October 2021 Concur Expense Standard Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Note Summaries
Authentication
CES SSO DecommissionedThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
SAP Concur will decommission Concur Expense Service (CES) SSO on 29 October, 2021.
SAP Concur now provides a Single Sign-On self-service option that enables client admins to set up their SAML v2 connections without involving an SAP Concur admin.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change provides better security and improved support for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.
Authentication Administration
New Company Request Token Self-Service ToolIn late August, a new Company Request Token self-service tool will be available to SAP Concur admins who have been assigned the Company Admin or Web Services Admin role.
The Company Request Token self-service tool enables clients to generate the Company Request Token that is required to request a JSON web token (JWT) when connecting to APIs on the SAP Concur platform.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The Company Request Token self-service tool enables clients to generate Company Request Tokens without contacting SAP Concur support. This tool also enables clients to generate a replacement Company Request Token without assistance from SAP Concur support if their Company Request Token expires or is lost.
Client Web Services
Register Partner Application Page No Longer ActiveOn 21 August, the Register Partner Application page was deactivated.
With the October release, a new application management self-service tool will replace the Register Partner Application page.
For more information, refer to the Self-Service Tool for Application Management release note in these release notes.
Prior to the release of the new self-service tool, clients with SAP Concur Client Web Services can contact Client Web Services to register new applications.
Clients who do not have SAP Concur Client Web Services can still contact SAP Concur support to obtain an App ID as needed.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The Register Partner Application page was used to create OAuth 1.0 (legacy) applications. OAuth 1.0 was deprecated on 4 February 2017.
For more information about the deprecation of OAuth 1.0 and migration to OAuth 2.0, refer to the SAP Concur Developer Portal.
The new self-service tool for application management will enable clients to create OAuth 2.0 compliant applications.
Self-Service Tool for Application ManagementBeginning with the October release, clients who have SAP Concur Client Web Services can request access to a new application management self-service tool, OAuth 2.0 Application Management. This self-service tool is enabled by the Client Web Services team for SAP Concur Web Services clients who request it.
When enabled, the tool is available from the Authentication Administration page to admin users who have been assigned the Web Services Admin role.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The OAuth 2.0 Application Management tool enables clients to generate Client IDs (App IDs) and Client Secrets without contacting SAP Concur support.
Expense Pay – Global
"Global" Label Renamed to "Payment Provider"An existing label in the user interface (UI) has been renamed. This change is only cosmetic.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change aligns with continued enhancements to the Expense Pay solution.
(CAD and USD) Additional Card Programs Supported for Bambora/WorldlineExpense Pay – Global now supports the following credit card programmes for the Canadian Dollar (CAD $) and the United States Dollar (USD $):
Citizens Bank – MasterCard – USD
Fifth Third – MasterCard - USD
Scotiabank – Visa – CAD
Scotiabank – Visa – USD
All cards use the same Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) format to different bank accounts.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: These additional options can expedite the processing of credit card expenses.
New Field for Card ProgrammesFor clients using Bambora as their payment partner, a new optional field has been added to the Concur Expense user interface (UI) for some card programmes. This field is for future use only.
File Transfer Updates
**Ongoing** Mandatory SFTP with SSH Key AuthenticationThis 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.
**Ongoing** SAP Concur Legacy File Move MigrationThis 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.
Rotating PGP Key Available for File TransfersFiles 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.
Financial Integration
Financial Integration UI Text ChangesWith the October release, instances of UI text that reference a specific financial integration partner, will be genericised to the term "ERP".
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change simplifies translation of the UI and provides a more consistent user experience.
Miscellaneous
**Ongoing ** SAP Concur Homepage ChangesIn Q4, 2021, SAP Concur began redirecting clients to a new homepage. The appearance of the new homepage is identical to the previous SAP Concur homepage. The new homepage has enhanced functionality when services become temporarily unavailable.
The roll out of the new homepage is phased:
Phase 1: At the beginning of Q4, SAP Concur began redirecting Concur Expense, Concur Invoice and Concur Request clients in the US Datacentre to the new homepage.
Phase 2: In November 2021, SAP Concur will begin redirecting Concur Expense, Concur Invoice and Concur Request clients in the EU Datacentre to the new homepage.
Phase 3: In Q2 of 2022, SAP Concur will begin redirecting the remaining clients in the US and EU datacentres to the new homepage. The remaining clients include those with Concur Travel standalone or Concur Travel with Expense, Invoice and/or Request.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change ensures that the SAP Concur homepage is available even when some services are unavailable and improves the consistency of the sign-in experience.
New IP Address Range For Callouts (25 Oct) (EMEA)On 25 October, servers that support SAP Concur callouts in the EMEA datacentre will be upgraded. This maintenance includes migration of some services to new servers. When the migration occurs, the IP addresses associated with these services will change.
These servers support the following functionality:
Fetch Attendee Data Callout
Fetch List Item Callout
Event Notification Callout
Launch External URL Callout
Concur Salesforce Connector
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The migration improves the stability and reliability of connections that pass these servers.
NextGen UI
**Ongoing** Updated User Interface (UI) for Concur Expense End UsersThe continued evolution of the Concur Expense solution user interface experience is the result of thoughtful design and research that provides a modern, intuitive and streamlined experience for creating and submitting expense claims.
Concur Expense customers are now strongly encouraged to preview and then move to the NextGen UI well before the automatic transition date of 1 October, 2022.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The result is the next generation of the Concur Expense user interface designed to provide a modern, consistent and streamlined user experience. This technology not only provides an enhanced user interface, but also allows us to react more quickly to customer requests to meet changing needs as they happen.
SAP Concur App Centre
Ability to Disable/Hide Enterprise ApplicationsWith the October 2021 release, administrators will be able to control which Enterprise Applications are visible and/or active in their company’s SAP Concur App Centre. Prior to this release, administrators could disable and hide User Applications within the SAP Concur App Centre. This update expands that functionality to Enterprise Applications.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This update provides greater control to administrators over the apps that appear in their company’s SAP Concur App Centre.
Web Services Administration
**Ongoing** Application Connector Username and Password Length Requirements UpdatedThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
To meet new security requirements, the length of the username and password associated with an application connector on the Application Connectors page must be at least 10 characters long and not more than 50 characters long.
Some clients currently have usernames and passwords configured that do not meet these parameters.
In an upcoming release, the 10-character minimum and 50-character maximum will be enforced. If the usernames and passwords are not updated prior to this change, some aspects of SAP Concur solutions might stop working. For example, workflow steps will not complete if using notifications, LEU windows will not open and there will be no results in fields using fetch lists.
To avoid disruption of callouts through application connections and subsequent disruption of some end-user tasks, SAP recommends updating your application connector username(s) and password(s) as soon as possible.
Application connection usernames and passwords can be updated by an administrator with the Company Administrator or Web Services Administrator role.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Enforcing password and username length restrictions improves the security standards for callouts made through the application connector.
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 may not be 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 in a consolidated document. Please review the additional Planned Changes admin summaries available in the October 2021 Shared Planned Changes Standard Edition Admin Summary.
Expense Pay Classic
**Planned Changes** Decommission of All CurrenciesSAP Concur has been pursuing a multi-year effort to transition our portfolio of payment solutions to payment-provider-enabled solutions. This is evidenced by our existing Expense Pay Global solution with Bambora and planned Expense Pay Flex solution with Western Union Business Solutions.
Currently, SAP Concur is planning to decommission the legacy Expense Pay classic solution effective 01 January 2022. As we move into the next phase of our pay strategy via payment provider solutions, this decommission will require customers using Expense Pay classic to enable alternative solutions. Payments for Expense Pay classic for all currencies will discontinue to employees and credit card providers as of 15 December 2021. Customers using Expense Pay classic have been communicated with directly regarding this change.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change is part of a transition to payment-provider-enabled solutions to support future product enhancements and richer integration.
Product Settings
**Planned Changes** Activation WizardBeginning with the November release, SAP Concur plans to implement Activation Wizard, an in-product, self-service guidance system for all new clients.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The Activation Wizard enables clients to implement the core features of Concur Expense without the assistance of an SAP Concur activation coach.
Workflow
**Planned Changes** Authorised Approvers Sort Order EnhancementUsing the setting Automatically assign authorised approvers ensures that all Authorised Approval steps in the workflow are pre-populated with an assigned Authorised Approver. If there are multiple possible Authorised Approvers that could be assigned to a specific Authorised Approver workflow step, the system will order the choices alphabetically by last name, followed by first name (if there is more than one person with the same last name), and then select the first choice from the alphabetised list.
Prior to this enhancement, the names were ordered by first name.
Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change provides a consistent user experience.
Client Notifications
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)
Supported Browsers
Supported browsers are available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Standard Edition
