BigTime Software vs. Emburse Chrome River

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BigTime Software
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
BigTime IQ is time and expense tracking software from Chicago-based BigTime Software.
$20
User per Month
Emburse Chrome River
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Chrome River EXPENSE is expense management software, from Chrome River Technologies in Los Angeles, California.N/A
Pricing
BigTime SoftwareEmburse Chrome River
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$20
User per Month
Advanced
$35
User per Month
Premier
$45
User per Month
Projector
$60
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BigTime SoftwareEmburse Chrome River
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
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.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BigTime SoftwareEmburse Chrome River
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BigTime SoftwareEmburse Chrome River
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Emburse Chrome River
8.8
3 Ratings
8% above category average
Employee Expense Reporting00 Ratings8.73 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Emburse Chrome River
8.0
3 Ratings
1% below category average
Customizable Approval Policies00 Ratings8.33 Ratings
Financial Document Management00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection00 Ratings8.33 Ratings
Advanced OCR00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BigTime SoftwareEmburse Chrome River
Small Businesses
HaloPSA
HaloPSA
Score 8.9 out of 10
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 7.0 out of 10
BILL Spend & Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 7.0 out of 10
Webexpenses
Webexpenses
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BigTime SoftwareEmburse Chrome River
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(32 ratings)
8.7
(123 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(4 ratings)
9.8
(18 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(107 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(5 ratings)
9.0
(113 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(2 ratings)
9.7
(7 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
BigTime SoftwareEmburse Chrome River
Likelihood to Recommend
BigTime Software
I'd like to start by saying, I rarely give 10's on anything, almost always 9's, the main reason for my 10 rating is the support I've received from this team/company. BigTime Software has been well suited for our company b/c it's giving a window into the project budget and time frames to our Project Managers to proactively manage their projects and look for areas to improve and celebrate with support staff. I would say efficiency in time management. BigTime Software is not an accounting software and I love that about it. We were looking for a tool for staff to manage their projects and stay on budget and track time and generate invoices all in one place and we've found that with BigTime Software.
Read full review
Emburse
The Emburse Chrome River is well suited for tracking expenses and reimbursement. The compliance part of the software makes the task very easy to ensure all the reports that are being used within the company are updated and easy to verify. The Automating invoice processing makes some redundant task easy to execute.
Read full review
Pros
BigTime Software
  • I like the functionality of being able to make payments electronically and the amount of banks and payment methods that are available.
  • Another very useful feature of this tool is that the system allows to set a parameter to perform automatic invoices.
  • I also really like the amount of templates that this tool has. Since it allows us to make customizable reports to our clients.
Read full review
Emburse
  • [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.
Read full review
Cons
BigTime Software
  • For some types of projects, we are unable to use BigTime's invoicing feature. It would be nice if we could further customize invoices to fit our needs. We still have to use Quickbooks to complete certain invoices.
  • Being able to create Purchase Orders in BigTime would be extremely useful to us. We currently use Quickbooks for this.
Read full review
Emburse
  • 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.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
BigTime Software
Its been a huge help in saving time and making billing more efficient. Would like to see the product grow and be able to continue to use it.
Read full review
Emburse
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.
Read full review
Usability
BigTime Software
Overall most areas of the software are easy to use. I tend to spend a lot of time in analytics and reports. Those are not as user friendly, in my opinion, and could use some improvements. I think it just takes time to get familiar with where items are stored in the program and what changes affect what.
Read full review
Emburse
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.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
BigTime Software
BigTime is available 99% of the time. At times there are bugs, but most are resolved quickly
Read full review
Emburse
The software is always running effectively. I use many Cloud based systems and never had issues with Chrome River
Read full review
Performance
BigTime Software
have not noticed a slow integration issue using QBO
Read full review
Emburse
System runs normal pretty much all the time. Does not slow any other systems down.
Read full review
Support Rating
BigTime Software
The support is amazing! They are always available through the chat interface in the program. Each support person has fully answered my questions the first time. I have had a positive experience with each inquiry. It is very important to me that I am able to get instant access to help so that I can make the most of the software and all of its capabilities.
Read full review
Emburse
This has been easy for me because we have a rep that contacts the supporters for this product to correct any issues we may have with the software or changes needed to help out employees use Chrome River easier. This from my understanding has been a hit or miss kind of interaction with our rep and Chrome River.
Read full review
Online Training
BigTime Software
No answers on this topic
Emburse
The software is very user friendly, so the online training was easy to pickup for everyone.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
BigTime Software
I touched on this briefly, in another survey section, but my implementation manager, Kevin, was exceptional. The actual implementation process took 3 months, not 1 before I was comfortable rolling it out to staff. We also had to wait/schedule time and coordinate for our custom xml. invoice to be generated and in a place we felt comfortable sending it out to clients. In the end I was very satisfied, but during the first few months it was challenging.
Read full review
Emburse
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.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
BigTime Software
I liked the client management, but it didn't do time tracking, billing or syncing with quickbooks. It was too robust for my needs. I tried it for the client management and thought I might use it along with bigtime, but it was too cumbersome and would involve too much double entry. And it didn't track time or bill which are necessary functions
Read full review
Emburse
It's the [industry-leading] software for Enterprise level organizations with [large-scale] teams and financial responsibilities. The software has the most robust set of tools and pays for itself with the amount of time it saves. Many newer alternatives have sprouted up but I don't know that we would ever trust another software to do our Expense Tracking and Management.
Read full review
Scalability
BigTime Software
The product is useful for faster billing and efficient timesheet logs. I do like the report features however there are many options and can be overwhelming for the user. It is most helpful to set up reports speaking to an agent to ensure the right fields are set, etc.
Read full review
Emburse
It's very easy software to design to your needs.
Read full review
Return on Investment
BigTime Software
  • Before BigTime, we were using Excel to track everything, creating invoices, and run reports. Getting on BigTime has saved us tons of time and effort which equates to dollars saved on labor.
  • From a legal standpoint, BigTime has allowed us to be organized and prepared in the event we would need to present financial details to anyone.
Read full review
Emburse
  • 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.
Read full review
ScreenShots

BigTime Software Screenshots

Screenshot of BigTime Wallet provides clients with a personalized experience to pay on time from anywhere, in one click.Screenshot of A big-picture view into operational insights to make adjustments to how resources are managed.Screenshot of Real-time, actionable insights for professional services firms.Screenshot of The platform is designed to work within existing workflows and software stack, acting as a single source of truth for data.Screenshot of BigTime's invoicing engine supports dozens of industry-standard billing scenarios and enough options to satisfy exacting customer needs.

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