Concur vs Esker vs Expensify for AP Automation

For a $120M services company with two Sage Intacct entities, Esker handles the CapEx dual-approval requirement through its configurable AP workflow engine operating at pre-processing stage 5 (cost allocation and approval routing). When a non-PO invoice arrives, Esker Synergy AI codes it at the line level to GL account, tax code, cost type, and cost center before routing begins. Esker's product documentation states that configured workflows route invoices to approvers based on 'business rules, entities, amounts or cost centers,' and its AP datasheet confirms routing by 'predefined criteria such as invoice total, vendor name or exception type.' A separate Esker white paper explicitly documents that 'Non-PO invoices can undergo multi-level review, coding and multi-level approval,' with exception workflows configurable 'to go through one or several users.' In practice, a CapEx routing rule would be defined by setting the coded cost type or GL account range as the trigger condition and assigning a mandatory two-step sequential approval chain (for example, department manager then controller) that fires regardless of invoice amount, satisfying the 'dual approval for all capital expenditures regardless of amount' policy. Auto-escalation via email reminder is documented when an invoice sits on a worklist too long, and approver substitution is supported when a designated approver is unavailable.

For your team processing 1,800 invoices per month across two Sage Intacct entities, Concur Invoice Professional Edition's workflow engine allows administrators to build multi-step sequential approval chains by copying a default workflow template and configuring General Settings, Steps, and Step Rules, where each rule carries a Name, Condition, and Action. The native routing dimensions are amount-based authorization limits, management hierarchy, and cost object (cost center, project, WBS element). A category-triggered mandatory dual-approval path for CapEx invoices is not a first-class routing dimension: an SAP Concur community moderator confirmed directly from the Invoice product team that 'the system expense type field cannot be used in a feature hierarchy to define approvers,' and suggested a workaround of creating a custom Invoice Type list field and mapping it to a feature hierarchy to designate approvers per value. Under that workaround, the person coding the invoice would need to manually select a 'CapEx' Invoice Type value before the workflow routes to a dual-approver chain; the system does not auto-detect CapEx classification from GL account codes or line-item coding. This capability is available only in Invoice Professional Edition, not Invoice Standard, and workflow changes of this type require SAP Concur Support involvement or completion of Advanced Configuration training to implement.

For your multi-location services company, Expensify's Advanced Approval mode (available in Expensify Classic under Settings > Workspaces > Workflows) supports a category-based approver mechanism that can be assembled into a two-approver chain for CapEx-coded invoices. A Workspace Admin assigns a specific approver to a capital expenditure GL category (e.g., a 'Plant and Equipment' account synced from Sage Intacct); when a bill or report contains a line coded to that category, it routes to that category approver first before continuing to the regular approval chain, effectively producing two sequential human approvals independent of dollar amount. Vendor bills processed through Expensify's bill pay flow (received at a domain-based email address, SmartScanned, then coded) follow the same workspace approval process, so the category-triggered routing applies there as well. However, the mechanism is constructed indirectly: the category rule assigns one designated first approver, and the second approval comes from the downstream workspace chain rather than from a purpose-built 'require exactly two approvals for this category' control. Workspace admins can also bypass the entire configured workflow on any report, meaning the dual-approval gate is not hard-enforced.

For your team of three processing 1,800 invoices per month across email and mail channels, Esker's Accounts Payable module addresses invoice capture at Stage 1 (legitimacy and data intake) of the pre-processing journey. The platform captures invoices automatically across channels such as email, EDI, mail, fax, and supplier portals, then brings them into one standardized workflow. The extraction engine is Esker Synergy AI: Esker Synergy AI optimizes invoice data extraction by using machine learning and deep learning to accurately extract and populate into a validation form, or auto-approved when no exception is detected. Critically for your requirement, extraction is not limited to header fields. Using AI-based predictive line items to code PO and non-PO invoices, including G/L account, tax code, cost type, and cost centre, the solution auto-matches invoice data with the corresponding orders and goods receipts. This directly covers your 55% PO-based invoices and your 45% non-PO invoices without separate handling. The AI self-improves: Esker has the technological foundation to accurately capture documents and extract data, and in the case of user correction, Esker Synergy auto-learns to increase accuracy the next time. Esker also publishes an 80%+ touchless rate, meaning most invoices move from receipt to posting without manual intervention, with a validation queue surfacing low-confidence extractions for human review rather than defaulting to manual keying.

For a services company currently keying 1,800 invoices per month from email and mail, SAP Concur's Invoice Capture feature handles pre-processing stage 1 (legitimacy/data extraction) using OCR combined with machine learning. Invoices created with Invoice Capture leverage Concur's automated service to process vendor-submitted invoices via email, upload, fax, or hard copy; the system uses OCR and machine learning to extract data, capturing details like vendor name, invoice number, date, line items, PO numbers, and GL codes automatically. At the line level specifically, Concur Invoice captures the description, quantity, unit prices, and categorizes the item by expense type. Tax and shipping are configurable optional extraction fields: administrators can adjust data extraction to specify what invoice details to capture, including optional fields like tax, shipping, or purchase order numbers, and can define whether PO numbers are needed on the header or each line. After OCR runs, Invoice Capture uses OCR technology and machine learning to auto-populate data, followed by human validation to ensure the information from the header and line-item level of the invoice is accurate before it gets processed. Invoice Capture is an optional feature that supports OCR; it offers two management models: Concur Managed (fee-based, with SAP Concur staff performing OCR verification) and Client Managed (free, with the client self-managing verification of OCR results). Of the eight specifically requested fields, seven are explicitly documented as supported by Invoice Capture (vendor name, invoice number, date, PO number, line items with description/quantity/unit prices, amounts, and tax); however, payment terms as a discrete extractable field is not explicitly confirmed in Concur's official Invoice Capture documentation, and may need to be supplied from the vendor master rather than read from each invoice face.

For a multi-location services company processing 1,800 vendor invoices per month in Sage Intacct, Expensify's SmartScan technology is the capture mechanism. A vendor bill is uploaded (photo, drag-and-drop PDF, or forwarded email to receipts@expensify.com), and SmartScan uses OCR to automatically extract the merchant name, date, and total amount, then creates a bill record that follows the workspace approval workflow before being coded with GL codes from the connected accounting system and exported to Sage Intacct. Across Expensify's own documentation and marketing, the consistently documented auto-extracted fields are merchant/vendor name, date, amount, and currency; the Receive and Pay Bills help article confirms the SmartScan-to-bill flow, and the Concierge AI then handles expense categorization. However, no Expensify help article or product page documents automatic extraction of invoice number, PO number, individual line items, tax breakdowns, or payment terms as distinct captured fields from a vendor bill. The buyer's seven-field requirement (vendor name, invoice number, date, PO number, line items, amounts, tax, payment terms) overlaps with SmartScan's documented output only on vendor name, date, and amounts; the remaining four fields (invoice number, PO number, line-item detail, payment terms) have no documented automatic extraction mechanism in the bill capture workflow.