Emburse Chrome River vs. Paylocity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Paylocity
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Paylocity provides 24/7 access to your online payroll and human resource data management. Paylocity offers highly customizable payroll functionality, as well as HR, benefits administration, and time and talent management programs.N/A
Pricing
Emburse Chrome RiverPaylocity
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Emburse Chrome RiverPaylocity
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo 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
Emburse Chrome RiverPaylocity
Considered Both 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.
Paylocity
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity has a lot of advantage over these as it combines multiple features and not only features the way it makes it easier for employees to navigate and use those is a big plus and made the decision making easier for using this over othe solutions. Having great features is …
Chose Paylocity
UKG Pro is hard on the eyes, not as intuitive, and the payroll module is rather complex. The system is very powerful but it is best suited for seasoned system admins, which not all HR teams have this type of expertise.
Chose Paylocity
I think ADP's payroll interface is a little bit better. Paylocity has more personal service but I wouldn't say it's necessarily better.
Chose Paylocity
I selected Paylocity because of ease of use. ADP is clunky and Paycom makes a lot of claims that are not true. isolved is the most basic system I've ever used.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is SO far ahead of Paycor, it's not even funny. Just from the implementation standpoint alone, Paycor was an absolute nightmare. Paylocity had some struggles, but that goes along with any implementation. The experience with Paylocity was LIGHTYEARS ahead of our …
Chose Paylocity
Paycom, you select your integrations, you have way more integrations than are possible for them. So it makes it easier to be a one-stop shop on all those integrations.
Chose Paylocity
I've used ADP, UKG, I've used quite a bit. So I think that it's in comparison, I think it's kind of ranked up there. One two. From my experience, again, it's just the ease of navigation, the steps to bring onboarding and communication. I like it. It's just a great product.
Chose Paylocity
Way better, easy to use, very user friendly for employees.
Chose Paylocity
My preference is Paylocity due to the ease of use and the employee experience.
Chose Paylocity
I feel like they all provide approximately the same services, and it came down to honesty. Both Paychex and Paycor were dishonest with us, and I wasn't comfortable staying with them.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity exceeds our previous payroll provider by leaps and bounds. It's exactly why we switched. It is also beneficial to have our recruiting as an all in one platform rather than going between two providers.
Chose Paylocity
I've never had a reason to want to switch. It doesn't seem like they offer anything Paylocity doesn't that makes it better.
Chose Paylocity
I have used ADP and Paycor in previous companies. Paylocity was already in place when I started working here. It functions well, so I am not compelled to make a change.
Chose Paylocity
honestly, we liked Paycom better from a user interface standpoint, but it came down to pricing and Paylocity was cheaper than Paycom and for the price differential it was significant enough to be the difference in our choice. ADP never actively engaged us as i think we were …
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity needs to work harder to get to the levels of ADP or UKG for larger companies
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity has more functionality for less money
Chose Paylocity
Rippling didn't deliver 10% of what they told us they would deliver. When we came back to Paylocity, we were told we would be able to access all historical employee data indefinitely, but when we lost access one year later, I was told we'd have to pay $1,000 to gain access to …
Chose Paylocity
I have recently used and processed HR functions in Paycom. I feel that Paylocity is a much better platform for both employees and managers. The set-up is much more user-friendly and less complicated, so there's less confusion for staff & management. Things are able to be …
Chose Paylocity
We used Sage Abra before and had a few other programs prior to Sage. We were using Sage for close to 10 years. The reporting in Paylocity is much more useful and robust. We looked at several other platforms including ADP. Some had better platforms and reporting, but for the …
Chose Paylocity
ADP was very similar to the way Paylocity is, but I seem to favor Paylocity to be honest. Miter was VERY difficult to use and set up. I wouldn't ever consider using that software ever again. I didn't like a lot of aspect Miter had to offer either. Paylocity would always be my …
Chose Paylocity
Way more simple and affordable.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is hands down, the most user friendly, and intuitive product.
Chose Paylocity
Paylocity is far more powerful and flexible than ADP SmartCompliance. But the ADP workflow is more streamlined.
Features
Emburse Chrome RiverPaylocity
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
8.5
Ratings
3% above category average
Paylocity
-
Ratings
Employee Expense Reporting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation9.00 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
Paylocity
-
Ratings
Customizable Approval Policies8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial Document Management7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced OCR8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.9
Ratings
3% below category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.3
Ratings
2% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.8
Ratings
4% below category average
Approval workflow00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Balance details00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.4
Ratings
2% above category average
View and generate pay and benefit information00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Update personal information00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
View company policy documentation00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Employee recognition00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
View job history00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.6
Ratings
6% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.2
Ratings
4% below category average
Report builder00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Pre-built reports00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.1
Ratings
2% above category average
New hire portal00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Manager tracking tools00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.6
Ratings
6% below category average
Corporate goal setting00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Individual goal setting00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Performance tracking00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.6
Ratings
4% below category average
Performance plans00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Performance improvement plans00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Review status tracking00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Review reminders00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Multiple review frequency00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
7.5
Ratings
4% below category average
Create succession plans/pools00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Candidate ranking00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Candidate search00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Candidate development00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
Paylocity
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Job Requisition Management00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Company Website Posting00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Publish to Social Media00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Applicant Tracking00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Emburse Chrome RiverPaylocity
Small Businesses
Dext
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Score 9.6 out of 10
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
BILL Spend & Expense
BILL Spend & Expense
Score 8.9 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Webexpenses
Webexpenses
Score 8.7 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Emburse Chrome RiverPaylocity
Likelihood to Recommend
7.2
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
6.6
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(0 ratings)
6.6
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(0 ratings)
7.1
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.0
(0 ratings)
7.4
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Emburse Chrome RiverPaylocity
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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I have already recommended Paylocity to another company and they are using it. The ability to streamline multiple platforms into one is the key feature as it saves time. Also, the speed of loading, the customer service help, and the ease of payroll processing are all reasons why we like utilizing Paylocity. It would be nice to have a referral bonus program as I was told there wasn't one when I referred the company and they signed up
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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
  • Payroll is made pretty easy. I love that we have the ability to log into payroll, we just upload the information from commissions, things like that where there are exceptions to a regular payroll run. It may make it very easy to do that, just a quick upload. Additionally, when we're in the payroll grid, it gives us the ability to just make quick changes to people's pay or their tax schedule, tax withholdings, things like that without having to go through a lot of different screens. It's just very easy to access just for the click of a button. Love that.
  • We talked about performance reviews, talked about payroll with benefits administration, it allows us to utilize EDI feeds with our benefit vendors so it creates a seamless, but we just enter the information into Paylocity and then it seamlessly provides that information to our vendors. That's been really helpful. And adjusting benefits is also very easy within Paylocity. I love the recent edition of compensation analysis information, so I'm able to go into the compensation module and look for jobs that are similar to a job title at our company. I can enter the job description, I give them what state that the person or the job is in, and it pops out compensation data. It gives me different options, so titles that might be similar. So if there's not something that's an exact fit, I'm able to find something really, really close. It's been a huge upgrade because before that I was having to use a different vendor and paying $400 per job and now it's significantly less expensive to Paylocity and I'm still getting great quality data. It's been very helpful.
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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.
Read full review
  • I'd like to see a forum in which users could discuss the platform, raise both questions and concerns. I feel that changes are done without enough input from users.
  • Improving hold time recently with customer service.
  • Accuracy of new 'graphic' payroll report - the new report is not complete when payroll is done, so it is unusable from my perspective. I rely on the preprocess payroll register. This is one of those 'improvements' that have not been positive in my experience.
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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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We most likely will because we are learning how to use it better all the time. It does integrate with our Advanced Benefits. But the customer service is not responsive when needing help. It almost always requires several contacts to get anywhere, and the contacts can be several days apart. Once you actually get to TALK to someone, things are usually resolved fairly quickly, but their email system is not efficient. I get half answers and they close the ticket! But once I can get to someone, it is almost always great service. Very hard to get someone though.
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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 simply love Paylocity! We have run into some issues, but no company is going to be perfect. The flow of the modules is really nice, no double entry of data. The Time & Labor flows into Payroll nicely and Benefits flows into the employees Pay Setup which goes onto the employees paycheck with little to no issues.
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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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Over the last 3 years, we've only had one major service issue that rendered Airbase unusable for us for about 24 hours. That said, they navigated the SVB bank crisis very well and made sure funds were available during that time.
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Performance
System runs normal pretty much all the time. Does not slow any other systems down.
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We had some minor hiccups throughout the year but they have all been fixable. Paylocity integrates well with our 401k provider, Principal, and our benefits, OneDigital. It makes it simple to house everything and have it all connected. It doesn't slow anything down to have Principal integrated. It makes it more efficient
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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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I really appreciate that we are assigned a support manager. That person is very familiar with our set up, our needs and our history. However, I've spoken to others on the support team and have had very positive interactions and get the help needed.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
I didn't have in-person training, but I'm sure it was just as great as any other training/assistance Paylocity provides. Paylocity customer service is always available. You never have to be on hold and their answers are always accurate and timely. Documents in the help section are helpful as well. My in-person training was conducted y one of our employees who was involved in the initial set-up and training of all employees. She was excellent.
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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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Our rep was very thorough and made sure we fully understood the software before turning us loose alone. Paylocity was very good to do periodic check ins to ensure we understood the features and answered any questions we had. The training reps are very well trained and are very patient with clients.
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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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We were handed off to multiple implementation people, some quit, one went on leave, one left suddenly, one was transfered to a diff dept...all causing a significant amount of disruption for our team. Many had conflicting info on how to properly set things up...hence a complete mess was left for us to figure out
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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
Paylocity is SO far ahead of Paycor, it's not even funny. Just from the implementation standpoint alone, Paycor was an absolute nightmare. Paylocity had some struggles, but that goes along with any implementation. The experience with Paylocity was LIGHTYEARS ahead of our experience with Paycor, and the system itself is so, so much better.
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Scalability
It's very easy software to design to your needs.
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We have gone from a medium sized company to a larger company with no issues whatsoever with Paylocity being able to keep up or do what we need it to do for the size of our needs. In fact, it does more than we even use at this juncture
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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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  • Paylocity has helped us with recruitment by streamlining the process and making it efficient. It is saving me time.
  • Paylocity has also helped us with compensation so we can create a fair and robust compensation plan.
  • I also like using the data insights feature, which helps me keep track of over time, payroll and benefits costs, and retention numbers. This also saves me time as it is all in one place.
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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

Paylocity Screenshots

Screenshot of a view of real-time employee data and performance metrics used to uncover and analyze trends. This creates an impactful understanding of the business, increase retention, understand labor costs, and plan for changes.Screenshot of where to automate manual processes with Paylocity's self-serve automation engine, Workflows. Users can implement routines for time-consuming manual tasks.Screenshot of where to manage and comply with employment law. Paylocity's HR Compliance solution helps users to stay on track and view important employee compliance items, from Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), healthcare, and compensation.Screenshot of how Paylocity Recruiting can automate hiring processes. amplify outreach, showcase a company's culture, and build stronger candidate connections to swiftly fill positions.Screenshot of recognition and rewards in Paylocity.