Cashback now a deciding factor in choosing finance software, new research shows
Cashback and reward schemes have moved from a nice-to-have into a deciding factor in how finance leaders choose their software. According to new independent research commissioned by ExpenseIn, 85.3% of finance leaders across the UK and Ireland expect cashback or reward schemes to influence their choice of financial software or expense provider over the next 12 months, with 24% saying it will have a major influence.
The findings land months after ExpenseIn introduced cashback of up to 0.75% on its own expense card, depending on plan, for UK and Ireland customers in June 2026.
The data arrives as payment methods remain fragmented. Just 19.3% of businesses currently pay for recurring costs primarily through company cards, 42% use a mix of cards and bank transfers, and 11.3% still have employees paying out of pocket and claiming the cost back later.
Rich Jones, VP of product at ExpenseIn, said: “What stands out in this research is less the appetite for cashback itself, and more the payment habits sitting underneath it. With 42% of businesses relying on a mix of cards and bank transfers, and over one in ten still having employees pay out of pocket and claim it back, cashback gives finance teams a reason to consolidate spend somewhere they can see and control it.”
The research also found that 82% of finance leaders already rate rewards on business spending as an important feature when choosing a platform, a figure identical in both markets. Cashback specifically is rated important by 70.7% of respondents, rising to 76% in Ireland against 68% in the UK. Both sit behind more functional priorities such as automated expense tracking (91.3%) and real-time visibility of spend (88.7%), showing how central finance software has become to daily operations rather than reward schemes driving the decision on their own.
Business travel and software subscriptions emerged as the categories finance leaders most want cashback applied to, cited by 44% and 32% of respondents respectively, with the software subscriptions figure identical across both markets, both categories ExpenseIn’s cashback feature already covers. Fuel and utility costs followed closely behind, each cited by 34.7% of respondents, pointing to further categories where appetite for cashback runs high.
The research points to a difference in how each market wants cashback reported. UK finance leaders would prefer to see cashback visible directly within their expense reports (35%), while finance leaders in Ireland lean towards having it paid straight into the company account (38%).
Outright indifference to cashback is rare: just 1.3% of finance leaders say it will have no bearing at all on their next choice of provider.