Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Emburse Chrome River
Score 7.8 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 7.4 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
Hurdlr
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Hurdlr automatically tracks mileage, expenses, income streams, and tax deductions in real-time. Self-employed business owners, freelancers, and solo entrepreneurs use Hurdlr to save time, save money, and stay organized while running their business. The vendor states that on average, people find over $5,600 in tax deductions.N/A
Pricing
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse CertifyHurdlr
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse CertifyHurdlr
Free Trial
NoYesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$8 Expense reportNo 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.Certify AP has volume based pricing based on processed invoices
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse CertifyHurdlr
Considered Multiple Products
Emburse Chrome River
Chose Emburse Chrome River
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 …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
Chrome River seams more updates and the matching of expenses and receipts is something i don't remember Concur doing
Chose Emburse Chrome River
We have not used any other products at the moment as we are still trying to get all employees on the same page with the Chrome River software. Once company wide everyone is on the same page we hope to expand the software to more products to make our work more efficient.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
The user interface and features surpass the experience and similar features of other products because of the following. Good customer support to also make the program better. Also, a good interface to navigate the expense creation process.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
Concur was a very detailed platform that we used at my old company, but it was not very user friendly. The compliance rules set up required heavy detail from the employee that leadership or managers would not even read. the rules set in place resulted in slow processing times …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
With a smaller organization, Chrome River has proven cost-effective yet has all of the tools needed to create efficiencies throughout our expense reporting process.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
This software is basically just the other end of Emburse Chrome River and works in almost the exact same way. They both work well together and I think they are easy to use for any staff, no matter their level of technological knowledge. I would recommend an organization to use …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
The 3 biggest reasons we went with Chrome River were: The dynamic workflow capabilities of Chrome River compared to other systems. We have 30-45 budget owners who need to review/approve based on the budget codes they oversee. Most other systems just allowed for a …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
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 …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
I think Chrome River is much more intuitive and user-friendly. Also, I love the ease of pulling data and diving into analytics with Chrome River. The system is very dynamic and changes in real-time. As far as Concur goes, I had a lot of difficulty and redundant motions when …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River Expense is the first expense management system that our university has used. I do not have any other product to evaluate or compare it with. Before deciding to purchase and use Emburse Chrome River Expense, we did have a few other product demos but high …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
We shopped Rydoo and another online expense reimbursement platform but ultimately chose Emburse Certify for our needs. Emburse Certify was more customizable for our organizations needs. This was our first time using an online expense platform. Previously, as recently as 2018, …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
Expense Track, better since approvals are in the app. The export still isn't as good.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
I can't answer this question.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
Chrome River was selected for ease of use and price per report. One of our affiliates was already using Chrome River and it came highly recommended and we were able to negotiate a price per report that was within our budget. Most of the expense systems have the same features …
Chose Emburse Chrome River
I have not had any experience with implementation of previous T&E products.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
I haven't actually used anything like this before outside of doing expense reports via Excel sheets and coding them by hand into Netsuite, so this is a massive difference.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
We initially tried implementing Concur, but they provided no dedicated resources to our implementation and ended up initially implementing the wrong version and we finally scrapped the project.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
  • Works with our business model
  • Pre-approval method
  • Auto-approval functionality
Chose Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River has a nicer interface and was easier to implement than Concur.
Chose Emburse Chrome River
We have compared other products and feel that it's value for money.
Emburse Certify
Chose Emburse Certify
All expenses were done on Excel worksheets before we got Certify.
Chose Emburse Certify
They both are user friendly and easy to use. Both send emails to leaders or employees or things that need to be corrected prior to final submission. I would recommend either of these.
Chose Emburse Certify
I was not involved in the selection process. I know we evaluated Emburse Certify against a manual reimbursement process (not using a specific product).
Chose Emburse Certify
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 …
Chose Emburse Certify
The cost to implement [Emburse] Certify was lower than the primary competition (Concur), but the integration with our existing card programs simply did not work the way we expected it to and the way it was sold to us. Any money saved by going with Certify over Concur was lost …
Chose Emburse Certify
Certify is our first electronic expense reporting system. We used Excel spreadsheets prior, so I have nothing to compare it to.
Chose Emburse Certify
I've used Concur in the past, but Certify is much lower-cost and a much better service. It has more flexibility and is easier to use.
Chose Emburse Certify
Certify is similar to Expensify in terms of features and overall potential. Expensify, however, works exactly how I expected it to work when I first opened it. There was very little that I had to learn. Certify’s workflow and interface are a little different than I anticipated, …
Chose Emburse Certify
The price is better and the support is better from what I have been told. I looked into them and never heard back from them when I sent in my info and Certify got in contact in mins to discuss my needs.
Chose Emburse Certify
I think most of the functionality between the two products is similar and very competitive. I do not use the booking or research facilities of either product but I believe they are similar and have the same functionality. Overall I liked the interface a little bit better on …
Chose Emburse Certify
We chose Certify for ease of understanding, resources for training staff, multiple departments, and price.
Chose Emburse Certify
I've only briefly looked at Concur as an expense platform and it came close to what Certify offers. The interfaces are similar, the functionality is basically the same, and a lot of companies use both systems. I think that it comes down often to price between the platforms. …
Chose Emburse Certify
I believe for a large organization Certify is the least costly provider compared to other solutions. It is significantly better than using the likes of SAP's Concur ERP type platform. However, it is not as forward-thinking and cool to use like Expensify or Zoho. Again, you …
Chose Emburse Certify
We narrowed our selection down to Certify and Expensify. I had our director of IT review both. He was extremely happy with the ease of use as well as the support we would receive through Certify. I believe his initial conversation was with "Mr. Happy. "Certify will know who …
Chose Emburse Certify
To be honest we haven't even looked at Expensify ever since we switched full time to Certify. At the time when we compared the 2 platforms, Certify came out on top due to its flexibility of use and customer support. Every once in a while an employee brings up a comparison but I …
Chose Emburse Certify
The price was what sold us on Certify as well as the platform for our users. Mobile app was a must!
Chose Emburse Certify
We evaluated and attempted to get started with Concur but found reporting with Concur to be lacking. Certify seemed a better fit for our organization and company size.
Chose Emburse Certify
I was not part of the selection process.
Chose Emburse Certify
Bill.com allows for multiple approval chains and dollar limits. Generally not needed in a small organization, but very important in a larger organization.
Chose Emburse Certify
I have not used other programs.
Chose Emburse Certify
As stated earlier, we switched from Concur, the ease of Certify was so much better, and the customer support outstanding!
Hurdlr
Chose Hurdlr
Hurdlr is much cheaper and less complicated than QuickBooks. Less money, less time, less frustration than QuickBooks. I used QuickBooks Online for another business and had to spend hours and hours figuring out how to set it up, and ultimately had to pay an accountant to do it …
Features
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse CertifyHurdlr
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
8.5
Ratings
3% above category average
Emburse Certify
7.6
Ratings
9% below category average
Hurdlr
-
Ratings
Employee Expense Reporting8.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
7.9
Ratings
1% below category average
Emburse Certify
7.7
Ratings
4% below category average
Hurdlr
9.0
Ratings
12% above category average
Customizable Approval Policies8.30 Ratings9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial Document Management7.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking6.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail9.00 Ratings5.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection8.30 Ratings7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced OCR8.50 Ratings6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer8.00 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse CertifyHurdlr
Small Businesses
Dext
Dext
Score 9.6 out of 10
Dext
Dext
Score 9.6 out of 10
Dext
Dext
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
BILL Spend & Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Score 8.9 out of 10
BILL Spend & Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Score 8.9 out of 10
BILL Spend & Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Webexpenses
Webexpenses
Score 8.7 out of 10
Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River
Score 7.8 out of 10
Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River
Score 7.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse CertifyHurdlr
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
4.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Emburse Chrome RiverEmburse CertifyHurdlr
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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Hurdlr is great for simple self-employment tracking (income, expenses, taxes). It's not as powerful as something like Quickbooks in my opinion, but honestly I think that's a good thing. No need to overcomplicate things if you don't need all those features. Hurdlr is perfect for exactly what you need as a self-employed person. I have always been able to do everything I need to do with Hurdlr and it's simple and easy to use. Most importantly, everything is quick. I can quickly add income and expenses, and quickly export reports. Works exactly the way it needs to.
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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.
Read full review
  • 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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  • Quickly adding income
  • Quickly adding expenses
  • Helping me determine how much to pay for quarterly taxes
  • Quick profit and loss statements
Read full review
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.
Read full review
  • 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.
Read full review
  • The Tax tab loading properly and consistently - frequently doesn't pull up (on mobile) in my experience
  • An integration with TurboTax would be awesome (to make it super easy to do taxes)
Read full review
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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No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
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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No answers on this topic
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
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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No answers on this topic
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
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
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
Read full review
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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Hurdlr is much cheaper and less complicated than QuickBooks. Less money, less time, less frustration than QuickBooks. I used QuickBooks Online for another business and had to spend hours and hours figuring out how to set it up, and ultimately had to pay an accountant to do it for me. So much wasted money and time compared to Hurdlr, which was easy, and free to get started. I'm sure some businesses need QuickBooks, but if you have a pretty simple self-employed business, Hurdlr is definitely superior.
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Scalability
It's very easy software to design to your needs.
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No answers on this topic
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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  • Eliminated the need to pay an accountant
  • I was confidently able to do my own self-employment taxes (through TurboTax)
  • I can keep everything up to date while spending less than one hour a month on it.
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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