Clarcity Travel & Expense - Detailed Review
Travel Tools
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Product Overview
Clarcity Travel & Expense
Clarcity Travel & Expense is a comprehensive corporate travel and expense management solution designed to help businesses of all sizes manage their travel expenditures and expense reporting efficiently.
Primary Function
Clarcity serves as a unified platform for booking travel, managing expenses, and controlling corporate travel costs. It allows employees to book airline tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars in one place, leveraging the company’s negotiated corporate rates. The platform also enables the submission and approval of electronic expense reports, automatic reconciliation of corporate card statements, and integration of expense data into accounting and payroll processes.
Target Audience
Clarcity is targeted at companies of all sizes, aiming to help them streamline their business travel and expense management. This includes small, medium, and large enterprises looking to optimize their travel spending and improve their financial management processes.
Key Features
- Travel Booking: Employees can book travel arrangements such as flights, hotels, and rental cars through a single platform, comparing negotiated rates alongside other market rates.
- Expense Management: The platform allows for the submission and approval of electronic expense reports, automatic reconciliation of corporate card statements, and integration with accounting and payroll systems.
- Travel Policies: Clarcity enables the setup of dynamic travel policies that help control costs by identifying out-of-policy travel bookings and requiring explanations from employees. Policies can be configured at various levels, including department, office, or individual employee.
- Spend Analytics: The platform provides detailed spending analytics, allowing companies to track expenses by vendor, department, project, or individual user. This data can be used to negotiate volume discounts with vendors.
- Reward System: Clarcity offers a reward system where employees can be incentivized with miles, points, gift cards, or cash for booking cost-effective travel options.
- Mobile App: The Clarcity app allows users to track expenses, including mileage, and upload receipts in real-time. It also automatically imports and categorizes transactions from personal and business credit cards.
- Approval and Reimbursement: The platform facilitates easy communication between travelers and approvers through a digital message board and supports reimbursement via direct deposit, paper check, or PayPal.
Overall, Clarcity Travel & Expense is a versatile tool that helps businesses gain better control over their travel spending and streamline their expense management processes.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - User Interface and Experience
User Interface Overview
The user interface of Clarcity Travel & Expense is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy for both employees and administrators to manage travel expenses and bookings.Ease of Use
Clarcity’s interface allows users to set up their company policies and rules quickly, often in just a few minutes. This simplicity extends to the booking process, where employees can easily book trips and manage their expenses in compliance with company policies. The platform integrates seamlessly with credit cards, enabling direct expense imports and one-click receipt uploads, which simplifies the expense reporting process.Key Features
- Centralized Dashboard: Clarcity provides a centralized dashboard where administrators can view and track expenses, analyze spending, and receive real-time alerts if expenses exceed policy guidelines.
- Automated Approvals: The platform offers automated approvals, streamlining the expense review and approval process.
- Spend Control: Users can set spending limits for air, hotel, and car rentals, ensuring that employees adhere to company policies.
- Reward System: Clarcity includes a feature to reward travelers who find the lowest-cost itineraries, aligning employee behavior with cost-saving goals.
User Experience
The overall user experience is enhanced by the platform’s ability to provide clear and actionable insights. For instance, Clarcity allows organizations to see how much they spend with each airline, hotel, and car rental supplier, helping them identify opportunities to negotiate better rates. The system also supports multi-device access, including Android, iPad, and iPhone, ensuring that users can manage their travel and expenses on the go.Support and Accessibility
Clarcity offers comprehensive support options, including chat, email/help desk, and phone support. This ensures that users can quickly resolve any issues they may encounter. Additionally, the platform supports English and is accessible on various mobile devices, making it convenient for a wide range of users.Conclusion
In summary, Clarcity Travel & Expense provides a straightforward, easy-to-use interface that streamlines travel and expense management, making it a practical solution for businesses of all sizes. Clarcity Travel & Expense - Key Features and Functionality
Clarcity Travel & Expense Overview
Clarcity Travel & Expense is a comprehensive cloud-based solution that helps companies manage their travel spending and expense reporting efficiently. Here are the main features and how they work:
Integrated Corporate Travel and Expense Reporting
Clarcity combines corporate travel booking and expense management into a single platform. This integration allows companies to set travel policies, book travel, and manage expenses all in one place. Users can set budget limits for air, hotel, and car rentals, ensuring employees adhere to company policies through intuitive notifications and reporting features.
Budget Control and Policy Enforcement
Companies can easily set up travel policies that define how much employees can spend on different travel components. These policies are simple to set up and flexible enough to meet the needs of any business. This feature helps in controlling the travel budget and ensuring that employees stay within the approved limits.
Rewarding Cost-Saving Travelers
Clarcity introduces a unique incentive system where travelers are rewarded for finding the lowest-cost itineraries. Companies can set savings targets, and travelers who beat these targets can be rewarded with miles, points, gift cards, or cash. This approach reverses traditional loyalty programs by encouraging cost-saving behaviors.
Detailed Expense Reporting and Analysis
The platform allows companies to see exactly how much they spend with each airline, hotel, and car rental supplier. This visibility helps identify opportunities to negotiate volume rates with suppliers, potentially leading to significant cost savings.
Access to Best Rates
Clarcity provides access to every published fare or rate from 450 airlines, 100,000 hotel properties, and 800 car rental suppliers worldwide. Additionally, it offers unpublished wholesale rates, and companies can also book their negotiated corporate rates through the platform.
Simplified Expense Reporting
The system simplifies expense reporting by allowing users to import expenses directly from their credit cards and upload receipts with a single click. Expense reports can be submitted, reviewed, and approved electronically, eliminating the need for paper. Approved expenses can then be transferred to accounting and payroll systems for quick reimbursements.
Automated Expense Reconciliation
Clarcity automates the reconciliation of corporate card statements, reducing manual work and potential errors. This feature ensures that all expenses are accurately accounted for and integrated into the company’s accounting and payroll processes.
AI and Automation
While the specific details on AI integration are not extensively outlined, the automation features such as AI-powered OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for processing invoices and automated approval workflows suggest that Clarcity leverages automation to streamline processes. However, the primary focus of Clarcity’s AI seems to be more on automating routine tasks rather than advanced AI-driven analytics.
Conclusion
In summary, Clarcity Travel & Expense offers a comprehensive suite of tools to manage travel spending and expense reporting, with a strong emphasis on budget control, cost-saving incentives, detailed reporting, and automated processes to simplify financial management.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Performance and Accuracy
Evaluating the Performance and Accuracy of Clarcity Travel & Expense
In the travel tools and expense management category, evaluating the performance and accuracy of Clarcity Travel & Expense involves several key aspects:
Policy Compliance and Automation
Clarcity Travel & Expense excels in automating policy compliance, a crucial feature for managing business travel expenses. The platform notifies managers when reservations are made outside of company policies and requires travelers to provide explanations for such bookings. This real-time enforcement helps maintain adherence to company travel policies, reducing the risk of overspending and ensuring that all expenses align with corporate guidelines.
Expense Reporting and Tracking
The system simplifies expense reporting by allowing users to import expenses directly from credit cards, upload receipts with a single click, and submit, review, and approve expense reports digitally. This streamlined process minimizes paperwork and ensures fast reimbursements. The app also tracks mileage using the phone’s GPS, automatically calculating driving distances, which enhances the accuracy of expense reporting.
Cost Control and Savings
Clarcity helps companies control their travel budgets by setting caps on individual travel expenses for air, hotel, and car rentals. It rewards travelers who find low-cost itineraries, aligning with the goal of reducing overall travel expenses. The platform also provides access to every published fare or rate from a vast number of airlines, hotels, and car rental suppliers, ensuring users get the lowest rates available.
Data Analytics and Insights
The platform generates valuable insights by analyzing travel and expense data. This allows companies to identify spending patterns, uncover cost-saving opportunities, and make data-driven decisions. Clarcity’s data analytics help in negotiating better rates with travel vendors and optimizing travel policies, which is a significant advantage in managing travel expenses effectively.
User Experience and Communication
Clarcity enhances the user experience by providing a seamless communication channel between travelers and approvers through a digital message board. This ensures that any exceptions or issues are addressed promptly and become part of a permanent audit trail. The platform also stores frequent traveler numbers, credit card details, and contact information in one place, making travel arrangements more efficient.
Limitations and Areas for Improvement
While Clarcity offers a comprehensive suite of features, there are a few areas where it could be improved:
Market Share and Adoption
Compared to its competitors like SAP Concur, Clarcity has a relatively small market share. This might indicate a need for broader market penetration and more extensive customer adoption.
Customization and Flexibility
While Clarcity provides flexible rules and policies, there might be a need for more granular customization options to cater to the unique needs of different businesses.
Training and Support
Although the platform is user-friendly, providing additional training resources or support could help new users adapt more quickly and fully utilize the features available.
Integration with Other Systems
While Clarcity integrates well with major payroll systems and accounting software, ensuring seamless integration with a wider range of third-party systems could enhance its utility.
In summary, Clarcity Travel & Expense performs well in automating policy compliance, simplifying expense reporting, controlling costs, and providing valuable data insights. However, it may benefit from broader market adoption, more customization options, enhanced training support, and expanded integration capabilities.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Pricing and Plans
Pricing Model
Clarcity operates on a subscription-based pricing model. The starting price for their service is $10 per user per month.
Plan Details
While the website does not specify multiple tiers, here are the features and options available:
- Monthly Subscription: Starting at $10 per user per month. This plan includes features such as travel booking, expense reporting, policy management, spend control, and analytics.
- Free Trial: A free trial is available for potential users to test the service before committing to a subscription.
- Free Version: There is also a free version available, although the specific features included in this version are not detailed.
Features Included
Regardless of the plan, Clarcity offers a range of features, including:
- Dynamic policy management and negotiated rates
- Expense tracking, review, approval, and reimbursement management
- Invoice management and savings monitoring
- Analytics and ROI tracking
- Centralized dashboard
- Automated approvals and real-time alerts
- Spending analytics and alerts for expenses outside policy guidelines.
Support Options
Clarcity provides support through various channels, including chat, email/help desk, and phone support.
If you need more detailed pricing information or specific plan comparisons, it is recommended to contact Clarcity directly, as some details may be available only upon request.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Integration and Compatibility
Clarcity Travel & Expense Overview
Clarcity Travel & Expense is a comprehensive solution that integrates well with various tools and systems, ensuring seamless management of travel and expense processes across different platforms and devices.
Integration with Accounting and Payroll Systems
Clarcity allows for easy integration with major accounting and payroll systems. It can export transactions to your accounting system with just a few clicks, using a simple drag and drop interface. This eliminates the need for manual formatting or quality assurance, making the process efficient and error-free. Additionally, Clarcity can generate batch files pre-formatted for major payroll systems, ensuring that expense reimbursements are handled smoothly.
Credit Card Integration
The platform automatically imports and categorizes transactions from both personal and business credit cards. This feature helps in tracking expenses in real-time, reducing the need for manual entry and minimizing errors.
Expense Reporting and Approval
Clarcity integrates well with the expense reporting and approval process. Employees can upload receipts and add expenses to their reports using the mobile app. The system allows approvers to review, approve, or reject expenses, and it facilitates communication between travelers and approvers through a digital message board. This ensures that all interactions are part of a permanent audit trail.
Travel Booking and Suppliers
Clarcity provides access to every published fare or rate from 450 airlines, 100,000 hotel properties, and 800 car rental suppliers worldwide. It also allows for booking negotiated corporate rates, ensuring that companies can take advantage of the best available rates. This integration helps in managing travel bookings and expenses within a single platform.
Mobile Compatibility
The Clarcity app is compatible with Android, iPad, and iPhone devices. This mobile compatibility enables employees to manage their expenses, track mileage, and upload receipts on the go, making the process more convenient and efficient.
Support and Training
Clarcity offers support through various channels, including phone, email, and an online form. While there is no API available for custom integrations, the support options ensure that users can get help when needed. Training is also available to help users set up and use the system effectively.
Conclusion
In summary, Clarcity Travel & Expense integrates seamlessly with accounting and payroll systems, credit cards, and various travel suppliers. Its mobile compatibility and comprehensive support options make it a versatile and user-friendly solution for managing travel and expenses across different platforms and devices.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Customer Support and Resources
Customer Support
Clarcity offers several avenues for customer support to ensure users can get help when needed:
- Phone Support: You can contact Clarcity directly by calling their support number at (888) 978 0005. This provides immediate assistance for any questions or issues you might have.
- Sales Representative Contact: If you have questions or need more information, you can fill out a contact form on their website, and a Clarcity sales representative will get back to you promptly.
Additional Resources
While the specific website pages do not detail extensive additional resources like user manuals, FAQs, or community forums, here are some inherent resources and features that support users:
- User-Friendly Interface: Clarcity’s cloud-based solution is designed to be intuitive, allowing users to set up their company in less than two hours, either independently or with guidance. This simplicity reduces the need for extensive additional resources.
- Mobile App: The Clarcity app enables users to track expenses, receipts, and mileage easily. This app integrates with credit cards to automatically import and categorize transactions, making expense reporting more manageable.
- Expense Reporting Tools: Clarcity provides tools for importing expenses directly from credit cards, uploading receipts, and submitting expense reports without the need for paper. These tools are part of the overall solution and help users manage their expenses efficiently.
- Data Analysis: The platform offers detailed analytics to help companies track their travel spending by various metrics such as type of expense, department, or employee. This data can be used to negotiate reduced rates with vendors, which is a valuable resource for optimizing travel budgets.
While Clarcity’s website does not explicitly mention AI-driven customer support features like those seen in other travel industry solutions, the platform’s focus on ease of use, integrated expense reporting, and data analysis ensures that users have the necessary tools to manage their travel spending effectively.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Pros and Cons
Advantages of Clarcity Travel & Expense
Budget Control and Policy Adherence
Clarcity allows you to set specific spending limits for air, hotel, and car expenses, ensuring employees adhere to your company’s travel policies. This is facilitated through intuitive notification and reporting features that can be set up quickly and are flexible enough to meet various business needs.
Reward System
The platform incentivizes employees to find cost-effective itineraries by offering rewards such as miles, points, gift cards, or cash when they meet or exceed savings targets. This approach aligns employees’ interests with the company’s goal of reducing travel expenses.
Comprehensive Expense Reporting
Clarcity simplifies expense reporting by allowing employees to import expenses directly from their credit cards and upload receipts with a single click. The system enables easy submission, review, and approval of expense reports, and integrates seamlessly with accounting and payroll systems for efficient reimbursements.
Access to Best Rates
The platform provides access to every published fare or rate from a vast network of airlines, hotels, and car rental suppliers. It also includes unpublished wholesale rates, and you can book negotiated corporate rates through Clarcity.
Spend Analytics and Alerts
Administrators can track expenses in real-time and receive alerts if any expenses are incurred outside of the company’s policy guidelines. This feature helps in maintaining financial discipline and identifying opportunities for cost savings.
Ease of Implementation
Clarcity can be set up quickly, often in less than two hours, either independently or with the company’s guidance. This makes it a user-friendly solution for managing travel and expenses.
Disadvantages of Clarcity Travel & Expense
Potential for Cumbersome Expense Filing
While Clarcity streamlines the expense reporting process, some users may still find filing all their travel expenses cumbersome, even though the app allows for easy receipt uploads.
Limited Free Version Capabilities
Although Clarcity offers a free version and a free trial, the full range of features and benefits may only be available with the paid subscription, which could be a drawback for small businesses or individuals with limited budgets.
User Feedback on Specific Features
Some users have noted that while the platform is generally user-friendly, there might be minor issues with certain features. For example, the need to take pictures of receipts and upload them could be seen as an extra step, although it is designed to simplify the process.
In summary, Clarcity Travel & Expense offers significant advantages in managing and controlling travel expenses, rewarding cost-saving behaviors, and simplifying expense reporting. However, it may have some minor drawbacks related to the ease of use for certain features and the limitations of its free version.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Comparison with Competitors
When Considering Travel and Expense Management Solutions
Clarcity Travel & Expense stands out with several unique features, but it also has formidable competitors in the market. Here’s a comparison of Clarcity with some of its key alternatives:
Clarcity Travel & Expense
- Budget Control and Policy Compliance: Clarcity allows you to set spending limits for air, hotel, and car rentals, ensuring employees adhere to company policies. It also notifies managers of out-of-policy bookings and provides alternative travel options.
- Reward System: Clarcity rewards travelers for finding low-cost itineraries with miles, points, gift cards, or cash, aligning employee incentives with cost savings.
- Comprehensive Expense Reporting: The platform simplifies expense reporting by allowing direct import from credit cards, one-click receipt uploads, and paperless submission, review, and approval processes.
- Access to Lowest Rates: Clarcity provides access to published fares and unpublished wholesale rates from a vast network of airlines, hotels, and car rental suppliers.
SAP Concur
- Market Leader: SAP Concur is the dominant player in the travel expense management category, with a significant market share of 66.19%. It offers extensive features for expense reporting, travel booking, and compliance.
- Integration: SAP Concur integrates well with various other business systems, making it a preferred choice for large enterprises.
Oracle Transportation Management Cloud
- Transportation Focus: While Clarcity is more generalized, Oracle Transportation Management Cloud specializes in transportation management, making it a better fit for companies with complex logistics needs.
- Advanced Analytics: Oracle offers advanced analytics and reporting capabilities, which can be beneficial for large-scale operations.
Emburse Certify
- Automated Expense Reports: Emburse Certify automates the creation of expense reports, streamlines approvals, and integrates well with accounting systems. It is trusted by over 4,000 organizations and is rated as a leader in expense administration.
- Humanized Work Experience: Emburse focuses on providing a user-friendly experience, making it easier for employees to manage their expenses and for accounting professionals to process reimbursements.
TravelPerk
- User-Friendly Interface: TravelPerk is known for its easy-to-use interface and 7-star customer support. It allows businesses to manage all aspects of travel from one location and offers significant savings through its wide range of trip options.
- Flexibility: TravelPerk enables easy cancellation or rebooking of trips and provides real-time updates, making it a favorite among businesses for its flexibility and customer care.
ITILITE
- AI-Powered Recommendations: ITILITE uses AI to learn from booking history and preferences, showing only the most relevant travel options. It also offers unique features like cost-conscious employee rewards and automated fraud detection.
- Comprehensive Platform: ITILITE provides a single app for flights, hotels, car rentals, approvals, expense filing, and mileage tracking, enhancing employee productivity and satisfaction.
Routespring
- Centralized Payments: Routespring focuses on centralized payments for all travel, eliminating the need for reimbursement processing. It offers a free trial and unlimited users, bookings, and travel support during the trial period.
- High Compliance Rate: Routespring boasts a high compliance rate with travel policies, thanks to its easy-to-configure policies and approval processes.
Key Differences and Considerations
- Scalability: SAP Concur and Oracle Transportation Management Cloud are more suited for large enterprises due to their extensive integration capabilities and advanced features. Clarcity, Emburse Certify, and ITILITE are more versatile and can cater to businesses of all sizes.
- User Experience: TravelPerk and ITILITE are praised for their user-friendly interfaces and high customer satisfaction rates. Clarcity also offers a streamlined and intuitive experience, especially with its mobile app for expense tracking and receipt management.
- Cost Savings: All these platforms aim to reduce travel and expense costs, but Clarcity’s reward system and access to wholesale rates are unique selling points. ITILITE and TravelPerk also offer significant cost savings through their AI-driven recommendations and wide range of trip options.
When choosing a travel and expense management solution, consider the specific needs of your business, such as the size of your organization, the complexity of your travel policies, and the level of integration required with other business systems. Each of these alternatives offers distinct advantages, so it’s important to evaluate them based on your particular requirements.
Clarcity Travel & Expense - Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions about Clarcity Travel & Expense
1. What is Clarcity Travel & Expense and what does it do?
Clarcity Travel & Expense is a cloud-based solution that helps companies manage their travel spending and expense reporting. It allows employees to book trips, submit expense reports, and provides administrators with tools to review and approve expenses, ensuring they align with the company’s travel policies.2. How does Clarcity help control travel budgets?
Clarcity enables you to set spending limits for air, hotel, and car expenses. It uses intuitive notification and reporting features to ensure employees adhere to these policies. Policies can be set up quickly and are flexible enough to meet the needs of any business.3. Can Clarcity help in finding the lowest travel rates?
Yes, Clarcity allows you to quickly find the lowest rates by comparing negotiated rates from preferred vendors alongside other market rates. It also provides access to unpublished wholesale rates, ensuring you get the best deals available.4. How does Clarcity reward travelers for saving money?
Clarcity rewards travelers who find low-cost itineraries with miles, points, gift cards, or cash. You can set a savings target, and travelers who beat this target are rewarded, aligning the incentives with cost-saving goals.5. What features does Clarcity offer for expense reporting?
Clarcity simplifies expense reporting by allowing employees to import expenses directly from their credit cards, upload receipts with one click, and submit, review, and approve expense reports digitally. Approved expenses can be transferred to accounting and payroll systems for fast reimbursements.6. How does Clarcity handle out-of-policy travel bookings?
Managers are notified when reservations are made outside of policy guidelines. Travelers can be required to provide an explanation for these bookings, and managers can see market rates and alternative options alongside the bookings made by each employee.7. Can Clarcity help in tracking and managing travel itineraries?
Yes, Clarcity allows you to see your entire itinerary in one place, including flights, hotels, and rental cars. You can create proposed itineraries, book them after approval, and make changes to reservations from a single interface.8. How does Clarcity handle mileage tracking and expense recording on the road?
The Clarcity app uses your phone’s GPS to track driving distances and automatically calculates mileage. You can also take photos of receipts and add expenses to your report as they happen using the mobile app.9. What kind of support does Clarcity offer for after-hours travel needs?
Clarcity offers 24×7 call center solutions through CCRA, with experienced agents who can handle after-hours travel needs. This service includes a state-of-the-art digital voice recording system and customized call answering.10. What is the pricing structure for Clarcity?
Clarcity offers a starting price of $10 per month, with a free trial and a free version available. The pricing is clear and concise, with an unbundled structure where you only pay for the services used, such as a nominal monthly membership fee and per-transaction charges. Clarcity Travel & Expense - Conclusion and Recommendation
Final Assessment of Clarcity Travel & Expense
Clarcity Travel & Expense is a comprehensive solution that integrates corporate travel booking, expense management, and business travel agency services. Here’s a detailed look at its benefits and who would most benefit from using it.
Key Features and Benefits
- Cost Control and Savings: Clarcity allows companies to set travel budgets and enforce simple yet flexible travel policies to reduce costs. It rewards travelers for choosing the lowest-cost options, which aligns employee incentives with the company’s financial goals.
- Expense Management: The platform simplifies expense reporting by enabling direct imports from credit cards, one-click receipt uploads, and electronic submission and approval of expense reports. It also integrates seamlessly with accounting and payroll systems.
- Access to Best Rates: Clarcity provides access to every published fare and rate from a vast array of airlines, hotels, and car rental suppliers, including unpublished wholesale rates. This ensures clients get the lowest rates available.
- Visibility and Analytics: Companies can see exactly where their travel dollars are spent, by vendor, department, project, or individual user, which helps in negotiating volume discounts.
Who Would Benefit Most
Clarcity Travel & Expense is particularly beneficial for companies of all sizes that have significant business travel needs. Here are some key groups:
- Small to Medium-Sized Businesses: These companies can benefit from the cost-effective travel policies and the ease of setting up and managing travel and expense systems without incurring high implementation costs.
- Large Enterprises: Larger companies can leverage Clarcity’s ability to track and analyze travel spending, negotiate volume discounts, and integrate expense data into their existing accounting and payroll systems.
- Finance and Travel Managers: These professionals will appreciate the streamlined expense reporting, automatic reconciliation of corporate card statements, and the ability to enforce travel policies easily.
User Experience and Feedback
Users have generally praised Clarcity for its ease of use, particularly in streamlining business travel and expense reporting. However, some users have noted occasional syncing issues across different devices, which can be a minor inconvenience.
Overall Recommendation
Clarcity Travel & Expense is a solid choice for any organization looking to manage and reduce their business travel costs. Its integrated platform offers a user-friendly solution for booking travel, managing expenses, and analyzing travel spending. While there may be some minor technical issues, the overall benefits in cost savings, ease of use, and comprehensive reporting make it a valuable tool for companies seeking to optimize their travel and expense management processes. If your company is looking for a straightforward, cloud-based solution to handle all aspects of business travel and expenses, Clarcity is definitely worth considering.