Concur Invoice Standard Edition Administration Help

June 2020 Invoice Standard Edition Admin Summary

Initial Post

Release Note Summaries

The items in this section are summaries of the release notes for this month. The Standard Edition release notes are accessible from What's New - Standard Edition

Concur Invoice

Download as Excel From Several List Views on My Invoices Page
Clients can now export data by clicking the Download as Excel link in the following list views on the My Invoices page:
  • Unsubmitted Invoices
  • Unsubmitted Purchase Orders
  • All Unassigned Invoices
  • Unassigned Invoices Created by Me
  • All Assigned Invoices

There is no maximum number of items that can be exported, but the export process might take some time if there are many items to be exported.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides clients with flexibility in how they work with invoice data.

Concur Invoice and Purchase Request

New Invoice and Purchase Request Processor Only Workflow Option

Concur Invoice now provides a processor-only option for approving non-PO invoices and purchase requests.

The processor-only option is the default setting. This option simplifies the approval workflow process and eases initial user administration setup. For smaller businesses, this option may be preferred because it removes a duplicate approval process.

Clients can still opt to include a manager approval step in their company's workflow. If clients select a manager approval step for their company's workflow, a message appears on the Approval Routing page notifying them that they now need to assign a user as the manager approver for each user record on the Users page.

Example – Employee to Processor Workflow

An employee clicks Submit Invoice or Submit for an invoice or purchase request totalling $500. The invoice or purchase request goes to the company's processor who is permitted to approve any amount, and who, after careful consideration, clicks Approve. The invoice or purchase request status is set to Pending Payment.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides small businesses with a simplified approval workflow process by removing a duplicate approval process.

Data Retention

Country Code Now Obfuscated When User Data Is Removed

As of 2 June 2020, when user data is removed in accordance with a data retention policy, the country code associated with removed users is obfuscated by setting the country code to XX (Inactive).

Previously, the country code for removed users was set to US by default.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This improves reporting by consistently setting the country code data for removed users to a code designated for that purpose.

Financial Integration

Xero Accounting Integration now Available

SAP and Xero are partnering to make accounting for expenses in Xero Accounting easier.

Concur Standard Edition enables participating clients to import Xero Accounting data (master data) into their SAP Concur configuration. This data enables clients to utilise their unique accounting data when entering expenses and/or invoices. The data is updated in SAP regularly. The master data export loads employee and invoice vendors/suppliers from Xero Accounting to SAP during the implementation.

The financial posting process sends expense claims and invoices that are ready to be posted from SAP to Xero Accounting, utilising APIs from the SAP Concur Platform. SAP sends the expense data as a supplier bill (for cash reimbursements) or as a credit card transaction (for credit card charges). The integration sends the invoice data as a supplier bill. The integration manages the transmission of expense and invoice data from SAP to Xero Accounting, and the transmission of status information back to SAP. The financial posting happens as soon as the claim or invoice is approved for payment, without waiting for a batch schedule. The client sees financial posting status information in the audit trail of the expense claim or invoice. The expense or invoice processor can view problems with the posting, allowing them to correct errors and re-send the information quickly.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This integration makes it easier for clients to manage their accounting information in both SAP and Xero Accounting.

Product Settings

Custom Fields Page Redesigned (27 May)

The Custom Fields page in Product Settings has been redesigned. No existing features or functionality have been removed. Some functionality has moved.

The redesigned Custom Fields page includes the following significant changes:

  • The page has been renamed from Manage Custom Fields to Custom Fields.

  • The Custom Fields page now includes two tabs, Custom Fields and Fields We Track.

  • Some functionality that was previously accessed from the Custom Fields page has been moved to a new page, Manage Visibility.

  • Search functionality has been added to the Custom Fields page.

  • The Custom Fields tab provides a Basic View and an Advanced View.

  • Guided set-up functionality is included on the Manage Visibility page.

In addition to these significant changes, minor and cosmetic changes have also been made to the Custom Fields page.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These updates improve custom field management by providing a better end user experience.

Authentication

**Ongoing** Deprecation of HMAC Initiates Migration to SSO Self-Service

These changes are part of the SAP continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.

SAP will soon begin the deprecation process of removing Hash-Based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) as an SSO option. The replacement service for HMAC is SAML SSO, a self-service method of setup whereby client admins have access within SAP to complete their SAML connections.

Clients currently using HMAC are encouraged to migrate to the SSO self-service tool as soon as it is released (targeted for Q2 2020). The new SSO self-service tool allows multiple portals (Identity Providers) to be added.

The HMAC deprecation includes two phases:

PHASE I:

  • Clients must have an Identity Provider (IdP) or a custom SAML 2.0 solution.

  • Clients begin testing the new SSO self-service tool.

  • Travel Management Companies (TMCs) prepare for onboarding new SAP Concur clients using the new SSO self-service tool, which is targeted for release in Q2 2020.

  • Once the SSO tool is available, clients will be notified via release notes about the official deprecation date of HMAC. As of the official deprecation date, no new clients can be onboarded using HMAC; new clients must be onboarded using the new SSO self-service tool.

  • Existing clients using HMAC need to be migrated using the new SSO self-service tool.

PHASE II:

  • Travel Management Companies (TMCs) continue migrating existing SAP Concur clients from the HMAC service to the new SSO self-service tool.

  • Shut down the HMAC service after everyone has migrated from HMAC to the new SSO self-service tool. Phase II is targeted to end mid-year 2020.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change provides better security and improved support for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.

File Transfer Updates

**Ongoing** SAP Concur Legacy File Move Migration

This release note is intended for the technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP. For our clients and suppliers participating in data exchange, SAP is maintaining our file transfer subsystem to provide greater security for those file transfers.

SAP will begin migrating entities that currently use a legacy process for moving files to a more efficient and secure file routing process that relies on APIs.

Clients whose entities are currently configured to use the legacy process will be migrated to the more efficient process sometime between now and the end of 2020. After they are migrated to the more efficient process, clients will see the following improvement:

  • With the legacy process, clients had to wait for the file move schedule to run at a specified time. With the more efficient and secure API-based process, extracts and other outbound files from SAP will be available within the existing overnight processing period shortly after the files are created.

This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:

  • st.concursolutions.com

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide greater security and efficiency for file transfers.

Miscellaneous

SAMLv2 SSO Certificate Expiring (25 June)

The certificate provided by the SAP Concur SAMLv2 service, which is used to establish a Single-Sign On (SSO) connection with an IdP, will expire on 25 June 2020. Unless the certificate is renewed before the 25 June 2020 expiration date, the certificate expiration might prevent users from being able to successfully sign in to SAP Concur products.

SAP Concur solutions offer SSO to help make the user sign-in process easier and more secure. SSO requires that trust be established between the Identity Provider (IdP) and the Service Provider (SP). This trust is established in part by cryptographic use of certificates provided by the service provider, in this case, SAP Concur solutions.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: To ensure that the SSO certificate adheres to the latest security standards and processes, the certificate is configured to expire and be renewed periodically.

Updated: Some TLSv1.2 Ciphers No Longer Supported (22 June)

On 22 June 2020, SAP Concur solutions removed support for connections to *.concursolutions.com and *api.concursolutions.com that use the following TLSv1.2 ciphers:

  • AES256-GCM-SHA384

  • AES128-GCM-SHA256

In response to the needs of our clients, support for these ciphers was restored on 25 June.

**Ongoing** New URL for US Data Centre us1.concursolutions.com

Beginning in May, users can connect to the US Data Centre through www.concursolutions.com or through a new URL, us1.concursolutions.com. In addition, targeted for Q3, users connecting to the US Data Centre through www.concursolutions.com will be redirected to us1.concursolutions.com.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The us1.concursolutions.com URL is consistent with the URL for other data centres. For example, users connecting to the EMEA data centre are redirected to eu1.concursolutions.com.

Planned Change Summaries

The items in this section are summaries of the changes targeted for future releases. SAP Concur reserves the right to postpone implementation of – or completely remove – any enhancement/change mentioned here.

IMPORTANT: These Planned Changes might not list all of the upcoming enhancements and modifications that affect this SAP Concur product or service. The Planned Changes that apply to multiple SAP Concur products and/or services are listed in a consolidated document. Please review the additional Planned Changes admin summaries available in the June 2020 Shared Planned Changes Standard Edition Admin Summary.

Concur Invoice

**Planned Changes** Import Now Feature Supports Email Notification

In a future release and based on role and setting, clients who have performed an import by using the Import Now feature will receive an email notification with information about the success of the import.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement helps clients keep track of successful Import Now email notifications.

Client Notifications

The items in this section provide reference material for all clients.

SAP Concur Non-Affiliated Subprocessors

The list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: SAP Concur list of Subprocessors (English Only)

Monthly Browser Certifications

Monthly browser certifications, both current and planned, are available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Standard Edition