Concur vs Brex vs Esker for AP Automation

For a multi-location services company with distributed approvers, SAP Concur delivers mobile invoice approval through its native iOS and Android app. When an invoice reaches an approver's queue, they open the SAP Concur app and are presented inline with a summary, a rendered image of the invoice, and line-item details — all without a separate download step. From that screen, the approver taps once to approve or send the invoice back with a comment. This covers the legitimacy and authorization stages of the pre-processing journey (stages 1 and 5 of the five-question chain). The approval notification flow supports dynamic workflow steps, meaning additional stakeholders can be added mid-process on mobile across all device types (Android, iPhone, and iPad).

For a 3-person AP team at a $120M services company routing 1,800 invoices per month for approval across 6 office locations, Esker's dedicated mobile app, Esker Anywhere, directly addresses this requirement. Approvers receive instant push notifications of pending invoices, open the app on their Apple or Android device, view the full invoice image as received by the accounting department, review key invoice data and prior approvers' comments, then approve, hold, or return the invoice; all in a single, purpose-built mobile interface available 24/7. The app is downloadable for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play, with no additional fees; administrator activation grants approvers full action rights rather than read-only access. This sits at stage 2 (approval routing) of the pre-processing journey and operates in conjunction with Esker's electronic AP workflow, meaning the approval action taken on mobile feeds directly back into the Esker AP queue and the downstream ERP posting step.

For a multi-location services company moving off email-chain approvals, Brex Bills handles approval routing at stage 2 of the pre-processing journey (legitimacy review and approval chain), before payment execution. When a bill is submitted, approvers receive a push notification to the Brex iOS or Android app and can navigate to a dedicated Tasks inbox to act. Brex's own help documentation confirms approvers can approve bills directly from the app by going to Tasks, clicking on a bill, and selecting Approve or Deny — a flow Brex describes as completable "in a few taps" from the task inbox. Email-based approval is also available: approvers can approve or deny bill payments directly from an email notification without signing into the dashboard. The mobile invoicing documentation describes the workflow as covering "the full invoicing lifecycle, from creating and reviewing invoices to approving and paying them from a phone or tablet, with the same controls and data flow as the desktop workflow." However, no Brex help article explicitly confirms that the original vendor invoice PDF or image attachment renders inline within the mobile bill detail view during the approval step, as opposed to requiring a separate download or redirect. The notification review documentation references viewing "all associated details, including the merchant, amount, date, attached receipts, memos, and any compliance flags" — but this language describes expense receipts broadly and does not confirm inline rendering of an uploaded vendor invoice document in the mobile bill approval screen. Additionally, Brex's own notifications help center notes that "some task types cannot be completed in-app" and will redirect to the dashboard, though bill approvals are specifically documented as in-app.

For a two-entity Sage Intacct environment processing 1,800 invoices per month, Brex connects via a direct API integration that imports Sage Intacct accounting data into the Brex platform, where it becomes available as selectable fields during invoice coding and bill submission. Brex's Sage Intacct integration product page explicitly enumerates the following synced dimension objects: Department, Vendors, Customers, Projects, Employee, Class, Credit Card Accounts, and User Defined Dimensions. The help center integration overview further confirms that synced transactions carry 'departments, locations, memos, custom dimensions, etc.' and that users can 'tag transactions as billable and assign customer codes.' All six dimension types the buyer named (Location, Department, Class, Project, Customer, and custom dimensions) are represented in this documented field set. At the bill pay level, line-item dimension coding is also supported: the bill pay overview states that 'an invoice's individually detected line items can be coded for the GL account or added to custom fields,' meaning dimension assignments are not limited to the invoice header. Once bills are coded and approved in Brex, they sync one-directionally to Sage Intacct, where both a bill record and a linked payment record are created automatically.

For a $120M multi-location services company running two Sage Intacct entities, SAP Concur's native Sage Intacct integration pulls GL accounts, vendor lists, and Intacct dimension lists directly into Concur via a bidirectional, near-real-time sync. The Sage Intacct Marketplace listing published by SAP Concur confirms that 'SAP Concur automatically collects all Account Codes, dimension lists, and vendors directly from Sage Intacct,' and a third-party implementation review (RSM Technology) confirms that 'Intacct dimensions can be selected and mapped into SAP Concur.' During invoice coding in Concur Invoice, coders select dimension values (Location, Department, Class, Project, Customer) from synced dropdown lists, and approved invoices post back to Intacct's AP module automatically. The integration supports up to 10 Intacct entities linked to a single Concur company, so the buyer's two-entity setup is within scope. For the 'custom dimensions' portion of the requirement, however, no SAP Concur documentation explicitly confirms that Sage Intacct user-defined dimensions (dimensions created beyond the eight standard built-ins) are automatically read from Intacct's schema and surfaced as validated dropdowns during invoice coding; the Concur custom fields mechanism allows admins to manually define list fields and multi-level connected lists within Concur itself, but these are maintained inside Concur rather than synced from Intacct's user-defined dimension schema, meaning a new custom Intacct dimension added after go-live would not automatically appear in Concur invoice coding without a separate admin step.

This $120M multi-location services company runs two ERP entities in Sage Intacct and requires that the AP automation layer carry all six dimension types (Location, Department, Class, Project, Customer, and any custom dimensions) through to Intacct on every posted bill. Esker's documented Sage ERP integrations cover Sage X3, Sage FRP 1000, and Sage 100 only. Esker's own integration page states that its pre-built connectors are 'tailored' to Sage X3, Sage FRP 1000, and Sage 100, with no mention of Sage Intacct as a connected ERP. Esker does not appear in the Sage Intacct Marketplace as an AP automation partner, and no Esker-to-Sage-Intacct connector is documented in Esker's help center, product pages, or any third-party integration registry reviewed. Without a connector to Sage Intacct, Esker cannot read the buyer's Intacct dimension schema, cannot present valid dimension values during invoice coding, and cannot post approved bills with Location, Department, Class, Project, Customer, or custom dimension tags to the correct Intacct entity.

For a $120M multi-entity services company requiring a current SOC 2 Type II certificate, SAP Concur meets the standard through a dedicated, annually renewed audit program hosted on the SAP Trust Center. The most recently issued report covers the audit period April 1, 2024 through March 31, 2025, and was prepared by an independent third-party CPA firm. The scope explicitly includes Concur Invoice (the module relevant to your AP process), and the report covers the Security, Availability, and Confidentiality trust service criteria under AICPA standards. The report is available to customers and prospects under a non-disclosure agreement via the SAP Trust Center, with delivery within three business days of request. SAP Concur also publishes bridge letters on a quarterly basis to cover the gap between the latest issued report period and the current date, and the SAP Trust Center confirms the next 12-month report is scheduled for the first half of 2026.

For a $120M services company evaluating Brex as an AP automation platform, the SOC 2 Type II requirement is met through Brex's formal, independently audited compliance program. Brex's dedicated security page (brex.com/trust) states the company is SOC 1 Type II, SOC 2 Type II, and PCI-DSS certified, and confirms it is 'audited by major external auditing firms and regulators.' The Data Processing Addendum (brex.com/legal/dpa) further specifies that Brex is 'regularly audited against SSAE 18 SOC 2 standards by independent third party auditors,' confirming the ongoing audit cadence that distinguishes Type II from a point-in-time Type I. The full SOC 2 Type II report, along with SOC 1, PCI DSS, and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 documentation, is available for review or request through Brex's Trust Center at trust-portal.brex.com, powered by SafeBase. Your security team can request the report directly from that portal.

For a $120M services company requiring a current SOC 2 Type II report before deploying AP automation, the publicly documented picture for Esker is materially incomplete. Esker's primary platform-wide certifications are ISO 27001 (for its Information Security Management System, renewed via A-lign) and SOC 1 Type 2 under SSAE 18 and ISAE 3402, which validate internal control processes for on-demand services. Esker's own security datasheet confirms that SOC 2 Type II examination was completed in 2020, but scoped only to the Collections Management solution, not to the AP automation module. Esker's customer-confidence page (updated March 2026) lists ISO 27001 and SSAE 18/SOC 1 as its platform certifications without referencing a SOC 2 Type II report for the broader platform or the AP product specifically. No current (2024 or 2025) SOC 2 Type II report covering the AP automation module was found across Esker's security, compliance, or capabilities pages.