Concur vs Planful

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Our analysts compared Concur vs Planful based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Accounting Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Concur Software Tool
Planful Software Tool

Product Basics

SAP Concur is a Software-as-a-Service company that provides travel and expense management solutions. Created by a merger of the two companies in 2014, it effortlessly guides employees through every trip by populating charges into expense reports and automating invoice reports.

It automates data capture and accounts payable, uses real-time data and AI to audit transactions. It helps businesses keep an eye on what they are spending and there are no blind spots in the budget.
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Formerly Host Analytics, Planful is a financial planning and analysis cloud platform. It accelerates end-to-end FP&A. Suitable for midsize to large-scale businesses, it helps by centralizing data and managing financial and operational processes.

It helps users plan and manage reviews, approvals and submissions and generates workflow status reports to check the performance of every department. It helps analyze asset performance by using financial budgeting and forecasting techniques with its capital planning feature. It is a scalable solution that allows companies to check the effect of projects on the overall bottom line.
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$8/User, Monthly
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$1,250 Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Insights

  • Reduce Cost: Connect various sources of expense data and reduce the need for manual information entry. Make more intelligent business decisions with accurate and consolidated data. 
  • More Centralized Data: Connect with over 150 apps and spend data giving employees the freedom to work without hunting down information. 
  • Ensure Compliance: Automate policy upgrades to ensure compliance. Leave no room for non-compliance by flagging exceeded spending thresholds for the employees. 
  • Accessibility: Access the system by web or mobile app. Record expenses through the journey in the app while on the go. Manage travel and costs quickly and easily – including photographing receipts and attaching them to the expense claim. 
  • Go Paperless: Eliminate the need for paper receipts by storing all receipts in the receipt store. 
  • Easy Approval: Approve expenses across the different departments with real-time notifications. 
  • More Straightforward Invoice Management: Review the invoice and submit it without any manual intervention. 
  • Minimize Risk: Mitigate risk by importing feeds from travel suppliers and corporate credit card providers. Protect the business in tax season by creating an accurate audit trail. 
  • Transparency: Check for new ways to save money by gaining complete control over the organization’s funds. Keep a tab of open but unapproved expenses in the system. Report spending across each department to identify areas of excess. 
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  • Conduct Ad hoc Analysis: Simplify complex ad hoc analysis by quickly creating financial and operational models while simultaneously checking the impact of these models on the bottom line. 
  • Close Books Faster: Decrease the time it takes to close books by automating data collection, aggregation and validation. Make data secure and compliant with standards and protocols.  
  • Improve Collaboration: Collaborate in a more efficient manner with current data and real-time insights. Get the power to make quick and accurate decisions with more confidence.  
  • Get Insights: Make well-informed decisions by gaining insights from across an organization to drive long-term value and growth. Automate manual processes to gain more time for strategic planning processes, analyzing and collaborating rather than worrying about spreadsheets.  
  • Automate Manual Processes: Save time and reduce errors by automating manual financial processes. Ensure that all financial processes are done with minimum manual effort and run more efficiently.  
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  • Real-Time Integration: See precisely what is being spent with real-time data and AI audits to help the businesses. Eliminate blind spots. 
  • Automate Rules: Automate and apply rules fairly and consistently so that everyone’s expectations are met and fraud is easily caught. 
  • Accounts Payable Automation: Automate the invoice process to catch duplicate entries. Save significant time with invoice tracking and quicker payments. 
  • Travel Integration: Record expenses incurred on work-related trips automatically. Prepopulate business travel information so it’s easy for employees to submit accurate claims for reimbursement. 
  • Analytics: Improve control over funds, examine productivity and increase compliance with automated, fast and accurate reporting. 
  • Budget: Get a consolidated view of revenue and expenses in real time on an easy-to-use dashboard to identify gaps and make well-informed decisions. 
  • Drive: Capture mileage to ensure compliance, reduce fraud, cut costs and reimburse employees adequately. 
  • Audit: Ensure all employees are compliant and each dollar spent is certified against the company’s policy with a receipt audit service. 
  • Payment Solution: Automate and simplify vendor payment and reimbursement. 
  • Company Bill Statements: Centralize company cards and financial statements that capture total spend and maintain policy control. 
  • Travel: Ensure every employee is supported with travel insights, regardless of where the trip is booked. 
  • TripLink: Connect travelers and itineraries across multiple channels. Apply policies to direct booking to boost compliance and locate and support travelers. 
  • TripLink Connected Suppliers: Set up direct connections with suppliers. Integrate with Locale to ensure proper communication with the travelers. 
  • Invoice: Get real-time visibility into financial components, boost cash flow, ensure compliance and minimize security risks. 
  • Other Products: Provide end-to-end, automated data synchronization with the vendor’s suite of products granting visibility into the employee spend and ensuring effortless and accurate management of expenses. 
  • Free Trial: Get the free trial for a demonstration of spend management solutions, travel management. Use the sample information provided or snap a receipt from a phone or computer to see the program in action. 
  • Multiple Scanning Options: Upload receipts to the expense report through using various methods. Scan it in the app, uploading a picture via the web or the receipt through email. 
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  • Modern Tools: Combine the need for structured and dynamic planning to empower organizations to make well-informed decisions in a quick and strategic manner.  
  • Financial Consolidation: Accelerate month-end closing cycles with financial consolidation. Enhance financial planning and reporting by leveraging data from a single source of truth. Get pre-built consolidation functionality for currency conversion and reporting, currency translation adjustment calculations and posting. Implement functional, administrative and setup changes without the need for IT experts. Boost teams’ agility when reacting to changes in organization, strategy, regulation and accounting protocol. Ensure trusted and consistent global reporting by automatically mapping financial data. Keep tabs from start to end on balances, and analyze financial data across consolidation activities.  
  • Structured Planning: Save time and reduce errors by automating labor-intensive financial planning activities. Avoid costly and disruptive customization fees, save time and reduce risk of error with predefined planning and reporting templates. Automate integration from any ERP, CRM or HCM. Create a single source of financial truth by automatically collecting, aggregating and validating financial data. Ensure consistency and accuracy by creating and modifying structured financial reports and elevating financial conversations. 
  • Dynamic Planning: Analyze, plan and make confident decisions with dynamic planning. Build custom-tailored financial models. Leverage customization across processes, functions and use cases. Configure planning experiences and give users the flexibility to plan for anything. Connect data sources from separate systems in one unified, cloud-based platform. Boost financial decision making with a single source of truth. Get insights and make course corrections with real-time data refreshing. Inculcate companywide collaboration culture by providing the right data at the right level to the right person.  
  • Integration: Automate data integration to reduce manual intervention and easily transform data with over 200 pre-built connectors. Adjust to automatic data processing with a growing integration platform. Check status and activity of deployed integrations from a centralized place. Ensure data integration process flows are repeatable, automated and secure, and provide audit trails required by internal and external auditors. Understand changes in data with multiple validation points across integration workflows. 
  • Reporting: Leverage reporting formats and delivery options to meet financial, management and ad hoc needs. Ensure data accuracy and transparency with self-service reporting and automated report distribution. Automate collection and aggregation of financial and business data into a single cloud-based platform. Ensure everyone is working with current and accurate information derived from a single source of truth. Boost financial IQ with self-service reporting capabilities. Create a more agile environment with impactful financial decision making. 
  • Annual Operating Plan: Build collaborative financial plans that align with business objectives. Turn annual plans into quarterly or monthly rolling forecasts, and check models for different scenarios to determine how to realign and adjust strategies.  
  • Workforce Planning: Plan accordingly for workforces by connecting HR, finance and operational data together. Create a headcount plan that can be adjusted to changing marketing requirements. Gain insight to build winning strategies and utilize employees as strategic assets. Boost financial IQ to understand and influence impacts on the financial health of workforce costs.  
  • Cash Flow Forecasting: Assess the impact of decisions by gaining complete control and visibility over finances. Reallocate cash by identifying trends and understanding levers. Mitigate cash flow risk by adjusting investment opportunities.  
  • Scenario Analysis: Analyze every option by planning across multiple case scenarios and assessing key drivers. Bring agility by optimizing current period results. Gain the flexibility to discover deeper insights across a broad range of models. Align executives and business partners with data-driven decisions. Check the impact of plan changes from every level with immediate results. 
  • Rolling Forecasts: Adjust to sudden changes, keep forecasts current and business agile with continually rolling planning periods. Automatically keep tabs on the impact of actuals on forecasted trends. Improve risk analysis by quickly identifying opportunities and risks as business landscapes evolve. Align rolling forecasts by collaborating across different departments. Gain real-time insights to redirect resources and priorities and align them with business objectives.  
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Product Ranking

#32

among all
Accounting Software

#116

among all
Accounting Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 10098 reviews
Great User Sentiment 82 reviews
81%
of users recommend this product

Concur has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 81% when considering 10098 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

86%
of users recommend this product

Planful has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 82 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.7 (11)
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4.0 (6137)
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4.29 (41)
4.3 (2100)
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4.3 (41)
4.2 (234)
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4.0 (1616)
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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Streamlined Expense Reporting: Concur simplifies the often tedious process of creating expense reports, allowing users to easily track and submit expenses, which can then be quickly approved and reimbursed. This can save both employees and the accounting department significant time and effort.
Mobile Accessibility: The Concur mobile app enables users to manage expenses on-the-go, offering convenience and flexibility for business travelers. Users can capture receipts, track mileage, and submit reports directly from their mobile devices.
Integration with Accounting Systems: Concur integrates seamlessly with popular accounting software, such as QuickBooks and Xero. This integration streamlines the financial workflow by automatically syncing expense data with the accounting system, reducing manual data entry and the risk of errors.
Policy Compliance: Concur helps organizations enforce travel and expense policies by automatically flagging any out-of-policy expenses during the submission process. This feature promotes compliance and reduces the risk of unauthorized spending.
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Streamlined Financial Close: Planful helps automate routine tasks like data consolidation and report generation, which can significantly reduce the time it takes to close the books each month. This efficiency is often praised by users in fast-paced environments.
Improved Forecasting Accuracy: The platform's forecasting tools leverage historical data and predictive analytics to generate more accurate forecasts. Users appreciate this feature as it allows for better-informed decision-making and resource allocation.
Enhanced Collaboration: Planful provides a centralized platform for finance teams to collaborate on budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. This feature improves communication and transparency within the department, leading to more cohesive financial strategies.
Customizable Reporting: Users frequently highlight the ability to create custom reports tailored to their specific needs. This flexibility allows finance teams to analyze data from multiple angles and gain deeper insights into their financial performance.
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Clunky User Interface: Users frequently report that Concur's interface feels outdated and cumbersome, making simple tasks like submitting expense reports or booking travel more time-consuming than necessary.
Mobile App Issues: The mobile app is often criticized for being buggy and unreliable, with features that are limited compared to the desktop version. This can be frustrating for users who rely on their mobile devices for managing expenses on the go.
Integration Challenges: Integrating Concur with other business systems, such as accounting software or HR platforms, can be a complex and technically challenging process, requiring significant IT resources and expertise.
Customer Support Concerns: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the quality and responsiveness of Concur's customer support, citing long wait times and difficulty resolving issues effectively.
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Steep Learning Curve: Many users find Planful's interface to be complex and unintuitive, requiring significant time investment to learn the system's intricacies. The abundance of features can be overwhelming for new users, leading to frustration and a slow adoption rate within organizations.
Customization Challenges: While Planful offers customization options, implementing them often requires advanced technical skills or reliance on the vendor's professional services, which can be costly. This limitation can hinder organizations with unique workflows or reporting needs from fully tailoring the software to their specific requirements.
Reporting Limitations: Some users report that generating specific or ad-hoc reports can be cumbersome in Planful. The system's pre-built reports may not always cater to every organization's needs, and creating custom reports may require technical expertise or additional support.
Performance Issues: A segment of users has mentioned experiencing slow loading times and occasional system lags, particularly when working with large datasets or complex reports. This can impact productivity and user satisfaction, especially for organizations with high data volumes or demanding reporting requirements.
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Overall, Concur has garnered a reputation as a comprehensive and reliable solution for managing expenses, travel, and invoices. Users frequently praise its ability to streamline expense reporting, automate tasks, and provide real-time visibility into spending. The mobile app receives kudos for its user-friendly interface and offline functionality, making it easy for employees to capture receipts and submit expenses on the go. Concur's integration with travel booking platforms and credit cards is a major plus, simplifying the process of reconciling expenses and ensuring accuracy. However, some users find the initial setup and configuration to be complex, requiring significant time and effort. Additionally, the system's flexibility can be a double-edged sword, as extensive customization options may overwhelm some users. Concur's pricing structure, often based on the number of users and transactions, can be a concern for smaller businesses. Despite these drawbacks, Concur's strengths in automation, integration, and mobile accessibility make it a top choice for mid-sized to large organizations with complex expense management needs and a desire to enhance efficiency and control over spending.

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Planful has garnered a reputation for its robust financial reporting and analysis capabilities, particularly excelling in budgeting, forecasting, and consolidation. Users appreciate the software's ability to handle complex financial models and its flexibility in generating custom reports. The platform's intuitive interface and user-friendly design have also been praised, making it accessible to both finance professionals and non-financial users. However, some users have noted that the initial setup and implementation process can be time-consuming and may require significant support from Planful's team. Additionally, while Planful offers a wide range of features, some users have expressed a desire for more advanced functionality in areas such as workforce planning and project accounting. Compared to competitors like Adaptive Insights and Vena Solutions, Planful stands out for its comprehensive financial consolidation capabilities and its ability to handle large volumes of data. Its reporting and analytics tools are also considered to be more user-friendly and customizable. However, Adaptive Insights may be a better choice for organizations seeking a more cloud-based solution with stronger integrations with other business applications. Vena Solutions, on the other hand, may be more suitable for companies with complex financial modeling needs due to its Excel-based interface. Overall, Planful is best suited for mid-sized to large enterprises with complex financial reporting and analysis requirements. Its strengths lie in its budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and reporting capabilities, making it an ideal choice for organizations looking to streamline their financial processes and gain deeper insights into their financial performance. However, companies with limited IT resources or those seeking a more cloud-based solution may want to consider alternative options.

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