Spend and expense management is one of the most in-demand CAS services—and one of the most underutilized. There’s still plenty of room to get into the game.
Clients are drowning in expense reports. They’re chasing receipts, hunting down approvals, and trying to figure out where all the money went.
And apparently they’d like some help.
A joint CPA.com and BILL survey of 763 businesses and 368 accounting firms found that 72% of small and midsize businesses want a more proactive approach to spend and expense management. In this case, “proactive” translates to “someone else to solve this annoyance for us.”
The weird part? Despite this demand, only 34% of accounting firms currently offer these services.
So there is, as the business people like to say, an “opportunity.”
For firms building out Client Advisory Services practices, which is everyone who’s anyone these days, spend and expense management can be another service to add to the menu. It can create recurring revenue, save staff time, and potentially lead to conversations about bigger-ticket advisory work.
The business case is actually pretty good
Modern spend and expense management runs on corporate cards tied to software that enforces guidelines before a purchase goes through. You or your client can set limits on how much can be spent, what categories are allowed, and which budgets, projects, or departments expenses belong to.
Every transaction appears on a dashboard in real time, pre-coded and documented. Those of you who’ve done the month-end close scramble understand what that means: no scrambling, no chasing receipts, no resentments building due to manual expense reports.
For accounting firms, the more interesting part is what happens on the other side of those neatly organized expenses.
According to that CPA.com/BILL survey we mentioned above:
- Firms offering spend and expense management services report greater efficiencies and higher profits.
- Nearly 3 out of 4 SMBs who outsource expense management say they’re interested in exploring additional services with their accounting firms.
- 71% of that same group are actively referring their accounting firms to others.
- 97% of SMBs already using card-based spend management technology with an accounting firm say it helps them control spend and stay within budget.*
So demand is there and the “magic” fix already exists. The question for you on the firm side is how to package and price it.
There isn’t one magical pricing model. Different firms have taken different approaches depending on their clients, staffing, and how much they want to get involved.
Getting Down to Brass Tacks: Turning Expense Headaches Into Revenue
Option 1: Charge for setup, then bill when you actually have to do stuff
Breakwater Accounting + Advisory Corp. charges a one-time implementation fee for BILL Spend & Expense. After that, because the technology eliminates a lot of the manual work, the firm keeps the ongoing cost relatively low and adds a small monthly fee when a client requires additional hands-on help.
It’s a fairly simple model: get the client set up, let the software handle most stuff, and charge when your people actually have to get involved.
This can make sense for firms that aren’t quite ready to hire an entire new human being whose primary job is “expense management.”
Option 2: Setup and then a flat fee after that
Summit CPA Group uses the weekly billing approach. For spend and expense management, they charge $80 per week for an average 50-person company, covering reconciliation and advisory services. The fee scales up or down based on company size.
Ignite Spot follows a similar path: a setup fee while the team gets trained on the platform, then an ongoing monthly fee that folds into the client’s broader package.
Option 3: Wrapped up in the whole advisory package
Several firms bundle spend and expense management into a fixed fee for accounting and advisory services. At Chaney & Associates, it’s a warm-up to larger advisory conversations, like budget planning, that generate more revenue and deepen client relationships. At Squire & Company, it’s included in the fixed fee when it’s the right fit, and clients love the technology enough that buy-in isn’t an issue.
The key insight across all three models: spend and expense management doesn’t have to be a standalone line item to generate value. For some firms, it’s the foot in the door that opens conversations about budgeting, forecasting, technology consulting, and more.
Building a service that scales
Adding a new service is easy. Adding a new service that creates more work than revenue is also easy. Obviously you want the first one and not the second, so you need to make sure the service scales. Keeping some fundamentals in mind can help:
- Define how you’ll deliver it. Hands-on or advisory? Your answer determines what resources you need now and what you’ll need later.
- Document your processes. Standardized workflows mean any team member can deliver the service consistently, not just the person who set it up. It’s 2026, we’re not storing our processes in one person’s head anymore.
- Let the technology do the heavy lifting. Automating spend capture and integrating with your general ledger minimizes data entry, reduces errors, and keeps your team focused on higher-value work.
- Give clients room to self serve. The more clients can access their own dashboards, issue or freeze cards, and set spend guidelines on their own, the less time your team spends on entry-level tasks. We’re trying to give clients the tools to manage their expenses here, we’re not offering to hold the hammer every time.
- Set profitability goals and measure against them. Know when you expect to reach profitability and track your progress. Adjust your delivery model if needed.
So, Should Your Firm Be Doing This?
If you’re already building out a CAS practice, there’s a pretty straightforward argument for adding spend and expense management to the mix.
Spend and expense management can be a standalone service, an add-on to an existing package, or the thing that gets you invited into conversations about budgeting, forecasting, and other advisory work.
The technology integrates with QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, and Oracle NetSuite, so existing workflows stay intact. Employees upload receipts from a mobile app, budget requests get approved in minutes, and cash back rewards go back to the client’s business, not individual cardholders.
For firms using BILL Spend & Expense, there’s an added benefit: the software is free to use. That gives you pricing flexibility from day one.
Next steps
To see how BILL Spend & Expense fits into your practice, request a demo or explore the BILL Accountant Partner Program.
*Source: CPA.com and BILL survey of 763 businesses and 368 accounting firms. Credit lines are not guaranteed and will be determined upon application approval.
