Emburse Abacus vs. Xero

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Emburse Abacus
Score 6.8 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
Xero
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Xero is an online accounting software product for small businesses and personal finance. Its features beyond general ledger and double-bookkeeping include quotable invoicing, bank reconciliation, purchase order and expense management, and tax management. Third party apps can extend its features further.
$13
per month
Pricing
Emburse AbacusXero
Editions & Modules
Starter
$9
per active user/per month
Professional
Custom Pricing
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
Early
$13
per month
Growing
$37
per month
Established
$70
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Emburse AbacusXero
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPrices in table are in USD and just apply to the US - other markets & prices are listed below: Canada - Starter $18 CAD/month, Standard $45 CAD/month, Premium 5 $58 CAD/month UK - Starter £14/month, Standard £28/month, Premium £36/month AU - Starter $29 AUD/month, Standard $59 AUD/month, Premium 5 $76 AUD/month NZ - Starter $31 NZD/month, Standard $66 NZD/month, Premium $84 NZD/month
More Pricing Information
Features
Emburse AbacusXero
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Xero
7.8
73 Ratings
4% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings7.965 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings8.123 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings7.949 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings7.841 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.354 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Xero
7.5
126 Ratings
6% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings7.779 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings7.3113 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Xero
8.1
159 Ratings
3% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings7.572 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.7157 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Xero
8.0
180 Ratings
5% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings7.9176 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.2179 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings7.9159 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Xero
7.4
189 Ratings
0% below category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings8.7176 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.9177 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings8.1161 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.1184 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings7.9168 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings7.660 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings7.7115 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.5109 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings7.493 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings8.293 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings9.093 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings7.7106 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings6.051 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings7.250 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings6.040 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings8.039 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings9.290 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings4.433 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings5.859 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings5.133 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings6.159 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Xero
6.5
87 Ratings
8% below category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings6.183 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings7.024 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings7.029 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings6.316 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Abacus
-
Ratings
Xero
6.9
89 Ratings
7% below category average
Pricing00 Ratings6.862 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings6.956 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings7.458 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings7.366 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings6.621 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings6.524 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings6.617 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Emburse AbacusXero
Small Businesses
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Darwinbox
Darwinbox
Score 8.0 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Webexpenses
Webexpenses
Score 8.4 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Emburse AbacusXero
Likelihood to Recommend
2.8
(17 ratings)
8.6
(204 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(32 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(129 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(9 ratings)
8.9
(36 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(10 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.5
(89 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Emburse AbacusXero
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
Xero
If they are using foreign exchange I always use Xero. If I need reporting to be customized we always use Xero. If the client is already working in a software and it is working for them we will leave them in the software they are in.
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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)
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Xero
  • Their method of moving between screens was very logical and intuitive which is not a "given" attribute among software packages.
  • Finding transactions was relatively easy with just common sense.
  • The use of this software was generally well received in that the accountants did not discredit the software as cheap, poorly organized, or timely to learn. No one at Corporate had a vendetta against using Xero.
  • It does a good job of allowing the users to drill down to the final detail of an account balance - which is fundamental to the accounting department's needs.
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
Xero
  • Occasionally, the price increases and I feel that prices should be fixed for long-term users as there are very few changes in the software from when I started using it 6 years ago.
  • It would be useful to have the emails sent with invoices saved.
  • Visual dashboards are limited.
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Likelihood to Renew
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
In addition to the matters covered in this review, my reason for renewing this product is that Xero's functionality and the constant updates that the company provides, makes the software even more business friendly. The software therefore builds a brand loyalty among customers.
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Usability
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
Xero has all the features that you need, basically. From chart of accounts, reconciling books, to making annual financial reports. What I'm currently looking for Xero right now is to provide more broader integration with the other apps so we can use it for customer-facing experience also. All in all, everything works well!
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Reliability and Availability
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
We have been actively using and 100% Xero based for our ecommerce accounting practice for over 4 years. There has on been one real outage for more than 5 minutes. Xero was open and transparent about the outage, what they were doing to resolve the issue, and provided 15 minute updates. Showing how they care about their customers and partners. Plus, showing that their customers care too, were understanding, and went surfing or in our case took a nap. Couldn't run our business without Xero as a partner.
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Performance
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
Pages generally load quickly, but it's a fairly common occurrence to have pages taking a bit longer than I'd like to load (as in, 4+ seconds). Occasionally I have to refresh a page to get it to work. Bank feed and integrations tend to be slow in general, but that could easily be due to API latency on the side of the other parties. Most of the time, though, the bank feeds refresh before I login so it's not a huge problem. Not necessarily good performance compared to a local app like QuickBooks desktop, but definitely good performance for a cloud application. Room for growth? yes.
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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.
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Xero
Always respond and keep issues open until you are satisfied with the result. Generally good responses, in the past, I had some support responses that were really basic and really annoying. They type where "have your tried restarting your computer" style of answers. Well, of course, I went through all the basics before contacting them. Duh, but I suppose not everyone does. Otherwise, it would be a 10. The last year has shown a marked improvement in the support responses however.
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In-Person Training
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
The format was great; someone was there to ask questions or help if you were stuck.
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Online Training
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
All of Xero's training is online and available for anyone (business owner or accountants) to learn and become experts in their system. There is a range of content from product training to real world webinars from their partners. Xero is beautiful accounting software and their training is the same.
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Implementation Rating
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
If it can be done, time the implementation near a new fiscal year so you can start clean. Otherwise, you have to go back and do historical data from the beginning of the fiscal year, which can be brain draining.
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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.
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Xero
I've used a lot of different accounting systems. Many of them so big and powerful, but a hassle to get set up. Xero is light, inexpensive, and easy to use. When I originally selected them they seemed like they were developing new features at a quick rate as well. I was invited to be part of focus sessions to make the product better. That part has slowed down significantly though.
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Scalability
Emburse
No answers on this topic
Xero
I have yet to fully stress test the product given the size of the company where I am using it. I am sure as we scale to more customers, more vendors and more reporting requirements, I will have a better understanding of what it is capable of in terms of bandwidth and processing
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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.
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Xero
  • Saved many hours through automatic invoices and followups
  • Saved many hours by allowing transactions to start via bank feeds (ie I don't have to input a transaction and mark it against what is in the bank/cc account; rather, the transaction in the account is where you input the transaction into the books.
  • Has the scalability my business requires, and not much more.
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ScreenShots

Emburse Abacus Screenshots

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Xero Screenshots

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