Airbase reviews: What real AP departments think

Airbase is an expense management platform that provides businesses with spend management capabilities, corporate cards, and payment processing. Its automated financial management platform is designed to help businesses control non-payroll spend, manage bill payments, and simplify expenditure management processes. 

Important note: In 2025, Paylocity acquired Airbase. Because the product is now part of the Paylocity platform, sites like G2 removed Airbase listing pages and reviews. Wherever possible, we have included links to archived versions of these reviews as they existed before they were removed.

Airbase has traditionally focused on helping businesses manage employee expenses and recently added accounts payable (AP) and procurement automation functionality to its portfolio. This is different from procure-to-pay (P2P) platforms like Stampli, which was built from day one by AP professionals who understood the complex workflows, approvals, and collaboration that real AP departments need. This fundamental difference shapes everything — from how invoices flow through approvals to how vendors interact with your team. 

So, while Airbase has earned a solid reputation for managing employee expenses, we’ll examine whether it’s truly viable for AP departments seeking comprehensive procure-to-pay automation. What do Airbase customers really think about their services?

In this article, we’ll explore Airbase reviews from real customers to help you evaluate how well the platform supports business growth and optimizes AP and spend management processes. We’ll summarize the pros and cons to help you decide if Airbase is a good fit for your accounting team or if you should look elsewhere.

Let’s start with a quick look at Airbase’s services.

Airbase’s services and features

Airbase’s cloud-based expense management software focuses on simplifying business and accounting processes for medium-sized tech businesses. It offers comprehensive spend management capabilities, including:

• Expense report submission via desktop and mobile apps
• Automated expense report processing, approval workflows, and expense reimbursement
• Enforcement of expense policies to prevent out-of-policy spending
• Corporate credit cards
• Business travel management
• Guided procurement, accounts payable automation, and payment processing

While Airbase offers these capabilities across three tiers, it’s important to note that their AP and procure-to-pay functionality was added later to complement their core expense management focus. This means AP-specific features like complex approval workflows and advanced vendor management are more limited compared to AP-first platforms.

Airbase combines software modules for guided procurement, corporate card solutions, expense tracking, and accounts payable in three service tiers:

• Standard (up to 200 employees): Basic functionality with limited access to special features.
• Premium (up to 500 employees): Enhanced functionality without enterprise-level features.
• Enterprise (up to 5,000 employees): Full functionality and all features.

Certain features — like purchase order management, multi-subsidiary support, and customizable approval workflows — are only available at higher service tiers. Airbase customizes pricing for each tier according to customer needs.

To get a better idea of what real customers think, we analyzed Airbase reviews on G2, TrustRadius, and Capterra, focusing specifically on feedback from AP professionals and finance teams managing invoice workflows. While user feedback was generally positive for expense management, AP-specific functionality showed mixed results.

Customers remarked that Airbase was user-friendly and a great tool for managing employee expense reports. They also liked Airbase’s virtual credit card program. On the negative side, customers complained about Airbase’s reporting capabilities, technical glitches, and the requirement to pre-fund corporate credit cards.

Positive Airbase reviews

Airbase users identified the following top three strengths.

User-friendly interface 

“It’s super user friendly,” says one Airbase customer. “[The] self explanatory [interface] becomes ideal for everyday use.”

Many reviewers comment on Airbase’s user interface. “Easy and straightforward! Airbase makes it really simple to submit my receipts and track my submissions,” says one customer. Another user praises the “clean and intuitive” dashboard, noting it’s “easy to submit receipts, categorizing expenses, and tag the appropriate department.” 

One Integration Engineer calls the “simplistic UI of Airbase one of the best I’ve seen over the years of working with reimbursement tools.”

Employee expense management

Several users say Airbase’s employee expense management capabilities were the best thing about the platform. 

One comments, “Airbase serves as a one-tool-fits-all approach to our expense tracking and management, particularly as it relates to corporate cards and travel.” The same reviewer mentions features like employee reimbursement management, integration with AMEX, and approval workflows as strengths. 

Additional favorable reviews include a comparison to other expense management platforms by one customer who says that Airbase, “is better at bills than Bill.com and better at expense reports than Expensify.”

However, several reviewers note limitations regarding complex AP workflows. One customer praises Airbase for “smaller companies who don’t need a heavy procurement-based product” but cautions it “would be less beneficial for large companies that have complicated POs and procurement needs.”

Virtual credit cards

Many customers comment on Airbase’s virtual credit cards. Users cited the cards’ versatility for managing employee expenses, with one customer saying, “the ability to receive a virtual card with customized limits, has also been great for monthly recurring expenses.” 

Another customer highlights the workflow efficiency: “Airbase … made it easier to request virtual cards and POs for certain paid marketing channels and vendors.”

Some customers note limitations in Airbase’s functionality. “The app is not able to distinguish between finer details with receipts,” says a Senior Product Analyst. “I submitted 2 receipts that were from the same restaurant and same day but the meals were different. It flagged as duplicate and prompted much back and forth between myself and [the] accounting dept.”

Negative Airbase reviews

Here are the negatives that Airbase users mentioned in their reviews.

Limited reporting and ERP sync issues

Several users expressed dissatisfaction with Airbase’s reporting capabilities. One user says, “The reporting feature built into the solution is the main pain point, as it is inconsistent and oftentimes requires back and forth with support to get the data you need (limited self serve options).” 

Other reviewers mention the lack of reporting made it difficult to reconcile accounts, like when reconciling accounts in NetSuite.

They also mention issues with ERP integration, saying, “[Airbase] can be very glitchy when [synced] with an ERP downstream.”

These reporting limitations are particularly challenging for AP departments who need robust analytics for spend analysis and vendor management. And integration challenges can create major headaches without seamless data flow between procurement, AP automation, and ERP systems.

In contrast, Stampli customers report that it handles syncing and reconciliation effortlessly. “Stampli syncs into our main ERP (Netsuite) quickly and efficiently,” says one reviewer. “This is a software we use everyday to process over 2,500 invoices a week, and it does a great job of handling the load.”

Technical issues

In other Airbase reviews, customers report technical issues with the platform and mobile app. “The mobile app could be a bit slow to load, especially when I have a lot of receipts to upload,” writes one customer.

Another customer is also critical of the mobile app, which they describe as the “[b]iggest area for improvement.” 

Stampli customers, on the other hand, say, “Stampli strikes a great balance between functionality and simplicity, making it an ideal solution for teams that want power without complexity.”

Credit card pre-funding

Some users complain about Airbase’s pre-funded corporate credit card and workflow limitations around payment processes. “When requesting POs and virtual cards — there is no way to go back and duplicate a request,” says one reviewer. “For example when a PO request is denied I receive an email notification stating this, and I have no way to access the denied PO. This leads to more work as I would need to request a PO from scratch.”

The pre-funding requirement creates specific cash flow challenges that AP departments face when managing large vendor payments alongside employee expenses.

One of the features Stampli customers love most is the incredible payment flexibility. Since the business is not subsidized by credit card exchange fees, there’s never pressure to use specific payment methods that may not be right for your company.

“The system is very easy to use to process payments, both for accounting and payees,” says one Stampli customer. “The integration of corporate card management and charge recording makes it even better!”

Airbase reviews: The bottom line

User reviews reveal that while Airbase excels at expense management, AP departments hit limitations when handling complex invoice workflows, vendor relationships, and financial reporting. 

Some Airbase customers also say the sales team overpromised and the product underdelivered. “The robust flexibility of the Airbase system was over-represented by the sales team,” wrote one reviewer. “Many aspects of the functionality [were over-represented], including approval workflows.” 

For businesses prioritizing robust accounts payable automation over basic spend tracking, dedicated AP-first platforms offer deeper functionality specifically designed for AP professionals’ needs.

Stampli: The AP-first alternative built for procurement and finance professionals

Unlike platforms that add AP as a secondary feature, Stampli is the only AP automation solution designed by AP professionals for AP professionals. As the only P2P platform that connects every dot from request to reconciliation, Stampli addresses the exact limitations that AP departments experience with expense-first platforms like Airbase.

Why AP departments choose Stampli

Only Stampli offers an AP automation solution built by AP professionals for AP professionals. If you’re searching for a reliable, intuitive, and flexible AP solution that doesn’t require any changes to your ERP, then Stampli is the ideal choice. 

Stampli consistently earns the highest G2 ratings for customer satisfaction and maintains a 99% customer satisfaction rate. With 70+ native ERP integrations offering real-time bi-directional sync and implementation measured in weeks rather than months, Stampli delivers what AP departments need: deep functionality without operational disruption.

“Stampli has been a game changer with automating our AP process,” says one customer. “It’s so helpful to have all invoices, comments, approvals, reporting, and more in one place that also integrates with our accounting system and it’s used on a daily basis. Our Stampli team [has]  been nothing short of supportive with getting us set up for success!”

Stampli offers industry-leading customer support, automation capabilities, industry expertise, seamless integration with business systems, and proven results. 

Payment-neutral (and vendor-friendly) payment processing 

Stampli Direct Pay streamlines your payment processing and allows your finance team to pay vendors however you want. One Stampli customer called Direct Pay a “deciding factor for our company in choosing Stampli over a competitor,” citing that it’s “free to vendors without being expensive for us, either.”

Stampli Advanced Vendor Management solution also helps you manage vendor relationships and communications through a central portal. “The vendor management portal [has] also been very helpful to our vendors in updating their information with us and asking us questions on specific invoices,” says one customer.

Here’s how Stampli Direct Pay simplifies B2B payments automation:

• Payment agnostic: Pick the electronic payment type you and your vendors prefer.
• Simplified payment approvals: View payment information and supporting information to make payment approvals easy.
• Centralized vendor management: Advanced Vendor Management automatically collects vendor information, lets vendors choose their payment type, and checks payment status via an online portal.
• Flexible international payments: Save on transaction fees, manage currency risk, and pay overseas suppliers quickly and securely.

Comprehensive spend management

Billy, Stampli’s AI employee, simplifies and streamlines accounts payable workflows. Unlike newer AI solutions entering the market, Billy has been trained on billions of invoices and delivers 97-100% accuracy in complex tasks like three-way purchase order (PO) matching. This AI maturity means Billy understands your organization’s unique patterns and continuously improves invoice processing accuracy.

Billy helps with manual tasks such as data entry, invoice capture, general ledger (GL) coding, approvals, and fraud detection to help you reduce errors, realize cost savings, and pay suppliers on time. With Stampli, “Managers can view invoices and expenses any time,” comments one customer. “Nothing gets paid without their quick approval through Stampli.” 

“We can also monitor all the expenses that the department carries, supervising that they are always under control and within the limits,” says another user about Stampli’s spend management capabilities. “This is one of the best accounting software that we have used in the department.”

Other Stampli customers report how Stampli makes their accounts payable process more efficient and effective. One reviewer says that by “streamlining communication and information about expenses through our company,” Stampli is helping them “to be more effective in certain decisions.” 

Faster implementation, deeper integration

While competitors require months-long implementations that disrupt existing workflows, Stampli adapts to your current processes and integrates with 70+ ERPs in days, not quarters. “The workflows are intuitive, and the features we needed are readily available without significant customization,” notes one customer.

Stampli’s real-time ERP sync ensures data consistency across systems, eliminating the reconciliation challenges that Airbase users frequently report.

Control spend with Stampli Card 

Get total control of spending by taking advantage of Stampli Card, the credit card built for accounts payable. You can use Stampli Card without needing to pre-fund the card or a spending account, and you earn cash back on every expenditure — turning AP into a profit center. 

“I like the Stampli Card the most,” says one Stampli Card customer. “Being able to track business expenses without having to chase down every employee for physical forms saves a ton of time…Stampli is solving credit card expenses.” 

Another Stampli client likes that Stampli Card lets them “track each department’s spending separately while using a single, all-encompassing line of credit,” and with no obligation to pre-fund the card or a spending account.

Ready to see how AP-first automation compares to expense-first platforms?

Get a free demo and discover why leading AP departments choose purpose-built solutions over adapted expense management tools. Experience how Stampli transforms accounts payable from a cost center into a strategic advantage.