Concur Invoice Standard Edition Administration Help

July 2021 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

Invoice Pay

New Confirmation Process for Invoice Pay ACH Funding Accounts

Effective 30 June 2021, all new Invoice ACH funding accounts will go through an approval process as part of the confirmation of funding accounts. This change has been made as part of the planned retirement of Invoice Pay ACH on 1 January 2022.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change is part of a transition to partner-enabled solutions to support future product enhancements and richer integration.

Authentication

Support for HMAC Now Deprecated

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

SAP Concur support for Hash-Based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) has been deprecated.

SAP Concur provides a Single Sign-On self-service option that enables client admins to set up their SAML v2 connections without involving an SAP Concur support representative.

For more information about the Single Sign-On self-service option, refer to the Shared: Single Sign-On Overview (English Only) and the Shared: Single Sign-On Setup Guide (English Only).

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** Mandatory SFTP with SSH Key Authentication

This release note is intended for technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur products. For SAP Concur customers and suppliers participating in data exchange through various secure file transfer protocols, SAP is making changes that provide greater security for those file transfers.

As of 10 April, 2021, non-SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) protocols and SFTP password authentication are not allowed to connect to SAP Concur for file transfers:

  • Non-SFTP file transfer accounts must switch to SFTP with SSH Key Authentication.

  • SFTP file transfer accounts that use password authentication must switch to SSH key authentication.

  • SFTP password reset requests require the client to provide an SSH key for authentication.

On 12 April 2021, SAP started disabling non-compliant file transfer connections. The process of disabling non-compliant accounts will continue throughout 2021. If you have multiple file transfer connections configured, this change applies to all of your file transfer connections.

This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:

  • st.concursolutions.com

  • st-eu.concursolutions.com

  • vs.concursolutions.com

  • vs.concurcdc.cn

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

Rotating PGP Key Available for File Transfers

Files transferred to SAP Concur products must be encrypted with the SAP Concur public PGP key, concursolutionsrotate.asc.

concursolutionsrotate.asc

  • Key file is available in client’s root folder

  • Key ID 40AC5D35

  • RSA 4096-bit signing and encryption subkey

  • Key expires every 2 years

  • Client is responsible for replacing the key before it expires

    • Next expiry date: 4 September 2022

    • SAP Concur plans to replace the current rotating public PGP key in the client’s root folder 90 days before the expiration date

The SAP Concur legacy PGP key (key ID D4D727C0) remains supported for existing clients but will be deprecated in the future.

SAP Concur strongly recommends that clients use the more secure rotating public PGP key for file transfers. To facilitate the use of the more secure rotating public PGP key for file transfers, SAP Concur added the key to existing client’s home folders on Friday 15 January 2021.

This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:

  • st.concursolutions.com

  • mft-us.concursolutions.com

  • vs.concursolutions.com

  • st-eu.concursolutions.com

  • mft-eu.concursolutions.com

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The rotating public PGP key provides greater security for file transfers.

**Ongoing** SAP Concur Legacy File Move Migration

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

SAP Concur is in the process of 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 24 January 2022. 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 Concur 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.

Cookie Preferences and User Consent

Explicit Cookie Consent and Zero Cookie Load Expanded to More Jurisdictions (1 July)

To ensure that SAP Concur solutions meet the user cookie consent requirements of the European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA), European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the United Kingdom (UK), and Brazil, on 1 July, 2021, SAP implemented explicit cookie consent and zero cookie load for SAP Concur solutions in those jurisdictions.

  • Explicit cookie consent: The user must agree to allow cookies to be stored on their device by responding affirmatively to a request for consent.

  • Zero cookie load: The user must provide explicit cookie consent before any cookies can be saved to their device.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change ensures that SAP Concur sites comply with the cookie consent requirements of the listed jurisdictions and enables users to choose which cookies are downloaded to their devices by SAP Concur solutions.

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 July 2021 Shared Planned Changes Standard Edition Admin Summary.

Invoice Pay

**Planned Changes** Invoice Pay ACH Decommission and Release of Invoice Provider ACH with Bambora

SAP Concur has been pursuing a multi-year effort to transition our portfolio of payment solutions to partner-enabled solutions. This is evidenced by our robust partner options for Invoice payments.

At this time, SAP Concur is accelerating the decommissioning of the Invoice Pay ACH feature of Concur Invoice as of 1 January 2022. As we move into the next phase of our pay strategy via partner solutions, this decommission will require customers using Invoice Pay ACH to enable alternative solutions as payments will not be made to suppliers starting 15 November 2021.

As part of this announcement, Invoice Provider ACH with Bambora is planned to provide the ability to directly manage and execute supplier ACH payments in Payment Manager. With this solution, customers can manage delivery of funds and remittance information, as well as tracking returns and failed payments, with minimal impact on suppliers.

Invoice Provider ACH with Bambora is planned for USD initially and will be a phased implementation that is targeted to start in Q3. First, customers will be able to set up new funding accounts with Bambora and then, in Q4, the integration will be completed so that customers can process payments in the new system.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change is part of a transition to partner-enabled solutions to support future product enhancements and richer integration.

Payment Manager

**Planned Changes** Create New Invoice Provider ACH Funding Accounts

As part of the new Invoice Provider ACH with Bambora service, client who use Invoice Payment Manager will have the ability to create new Bambora funding accounts on the Funding Accounts page in Invoice Payment Manager.

There will be a New Provider Account button that will open a window to enter general funding account information. After the required information has been entered, the Partner Onboarding application for Bambora can be completed. Once the required information has been completed and the Terms and Conditions have been agreed to, the application can be sent to Bambora for review.

The application will then go through Bambora’s certification process. In Invoice Payment Manager the funding account will be updated with the status of the certification from Bambora.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change enables clients to securely set up a funding account with Bambora to be used for processing ACH payments of approved invoices from Concur Invoice.

**Planned Changes** Download Banking Information for Active Suppliers

Clients who use Invoice Payment Manager will be able to download the banking information for active suppliers from the Banking Import page.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change will give clients access to the supplier banking information in Concur Invoice.

**Planned Changes** Pagination Added to Check Configuration List and Funding Account List Pages

Pagination will be added to the Check Configuration List and Funding account List pages in Invoice Payment Manager. A set number of check configurations and funding accounts will be displayed on each page.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change improves page performance when a large number of check configurations or funding accounts are listed.

Client Notifications

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

Accessibility Updates

SAP implements changes to better meet current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Information about accessibility-related changes made to SAP Concur solutions is published on a quarterly basis. You can review the quarterly updates on the Accessibility Updates (English only) page.

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