Emburse Chrome River

Chrome River is well suited for organizations where expense owners are on the go and need to have an easy way to submit their expense reports in the moment while traveling. It takes the need for saving receipts and trying to piece the information together when returning from a business trip.

Chrome River has made expense reimbursement easy for users to use, with the additions of application access on mobile devices. They also allow email approvals and provide links within the email to view receipts. I have received positive user feedback stating application is easy to use. Feedback has also been the desire to do certain items which are not possible due to the limited customization of the application.

Support for the application is where I see the most room for improvement. Chrome River's standard response protocol doesn't work well for making corrections and is exacerbated by the delay in communications between administrator and support personnel. It also seems to be hit or miss on the knowledge of the staff received. Posted support material is good but can be difficult to find what you are looking for.

If your business is heavy with credit card use along with mileage requests then this is the software you need to use to improve the flow of your operations. Having said that, if you're not heavy with these types of transactions then it might not be beneficial to your operation.

Chrome River has helped transition my Finance team to another level. In the past we were paper driven and did not see some oft the pitfuls on how expenses were being coded, which lead to us making adjustments sometimes months later. The system also has improved the connection between each of our locations now that we have a centralized workflow for Expense Reporting. Communication, processing and reduction of errors have improved. We only have touch the surface on what can get out of this system.

The help support is really good. If it's something that is high importance they will respond and address quickly.

It's very easy software to design to your needs.

Works well in the fast-paced purchase environments. Captures receipt details through highly reliable OCR technology. Must submit expense reports for approval. Would be nice to have an option to by-pass this all together in certain circumstances.

Chrome River support desk, implementation personnel were and are truly amazing. The software and APPs are easy to use. Training material, videos, and classes are easy to follow, extensive, and fun.

Really enjoy interacting with timely, competent, and extremely friendly people.

Pros:

Chrome River [EXPENSE] is an easy to learn travel expense tool. Training effort is limited. 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 [EXPENSE] is supporting digital archiving. Interfaces to SAP are working smoothly and the effort for installing was minimal.

Con:
We would prefer, if the accountants / auditors could change / adapt the expense report by themselves. Entries / information for which traveler's are not the experts like expense types, VAT or other income related stuff should be possible to change without return and starting the approval process once again. Standard PDF report gives room for improvement.

Chrome River [EXPENSE] is available via APP and web browser. Training effort is low and more driven by company rules than Chrome River [EXPENSE]. System can be entered via SSO. Expense reports are intuitively entered. Approval is additionally possible via mail and the approver does not even need to enter the system. Everything can be checked via the mail.

Support team can be contacted by opening a case in salesforce. Within this tool you could always track the status of the case. Nevertheless, sometimes it takes some time until we get a solution. In general, they are fast and supportive. For some cases we have a delay because of different time zones.

Chrome River has a great team to work with, their ticket logging system is easy to use. The CR application itself is easy to use and navigate, has an easy learning curve, and has a lot of options for routing and approvals.

Chrome River is super easy to use. The screens, boxes, and buttons are all laid out easily. If you are missing something the system will tell you. There is little training involved out of the box. Depending on your customizations you may need to create training documents to ensure users are filling their expenses and invoices out properly.

Support is really good especially when you are assigned an Emburse admin to help. This admin is assigned to you for your specific needs and can help troubleshoot issues, answer ad hoc questions and get ticket processes ahead of schedule. Logging tickets within their help desk is also easy to use and you get timely feedback.

Well suited for organizations with straightforward business rules and a manageable amount of expense types/cost codes. Tougher to use in organizations with a high turnover rate of employees (lots of changes to supervisors and moving departments impacts the automated routing). Also, the interface can get cumbersome with the huge number of expense types and cost codes that we have.

Having spent nearly every day for that past year in Banner, the things that we as admins find intuitive aren't necessarily intuitive to the user who only gets into Chrome River once a month or less. Part of that issue is more on the complexity of our state's business rules and account code usage, and less on Chrome River. We believe with time, the system will be viewed as being very intuitive and we are constantly looking at ways to tweak the interface to make it even better for the user. Chrome River gives us the ability to make those slight changes, and that has helped in the early stages of implementation.

Excellent service from the help desk/center. The Chrome River ticketing system and techs have made fixing our unforeseen issues a much less painful experience than it could have been. In almost every case response has been fast and accurate!

It's [Emburse Chrome River] great for what we use it for. I do think some of the reports can be a little tricky though and so those might need some work. If you have a lot of users with credit card activity, I think this is a really good program to use. If you have more activity that is typically reoccurring, monthly or otherwise, I wouldn't be as likely to suggest this set up.

I think the program is pretty self explanatory to figure out. You can easily walk yourself through things and if you can't figure something out, the help desk is available. We also have step by step guides on how to set up different things that are great.

I think this is a really good product and a lot of companies could use it.

This has worked so well with Ellucian's Banner. Training end-users is manageable and the processes behind the scenes are simple too. This was one of the most impactful tools we added to our system. I would recommend this to anyone who is addressing manual processes that would benefit from improvement.

This is one of the most forward-thinking pieces of software I have seen and it solves problems without a huge lift. Most of our executive-level approvers required no training on how to approve, and our CFO at the time echoed that this is easy to use. This made us even more confident in our decision.

Support has been good, not great. There is definitely a time zone challenge for us, however, the capability of the support team is strong and I am pleased. I would like to see the support team much more spread out to help facilitate assistance but that may be in the works already.

If you are looking to improve the employee expense reimbursement process, Chrome River is definitely an option to be considered. It is a very easy tool to learn to use, and has a lot of add-on features.

Where Chrome River would not be suited is for very small companies, as the pricing per user could be greater than the ROI.

Chrome River EXPENSE is very easy to train new users on, but once trained very easy for the employees to use. Part of our training focuses on downloading and utilize CR Snap for their receipts. This has reduced the "lost" receipt exception.

I have not had any issues with getting support for any questions that I have. Depending on what the topic is about the turn around time to range from a couple hours to a couple days.

Chrome River has been great for our organization to increase efficiencies in the expense reporting process. The ease of use on a mobile phone, along with the OCR capabilities to match receipts with charges makes the end-user experience much better. During the pandemic, our T&E program took a drastic decline. This resulted in some end users [believing] the system was too sophisticated for our organization's needs. To me, that is a nice problem to have.

The system has been great for both the end-users as well as the accounting administrators. Being able to capture receipts via a picture on a mobile device has been a game-changer for a lot of individuals at our organization. No need to hang on to those bulky receipts anymore!

As we have required assistance from the CR team, they have been responsive and helpful in resolving issues that we have [encountered].

Emburse Chrome River is a highly suitable tool for any organization that is processing invoices for payments from many different vendors. It also works well for any organization that needs to have an easy tool for its staff to do expense reporting for reimbursements. I honestly think it is appropriate for any organization that needs to have an easy way for the Accounting Department or general staff to keep track and submit things for payment, although it probably works best for organizations that are larger than 50 or so staff.

I give it this rating because I use it daily, and I rarely run into issues with it. Our staff and lawyers can also easily submit expense reports from their phones, so they can be sure that they can get reimbursed for all their expenses as soon as they have the receipt. It makes it easy for them, as an example, to upload a restaurant receipt immediately after they have dinner with a client since they can do it from their mobile device.

I gave it this rating because I have not had any issues with the support side of Emburse Chrome River. If our product isn't working, or has maintenance scheduled, it's very easy to contact support and find a resolution or a temporary work around. Also, maintenance is done in a timely manner and we rarely have extended periods of software down times.

The app is easy to use and we love the app and the desktop looks the same. So it's easy to walk someone through it no matter what they're using. The ability to run custom reports is invaluable! Easy to set people up, easy to set expense coding up. Overall very easy to use.

It's easy, simple, yet effective and we have several older employees who are "technology challenged" who don't have a problem using it! Which says a lot! Overall we've had great experiences with it. There is no perfect software, but this one comes close and that's a win my book if you ask me.

Overall we are extremely happy with Chrome River Expense. It has been a great software and we don't regret our decision to choose it over other platforms. The app is easy to use which is a huge factor in getting employees to submit timely expense reports. You won't regret this decision.

Chrome River is a dynamic and robust system if you are needing strong workflow options. You can build/design the workflow approvals off of any field, including user-defined fields. The system is also unique to other cloud-based systems in your ability to customize your instance of the platform. The front-end system is extremely clean and intuitive for end-users, but I would recommend someone with more technical competency for the implementation and maintenance of the system. Chrome River has excellent customer service and competent implementation specialists to help you throughout the whole process.

Chrome River has exceptional consultants and support staff. We have had nothing but a fantastic experience with how their team has treated us, as well as working through some of our unique business needs. From implementation to ongoing support, they have helped my small team successfully automate our Procure-to-Pay process from our older systems.

If you are a large or midsized company, Chrome River Expense is perfect for expense management tracking and reporting. For smaller companies[,] there are cheaper options that could do the trick. Regardless of company size the software will suit your needs and be a pivotal part of your financial management company-wide.

Very easy to track, approve, and manage expenses across the organization. The user interface is streamlined and easy to learn even as a beginner. The [enterprise-level] support is exceptional and was one of the best I've seen in the industry. I also loved how easy it was for us to integrate car rentals and business trip expenses.

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.

Emburse Chrome River simplifies the expense reimbursement for both user and administrator. The CR Snap allows our employees to upload receipts at the time the expense occurred, eliminating missing receipts. The approvers found it easier to approve or return an expense item for either additional questions or corrections. Using Emburse Chrome River and CR Snap together allowed our employees to get reimbursed quicker.

This saved our company a lot of manual hours. Time is one thing we can't get back!

Easy to work with.

Chrome River is great for our firm because we are able to get costs into our billing system faster. We are also able to pay our employees faster.

Almost all of our users are able to figure out how to submit a report with limited training. The only downside currently is Chrome River likes to use white. There is a lot of it.

There support is good just slow. They take a few days to get back to you after each reply.

Chrome River is very good for large, complex expense processing workflows. You can customize it as much as you need or want - though simpler is usually better. If you have a distributed workforce and/or many people submitting expenses, the app and tools make it easier to get the receipts and expenses in a timely manner. It also allows processing outside of a single location and reduces paper waste. If your company is very simple or isn't geographically distributed, it may benefit you less.

I think the app and website are easy to use and navigate. The buttons are large enough and the process fairly clear. The only questions we get are usually on business specific rules; certain requirements on certain expense types.

The help documentation is well laid out and descriptive, with pictures. It answers most of my questions. For the technical issues that must be fixed by the Chrome River team, sometimes it just takes an email or 2 to get the problem resolved.

Chrome River is well suited for just about any medium to large organization. It's fully customizable, so you can have as many or as few approval rules as you wish/as many or as few general ledger codes, charge centers, billable matters, etc.

Having used Chrome River myself, for over ten years, I can honestly say it is extremely easy to use. The mobile app allows users to upload receipts quickly and easily while traveling.

We have had mixed experiences when submitting support tickets. Chrome River has gone through some growing pains, so they are not as fast as they used to be. However overall, customer support is very good. We have an assigned customer success manager that will always intervene and follow up if we have any problems.

Emburse Chrome River is an awesome program that helps streamline information and get your data into one place. We use the Expense feature for all accounts payable needs. This covers payments, reimbursements, purchasing card reconciliations, etc. One example that comes to mind: Not too long after I first started the head of Risk Management reached out to me. He needed some specific information to use for our insurance renewal. I needed to pull a report showing how many vehicles we rented over the last year, broken down by department/days/price, etc. I was able to pull this information easily and present it to him.

I love using Chrome River and I think it is very simple. I like how everything is laid out and how there is an option to look at expense reports as a pdf (very helpful if you need to share it with someone or save it for documentation). I am not a huge fan of email approvals, only because I think it is too easy for someone to approve without verifying all of the information.

Chrome River has a dedicated Help Desk portal. On the portal, you have all of the information they have released about the product and features and a lot of helpful tools. They also have a ticket system if you need further help or something more specific. It is much easier than actually calling a help desk.

Being our first travel and expense management system, I do not have a clear comparison opinion. But Chrome River Expense is a user friendly system even for some of our technically challenged employees. The amount of compliance and business rules added triggers notifications to users while they are creating and building the report.

We have a wide range of user experience opinions. Most of our users were very hesitant to switch from paper-pushing to fully electronic submission, approval, and processing. Since converting we have users that love the system and its ease of use and we have users that completely despise having to use it. But most users that do not like the system are some of our more technically challenged employees.

Embuse Chrome River does have a Help Desk platform to submit cases for system issues, help with customization, and any other help topics that system administrators may need. These cases are assigned to chrome river support experts that then work with you to resolve the issue at hand. Their response to cases is timely and efficient.

If a company handles T&E then that company should consider using Emburse Certify and Emburse Chrome River to meet their company needs. While all reimbursements can be handled through the software, there are also added options for AP/AR, company credit cards, travel, and more. Emburse stores the data on their end so there is no need for downloading reports or storing endless data. Their suite of software really reduces the time spent creating, submitting, and processing expense reimbursements.

Emburse Certify (Chrome River EXPENSE) is quite user friendly as a website and portal to upload receipts and submit expenses. It is almost too easy, in that some of our users had originally tried to overcomplicate things in their initial use of the software. Repeated use made our users comfortable with the software and quite happy with the change from paper submissions to electronic. The software does remember data entry so it will reduce the users time entering common names of airlines and hotels. The mobile app is wonderful for taking photos and uploading them to your wallet but it really does lack in the ability to create an expense report. The auto wizard will help create a report but makes it difficult to adjust any errors that might keep the report from being submitted.

Emburse Certify has a wonderful level of customer service and support, starting with their Customer Support Managers who personally oversee accounts and reach out to clients to help them on their journey. Emburse Certify also has a 24/5 team of Customer Support Agents standing by to assist users with issues, errors, or questions on their software. Considering the recent challenges of remote working, their Agents have done a good job at responding to emailed tickets. Unfortunately, I have not been able to call in and speak to an agent since early 2020 and I have found that one particular Customer Support Agent was rather rude when responding to a continuous issue of website availability, the person going so far as to demand that I take a video of my computer when receiving a website time out error (an issue that Certify has been addressing and aware of this year).

Great for travel - has apps to capture receipts to start expense reports. OCR is nice when it works well.

Chrome River is pretty intuitive to use. There are some navigation issues that get confusing but overall it is fairly easy.

We have regularly scheduled meetings with our support rep which is nice. The help desk is sometimes super helpful and sometimes frustrating. Our rep is helpful in getting problems resolved through the help desk.

Chrome River has completely changed our CC program and expense reports. I like how all the approvals are done within the app. Our old approval system was done along with all of our invoices, and I like how they are separate now.

The user experience is great. Everyone always says how easy it is to understand especially with the menus and tiles.

Support responds really quick and wants to help get your problem resolved as soon as possible. We have a personal support person (ESA) who helps us with specific cases once every other week.

I'm not sure how to answer this question. On the previous pages I listed things I liked and didn't like.

We don't feel that it's intuitive enough. Employees skip lines and enter in the wrong order which can cause CR to get hung up. Employees aren't used to entering their own allocations. They struggle using the email approval on their phones because they think that by clicking on Approve the first time, they are done. But they need to click Approve one more time. Also, people aren't checking to see if they have anything to approve, so items just sit there.

I think CR has been responsive to our issues. They just can't change the system for some of our problems.

Chrome River allows claimants to submit expenses in a timely fashion and reimburse promptly. Auditing of submissions is easy to do, and innovation of OCR technology takes some of the steps out of the process for the claimant. No paperwork to store and save, all done by Chrome River and is easily accessible.

The system is easy to use, saves us time to complete reports. Auditing, routing, and attaching necessary documents is easy, it is linked to our corporate credit card so transactions are available for the claimant to select and claim. No paper storage on site.

The help desk is great to work with, but sometimes it does take a bit long to hear back from them.