strategic resources. The best part? It's completely free for Spendesk customers, because your success is our success.

Building the Future Together

As we move into 2026, I'm more excited than ever about what we're building together.

We're not just creating software; we're defining a new standard for how finance teams work. A standard where technology empowers rather than burdens. Where AI augments human judgment rather than replacing it. Where every company, regardless of size, can access enterprise-grade financial infrastructure.

None of this would be possible without you. Your feedback shapes our roadmap. Your trust fuels our innovation. Your success is our success.

Thank you for an extraordinary 2025. Here's to spending smarter and working better in 2026.

Axel

Spendesk

Axel Demazy

CEO of Spendesk

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Close the books 4x faster, collect over 95% of receipts on time, and get 100% visibility over company spending.

Business spending includes different types of spend:

Strategic spend is usually centralized and managed by C-level executives with dedicated spenders. It can be managed through invoices, wire transfers and purchase orders.
Discretionary and operational spend is also centralized, but spending is done by managers and employees during their daily professional lives. It includes card purchases, subscription payments, digital ads, events, office orders, and business travel.
Expenses, unlike strategic spend, represent a significant amount of small purchases that can be difficult to track. These include card payments, expense claims, team perks, and travel expenses.

Spend management is the process through which companies manage business spending. It takes into account the end-to-end process when someone needs to spend: getting purchase approvals, providing payment methods, submitting and processing invoices, submitting and reimbursing expense claims, chasing receipts and invoices for reconciliation, and assigning the right analytical codes, expense accounts, and VAT rates to all those expenses for bookkeeping.

Spend management tools become necessary when the number of employees increases and the need for clear processes, better visibility and control starts to grow for finance teams.

Employees need flexible, user-friendly tools, in order to spend easily and be empowered to do their job.

That’s when Spendesk can be a good fit.

Spendesk provides payment methods for modern businesses, and a powerful platform for finance teams to manage spending. This includes debit cards to replace old-fashioned company credit cards, virtual cards for online purchases, and automated expense reports for unexpected payments.

For employees
Employees no longer need to spend out-of-pocket. They request funds for a particular purchase, and can use their Spendesk card or virtual card to execute the payment.

If for any reason the employee can’t use their Spendesk card, they snap a picture of the receipt via the Spendesk mobile app and create an expense claim on the spot. This is sent directly to their manager for validation, and on to the finance team.

For finance teams
Each employee has their own Spendesk profile and debit expense card. So unlike the company credit card, you always know who’s spending company money.

The platform lets controllers create spending limits and pre-approvals. C-Level executives or managers will have a different level of pre-approved spend from other staff. Should a team member need to go over their pre-approved budget, they can make a request to their manager via the mobile app or the platform online.

When an expense is made with a Spendesk card, the employee simply snaps a picture of the receipt at the time of purchase. Which means no more lost receipts.

Finance teams can see real-time company spend and follow up on missing receipts or invoices by sending reminders to employees via the platform.

Reviewing expenses is also easier as finance teams can group expenses and assign them the right VAT rates and expense accounts before exporting everything easily to their accounting tools.

Spendesk streamlines the whole business spending process, making spend management intuitive, simple and efficient.

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Thank You

A Year of Transformation

The AI Revolution in Finance

Looking Ahead: Travel and Beyond

Strengthening Community: CFOC Pro

Building the Future Together

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