Emburse Certify vs. ExpenseNet

Certify is not well suited for multi-dimensional ERPs. Although Certify 'offers' general ledger dimensions GLD, the use of them is extremely limited. Filtering on any GLD can only be done once. There is not the possibility for creating hierarchies with the dimensions. The only method of exporting is via a flat file or the open API, which I understand is quite limited. This software is for a smaller scaled business that is not trying to track across dimensions or create hierarchies. Data flow is one directional. I cannot emphasize enough the shortcomings of the reporting. The parameters are mostly based on expense dates rather than expense reports. There are entirely too many of them, and some of them perform the function!

Incentivized

ExpenseNet is well suited to a large organization with many travelers or purchasing cards holders. It allows the entire expense reporting process to be done electronically. For employees who are not based on site or not based at the same site as their manager and accounting, it really streamlines the process compared to having paper or even e-mailed expense reports. The wholly electronic process also enables easier reporting and auditing. ExpenseNet would likely be less appropriate for small organizations with few travelers.

Incentivized

• Integration with Amtrav or other travel booking systems. Certify has a tight integration with travel systems that makes it feel nearly like one cohesive tool.
• Easy expense options. Use OCR on receipts, import from credit cards and merge items, approve and inquire about expenses. Track your submissions.
• Easy UI. Friendly and easy to navigate without getting lost.

Incentivized

• Integration with expenses posted to the employee's corporate card account.
• Feature that allows an employee to take a picture of their receipt and then send it to their ExpenseNet account via e-mail.
• Ability to view and save a copy of the expense report with or without the receipts.

Incentivized

• Reporting: I would like to see more chart availability from the program. We include various data points from Certify in our monthly financial statement package. Currently, we export data from the program and create our own pivot tables to create charts.
• Dashboard feature: It would be nice to be able to use the data for a specific date and then be able to print that information.
• Can't think of another one. As stated before, they listen to their customers so prior issues have been addressed and implemented.

Incentivized

• Overall the look and feel is dated and the navigation is clunky. Even employees who travel a lot will only go into the system once a month to do their expense report. A more user-friendly interface would take some of the chore out of it.
• The feature to take a picture of a receipt and then e-mail it to your ExpenseNet account is great, but it does not always work, which can be frustrating to redo
• It would be handy if just as the charges from the corporate card are imported, the statement could be as well. This would eliminate the need for the employee to go into their corporate card account to download and save the statement and then attach it in ExpenseNet.
• It is senseless that once you add a receipt to the queue, you cannot delete it until after you have submitted the given report. Sometimes, a duplicate receipt will be loaded or a receipt will be loaded in error. To have to work around it in the queue is rather annoying.

Incentivized

If the integrations with our card programs had succeeded, I expect [Emburse] Certify would have worked well for expense submitters and approvers. During the short time that the American Express Business integration was active, transactions flowed smoothly, and the expense reporting and receipt matching functions were quite good. The [Emburse] Certify mobile app was particularly powerful and easy to use.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Before Certify, there was only manual expense reports entered for our company. This took too much time for employees too finish and caused a delay of efficiency. With Certify, it is easier to access and finish each report with the right amount of effectiveness and efficiency it needs. Certify is really helpful in saving a lot of time for employees that do not have time.

Incentivized

• The organization and automatic flow of the expense report to approvers and then AP saves time for all. The user has agreed that it is easier and quicker to prepare the expense report and the managers and AP department finds the automated process to be quicker and more efficient. Time saved is money saved.
• Certify can recognize if a duplicate expense is submitted or if an expense is submitted too late to be reimbursed according to our policies. This prevents us from reimbursing an expense in error.
• We use a customized report to track a specific type of expense that gets submitted by our sales team. There is a limit on what can be spent on specific expenses that fall into an entertainment category and the report helps us to stay within the limits. Previously, without this tool, we had spent so much more time manually tracking these expenses and had gone over the limits, creating a deficiency in our processes.

Incentivized

• Enables fully electronic expense reporting process
• Easier reporting
• Easier to audit / provide audit documentation

Incentivized