Spend is a development coming from Microsoft Garage, the company’s skunkworks-like division. However, the app is also an expansion of the technology behind the Mile-IQ mileage-tracking app. That app was created by Mobile Data Labs, a company Microsoft acquired in 2015. While Mile-IQ tracked miles, the similar technology underpinning Spend is used to allow users to track their expenses. Tracking can be set up for personal and/or business expenses. Customers can use Spend for invoicing purposes, reimbursement, or taxes. Among the core features is a weekly or monthly report detailing expenses through the period. Elsewhere, the application allows users to match receipts to their purchases and tag expenses through a plan. Full features:
Automatic expense tracking for reimbursements or taxes • Advanced receipt tracking and receipt management • Real-time expense information at your fingertips • Automatic receipt-matching to expenses • Intelligent features that will save you time through automatic expense categorizing • Reports that are compatible with major accounting, expense management software
Availability
Microsoft says Spend is still in development and the version available on iOS is a preview. Interested users must have an iPhone or iPad running iOS 10.0 or newer. The new expense tracker is completely free to download and use. There is no word on an Android version just yet. We guess Microsoft will roll out Spend to Google’s platform once early testing on iOS is complete. As always with Microsoft Garage services, it is worth noting the app is not a full Microsoft product. That basically means Spend is an experimental service. As such, Microsoft could decide to remove it at any point or indeed evolve it into another service. Feedback and demand will decide what will happen with Spend in the future.
