Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Airbase vs Workiva

Airbase logo

Airbase

Accounting

Spend management combining corporate cards, bill payment and expense claims, now part of Paylocity

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Workiva logo

Workiva

Accounting

Connected reporting platform for SEC filings, iXBRL tagging, SOX and sustainability disclosure

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Airbase card issuing and bill payment are built around United States entities and United States bank accounts, so a group with subsidiaries abroad keeps running local card and payment processes alongside and does not get the single ledger of spend that justified the purchase.; Workiva pricing is quoted per solution and per user and is not published, and because moving a filing cycle off the platform carries deadline risk, renewal negotiations favour the vendor heavily.
  • They diverge on capability: Airbase covers Corporate cards, Workiva covers Linked data.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Airbase and Workiva actually diverge.

Attributes where Airbase and Workiva differ
AttributeAirbaseWorkiva
Starting price$29/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb
Founded2017Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Airbase

  • Corporate cards
  • Virtual cards per vendor
  • Bill payment
  • Expense reimbursement
  • Unified approval policy
  • Purchase intake and procurement
  • Automated coding
  • Receipt collection

Only in Workiva

  • Linked data
  • Inline XBRL tagging
  • SEC filing
  • SOX and controls
  • Sustainability reporting
  • Collaboration
  • Data connectors

Both cover

  • Audit trail

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Airbase

  • A company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limitsnot Workiva
  • A finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwardsnot Workiva
  • A controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every timenot Workiva
  • An organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrivesnot Workiva

Workiva

  • A newly public company facing its first 10-K where the tie-out process in Word and Excel is not survivable at the deadlinenot Airbase
  • A European group preparing CSRD sustainability disclosure that must be assurance-ready rather than a marketing documentnot Airbase
  • A finance team whose auditors keep raising review points about version control and unsupported changes in the reporting packnot Airbase
  • A group with several statutory filers that wants one set of numbers feeding many jurisdictional reportsnot Airbase

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Airbase

  • Card issuing and bill payment are built around United States entities and United States bank accounts, so a group with subsidiaries abroad keeps running local card and payment processes alongside and does not get the single ledger of spend that justified the purchase.
  • The value depends on nearly all spend flowing through the platform, which makes partial adoption almost worthless and means the rollout is a change management exercise across every budget holder rather than a finance department deployment.
  • Paylocity's acquisition in 2024 reorients the roadmap towards a human capital management suite, so expense reimbursement is likely to be well served while procurement and the more finance specific features compete for attention with payroll and HR priorities.
  • Pricing combines a platform fee with tiering on features and users, and part of the economics rests on interchange rebates from card spend, so a company that puts most of its spend on transfers rather than cards pays the fee without earning the offset.
  • The general ledger sync is a mapping you own, so a chart of accounts change, a new department dimension or a ledger migration means reworking the coding rules, and a bad mapping quietly posts correct approvals to the wrong accounts.

Workiva

  • Pricing is quoted per solution and per user and is not published, and because moving a filing cycle off the platform carries deadline risk, renewal negotiations favour the vendor heavily.
  • Cost is difficult to justify for smaller filers whose reporting burden is a single 10-K a year, where an outsourced financial printer is cheaper.
  • Getting the initial linked-data structure right is a substantial project, and companies that rush the first cycle end up with links that break and a manual tie-out anyway.
  • The spreadsheet interface is deliberately not Excel and finance teams accustomed to Excel keyboard behaviour and modelling features find it slower for anything analytical.
  • ESG and sustainability modules were added later than the financial reporting core and buyers report them as less mature, so a company buying primarily for CSRD is buying the newer and weaker half of the product.

Pricing, plan by plan

Airbase

$29/month
  • StandardFree
    • Corporate cards
    • Expense reports
    • Bill pay
  • Premium$10/month
    • Advanced approvals
    • NetSuite sync
    • Procurement
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Custom workflows
    • API access
    • Dedicated support

Workiva

On request
  • Workiva Platform$undefined/year
    • Linked data across documents and spreadsheets
    • SEC and ESEF filing with iXBRL tagging
    • SOX, internal audit and statutory reporting modules

Which should you pick?

Choose Airbase if

  • You need corporate cards.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want virtual cards per vendor.
Airbase review

Choose Workiva if

  • You need linked data.
  • You also want inline xbrl tagging.
Workiva review

Questions people ask

Is Airbase or Workiva better?
Neither clearly leads. Airbase starts at $29/month and Workiva at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Airbase or Workiva?
Airbase starts at $29/month and Workiva at On request.
Does Airbase or Workiva run on more platforms?
Airbase runs on Web, Ios, Android. Workiva runs on Web.
What is Airbase best used for?
Airbase is most often used for a company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limits, a finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwards, a controller trying to close the month without rebuilding card and expense coding from statements every time, an organisation that wants spend approved before it is committed rather than discovered when the invoice arrives. Of those, a company that has outgrown one shared company card and needs per person and per subscription cards with real limits and a finance team where supplier invoices arrive in an inbox and approval is whoever replies, with no record afterwards are not what Workiva is typically brought in for.
What can Airbase do that Workiva cannot?
Airbase covers Corporate cards, Virtual cards per vendor, Bill payment, Expense reimbursement. Workiva covers Linked data, Inline XBRL tagging, SEC filing, SOX and controls. Both handle Audit trail.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Airbase: Does it work for companies outside the United States?

Partially. Some international spend and reimbursement is supported, but card issuing and the payment rails are strongest for United States entities. Confirm coverage for each country you operate in before assuming it replaces local processes.

Workiva: Does Workiva do the XBRL tagging for me?

The platform provides tagging tools and validation, and Workiva offers services, but the tagging judgement remains the filer's responsibility.

Airbase: Does Airbase replace our accounting system?

No. It manages spend and pushes coded transactions into the ledger. QuickBooks, NetSuite or whatever else you use stays.

Workiva: Is it only for US SEC filers?

No. It supports European ESEF filings, statutory reporting in several jurisdictions and sustainability frameworks such as CSRD and ISSB.

Airbase: What changed after the Paylocity acquisition?

Ownership and roadmap direction. The product continues, now positioned alongside Paylocity's payroll and HR products. If procurement is your main reason to buy, ask directly about investment in that module.

Workiva: What does it cost?

Not published. Expect tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year depending on solutions and user count.

Airbase: How is it priced?

A platform subscription with tiers, plus usage and user dimensions, partly offset by rebates on card spend. Because the rebate depends on card volume, model your own mix of card versus transfer spend before accepting a payback figure.

Workiva: Can it replace our consolidation system?

No. It reports on consolidated numbers and connects to ERP and consolidation tools, but it does not perform the consolidation.

Airbase: Can we use it for accounts payable only?

You can, but the approval consistency argument weakens considerably. Most of the reported benefit comes from cards, bills and reimbursements sharing one policy and one coding process.

Airbase: Will our auditors accept the approval records?

The per transaction record of approver, receipt and coding is generally what auditors want to see for spend testing. Agree the sampling approach with them early, particularly around any spend that still happens outside the platform.

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