Emburse Chrome River vs. Emburse Certify

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Emburse Chrome River
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Chrome River EXPENSE is expense management software, from Chrome River Technologies in Los Angeles, California.N/A
Emburse Certify
Score 6.4 out of 10
N/A
Certify is travel and expense management software developed by the company of the same name in Maine, which merged with Chrome River in 2019 to form Emburse.N/A
Pricing
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse Certify
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse Certify
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$8 Expense report
Additional DetailsWe offer three cost-effective, subscription-based pricing models: A transaction-based model, priced according to expense report volume A submitter-based model, priced according to an average number of monthly submitters An enterprise-level model that includes unlimited expense reports. Pricing for this model is based on total employee headcount Feel free to contact us to discuss the best one for your organization.Certify AP has volume based pricing based on processed invoices
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse Certify
Features
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse Certify
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
8.8
Ratings
2% above category average
Emburse Certify
7.6
Ratings
12% below category average
Employee Expense Reporting8.70 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
8.0
Ratings
2% below category average
Emburse Certify
7.7
Ratings
6% below category average
Customizable Approval Policies8.30 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Financial Document Management5.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking9.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail9.00 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection8.30 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Advanced OCR8.50 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse Certify
Small Businesses
Dext
Dext
Score 9.8 out of 10
Dext
Dext
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Precoro
Precoro
Score 2.8 out of 10
Precoro
Precoro
Score 2.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Webexpenses
Webexpenses
Score 9.2 out of 10
Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse Certify
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
4.9
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse Certify
Likelihood to Recommend
Chrome River in my experience is suited to the employees being more independent when completing their reports, due to the extensive questions and steps. This allows us (the reviewers) to come in and assist the employees more efficiently. I think it fits well with out needs and easy to help our employees
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[Emburse] Certify seems to have been designed with large organizations in mind, particularly those with corporate card programs as opposed to "small business" cards. The integration with American Express Business accounts failed after less than a year, and was not reestablished before we pulled the plug on the whole project. Even worse, [Emburse] Certify's support team wasn't able to offer alternatives.
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Pros
  • [Emburse] Chrome River listens to its customer's needs and does its best to match current products to those needs, or collaborate internally to determine if an enhancement can be made available that will not only benefit that customer, but will be a good use case for all Chrome River customers.
  • The [Emburse] Chrome River customer service team is great. Unlike most companies, you can speak to a liver person!
  • [Emburse] Chrome River's training offerings are relevant and pertinent to the day to day operations of the software.
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  • Customer service/support: They have an incredible team. We are fans of the chat option and 99.9% of the time our issues are solved within a 5-minute window.
  • Listening to customers: they are always looking for ways to improve their product. They have free conferences sprinkled around various cities. They are worth trending. They provide "what's new in Certify" as well as round-table discussions specifically addressing how their customers are using the product and what they have learned along the way.
  • Keeping their product up to date: Certify takes back various suggestions from the conference to enhance their product. I have been at every conference they have had and have actually seen customer suggestions get implemented into the program.
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Cons
  • Would be great to have pre-saved templates available to apply to line items at the expense report header level rather than having to go into each line.
  • Would be nice to have a mass upload functionality for things like cost codes, allocations, and credit card users.
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  • The ability to add a receipt after a report has been submitted would be helpful. This would simplify processing as opposed to disapproving the report and sending it back to the user for correction and re-submission.
  • Though not a fault of Certify, our users drive multiple destinations every day, rather than occasional trips from city A to city B. Therefore, capturing mileage is a time-consuming process for our users.
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Likelihood to Renew
Chrome River is easy to use. We needed little training for our users and instead pointed them to Chrome River's Help Guides which are clearly written and easy to understand. With tools SNAP and the ability to email receipts means we can be completely remote when submitting reports.
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Usability
I would rate Chrome River Expense a 10 because, as I mentioned before, it is very simple and easy to use. This is important from an administrative point-of-view as well as for the field employee. Being a general contractor, it makes it all the better for our employees to use a program that is easy to understand and requires little time and effort. It has made tracking expenses very simple and has been well received by the entire company.
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I am very used to Certify's components. But some users that I manage still have a hard time fixing their expense reports no matter how many times I try to teach them. The Editing expense Report and Adding Expense Report option sometimes gets confusing and causes some employees to enter transactions twice. There should be a better layout to make it easier for them to edit and finish their expense reports. I try to teach Certify as much as I can, but the usability should be a bit easier so it is less confusing.
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Reliability and Availability
The software is always running effectively. I use many Cloud based systems and never had issues with Chrome River
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No answers on this topic
Performance
System runs normal pretty much all the time. Does not slow any other systems down.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
I cannot tell you how relieved we were when utilizing Chrome River support in comparison to other Enterprise level software support centers. Tickets were quick and representatives were swift in [their callbacks] and resolutions to our common and most difficult problems. The team there is professional and makes each new support ticket a breeze.
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The measure of support is how well they respond when you really need them, like when the system is not performing correctly. We have been on the platform less than a year, and there have been at least 2 instances, where the platform was down. The 2nd time was the day before out fiscal year end. And they need a development website. When they are making changes to your LIVE instance, and things go wrong, the client is the first to know about it! I've come to understand that Certify has tiers of support. Those in tier 1, barely know more about the software than the users. I sent a request for a report that shows expense reports currently pending approval and after 5 days of back and forth I was told to build it myself.
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Online Training
The software is very user friendly, so the online training was easy to pickup for everyone.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Before implementation begins, make sure you have a plan on how you would like your workflow and platform setup for a system like Chrome River. It will speed the process and eliminate the need to make changes when you go live.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
The overall user interface was easy to use and it made the task of the reporting very easy. Compliance rules are guiding the users to correctly upload and enter receipts, which are already uploaded and recognized via OCR during the business trip. Uploading can easily done via APP, mail or receipt gallery. There is no need for storing paper. Chrome River is supporting digital archiving
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We used Concur prior to Certify. It cost 5x as much and was not worth the money. We also looked at Expensify, which had minor issues compared to what we are dealing with in Certify. Certify does not compare to Concur. The platforms are in two different leagues. Expensify is a good comparison and it is compatible with major ERPs like Sage Intacct. Nexonia, is actually also an Emburse product and likely would have been a better fit given it's integration capabilities with Sage Intacct.
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Scalability
It's very easy software to design to your needs.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • We have seen a return on approver time of nearly 60% meaning our approvers have tripled their output.
  • We have had feedback from our users that time spent creating expenses has gone from an average of 2 hours to perhaps 20 minutes, tops.
  • We have seen in our dashboards that the Emburse Certify Suite of tools has returned an average savings of over $500K a year.
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  • We have reduced the amount of time our operations department has to spend booking flights to 0.
  • Hotel bookings have been greatly streamlined and we are looking to eliminate human interaction with this process once CC authorisations are handled.
  • We have eliminated the wait time between operational travel research and client approval time -- it can all be handled in one single step now.
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ScreenShots

Emburse Chrome River Screenshots

Screenshot of A consistent experience across any screen size or operating systemScreenshot of Simple, customizable tiles for expense entryScreenshot of Approve expenses directly from your inbox with a single click

Emburse Certify Screenshots

Screenshot of Certify Homepage - User interface for all users that includes a quick view of their expenses, pending expense reports and approval requests.Screenshot of Certify Mobile - Snap photos of receipts on the go and upload them instantly to your virtual Certify Wallet.Screenshot of Certify Travel - Now, corporate travel is even easier. Introducing Certify Travel, your end-to-end corporate travel solution to simplify bookings for employees while helping your company manage travel practices and costs. All for one low monthly fee and no booking fees! Certify Travel is easy to use, yet it is also a powerful enhancement to your company’s expense management system.Screenshot of Certify Reporting & AnalyticsScreenshot of Certify AP- manage cashflow with accounts payable automationScreenshot of Certify AP- streamlining employee purchasing