Agicap vs Pennylane vs Qonto: which cash tool for an SME in 2026?

Direct answer. Agicap, Pennylane and Qonto are more complementary than competing. Qonto is an online bank for the business account, with cash tracking from its Smart plan. Pennylane is accounting software that links invoices and bank flows and offers a cash forecast. Agicap is specialised cash forecasting software, priced on quotation. An SME starts with a bank and up-to-date accounts; Agicap comes later, if forecasting becomes complex.

When a business owner wants to "manage cash better", they quickly land on Agicap, Pennylane and Qonto, and compare them as if they were interchangeable. They are not. Confusing them leads either to paying twice for the same function, or to expecting from one tool what it was never built to do. Here is how to position them, with the public offers shown on the vendors' websites in September 2026, and above all how to decide what your business actually needs.

No. They are three distinct building blocks of corporate finance: the bank, where the money flows; the accounting, which gives those flows their meaning; and the forecast, which projects cash over the coming weeks and months.

Qonto: the bank (business account)#

Qonto is a neobank, more precisely a payment institution authorised by the ACPR. Its core is the business account: cards, transfers, team spend management, receipt capture. Its public plans range, in September 2026, from €9 to €39 excl. VAT per month for the self-employed and from €49 to €199 excl. VAT per month for teams. "Cash tracking and forecasting" appears from the Smart plan, and higher plans add a richer forecast. Qonto nevertheless remains a bank: it produces neither the accounts, nor the VAT return, nor the annual accounts.

Pennylane: accounting and the cash view#

Pennylane is a financial management and accounting production platform, with a business account built into some plans and a real-time cash view. It links sales invoices, purchase invoices and bank flows, giving a reading of cash in and out backed by documents. For the self-employed, the cash forecast is part of the Essentiel plan (€24 excl. VAT per month when we checked); for SMEs, the vendor advertises a tailored offer. Run by a partner firm, the platform also produces VAT, annual accounts and the tax return. Its cash view is enough for many small businesses and SMEs.

Agicap: cash management and forecasting#

Agicap is specialised cash management and forecasting software, designed for the finance teams of SMEs and mid-sized companies. It aggregates several banks and entities, categorises flows automatically, builds multi-scenario forecasts and tracks receivables. Its prices are not public: the vendor sets them case by case, with an annual commitment. Agicap connects in particular to Qonto (an integration Qonto advertises from its Smart plan); for other connections, including accounting software, check the exact scope when you choose.

Prices are those displayed by the vendors when we checked in September 2026, excluding options. They change: check the current price list. These tools do not substitute for one another, and several functions now partly overlap, which is precisely the trap.

The question is not "which one to choose", but "which block is missing today". This quick decision table starts from common situations.

Take a fictitious services SME with 150,000 euros of cash at the start of a quarter. Purely illustrative assumptions: 110,000 euros of receipts per month, 70,000 euros of salaries and social charges, 25,000 euros of rent and suppliers. On the bank statement, all is well: cash rises by 15,000 euros a month.

The forecast reveals what the statement does not. In the second month, a 38,000 euros VAT payment and a 20,000 euros corporation tax instalment fall due; in the third, a large customer pays at 60 days instead of 30, pushing back 50,000 euros of receipts. Projected cash at the end of the quarter then stands at 87,000, euros instead of the 195,000 euros a naive reading suggested.

None of these figures is a market average: they are assumptions to show the mechanism. The lesson is simple: a forecasting tool is only worth something if it includes tax and social deadlines and actual payment terms, which requires up-to-date accounts. Our article on the 13-week cash forecast details the method, and the one on provisioning taxes in cash planning covers the deadlines that create these dips.

A typical, effective setup often looks like this:

1. Qonto (or another bank) for the business account and payments.
2. Pennylane for accounting, VAT and a first cash view, run by your firm.
3. Agicap on top, if and only if forecasting becomes complex (several entities, several banks, scenarios).

The right reflex is to start simple: use the cash view already offered by the bank and by Pennylane before adding Agicap. Many SMEs never need the third block. To compare the first two more closely, read our article Pennylane vs Qonto; if your issue is rather controlling team spending, see our comparison of expense cards and expense reports.

The real danger of a poorly combined stack is not the cost of the subscriptions, it is contradiction. The bank shows a balance, Pennylane a reconciled balance, Agicap a projection: if categories are not aligned, if an account is not synchronised or if supplier invoices are missing, the director ends up with three different figures and trusts none of them. Designate a single source of truth for actuals, usually the reconciled accounts, and make it the basis of the forecast.

These three tools only create value if data flows cleanly between them. A poorly configured connector, and the cash forecast rests on wrong figures. That is exactly the job of a Pennylane integrator: connecting the banks, Pennylane and, where relevant, Agicap, then checking that flows come through correctly. Beyond tooling, cash management is also an advisory engagement, which we carry as an outsourced CFO: a monthly routine, review of variances between forecast and actuals, financing trade-offs.

Agicap, Pennylane and Qonto are not three options to rank, but three layers of the same financial stack: the bank, the accounting, the forecast. Our conviction is that most SMEs invest too early in the top layer. A cash forecasting tool plugged into accounts three months behind produces nice curves and bad decisions.

The order we recommend is therefore always the same: a well-chosen bank, accounts kept continuously and reconciled, then a simple forecast reviewed every month. Agicap becomes relevant when that foundation is solid and complexity (entities, banks, scenarios, covenants) exceeds what a built-in forecast can handle. To organise that steering, our article on the weekly cash committee offers a ready-to-use agenda.

Updated 25 September 2026. Public offers and prices found on the Qonto, Pennylane and Agicap websites in September 2026, excluding options, subject to change. The worked example rests on illustrative assumptions. Informative content written by a chartered accountant registered with the Ordre; it does not replace an analysis of your situation.