Airbase Reviews

Pros

The best thing about Airbase are not the constant flow of features, the insanely fast support team or even the ease of deployment. The best thing is the architecture for approval flows and how the product team pays very close attention to customer needs.

The approval flows are setup in such ways as to allow each team to be fully automated in their approval flows and forbids circumvention of controls, thus allowing us a very high level of confidence that each person is accountable for their purchases.

Cons

I highly recommend Airbase, however, this is a new product and I also recommend spending a lot of time analyzing each nuance of your AP process needs before moving forward as not all features are immediately available. At the time of writing this review, international payments are not yet ready but Airbase has communicated their roadmap and we know exactly when this will be rolled out. The minor drawbacks have not impacted our improvements in performance, quality, and stability of accounting controls or slowed us down at all.

Alternatives Considered

Intelligent Spend Management, NetSuite, Tipalti and SAP Concur

Reasons for Choosing Airbase

Bill.com is knows for its sync issues and weak approval flows. Airbase not only fixes both but also gives you tools to validate everything through reporting and flows that are flexible but reliable.

Switched From

BILL

Pros

All the features we use are great. I upload vendor bills on the daily and setup the approval flows. Having an approval flow for each invoice that comes through the company is a life saver. It not only holds managers and their team members accountable, but relieves the burden of back and forth emails to/from the finance team. There also is the option to amortize any prepaid expenses. Airbase will generate journal entries to sync to our ERP which reduces errors and manual steps during our close process.Virtual cards are a great tool. There is an approval process, spending limits can be set, and cards can be locked if needed - or automatically if the card owner has not uploaded their receipt. It is a great way to keep the company compliant and spending within budget parameters.Finally, I would like to call out Customer Service. they are exceptionally great at responding quickly and solving and issues that have come up. This is important to us and our vendors. We haven't had a bad experience working with the Airbase team.

Cons

There are a few items that could improve which we have brought to the Airbase team and they hope to get them on the road map. One of which is if vendor information, such as an address, is updated in the platform it does not sync over the change to our ERP. This makes preparing 1099's at the end of the year a little tedious, but definitely not a deal breaker.

Pros

I love the way it works well for my own reimbursements, plus it is efficient for the team I write, which supports me. I have used websites in the past where personal returns were simple, however, it was complicated when trying to control or approve for other members of my staff. Airbase is hygienic and simple, regardless of the activity on it. Refunds per order are quick, as you only need to show proof of payment and the system detects it.

Cons

It's rare that I find something that can't be improved in the slightest, however, Airbase seems to be this for me. It's simple and straightforward, and the control screen is really clean (I can't think of anything to perfect).

Pros

I like how easy it is to process and schedule payment for invoices. It autofills most of the invoice info slashing data entry time.

Cons

It complicated Bank recs and there are some basic features that you have to reach out to support for, like un-applying a credit to an invoice.

Pros

Airbase has transformed our ability to efficiently process, report, and analyze all non-payroll spend. It syncs directly with our GL (NetSuite) and provides the appropriate level of financial controls for our size/stage.

Cons

Our employees & approvers often note that it would be helpful to review expense submissions by trip. Currently, expenses are submitted individually and not grouped.

Pros

I like to ease of use in the app. I shows me how much I spend daily

Cons

I wish my company offered the credit card

Pros

I like how easy it is to use airbase and its functionality as well as the convenience of it.

Cons

There really isnt anything I have to complain about airbase.

Pros

Its easy to use and everything is well thought out, simple for new users to understand

Cons

the UI isn't the nicest looking but nothing that bad

Pros

Love the ability to create digital cards.

Cons

Wish I saw more analytics, such as metrics of spend categories.

Pros

Easy to use. Receipt manager allows for quick inputting to get expenses approved. Scans the receipt for information required to input.

Cons

As a basic user of Airbase I do not really have any complaints.

Pros

- Automatic bill coding with OCR (time savings).

- Automatic credit card coding with receipt management function.

- Excellent onboarding and implementation team.

- Fast responsive customer support team.

- Airbase improves features based on customer feedback.

- Fast and meaningful product improvements and great UI/UX.

- Early access to beta features on request (such as receipt audits, advanced approvals).

Cons

- Airbase lacks a few features to replace some other tools effectively (e.g. Expensify).

- Annual fee could be lower or cashback on credit cards higher.

- International payments still not supported as of early Feb.2021

Alternatives Considered

BILL Spend & Expense (Formerly Divvy), Brex and Ramp

Reasons for Choosing Airbase

- Improved accounting accuracy with fewer reclasses. - Faster monthly accounting closing process. - Vendor payments and onboarding through automation. - Efficient year-end receipt compliance audit. - Real-time expense reporting / monitoring by department. - Better UI/UX experience for the accounting team.

Switched From

BILL

Reasons for Switching to Airbase

In our vendor evaluation in 2019 Airbase received high scores for key features such as automated accounting procedures (bill coding, credit card coding/approval processes), receipt compliance, vendor self-onboarding, and departmental spending monitoring/reporting). While Brex offered the biggest credit (one-time $5K AWS) and slightly larger cashback reward program (recurring), Airbase offered overall more time savings for the accounting/finance team.

Pros

I love the user experience on this platform. Everything about it is just intuitive and well thought out. It makes processing purchasing requests a really seamless experience and has saved us hours of work at the month end.
Since adopting Airbase as our platform for spend management, we have been able to take everything back in house, have much more control over our spend, receipts and reporting, and have cut our bookkeeping costs by 90%

Cons

I honestly can't think of any downsides to Airbase. Really! It's saved is tons of time, money and headaches.

Pros

The best part of airbase is that it easily integrates with QBO.
This allows me to setup prepaid on Airbase that automatically set up to sync to QBO for a monthly close.
Cards are automatically set up to charge a certain GL code, rendering it unnecessary to go back monthly to determine what the spend was and where to charge it.

Cons

When making some entries, it does not use a new naming convention and would use the most recent journal entry naming convention to make the the journal entry title. This can lead to bit of confusion.

Alternatives Considered

Teampay

Reasons for Choosing Airbase

We wanted more accuracy and timeliness as well as an all in one product

Switched From

BILL Spend & Expense (Formerly Divvy)

Pros

* Helped me streamline the entire spend process at Coda.io - I route most expenses through the platform - everything from software to travel to one-off expenditures.
* Incredibly easy to use - I have never trained an employee on how to use Airbase. They log in, and it's clear what they should do.
* It creates tremendous peace of mind on spend - I don't worry about vendors charging us more than they should, people buying software they don't need, and card numbers getting stolen.
* Visibility - It's easy to know what has already been purchased, who purchased it, and how much are we spending.
* Keeps getting better - Airbase started with just digital credit cards but the tool is quickly replacing all types of spend management software internally.

Cons

* Mobile app still catching up to web app, but moving quickly.
* Manually moving over old spend into Airbase by switching credit cards with vendors was tedious, but a worthwhile one-time investment, and Airbase did a lot to make it as painless as possible (found all the vendors for us that we needed to update)

Pros

Airbase is relatively simple to use, and we really love that we can create virtual cards in the system. As a user, I'm able to use the system to purchase requests (where I can request a virtual card or submit a reimbursement request, reimbursements, and virtual card requests. They approval chain is visible to me, and I'm able to easily see where my reimbursement request is.

Cons

There are two features that I feel are lacking. The first is onboarding. My employees often have a difficult time getting access to the system, and once they do, don't always have the correct access. This could be something we have to work on internally as well but it''s a point of difficulty.Secondarily - it's quite annoying that you can't put through a report after a business trip, each expense must be individual. This has been extremely annoying to most of my sales team and I do expect there is a fix coming in the future.

Pros

- Hyper-granular control of expenses. Instead of managing limits and checking expenses on corporate cards, each approved expense request receives a single virtual credit card number (managed by accounting) for that specific vendor an expense (one-time or recurring)
- Flexible approval workflows

Cons

- Lack of integration with budgeting. Approval workflows should show managers how any discrete approval affects their department budget.

Alternatives Considered

Brex

Switched From

Expensify

Pros

We use the virtual cards, physical cards, POs, and bills/bill payments. Each area works perfectly and syncs directly to our ERP, Netsuite. It is has saved us so much time from a reconciliation standpoint. Our employees love the virtual card functionality and ease of approvals.

Cons

My only dislike is that they don't have Expense Reimbursements up and running. As a finance team we are looking forward to the day when we can have this in Airbase as well.

Pros

When a startup goes above 100 people, you need a spend management software. Airbase has tons of features, the implementation is easy and their product team always strive for continuous improvement.

Cons

I think it's on the right path, however some tool for reconciliation is missing when it comes to check that all the prepaid accounts are cleared and booked and that amortization expense is correct.

Pros

The ability to request and review/track multiple budgets (via virtual cards) has been a game changer for us. What used to be a more complicated process with hard-to-track communication (using other internal messaging tools )is now so easy and requires less back and forth comms with our finance department. Requesting reimbursement for out of pocket spending is easy and streamlined as well. We also work with many outside vendors, and I am able to review and approve of invoices through Airbase. Everything is easily assigned to the right people and easy to track. I am looking forward to continuing to use the product as we grow as a company!

Cons

It is somewhat challenging to attach receipts to expenses. By that I mean that I get an email stating that I have an expense that needs a receipt. That part works great. But then finding the exact expense that needs the receipt, and the location where I can upload the receipt within the Airbase UI could use some improvement. It is not as intuitive as I hope and expect. However, this is a small issue for a product that otherwise works really great!

Pros

The number one thing I love about Airbase is their ease of use. I particularly love their reporting and tracking features because we're able to view our spend on a general or granular view. We're currently syncing our Airbase transactions with QuickBooks and it has been super seamless to use. We're able to change our GL codes easily before syncing, which is great. Their customer service team is always very responsive and helpful. They will work with you to get anything and everything resolved in a timely manner.

Cons

They only notify you when you run out of funds. This causes inconveniences when we get notified really late in the day because our funds will not get transferred into our account until the next business day. It would be nice if we can get a warning when we're low on funds, so we can plan accordingly instead of having to deal with declined charges until the next business day

Pros

The software is easy to use and navigate, it also helps that the design of the site is pleasing to the eye and doesn't cause confusion or looks to crammed full of features, its formatted in just the right way.

Cons

The only issue if that, is that I keep forgetting to go in and make payments in the bill payment section once its been authorized I also keep forgetting though its simple enough what tab i need to go into in order to release the payments - would be nice if they payment was auto processed once authorized unless a specific date was noted for payments to go out.

Pros

Airbase is ideal for managing the company's finances, controlling the spending process, getting a complete perspective on representative expenses, and deciding on business strategies.

Cons

airbase works well for me I haven't had any complications yet

Pros

The most impactful feature for our team has been Airbase's ease of use and the fact that we don't have to process expense reports. So no more wait times for reimbursements to land and no more wasted time tracking down receipts!

Cons

Can't think of anything at this time. Airbase has been awesome!

Alternatives Considered

Teampay

Switched From

BILL and Expensify

Pros

Easy integration with GL
Great reporting system
Easy to use and control

Cons

Improvements in having multiple funding accounts as opposed to just one bank account

Alternatives Considered

Teampay

Reasons for Choosing Airbase

Wanted to have all non payroll spend under one platform

Switched From

BILL and Expensify

Reasons for Switching to Airbase

Better customer service

Pros

the freebie version is getting phased out - beware!

Cons

Support is beyond useless. Many features are unavailable in the free version - like an AP aging report! You do not get any kind of support if implementing the free version.