In Emburse’s 2024 Tech Spend Index, SaaS is Up, Ads are Down and OpenAI Purchases Grew by 600%

Expense claim analysis reveals the tech tools employees are buying most

Emburse, whose leading travel and expense solutions power forward-thinking organizations, launched its inaugural Tech Spend Index today, revealing how mid-size to large companies spent on major technology brands in the past year. Emburse processes over $90 billion in expense and invoice transactions each year and developed the index by analyzing $30 billion in completed expenses across 6,300 companies and 10.2 million employees. It found that while broader economic conditions may not seem favorable to consumers, employees continue to rely on these tools to do their jobs, even going so far as to pay out of pocket for what they need and submitting them for reimbursement.

Despite declining revenue growth for SaaS vendors in the first half of the year, overall SaaS spend was up 7.7% in Q2 2024 over Q2 2023. As a percentage of total expenses, spending on these companies was up 5% year-over-year. The most expensed vendors in this space are those critical for team collaboration, dealmaking, and marketing, including Adobe, Atlassian, Intuit, HubSpot, Shopify, Salesforce, DocuSign, Autodesk, Zoom and Block. Shopify saw the most significant growth, with expensed spending rising by 43.1% year-over-year, followed by Monday.com (23.6%) and DocuSign (20.6%).

Overall, ad spending dropped by 6% in Q2 2024 compared to the same quarter the previous year, more closely reflecting broader economic headwinds. However, ad spending has remained flat as a percentage of total expenses, indicating that marketing efforts remain a key focus for companies despite financial pressures. The top three most expensed ad platforms are Google, Meta and LinkedIn. Spending on AI tools, particularly OpenAI’s ChatGPT, grew by 600% year over year, underscoring the growing reliance on generative AI to support employee workflows.

Decentralized, unmanaged spend is a rampant practice in organizations. Employees often cover expenses from their personal finances and submit them for reimbursement rather than paying through a centralized invoice, purchase order or company credit card. Of the spend analyzed, 20% of SaaS spending and 16% of ad spending was out of pocket and then reimbursed. This creates a substantial financial burden for employees who are fronting the cost of essential business tools. It may also suggest employees’ loyalty to these tools, as many are willing to follow this process to have access.

“Unmanaged spend is expensive and presents significant risks for finance departments because it forces organizations to absorb unplanned expenses that threaten productivity and profitability,” said Adriana Carpenter, Chief Financial Officer at Emburse. “It’s crucial for companies to gain visibility into decentralized spending and implement intuitive controls to manage it effectively. By leveraging AI, analytics, virtual cards and automated workflows, companies can set pre-approved budgets and simplify the spend management process, easing the burden on finance teams and employees while ensuring compliance with company policies.”

The index shows the importance of balancing the demand for innovative tools that drive business growth with effective spend management practices. Emburse is dedicated to helping organizations control expenses while equipping employees with the tools they need to enhance productivity and improve their overall experience.

For more information on Emburse’s Tech Spend Index, visit the website.

Methodology

Data was collected on completed expenses that were submitted, approved, and reimbursed between April 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. It was normalized for annual growth.

About Emburse

Emburse delivers innovative end-to-end travel and expense management solutions that solve for what’s next for forward-thinking organizations. Our suite of award-winning products are trusted by more than 12 million finance and travel leaders, and business professionals around the world. More than 20,000 organizations in 120 countries, from Global 2000 corporations and small-medium businesses to public sector agencies and nonprofits, count on us to manage business travel and employee expenses with ease.

Our highly automated, mobile-first solutions streamline business travel planning, booking and management, and eliminate manual, time-consuming expense submissions, approval and reconciliation. We deliver efficiency and time savings, increase financial visibility, enhance spend control and compliance, and improve the entire business travel experience. This empowers our customers and their teams to deliver meaningful value for their organizations.

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