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Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify) vs. Zoho Expense

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/AEmburse Professional (formerly Certify) aims to help make expense reporting easier with its automated expense report creation and mobile receipt capture. Employees, managers and accountants can create, submit and approve expense reports, check the status of expense reports and access reports on demand.N/A

    Zoho Expense

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AZoho Expense is online expense reporting software, tailor-made for businesses worldwide to automate expense report creation, streamline approvals and make swift reimbursements.

    $5

    per month per user

    Pricing
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)Zoho Expense
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Free
    $0
    Standard Plan
    $5
    per month per user
    Premium Plan
    $9
    per month per user
    Custom
    Get a Quote
    per month per user
    Custom
    Get a Quote
    per month per user
    Custom
    Get a Quote
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)Zoho Expense
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup Fee$8 Expense reportOptional
    Additional DetailsCertify AP has volume based pricing based on processed invoices20% discount for annual pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)Zoho Expense
    Considered Both Products
    Emburse
    Chose Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)
    Easy to use on desktop.
    Incentivized
    Zoho
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    63%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    75%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    Features
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)Zoho Expense
    Expense Management
    Comparison of Expense Management features of Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify) and Zoho Expense
    Feature
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)
    7.6
    2 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Zoho Expense
    7.9
    3 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Employee Expense Reporting8.12 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Corporate Card Reconciliation7.01 Ratings7.73 Ratings
    Payment Management
    Comparison of Payment Management features of Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify) and Zoho Expense
    Feature
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)
    7.7
    2 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Zoho Expense
    7.2
    3 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Customizable Approval Policies9.02 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Financial Document Management9.02 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Payment Status Tracking9.12 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Payment Audit Trail5.52 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Duplicate Bill Detection7.32 Ratings7.93 Ratings
    Advanced OCR6.01 Ratings5.12 Ratings
    Electronic Funds Transfer00 Ratings5.23 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)Zoho Expense
    Small Businesses
    Brex
    Score9 out of 10
    Brex
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Expensify
    Score9 out of 10
    Expensify
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Emburse Expense Enterprise (formerly Chrome River)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Emburse Expense Enterprise (formerly Chrome River)
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)Zoho Expense
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (57 ratings)
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (41 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    4.9
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly Certify)Zoho Expense
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Emburse
    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
    Read full review
    Zoho
    easy of use for the end users as well as to manage. The option to add new categories (expenses) and have the end users use them immediately is wonderful. The ease of creating a new user as well as customer support has been great. The customer support while having issues has been quick to resolve any issues
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Emburse
    • 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
    Read full review
    Zoho
    • The program will notify users if they have entered a duplicate charge.
    • Once the end-users understood that receipts were mandatory, attaching those receipts has become second-nature. The app makes it very easy to do so.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Emburse
    • 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
    Read full review
    Zoho
    • Could have more default options. Instead of making my users select payment method, allow us to default it to one of the options.
    • More room for customization by department. My service department needs different categories of expenses then my sales department.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Emburse
    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
    Read full review
    Zoho
    Ease of use for the simple basic options. I wish the there was an option for reimbursement to be marked separately. Example for all corporate credit expense reports with $0 reimbursements still have to be marked as reimbursed in order to be removed from pending reimbursement section. For the cost the features offer benefits
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Emburse
    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
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    Zoho
    The only reason I give Zoho a 9 is because of the issue with the Chart of Accounts skewing every time I export/import. I believe this is due to the fact that I use sub-accounts and Zoho cannot differentiate. Still hoping. :)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Emburse
    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
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    Zoho
    We selected (switched) to Zoho Expense because it had similar features at a lower price and we were able to receive a discount through our partner relationship with another software company. We have considered moving from Zoho Expense to something else recently due to continued issues with being able to accurately import credit card charges and organize them correctly be team member. Creating some confusion among users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Emburse
    • 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
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    Zoho
    • We have had some issues with the credit card reconciliation process which has made our monthly accounting / close process. This has been a negative
    • Positive ROI is that team members spend less time on expense reports due to the ease of reporting
    • Positive ROI is that substantial training and onboarding is not needed due to the features and simplicity.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Emburse Expense Professional (formerly 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