Emburse Abacus vs. Expensify

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Emburse Abacus
Score 6.0 out of 10
N/A
Abacus is a web and mobile application that helps manage employee expenses and reimbursements. Some key features include: Real-Time Expense Submission, Integrated ACH Payments, and Dynamic Custom Reporting. Abacus was acquired by Certify in summer 2018 and is now part of Emburse, formed from the merger of Certify and Chrome River March 2019.
$9
per active user/per month
Expensify
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Expensify automates the entire spend management process. Scan receipts, track mileage, submit and approve expenses, manage corporate cards, reimburse employees, pay bills, send invoices, and book travel. Built for individuals and companies of all sizes, anywhere in the world.
$5
per month per user
Pricing
Emburse AbacusExpensify
Editions & Modules
Starter
$9
per active user/per month
Professional
Custom Pricing
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Collect
$5
per month per user
Control
$9
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Emburse AbacusExpensify
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Emburse AbacusExpensify
Considered Both Products
Emburse Abacus
Chose Emburse Abacus
I used expensify in my last role, however it was at a bigger company so I was not involved in the process besides being a user. Abacus seems easier to use from a user perspective. It would be great to have a better integration with our payroll system, but it seems like with all …
Chose Emburse Abacus
We originally migrated from SAP Concur. We made the decision to switch to Abacus because Concur does not sync directly with Sage Intacct and it was less expensive. Expensify seems to be what most companies recommend, however, it was out of our price range
Expensify
Chose Expensify
Expensify was simply the easiest to use. It picked up emails and scanned receipts with the least amount of hassle and setup with the least amount of clicks. By far the quickest and easiest.
Features
Emburse AbacusExpensify
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Expensify
9.6
149 Ratings
16% above category average
Employee Expense Reporting00 Ratings9.8148 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation00 Ratings9.563 Ratings
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Expensify
9.3
136 Ratings
15% above category average
Customizable Approval Policies00 Ratings9.295 Ratings
Financial Document Management00 Ratings9.299 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking00 Ratings9.7110 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail00 Ratings9.888 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection00 Ratings8.9112 Ratings
Advanced OCR00 Ratings8.991 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer00 Ratings9.577 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Emburse AbacusExpensify
Small Businesses
Dext
Dext
Score 9.6 out of 10
Dext
Dext
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Precoro
Precoro
Score 9.3 out of 10
Precoro
Precoro
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River
Score 8.0 out of 10
Emburse Chrome River
Emburse Chrome River
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Emburse AbacusExpensify
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(17 ratings)
9.6
(239 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(14 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.6
(140 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(9 ratings)
8.5
(45 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Emburse AbacusExpensify
Likelihood to Recommend
Emburse
Emburse Abacus is well suited for mid-market organizations that are open to - or embrace - the concept of real-time processing of expense transactions. Emburse Abacus takes a radically different approach from other platforms that rely on modeling paper-based monthly (or periodic) expense reports containing multiple expenses submitted simultaneously. Emburse Abacus allows each transaction to be very rapidly processed individually so that approving managers and accounting professionals are able to perform review tasks and identify potential problems throughout the entire month, relieving the massive monthly influx of large numbers of expense reports simultaneously.
Read full review
Expensify
I think it's really good for small businesses. At least in the way we use it. It's very good for keeping an eye on employee spending in nearly real time. I'm not sure how it works for larger companies when there is a larger number of people to keep track of.
Read full review
Pros
Emburse
  • User-Friendly Interface: Reviews from our employees (ages ranging from 20s-70s) are all positive in regards to the ease of submitting an expense and getting reimbursement on Abacus
  • Timely Reimbursement: After final approval, money hits user accounts within 2 days
  • Approval routing: ability to set up multi-tier complex approval routes
  • Syncs with Sage Intacct: pushes entries on a day to day basis in to Intacct and it hits our GL accordingly
  • Abacus is competitively priced compared to the competition
  • Abacus utilizes "by expense" management. Getting rid of expense reports and batch reports (they do have an option where you can batch if need be)
Read full review
Expensify
  • Easy to access online portal whether using a mobile device or desktop app
  • Receipts can be uploaded in a breeze and automatically categorized
  • Expense Reports are submitted monthly on autopilot
  • Expenses for gas is calculated on the app by entering the starting/ending destinations.
Read full review
Cons
Emburse
  • When you upload a receipt to abacus it would be great to port in the information from the receipt to the text fields.
  • It would be good to have a more automated way for Abacus to integrate in with other payroll systems.
  • It would be nice to have more levels of permissions, e.g. manager level, administer level and employee level.
Read full review
Expensify
  • I wish that I could sync accounts on the back end kind of like with banking software, so that Expensify would automatically port over receipts for recurring expenses as soon as they're available
  • It would be nice to one-click submit an expense all the way through instead of having to attach it to a report
  • Wackier profile icons? :) Not a big deal. This software is pretty much amazing as it is now, and typically the urge to update and modify very good software leads to poor outcomes!
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Expensify
We like using the tool and we receive positive feedback from employees and management who use the tool. It saves time and helps us concentrate on the value adding activities so we are very likely to keep using Expensify in the future
Read full review
Usability
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Expensify
My rating of 8 out of 10 for Expensify's overall usability reflects its strong performance in empowering individual users and streamlining core expense processes, while acknowledging that there are specific areas, particularly on the administrative or enterprise side, where the user experience could be further refined. Exceptional End-User Experience (for basic tasks).Automation & Time-Saving Features.Clear Workflow for Approvers. Why it's not a perfect 10 (areas for improvement that dock points): Limited corporate bank to choose from, limited multi-currency to pay to ( for instance, as a foreign corporatio,n i cannot pay with my US account to Israeli employees, or pay to our UK employees)
Read full review
Support Rating
Emburse
I have never had to contact Abacus support and have not heard stories from any of my colleagues having to do so either. Our accounting department stresses the ease of Abacus and has not voiced any concerns with the software or the product support team or the product support process.
Read full review
Expensify
Our rep has been amazing. He has built custom reports for us that have been very time consuming and difficult. Our reps are also currently looking into new submission solutions for us that we are excited about. They came up with this and recommended it on their own without me complaining about an issue. They are about our success and are very excited about the product they offer.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Expensify
The implementation process went rather smoothly, linking it to the bank and cards was handled easily. without too many unnecessary steps. Getting the accounts setup did take some time, but that would be true with any organization. All in all things went smoothly and I was very pleased with the setup and implementation process
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Emburse
I chose Abacus because of its ease of use and flexible billing. The billing is based on the number of submissions rather than users in the system. Because we reimburse committee members, we have a lot of users in the system, but the activity can vary widely from month to month.
Read full review
Expensify
It is definitely 10 times better than using an Excel spreadsheet. We are talking a digitized with AI type capabilities to do the work for you. It’s honestly a lifesaver. This beats manual calculations and data entry any day. Scanning 100 receipts and saving them to pdf files not only takes space on your storage but it is an extra unnecessary step
Read full review
Return on Investment
Emburse
  • It is giving reliable services.
  • I am happy with its user-friendly services. Since I have issued the virtual and physical cards, I am getting real-time, and end-to-end control over my employee expenses. They can now easily go to visits and this has built their trust too. Further through receipts and expense details, I can easily control the pre-set budgets and easily configure rules to control spending.
  • I will also like to praise their customer care team they are very helpful and always ready to assist.
Read full review
Expensify
  • We went from paying credit card fees with no approval process to a no fees and complex approval processes.
  • I personally save time in not having to develop a spend report I just have my admin assistent fill in the details of the auto generated report and it is done. Went from an hour long process to 5- 10 minutes max to prepare a high quality audit ready report.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Emburse Abacus Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Expensify Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboard used to manage expenses, book travel, reimburse employees, and create expense reports.Screenshot of corporate cards. The Expensify Card offers cash back on every US purchase.