Navan

Overview

Navan combines corporate travel booking and expense management in a single application, so a trip booked in the app produces the expenses it generates without anyone filing them. Travel covers flights, hotels, cars and trains from global inventory with negotiated rates, policy limits applied at booking, duty-of-care traveller tracking and support available around the clock. On the expense side employees pay with Navan corporate cards, with an existing Visa, Mastercard or American Express card linked through Navan Connect, or out of pocket for reimbursement. Transactions arrive pre-coded to legal entity, subsidiary, region, department, cost centre and GL code, receipts and invoices are matched automatically, and policy-compliant items are approved without review. Navan keeps no ledger of its own: the coded data syncs to NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct and Campfire, or by custom CSV, SFTP or API, and an accountant can manage several clients through the Partner Console. Developers get the Navan Expense API with OAuth 2.0 client credentials and webhooks, a Booking API and an official MCP server. Navan Business is free for companies with up to 300 employees, with Expense free for the first five users and $15 per user per month after that.

Best for companies whose expenses come mostly from travel and who want booking, cards and expense reports in one place.

Navan is the choice when travel is the reason expenses exist, because booking and expensing in the same place removes the step most people skip. The free tier is unusually generous for the size of company it covers, and it is genuinely free rather than a trial, which makes the sums easy up to 300 employees; the corporate card and the negotiated travel rates are what pay for it, so a company that books its travel elsewhere is taking the thinner half. What it does not do is the rest of finance, since there are no supplier invoices, no accounts receivable and no ledger, and the expense API is narrower than the platform is. Worth checking how it holds up outside the travel markets it names.

Key Facts

Features

Invoicing and quotes

No customer invoicing, accounts receivable or supplier invoice processing; the platform covers travel booking, employee expenses, corporate cards and reimbursements

Bookkeeping and bank feeds

No general ledger of its own; auto-enriched transactions sync to Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct and Campfire, or by custom CSV, SFTP or API

Expenses and receipts

Yes, this is the core alongside travel: Navan corporate cards, Navan Connect for existing Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards, personal-card reimbursement, automatic receipt and invoice matching, and policy checks at the point of spend

Tax and compliance

VAT reclaim support rather than filing: Navan books travel as a disclosed agent so the supplier invoices the customer directly and the reclaim right is preserved, airline invoices are available in the platform, travellers can upload hotel invoices and an invoice collection service gathers them on the customer's behalf

Payroll

No payroll module; HR systems including ADP, BambooHR, Gusto, HiBob, Personio, Rippling and Workday connect for user provisioning instead

Reports and exports

Yes, transactions arrive pre-coded to legal entity, subsidiary, region, department, cost centre and GL code, with real-time payment tracking, budget guardrails and a Partner Console for accountants handling several clients

Integrations and API

Yes, the Navan Expense API for expenses, custom fields and receipts, authenticated by OAuth 2.0 client credentials and supporting webhooks, plus a Booking API, a Custom Fields SFTP feed and an official MCP server for AI assistants

Integrations

• Oracle NetSuite
• Sage Intacct
• Xero
• QuickBooks
• Workday
• ADP
• BambooHR
• Gusto
• HiBob
• Personio
• Rippling
• Okta
• Slack
• Google Calendar
• Microsoft Outlook
• Concur
• Coupa
• Expensify
• Uber for Business
• Lyft

Deployment and Support

Deployment

• Cloud (SaaS)
• Browser-based

Onboarding

• Documentation and knowledge base

Company size

• Small and mid-sized
• Enterprise

Suitability

The table combines the industries the vendor addresses with the company sizes the tool is aimed at. An empty cell means the combination is not stated, not that it is ruled out.

Pros and Cons

Pricing

• Navan Business

  Free

  For companies with up to 300 employees. Unlimited trips with no per-trip booking fee, global inventory and negotiated rates. Navan Expense is free for the first five users, then $15 per user per month.

• Navan Enterprise

  Not stated

  Priced on request. The full travel and expense suites for unlimited users, global coverage, negotiated rates, a dedicated account executive and customer success manager, and custom implementation.

Best For

• Technology
• Consulting

Alternatives and Comparisons

FAQ

Is Navan really free?

Navan Business is free for companies with up to 300 employees and includes unlimited trips with no per-trip booking fee. Navan Expense is free for the first five expensing users and then costs $15 per user per month. Navan Enterprise is priced on request.

Does Navan replace my accounting software?

No. Navan keeps no general ledger. Auto-coded transactions sync to Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct and Campfire, or by custom CSV, SFTP or API, and those systems stay the record.

Do I have to use Navan's corporate card?

No. Navan Connect links existing Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards to the platform, and employees can also pay out of pocket and be reimbursed. The Navan card is one of three ways to spend rather than a requirement.

Can an AI assistant work in Navan?

Yes. Navan publishes an official MCP server that gives assistants natural-language access to travel and expense data, for booking trips and filing expenses. Alongside it, the Navan Expense API uses OAuth 2.0 client credentials and supports webhooks.

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