Expense Software for SAP S/4HANA: Native or Third-Party Route

"SAP" covers several ledgers. This page assumes SAP S/4HANA, cloud or on-premise, as the system of record for postings. It explains how each candidate reaches it, as checked on October 7, 2026.

• SAP Concur: SAP's own travel and expense product. SAP SE's setup guide for the native "SAP Integration with Concur Solutions" (May 2019 edition, for S/4HANA Cloud) exports cost centers, internal orders, and WBS elements from S/4HANA to Concur. It imports approved expense reports into S/4HANA as financial postings, with a monitor for failed messages. It expects employee data to arrive from SuccessFactors or another HR system, and it offers an automatic export that sends a cost object to Concur as soon as it changes in SAP. Concur's current integration page also names SAP ERP and S/4HANA.
• Payhawk: a third party. Its page says the S/4HANA connector is built and maintained in-house and listed on the SAP App Store. Approved cards, bills, expenses, reimbursements, per diems, and FX costs post to S/4HANA, payments export after settlement, and receipts attach to each entry. Its FAQ says approved spend posts in real time rather than in batches, and that blocked SAP elements are flagged before they cause posting failures.
• Navan: its integrations directory, checked the same day, lists no SAP connector. For other ERPs it offers an expense API and SFTP, and its FAQ says Navan's team can assist with custom ERP integration development at an additional cost.

Buyer constraint: cost objects change faster than expenses close

Picture a manufacturer whose controllers open and close internal orders and WBS elements weekly. Travelers code trips to those objects, and a report approved after an order closes must still post somewhere valid.

With Concur, the cost objects come from S/4HANA itself through the native export, which can run automatically when an object changes, and posting errors surface in SAP's own monitor. That keeps both ends of the failure in SAP products, configured from the S/4HANA side. Whether a closed order is withdrawn from the traveler's list before the report is approved depends on how that export is set up, so test it. Payhawk says it posts approved spend in real time and flags blocked SAP elements before posting fails, which suggests a closed order should surface near approval rather than at month-end. Its page does not say where that flag appears or who must act on it, so ask Payhawk to show the flag reaching an approver for an order closed mid-trip. With Navan, the company writes the mapping, so closed-object handling is whatever the company builds.

What each route costs

Concur's native path still needs an HR feed and configuration on both sides. The setup guide asks for client SSL certificates to be installed in S/4HANA before setup, and lists Concur-side prerequisites including partner application activation, roles for the API calls, cost-object lists, accounts, and tax codes. Payhawk removes most of that build, but the connector's roadmap belongs to Payhawk, not SAP. Navan's route costs an internal integration owner, or paid help from Navan's team, for every S/4HANA release and field change.

Reproducible posting check

In an S/4HANA test client, create a cost center, an internal order, and a WBS element. Submit a trip with a card charge, a personal expense in another currency, and a refund. Close the internal order before approval, approve, and inspect where the rejection appears. Reopen it, repost once, and reconcile the posting to the source report. Spend Management Guide has not executed this configured check.

Verdict and counter-case

Pick SAP Concur when S/4HANA cost objects drive approvals and the company wants SAP accountable for both ends of the interface. Pick Payhawk when most spend runs on company cards across several entities, and a third-party connector that Payhawk maintains is an acceptable dependency. Pick Navan only when the travel experience justifies owning the SAP feed yourself.

Running SAP ECC or SAP Business One changes the answer. The setup guide cited here covers S/4HANA Cloud, and Payhawk's page covers S/4HANA only. Those buyers should get release-specific documentation from each vendor before shortlisting.