Emburse Chrome River vs. FreshBooks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Emburse Chrome River
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Chrome River EXPENSE is expense management software, from Chrome River Technologies in Los Angeles, California.N/A
FreshBooks
Score 8.6 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
FreshBooks is an accounting service for small businesses. The solution enables users to send and manage invoices, track billable time and collect online payments. The vendor’s value proposition this that their solution provides a straightforward service that simplifies the billing process.
$21
per month
Pricing
Emburse Chrome RiverFreshBooks
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Lite
$21
per month
Plus
$38
per month
Premium
$65
per month
Select
Custom Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Emburse Chrome RiverFreshBooks
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsWe offer three cost-effective, subscription-based pricing models: A transaction-based model, priced according to expense report volume A submitter-based model, priced according to an average number of monthly submitters An enterprise-level model that includes unlimited expense reports. Pricing for this model is based on total employee headcount Feel free to contact us to discuss the best one for your organization.10% discount for annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Emburse Chrome RiverFreshBooks
Features
Emburse Chrome RiverFreshBooks
Expense Management
Comparison of Expense Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
8.8
3 Ratings
3% above category average
FreshBooks
-
Ratings
Employee Expense Reporting8.73 Ratings00 Ratings
Corporate Card Reconciliation9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Management
Comparison of Payment Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
8.0
3 Ratings
2% below category average
FreshBooks
-
Ratings
Customizable Approval Policies8.33 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial Document Management5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Status Tracking9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Payment Audit Trail9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Bill Detection8.33 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced OCR8.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic Funds Transfer8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
9.1
35 Ratings
18% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.330 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings9.026 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
10.0
41 Ratings
18% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings10.041 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
7.5
57 Ratings
5% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings9.057 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.855 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings4.82 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
7.5
56 Ratings
4% below category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings8.041 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings9.455 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings7.03 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings6.651 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings7.642 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings6.021 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings9.13 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Emburse Chrome River
-
Ratings
FreshBooks
9.5
49 Ratings
21% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings8.839 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings9.337 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings9.741 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Emburse Chrome RiverFreshBooks
Small Businesses
Dext
Dext
Score 9.7 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Precoro
Precoro
Score 2.9 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
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Webexpenses
Webexpenses
Score 9.1 out of 10
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
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User Ratings
Emburse Chrome RiverFreshBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(123 ratings)
9.3
(75 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(18 ratings)
7.6
(18 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(107 ratings)
9.6
(20 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(113 ratings)
6.0
(11 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.8
(7 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Emburse Chrome RiverFreshBooks
Likelihood to Recommend
Emburse
The Emburse Chrome River is well suited for tracking expenses and reimbursement. The compliance part of the software makes the task very easy to ensure all the reports that are being used within the company are updated and easy to verify. The Automating invoice processing makes some redundant task easy to execute.
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FreshBooks
I recommend FreshBooks to anyone running a service-based business that needs invoicing, time reporting, and accounting tools. FB is adept in all three of these scenarios and isn't overly complicated like similar accounting packages I have used. I love how I can write estimates and proposals, manage the business development process from the software, and quickly convert prospects to invoiced clients.
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Pros
Emburse
  • [Emburse] Chrome River listens to its customer's needs and does its best to match current products to those needs, or collaborate internally to determine if an enhancement can be made available that will not only benefit that customer, but will be a good use case for all Chrome River customers.
  • The [Emburse] Chrome River customer service team is great. Unlike most companies, you can speak to a liver person!
  • [Emburse] Chrome River's training offerings are relevant and pertinent to the day to day operations of the software.
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FreshBooks
  • Invoicing - FreshBooks basically ensures our accountants spend less time on invoices via its automated invoicing system, which sends invoices to our customers and clients alike and also send them regular reminders for them to pay up their bills.
  • Collecting business insights - FreshBooks enable our company analysts measure our business performances via data reports provided by FreshBooks' intuitive dashboard. Allowing us do a comparative analysis of key business metrics of a current month against past months and determine if the business is growing.
  • Expense tracker - We have recently embraced FreshBooks as an expense tracker for teams at our company branch. Thusfar, FreshBooks has performed very well, making our expense management a perfect operation; ensuring teams do not exceed their planned budget and also eliminating the need for tracking expenses on excel spreadsheets.
Read full review
Cons
Emburse
  • Would be great to have pre-saved templates available to apply to line items at the expense report header level rather than having to go into each line.
  • Would be nice to have a mass upload functionality for things like cost codes, allocations, and credit card users.
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FreshBooks
  • I can brand invoices with my business logo, but I might like to change colours of the invoices themselves to match the rest of my business documents. That isn't a major point at all, but it's something that I'd like to see.
  • Freshbooks doesn't remember the categories that similar expenses were previously assigned to. It would be nice if Freshbooks would suggest a category for an already saved vendor, to ensure the consistency of expense reporting.
  • The home page of a Freshbooks account has a great graph display of expenses and income, but it only shows the last 6 months. This is still very useful, but I'd like to be able to see this kind of graph for different periods of time.
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Likelihood to Renew
Emburse
Chrome River is easy to use. We needed little training for our users and instead pointed them to Chrome River's Help Guides which are clearly written and easy to understand. With tools SNAP and the ability to email receipts means we can be completely remote when submitting reports.
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FreshBooks
At the current needs of our business, FreshBooks suits us perfectly - it allows online access by our accountant to the system for GST purposes, easy input of expenses and tracking of Profit and Loss statements. FreshBooks customer service is great as well - very understanding and accommodating.
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Usability
Emburse
I would rate Chrome River Expense a 10 because, as I mentioned before, it is very simple and easy to use. This is important from an administrative point-of-view as well as for the field employee. Being a general contractor, it makes it all the better for our employees to use a program that is easy to understand and requires little time and effort. It has made tracking expenses very simple and has been well received by the entire company.
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FreshBooks
FreshBooks is very easy to use even for novices. If you're looking for an online accounting software that is full of features, has great aesthetics and is user-friendly, then this is definitely the software for you. I've been using it for several years now and despite being tempted to switch by other vendors, I like the feel of FreshBooks and it's mobile features.
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Reliability and Availability
Emburse
The software is always running effectively. I use many Cloud based systems and never had issues with Chrome River
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FreshBooks
FreshBooks is easy to use and always works!
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Performance
Emburse
System runs normal pretty much all the time. Does not slow any other systems down.
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FreshBooks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Emburse
This has been easy for me because we have a rep that contacts the supporters for this product to correct any issues we may have with the software or changes needed to help out employees use Chrome River easier. This from my understanding has been a hit or miss kind of interaction with our rep and Chrome River.
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FreshBooks
I think the support level for FreshBooks is on par with a 6 because the folks behind this application do a fairly good job at providing support for their customer base. I still don't think they are at an elite level when it comes to supporting but are getting there although too slow in my opinion.
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Online Training
Emburse
The software is very user friendly, so the online training was easy to pickup for everyone.
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FreshBooks
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Emburse
Before implementation begins, make sure you have a plan on how you would like your workflow and platform setup for a system like Chrome River. It will speed the process and eliminate the need to make changes when you go live.
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FreshBooks
I haven't changed my mind since my first evaluation. Freshbooks is still meeting my needs, easy to use, etc.
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Alternatives Considered
Emburse
It's the [industry-leading] software for Enterprise level organizations with [large-scale] teams and financial responsibilities. The software has the most robust set of tools and pays for itself with the amount of time it saves. Many newer alternatives have sprouted up but I don't know that we would ever trust another software to do our Expense Tracking and Management.
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FreshBooks
FreshBooks does very well in comparison, especially since it is free software for Barclays bank users. Sage software is much worse than FreshBooks. However, Xero and QuickBooks, the market leaders, are still ahead with usability, additional features, reporting, and connection with third-party software providers. We chose FreshBooks as it does everything we require from this type of software.
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Scalability
Emburse
It's very easy software to design to your needs.
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FreshBooks
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Emburse
  • We have seen a return on approver time of nearly 60% meaning our approvers have tripled their output.
  • We have had feedback from our users that time spent creating expenses has gone from an average of 2 hours to perhaps 20 minutes, tops.
  • We have seen in our dashboards that the Emburse Certify Suite of tools has returned an average savings of over $500K a year.
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FreshBooks
  • In reality, we do not implement all of its use at the moment in order to determine an adequate ROI.
  • In our approach to the use of the system, it seems to us a considerable time saving by achieving the integration of the Mexican subsidiary with its parent located in the US.
  • Financial reports meet the necessary USGAAP requirements.
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ScreenShots

Emburse Chrome River Screenshots

Screenshot of A consistent experience across any screen size or operating systemScreenshot of Simple, customizable tiles for expense entryScreenshot of Approve expenses directly from your inbox with a single click

FreshBooks Screenshots

Screenshot of the dashboardScreenshot of an invoice overviewScreenshot of an example of a customizable invoiceScreenshot of an invoice appearing across devicesScreenshot of expensesScreenshot of time tracking