Best travel expense tracker for consultants

The travel expense space has roughly 80-120 apps competing for attention, but only 5-8 of them specifically address consultant workflows with features like client billing integration, per-diem automation, and multi-currency reconciliation. The biggest pain point is friction: most tools require manual receipt uploads, don't sync with accounting software consultants actually use (Expensify handles volume but ignores billing context), and lack real-time visibility into what's billable versus what's company-absorb. Generic expense trackers fail because consultants need to categorize spend by client and project simultaneously—not just by expense type. The actual gap is a tool that treats expense tracking as a revenue recovery engine, not just a spending ledger. A new entrant should build for the billing-first consultant: integrate directly with project management and invoicing platforms (Monday, Asana, HubSpot), automate client-specific expense rules, and build a dashboard that shows reimbursement status in real time. The market is growing 12-15% annually as hybrid consulting expands, but the niche is underserved because most venture-backed tools chase SMB/enterprise, not the independent or mid-sized consulting firm.