If you want to know what SaaS apps employees really depend on, see what they’re willing to pay for out of pocket before getting reimbursed. Emburse’s new 2024 Tech Spend Index did just that. We analyzed over $30 billion in completed expenses across 6,300 companies and 10.2 million employees to uncover tech spending habits at mid-size companies and enterprises. Our analysis found that employees are footing the bills for SaaS and ad tools at an exceptionally high rate—a practice that reveals which SaaS vendors matter most to employees, but also forces finance leaders to cover unplanned expenses.
Here are the major takeaways from this year's findings:
SaaS Spending Shows Strong Growth, Driven by Demand for Collaboration and Deal-Making Tools
Despite broader economic concerns, spending on SaaS tools increased by 7.7% in Q2 2024 compared to the previous year. This rise demonstrates the essential role these tools play in supporting everyday business functions, from collaboration to project management. In fact, several high-profile vendors experienced substantial year-over-year growth in employee expense claims: Shopify led with a remarkable 43.1% increase, followed by Monday.com (23.6%) and DocuSign (20.6%).
According to the data, the most expensed tech vendors include platforms critical for business continuity and growth, such as Adobe, Atlassian, Intuit, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoom. This uptick in SaaS spending underscores employees’ need to have the right tools to do their jobs, even amidst uncertain economic conditions.
Advertising Spend Decreases but Remains a Marketing Staple
Reflecting broader economic challenges, ad spending saw a 6% decline in Q2 2024 compared to the same quarter in 2023. However, ad expenses have remained steady as a percentage of overall costs, suggesting that companies are still prioritizing brand visibility despite tightening budgets. The top ad platforms claimed in expense reports were Google, Meta, and LinkedIn. This trend highlights the continued importance of digital marketing in reaching customers and building brand awareness, even as companies look for ways to manage costs.
The AI Boom: OpenAI Spending Surges by 600%
The most staggering - but hardly unsurprising - figure in this year's index is the 600% growth in spending on AI tools, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT leading the charge. This surge emphasizes the increasing reliance on generative AI to streamline workflows and enhance productivity. From content creation to customer service, employees are tapping into AI solutions to drive efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. This upward trajectory of AI adoption hints at a lasting transformation in how businesses operate and innovate.
Decentralized, Unmanaged Spend Highlights New Finance Challenges
One notable finding from the Tech Spend Index is the prevalence of decentralized spending, where employees often cover business expenses out of pocket and later seek reimbursement. According to Emburse’s data, 20% of SaaS spending and 16% of ad spending falls into this category. Not only does this practice place a financial burden on employees, but it also challenges finance teams with unexpected costs that impact budgeting and forecasting.
“Unmanaged spend is costly and risky for finance teams,” says Adriana Carpenter, Chief Financial Officer at Emburse. “It forces organizations to absorb unplanned expenses that can threaten productivity and profitability. To address this, companies need greater visibility into decentralized spending and more intuitive controls to manage it. Leveraging tools like AI, analytics, virtual cards, and automated workflows allows companies to implement pre-approved budgets and simplify spend management processes, ensuring compliance while easing the burden on both finance teams and employees.”
Balancing Tech-enabled Productivity with Financial Control
Most mid-size companies and enterprises today use dozens, if not hundreds, of SaaS and digital ad tools. When it’s time to trim budgets, many finance leaders have found themselves wondering which tools employees actually rely on and which they could do without. The 2024 Tech Spend Index answers that clearly. In fact, it even shows that employees are so dependent on certain categories of tools, they’re willing to spring for them out of pocket and wait to get reimbursed.
Collaboration, digital marketing, and generative AI platforms are undeniably critical for employee productivity. Denying reimbursement or making employees jump through complicated procurement hoops would severely disrupt day-to-day business. However, companies can’t field these unexpected costs forever. Decentralized, unmanaged expenses create chaos for finance departments, who struggle to track, categorize, and reconcile them with the appropriate budget allocations. Companies have been walking a fine line between meeting employees' tech needs and maintaining financial discipline. They should continue to invest in tools that drive business growth, like SaaS platforms and AI. But they should also invest in effective spend management practices that make it easier for employees to request and spend from pre-approved SaaS budgets—striking a better balance between productivity and spend controls.
Stay tuned for more updates and exciting innovations from Emburse!