G2

Verified User in Broadcast Media

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

9/3/2026

"Flexible Expense Workflows, but Setup Takes Work"

4/5

Describe the project or task XPertura helped with:

XPertura offers a highly customizable modular workflow engine that allows users to build tailored approval and expense-handling processes. It is particularly beneficial for small broadcast houses that require specific workflows for managing shoot-related expenses. The system supports multi-step approval chains, automatic email reminders, and custom project-tagging fields, ensuring that all financial transactions are traceable and organized. However, the setup process can be time-consuming, and there are some limitations, such as the lack of out-of-the-box templates for specific industries and challenges with CSV imports and integrations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you like best about XPertura?

I like XPertura’s highly flexible modular workflow engine. I can build custom approval and expense‑handling flows, pick only the modules we need, and ignore all the extra features we don’t use for our small broadcast house. I really enjoy that I can build our multi‑step expense approval chain completely from scratch. Every shoot‑related claim from our vendor Berlin Film Service Partner first lands with the production manager to confirm the cost belongs to the correct documentary project, and only after their sign‑off does it come over to me in finance to check German per‑diem rules and GoBD compliance. The automatic email reminders chase down people holding up approvals, so requests no longer get buried in crowded inboxes. I also set up custom project‑tagging fields, so every receipt, equipment‑rental bill and freelance reimbursement gets tied to a specific production. Before we had this, everything was scattered across Excel sheets. I still remember our outdoor documentary shoot last quarter; the whole crew submitted piles of travel and gear‑rental claims inside XPertura. Approvers got timely alerts, everything was traceable in one single spot, and we avoided repeating the old incident where a freelance camera operator waited nearly three weeks for payout because his claim got lost in email threads. Even though building all these workflows took me quite a few working days, this custom flexibility is what makes XPertura fit our messy on‑location‑shoot expense workflow way better than our previous tool FastSpring Expense. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about XPertura?

There are quite a few rough edges that add extra daily work for me as Finance & Admin Coordinator. There are zero out‑of‑the‑box templates tailored for German broadcast‑media finance. Every rule for per‑diem limits, GoBD audit requirements and project tagging has to be built manually. Contract details for vendors like Berlin Film Service Partner can only go into generic free‑text boxes, which creates real‑world risks. Not long ago, a substitute production manager rushed through an approval and glossed over those text‑box notes, and nearly signed off on equipment‑rental reimbursement rates higher than what we had agreed in our contract. I caught it just in time and rolled back the claim, but it was a close call. CSV bulk imports have no preview before upload. Whenever I bring in new freelance crew or vendor contacts, names with German umlaut characters get garbled, and I have to open every single record and fix those messed‑up names one by one. Our CSV‑driven link to DRACOON for contract documents also runs into reference mismatches from time to time, forcing me to manually cross‑verify each high‑value claim. New contacts will not show up in Spotler Mail+ until I run our next scheduled export‑import cycle. All these small frictions pile up and eat into my regular finance admin time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering XPertura:

To improve XPertura, I would suggest developing out-of-the-box templates specifically for German broadcast-media finance. This would save time and reduce the risk of errors in manual setup. Additionally, enhancing the CSV import functionality to include a preview feature would prevent data entry mistakes, especially with names containing special characters. Improving the integration with DRACOON to ensure seamless reference matching would also be beneficial. Lastly, enabling real-time updates for new contacts in Spotler Mail+ would streamline communication processes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is XPertura solving and how is that benefiting you?

Before we switched over from FastSpring Expense six months ago, our whole expense process was chaotic. We mixed that old tool with tons of spreadsheets, freelance invoices, shoot receipts and vendor communications scattered all over email. When one of our production staff left the company, critical reimbursement information for our regular vendor Berlin Film Service Partner was scattered across different threads, and a camera crew’s travel claim almost got completely forgotten. That was the wake‑up call for us. XPertura solved that core headache. Now all expense claims from location shoots, equipment rentals and freelance vendors live inside one centralized system. Our multi‑tier approval workflow works reliably: production validates project relevance first, then I run finance compliance checks, and automated reminders stop requests from sitting unaddressed. Knowledge no longer vanishes when team members rotate or leave. We also use its simple workflow features for freelance‑vendor onboarding, so we no longer chase people for information over endless email chains. Granted, it is not perfect. I still spend hours fixing garbled umlaut names on CSV imports, and manual file‑reference matching with DRACOON brings occasional risks. Even with those annoyances, XPertura cut down massive amounts of manual admin work, removed the risk of lost shoot‑expense claims, and gave our 11‑50‑person broadcast‑media team a single reliable source of truth for all production‑related spending. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.