Chrome River Expense - Expense reports made easy

Chrome River has been a great company to work with. They are always open to hear about features that would make our lives easier and try to accommodate when possible. We have since started using their Invoice capture service to help automate AP even more and the results have been fantastic.

Pros

This software lets our users attach receipts hands free by either emailing receipts or using the Chrome River SNAP app. This allows delegates to go in and create expense reports for our users who would rather have their assistant perform this practice. The software is also usable on any computer, smart phone or tablet allowing users to work from anywhere they have an internet connection. Chrome River is also integrated with our Corporate credit card (US Bank) so transactions come through showing our users exactly which items need to be submitted. The product also integrates with Uber, Lyft, and Spot Hero so those receipts are automatically sent to Chrome River.

Cons

We have not had any major issues with the software. The OCR function for reading receipts does not always work as well as you would like but this only makes users select a different expense type than is suggested.

Expense System on the Go

The system has streamlines our expense process allowing us to eliminate paper reports and move the whole company to a single expense system

Pros

The flexibility of mobile use and user interface

Cons

The limitation of customization of Mexico VAT

Mercury is wonderful!

Pros

The new receipt functions within Mercury are a life saver for the auditing process. We love the way it crops and attaches the receipts to individual line items, it makes auditing a breeze rather than going through countless pages of receipts. Its a huge time saver and that is important as we have such a high volume.

Cons

Help Desk Turn Around time could be better.

I Recommend Chrome River

Pros

Chrome River provides wide variety of feature which make the day to day lie easier. We have done lots of automation after moving to Chrome River platform and it saves time for users, approves and auditors. It has also brought controls within the process.

Cons

I like all the features it has and definitely there is scope of new features.

Great way to bring our University into the 21st century and strive for paperless expense management.

Auotmation

Pros

The routing rules, compliance rules and the ease of being able to track items quickly. Enabling the user to have more flexibility in timing and to not spend the majority on their time on "paper-work" shuffling. Creating an "all-in-one" place for reporting and multiple functions that can reduce headaches from both the fund manager, auditor, payables' team and the users.

Cons

The platform becoming not a fully functional system and the fix for the problem taking months to correct when all of the programming and configuration was completely in tact prior to any "upgrade" globally.

Customizable User Friendly Expense Platform

Chrome River has worked closely with us to understand our business and business needs. The staff is innovative and eager to solve any issues your business presents.

Pros

The ability to build rules around compliance and polices is top notch.

Cons

The reporting (Analytics) isnt as easy to navigate as it should be.

Electronic approvals and efficiency - love it!

Pros

I love that our expense reports have automated routing rules built in the background, customized for our business needs. Chrome River "gets it" - they understand that business all have different approval rules and are able to set them up in the background. Users submit their expense reports and they automatically route to each approver. This makes the users very happy as the reports get approved quickly and they are reimbursed quickly. There is no more need to staple receipts onto an excel spreadsheet and pass them from one person to the next. Chrome River handles all of that electronically!

Cons

I would like more ability to customize the routing rules on my own, without having to submit a support ticket. I believe this is something that Chrome River is working towards.

Excellent Tool to go from paper to Digital Expense Review

Chrome River helped us digitize, and streamline our expense claims and workflows for all levels of our organization.

Pros

from a user perspective, this software has helped eliminate steps in submitting and processing expense claims. The use of the Snap App to process the paper claims and combined with OCR capabilities help to make claims a breeze compared to our older manual method. Further, our AP team and others have gained greater efficiencies by being able to collect this information in real-time and process it faster. Easily integrates with other accounting system or organization uses. Easy to use user interface.

Cons

The reporting/analytics features can be revamped, as well as greater flexibility in customization. Overall, the tool does a great job.

Chrome River travel expense system scheduled to go live this summer.

We are hopeful Chrome River will provide a faster turn around for reimbursements to travelers. We also hope the excitement over the system's features will make transition more appealing for our end users.

Pros

While our campus will go live within the next 2 1/2 months, our end users are excited about discontinuing a manual system and have been sold on CR Snap. The end users appreciate the ability to track their reports allowing them to identify who has yet to approve their report. We are hopeful the entire campus will be as enthusiastic as our testers are. The travel audit staff enjoys having Chrome River configured with university travel policies which assists the end users with proper reporting. Chrome River imports from the ERP system allow the display of check information and payment break down for easy reference while reviewing submitted reports.

Cons

The travel audit staff in accounting is accustomed to correcting account codes during the final audit process before the payment is made in the ERP system. Items will now have to be returned to the traveler for correction then back to the travel audit staff for review again before payment is processed in the ERP system.

Excellent Frontend, smooth implementation

We are using ChromeRiver to save our employee'S time while travelling. On return, the expense claim is already almost done and finished with a few clicks. Great experience.

Pros

the fully responsive frontend without dependencies

Cons

matching legal compliance for Germany was initially a bit tricky but solved now

I have worked with Chrome River four years and lead the upgrade from the Platinum to Mercury.

Pros

The platform is user friendly and intuitive. Travelers have the capability of taking pictures of their receipts and sending them directly into their Chrome River e-Wallet. We use Egencia Travel which is in the process of integrating with Chrome River. This will result in all travel data also being housed in the traveler's e-Wallet. Our travelers also like the mobile capability of the new web-based platform, Mercury, which allows them to have access to the site while on the go. Credit card integration has also proved very valuable enabling travelers to see transactions they need to submit on their reports. Approvers have the ability audit and approve reports on the go with the ability to easily review receipts that are being billed to their projects. With the ability to program policies and routing, approvers can be assured that reports are meeting programmed company policies. If there is a need to split the allocation of the expense - Chrome River makes it very easy. Employees love the ability to easily delegate access to others and assign approval to coworkers while on vacation. We have been very happy with this software. It has simplified and made the expense report process very efficient for our firm.

Cons

As a travel manager, the analytics engine that I use frequently could be more intuitive. If reports are required outside of the standard list, the engine to produce custom reports is not very user friendly.

Paperless efficiency!

Chrome River Expense helped my organization (an international law firm) go from paper expense report approvals to a sleek, custom-designed automated (and paperless!) system. Automated approval routing has eliminated the need for sending paper expense reports from one person to the next for approvals. It also ensures that each approval is obtained before payment is made. It has saved our firm time, money, and headaches! The Chrome River team is very attentive and helps with setting up the routing rules that work in the background all along the way. Once the system is up and running, their support team does a tremendous job in making modifications for us as well. The company is always looking for ways to improve their products, which we also appreciate.

Pros

Has cut down on paper floating around the firm. All approvals are obtained electronically. Approvers simply select a green "Accept" button in an e-mail if they approve, or can send back by selecting the red "Return" button. It's very user-friendly!

Cons

Reporting functionality is not the best

Business expense reimbursement software

my firm has been using Chrome River since 2011 for expense reimbursement processing. Implementation was quick. They have kept up with changing client needs and technology by constantly updating the software and offering new options. End users are happy because they have easy options such as connecting receipts directly from Uber, and can get downloaded transactions daily. Submitting expenses are icon based and are tailored to exactly your specs. Back office is happy because duplicates can be immediately identified and importing into GL packages is almost seamless once set up. Take a look. Chrome River is growing fast because they do it right and to your specifications.

Pros

customizable for my business rules

Cons

we opted for daily feeds of certain information. Sometimes new options are added that I might be interested in, but until I read their updates in detail, I won't know about changes.

CR Expense Review

My overall experience with CR has been very good. It saves us a lot of time and money, and most importantly frustration and aggravation by making a smoother process to submit expense reports. It also acts as the bad guy with policy enforcement so Finance doesn't always have to step in. It also allows to track user expenditures in an easier manner and files reports away so historical reviews and employee usage can easily be reviewed.

Pros

The software allows for the flow of approvals and communicates to users on where their report lies within the workflow. It also enforces our policies, flags out of policy expenses and flags possible duplicate expenses saving us a lot of time and money. We've also setup a feed from our HRIS system so new users get setup automatically. Users can organize and submit their receipts through the CR Snap app which alleviates the problem of having to keep paper receipts. Expense reports are exported from CR and paid on a weekly basis in a format that allows us to upload the JE into our accounting software.

Cons

It can be difficult to get solid answers from the support staff after the go live date and the project manager has gone away. The administration side of things in also not the most intuitive and it be can be difficult to make changes on the back end.

Customizable Expense Reporting Made Easy

Huge benefit from the perspective of check printing and reconciling, less time for Accounts Payable to work through and sort paperwork and being able to use the A/P staff in other, more productive way was critical. When we lost a staff member we decided not to replace them because of the efficiency Chrome River gave us. We likely have the capacity to downsize another FTE but we will wait for either a retirement or someone to leave on their own.

Pros

Investing time on the front end of this product is well worth the results in the end and the overall buy-in of fellow employees. Keeping the initial screen simple is the key to employee adoption rates being higher than normal. Designating an implementation person or two (cross-training is key) is all that is needed. Do not rely on the partner from Chrome River to tell you what you need. They will interview you and guide you but the important thing to remember is that this will be your software to operate once it is ready to be deployed.

Cons

Not much honestly. When I implemented it there wasn't much OCR technology built in but that was something that was being developed.

Robust Expense and Invoice Management

Chrome River offers a slick modern user interface with a robust rules engine that can allow from simple to very intricate and complicated routing and approvals. The application is constantly being updated and they take customer feedback as part of building out the applications roadmap. The integration with other systems is pretty seamless as well being able to connect to your accounting system through a series of feeds (which you can automate) and they even have the ability to connect to credit cards for pulling in expenses directly. The application comes with a ton of useful standard reporting options but they do have room for improvement with their ad hoc reporting platform.

Pros

Integration with accounting systems, audit trail tracking, snap and send receipts for expenses.

Cons

Ad hoc reporting is in need of some improvement.

Great base product with fantastic add-ons on the horizon

Fantastic customer service with a quality product that allows a lot of flexibility regarding expense reporting.

Pros

Able to customize all aspects of the expense reporting, and easy to use functionality in every way.

Cons

Difficult to utilize 3rd party connectors for systems such as FinancialForce.

Awesome

We are very happy with this software as we knew their were some deficiencies and this software has made it easier to identify it and to eliminate it moving forward.

Pros

The software is easy to use. It enables expense owners the ability to submit their expense reports quicker and on time. Using the snap app makes it more quicker to submit receipt directly to your receipt library. The OCR capabilities to recognize receipts and auto populating the information reduces staff time . The mileage expense reports are amazing. Chromeriver uses Google Maps to calculate the travel trips. Employees just need to enter the destination points and the calculations are done for them. Setting up the routing for expense reporting is simple and the HelpDesk support from Chromeriver is quick to respond and tailor things to your needs.

Cons

I have no issues at this time with the software

Chrome River has made my work much easier!

Pros

As an administrative assistant, my favorite function of Chrome River is that the information for all the dozens of people I support is located in one place. This function has made my work much simpler and easier than it was when we had to authorize and reimburse travel by hard copy.

Cons

It would be nice if Chrome River had a function where I could duplicate pre-approval reports or expense reports from one user to another. Frequently, our staff travels in groups and have identical expense reports for their reimbursements (e.g. meal per diems) and I frequently end up submitting the same expense report for several employees.

Our university is in the process of training everyone who travels.

Replaces manual process of paper travel forms.

Pros

No more paper forms, eventually once campus gets trained! No more worrying who has the paper form on their desk to sign or wondering who it goes to. Chrome River is easy to use and much faster than our current paper form, and less room for errors or duplicate payments.

Cons

Not being able to allow the person who is assigned as a delegate and created the Pre-Approval to make changes if Traveler returns to them. This is only because it stays on the Traveler's dashboard but the person who keyed in the report doesn't have access to make changes once returned is selected.

Chrome River Expense system

Chrome River is light years ahead of the previous system we used. It is user friendly for the most part. It has reduced the work load in our Accounts Payable Department tremendously. Chrome River is much easier for navigate and to use to assist our staff in researching problems with their reports. There are a few things I don't care for, such as how you enter account allocations and how the system allows staff to enter an account allocation wrong by giving it an alias and then telling them the account is wrong when they try to submit the report. It should just tell them it is wrong in the beginning to avoid all the corrections they need to make later. Otherwise, it is great and the service is great also!

Pros

Ease of use

Cons

How you enter account allocations.

Best Travel & Expense Module that I have ever used.

I have a good relationship with everyone I work with at Chrome River. They are all friendly and knowledgeable. I work with several individuals who know our business processes well and help me make good decisions when it comes to enhancements and edits to our rules and routings.

Pros

Electronic Routings - We used to be buried in paper, losing documents in inter-office mail, shuffling paper from office to office. Chrome River's electronic routings has helps us save with printing and the need for employees to handle the paper. A cost and time savings for us.

Cons

Analytics, the reporting feature could use a face lift.

Chrome River for a lawfirm

We no longer need to track paper expense reimbursements and our entire approval process is streamlined. Our attorneys like that they don't need to keep a file of receipts when they travel, they can take a picture and throw away.

Pros

Chrome River is always making updates, changes and new ways to customize the software to fit our business.

Cons

Ad hoc reporting is not user intuitive but the standard reports are useful for the majority of needs.

Chrome River Expense Review

Keeping track of my daily mileage and expenses to submit at the end of the month for reimbursement.

Pros

I like that you can see the past 90 days of submitted reports all in one spot. Also, the map feature allows you to type I a business name and it will auto populate the address for you.

Cons

It does sometimes glitch if you dont enter everything in correctly, and you will need to go back and do it again.

Our wonderful CR project team helped us improve, streamline, and rethink outdated travel policies.

Automated rules that drive compliance thereby eliminating manual checking. It has taken the guess work out of 'where's my expense report'. Employees receive reimbursement quicker. Paperless system!!

Pros

It drives policy compliance with reminders, warnings, and hard-stop violations. Plus, no more paper!!

Cons

The credit card reconciliation has been difficult for us, however, a big part of that could be related to our stringent state requirements.

Paperless Heaven

Chrome is extremely user friendly! You do not need an app to use on your phone, or connect to any database except the internet. The snap and send function makes sending receipts to my reports flawless and easy to manage. Approvals are faster without paper and go directly to the person to review. Fast, easy and efficient!

Pros

The snap and send function and being able to review reports without paper and no overload of information

Cons

Sometimes updates can take a while and if the internet is slow it can take a while to load

Amazing Change

We are solving issues like double payments, over payments. We are also issuing reimbursements to staff quicker.

Pros

What I most like about this software is the easiness to use. It is not difficult at all, very user friendly.

Cons

There is nothing that I do not like about this software, it is very self explanatory when using both invoice and expenses.

Chrome River Experience

Chrome River has helped the expenses flow through our system a lot smoother and with less issue. It also, help with accountability. We know when an expense report was submitted and how long it takes for it to process.

Pros

I like how user friendly it is. You are able to upload a receipt multiple ways.

Cons

You are not able to add an expense to a returned expense report.

Chrome River has improved our overall expense management

Pros

the ease of use and accessibility. users can upload receipts on the go, approve and review reports, and have historical access of their submitted expense reports.

Cons

I wish all users were as excited as I am about it. We've found that it takes a bit of time to adjust, but the overall response has been very positive

Chrome River is a great program that has made expense reimbursement so much easier.

Less paper work and quicker payments.

Pros

User Friendly...we have staff that needs to use this product almost the moment they are hired and usually training takes about 15 min...you can't go wrong.

Cons

Wish it had more options for reports....feel like that is lacking. When i need to find something quick its not very easy.

Great Product

Enhanced compliance monitoring, approval configurability, more robust analytics reporting and capabilities.

Pros

The configurability of the UI, the compliance warnings, the routing rules, and the approval flows is hard to beat.

Cons

The system seems like it can be slow at some times, but it is very difficult to identify the source.

Great system, easy to use

We have found Chrome River to be the best fit for our expense management. We have been able to build in rules which cover all of our internal policies, as well as routing to specific approvers. This has saved us countless hours per day in chasing approvals and expense claims.

Pros

The flexibility and ease of use

Cons

Original version is a little slow, especially when loading

No more Manual Processes

Up until we automated our expense report process with Chrome River, we were killing a lot of trees! The features offered by Chrome River enables us to approve, track, reimburse and report on expense reports in an efficient and timely manner. We are in the process of implementing Mercury and look forward to all the enhancements offered by this web-based platform.

The product itself is great and helps tremendously with invoice and expense reimbursement workflow.

Pros

The paperless environment Chrome provides is fabulous! The electronic movement of invoices and expense reimbursements through the approval process has greatly increased the efficiency of our workflow.

Cons

The help desk support. Customizations sometimes take way too long to implement. In addition, approval routing rule changes made sometimes screw up prior changes without our knowledge until it is found through the user experience.

A better way of doing business

Our business works at a fast pace. NYC Real Estate waits for no one. Our sales and acquisition team are on always on foot. All are users and some are approver's. Having the ease of uploading, creating and submitting and approving when you are trying to get cross town is a relief! No more setting time aside to do your expenses. Chrome River moves as fast as you do.

Pros

The product is so versatile. Easily accessible from PC and mobile devices which is key function for users and approver's on the go.

Cons

As an admin, I'd say the Admin tools are the least I like about the product. Adding a MOD was a little challenging even with the helpful video.

Great to use. easy interface.

Pros

I feel like most people catch on real quick. with all the pictures i feel that its a good guide for everybody.

Cons

Sometimes since it's an online interface the website it's a bit slow. but it doesn't happen often so it's not too bad.

a system that makes expenses fun

Pros

The ease of use, this software feels like a 2018 software, it works great with mobile or desktop and has very innovative look and feel.

Cons

You can customize a lot of rules, but there is a limit to how far you customize it, some functionality is just not there yet, but they are very receptive if you can make a business case for it.

Processing Invoices & Expenses Made Easy

Before going live with ChromeRiver we used a home grown workflow that was at best buggy and at worst difficult to maintain. Since moving to ChromeRiver the process of submitting and reviewing both invoices and expenses is easy and seamless.

Pros

Web based, SaaS, reliable, intuitive interface.

Cons

I would prefer that the iOS integration with OneLogin for Single Sign On be more straightforward.

Been on ChromeRiver Expense for over two years and our users are very happy with the product.

Pros

The user interface is very easy to use. We have the person load feeding from our HR data, so new employees are automatically fed into the system. When an employee leaves they are also removed from ChromeRiver

Cons

The itemizing of hotel bills has been an issue when the hotel does not send all the information. Not really a chromeriver issue, because the hotel is not sending the information, but the users see it as a problem with ChromeRiver. This process has gotten much better since we originally went on the system

Very easy to use & makes submitting expenses very quick

Pros

Simple to navigate, OCR works very well saves a lot of effort, ability to upload images of receipts via a variety of methods is very efficient. Fro ma control / compliance perspective the data analytics available is very powerful

Cons

do not have any dislikes about the software however would prefer that card transactions that are brought in from the card provider are more "visible/obvious" than they are - because often we see our travellers submit these transactions as pay me - so causes some challenges

Chrome River has streamlined our Expense Workflow

Pros

The product is easy to use. We have numerous older attorneys and secretaries, and while some of them often have technology struggles, they've all been able to use this product easily.

Cons

There could have been a bit quicker implementation. We had a new employee running our implementation on their side.

Useful product that can help organize and speed up expense reimbursements

Pros

The amount of customization and ability to be used on mobile devices. This allows our users to view and respond remotely, not be tied down to a desk.

Cons

There are some quirks and support can take a while to help. This is improving but at first these type of issues were a big deal for the users.

Invoice and Expense Automation at it's Finest

The time and resources involved in the implementation and training on Chrome River Invoice and Expense was well worth it. The representative was extremely aggressive in implementing two major changes in such a small window. Our project manager was fully aware of this and was still able to cater to our needs. Since Chrome River has gone live, we have been able to streamline our Invoice and Expense process with a paperless, and automated solution that benefits the Finance organization and our business partners. I would highly recommend Chrome River to any organization looking to fully automate their current processes. Our project manager was extremely knowledgeable of the Chrome River product and quickly understood the representative need for an automated system. Working with our project manager and the Help Desk, we were able to make certain rules group exceptions that tailor to our company. The process in many ways was seamless. Chrome River has been able to create a system that would meet our needs and work for us as a firm. Generally, Chrome River was well received. Especially by our overhead departments. The challenge for us was training our branch office employees. It took a few months for users in the field to be comfortable working with the system.

Keep Business Flowing

Pros

I love the communication and compliance provided.

Cons

Support and software customization could be improved.

A good upgrade to our Expense Reconciling Procedures

We use Chrome River to reconcile all Purchasing Card transactions as well as all Travel transactions. It is much easier to use than the previous system and has great reporting features and the ability to go back and review previous transactions and documentation is fantastic!

Pros

Very easy to use, has a lot of report functionality and can add notes and attachments super easily as needed.

Cons

Limited on approval routing, but not so much that it has been difficult to adjust to.

Easy to use, intuitive.

Time savings, documents route electronically. Less printing and less man hours needed to walk documents around campus.

Pros

Our Purchase Card process was a paper mess before Chrome River. Implementing this process alone was worth it. Our Expense Reports consisted of paper circulating all over campus, now every thing routes electronically.

Cons

It would be better if we could edit the canned emails to meet our needs. Reporting tools need to be needed up.

Chrome River is a great easy tool for expense reports

Chrome River is a great user friendly tool to upload receipts for all my VPs in an easy and fast manner

Pros

I can easily access the site to upload receipts for all my VPs with ease and accuracy .

Cons

nothing bad really. I find this user-friendly and easy to use and access.

Chrome River Review

Pros

Chrome River is a great expense management tool. We use it for personal expenses and visa cards. Users love the easy to use and pretty interface

Cons

Initial setup takes some time and is difficult to customize outside of what Chrome River offers.

Chrome River Review

Overall, CR is easy to use. Depending on your firm, itemizing each and every expense can be burdensome. The software can also be pretty slow at times.

Pros

Depending on routing preferences of your firm, it can be difficult to use. For my international firm, there are so many routing numbers and budget groups that I wish Chrome River made suggestions on which are best to use.

Cons

The software has certain areas that require you to re-do completely instead of correct.

Easy to use

Pros

The ease of use, even if it's your first expense you will know what to click on and how to submit. If you miss something, there is an error message and tells what exactly what's wrong. You can also e-mail your receipts to CR.

Cons

The reporting tool within the product us slow and confusing. To create a new reports, deciding what fields you want is not straighforward. After you do get something to run, performance is slow overall.