Concur Invoice Standard Edition Administration Help

August 2019 Expense 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

Admin

Shared Planned Changes Release Notes Consolidated

With this release, SAP Concur will consolidate the shared Planned Changes release notes into one document, instead of having the Planned Changes information repeated in several sets of release notes.

This consolidated Planned Change information is provided in addition to the product-specific Planned Changes release notes. For example, if a planned change applies only to Travel, it will only be available in the Travel release notes. So, users are encouraged to read the product-specific release notes as well as the Shared Planned Changes.

User / Customer Benefit: This change allows users to find shared Planned Changes release notes in one place. It also makes it easier for clients to keep track of updates to the Planned Changes release notes.

Authentication

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

SAP Concur 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, which will be a self-service method of setup whereby Company Admins will have access within SAP Concur 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. The new SSO self-service tool will be offered as a free feature to all clients. The new SSO self-service tool allows multiple portals (Identity Providers) to be added.

The HMAC deprecation includes two phases:

Phase I:

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

  • Clients begin testing the new SSO self-service tool. Testing can begin as soon as July 2019 if preparation steps have been met.

  • Clients prepare for onboarding new clients using the new SSO self-service tool, which is targeted to release in September 2019.

  • As of 1 November 2019, no new clients will be onboarded using HMAC. New clients will 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:

  • Clients continue migrating existing HMAC clients 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.

Company Cards

JP Morgan Chase MasterCard Feed Changes

For customers using the JP Morgan Chase (JPMC) MasterCard card feed, SAP Concur has modified the handling of certain inbound transactions to allow them to display as regular expenses. Specifically, inbound transactions that have the following ARC type and description pairings:

ARC TypeDescription
0130DISPUTE REBILL
0138FRAUD REBILL
0106DISPUTE CREDIT
0168FRAUD CREDIT

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change allows certain transactions to display (as intended by the issuer, JPMC) as regular expenses (rather than being hidden as they currently can be based on your configuration) so that users can include them on expense claims.

E-Receipts

Notice About Legitimate Email from Uber

Uber has deprecated an older connection method to Concur Expense, called SMTP or "Receipt Images via Email", on 24 July. Uber emailed certain SAP Concur users, asking them to reconnect their Concur Expense account to their Uber account.

This is a result of Uber updating their integration to the more robust SAP Concur Receipts v4 API and subsequently deprecating the SMTP connection. SMTP is a non-App Centre connected / non-OAuth integration which forwards PDF images of receipts to the user’s Concur Expense account.

Specifically, SAP Concur users who received this email are those that set up a Business Profile within the Uber app, selected Concur as their Expense provider and verified an email address associated with their Concur Expense account. Connecting to SMTP was available until March 2019.

SAP Concur users who, when prompted by this email, reconnected their Concur Expense and Uber accounts continue to receive e-receipts from Uber displayed in Concur Expense.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Uber deprecated their SMTP/"Receipt Images via Email" connection in favour of the more robust Receipts v4 integration in the SAP Concur App Centre. The SMTP connection did not provide many of the features offered by the Receipts v4 integration, including pre-populated expense fields and matching to corporate card transactions (if available).

Benefits of the new Receipts v4 integration available in the SAP Concur App Centre include:

  • Global availability – works across US & EU Data Centres

  • Easier connection login

  • Better receipt image rendering

  • Richer receipt data, such as ride location and times

  • All standard Expense fields are pre-populated with data

  • Automatically matched to a corporate card transaction, when applicable

Expense Pay

(USD/CAD) Update: Retirement of Classic Pay and Migration to Global Pay (Deadline 1 Sept.)

SAP Concur’s Expense Pay (classic) products execute payments associated with processing expense claims. To ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory requirements, tailored to geo-diverse markets, SAP Concur has engaged dedicated, experienced, third-party payment-processing partners and developed a next-generation pay product: Expense Pay – Global.

As previously announced in these release notes (September 2017), moving forward, SAP Concur will use one Expense Pay product to service your business anywhere in the world. SAP Concur’s Expense Pay – Global product will replace our existing legacy Expense Pay (classic) offerings (including NA Pay, EMEA Pay and next APA Pay.) For SAP Concur clients with an Expense Pay product, Expense Pay – Global will be our go-forward product. This notification begins our sunset process for all legacy Expense Pay (classic) products.

Expense Pay – North America Sunset Date: 1 SEPTEMBER 2019

Over 4000 customers have already migrated to Expense Pay – Global. Customers paying in USD and CAD must switch their subscription from the depreciating service, “Expense Pay – North America”, to “Expense Pay – Global” prior to the 1 September retirement date. Expense Pay – Global supports USD, CAD, GBP and EUR today. Customers using other currencies on classic Expense Pay are not required to migrate those currencies this year but are welcome to start the migration process. Contact paymigration@concur.com to discuss and schedule your migration.

Expense Pay – North America and Expense Pay – EMEA Limitations

SAP Concur does not support clients adding the following currencies with the classic product: United States Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Mexican Pesos, European Euro, Swiss Franc, Danish Krone, Swedish Krona or UK Pounds. If a client has already implemented and is using these currencies with the classic product, they can continue using these until they are migrated to the new platform or until the defined sunset date.

Please also be aware of the following release note in the June version of this document: Expense Pay | New Approval Process for Classic Funding Accounts.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The Expense Pay – Global offering maintains industry best practices for payment processing functionality within SAP Concur.

Expense Pay – Global

Step-By-Step Direct Deposit Authorisation Instruction Link Added to Assist Users

A step-by-step direct deposit authorisation instruction link has been added to assist users who did not receive expected funds because they had not yet authorised the payment-processing partner to make deposits to their bank account.

The account history information of banking information in the user's profile now includes a link to step-by-step instructions in the description column.

Additionally, the Expense Pay notification email that the user receives when the system could not make a payment to their account now contains a link to step-by-step instructions.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change helps users to authorise the payment-processing partner.

File Transfer SSH Protocol

Support Ending for Unsecured SSH Protocol Algorithms/Ciphers

SAP Concur will no longer support the following unsecured SSH protocol algorithms/ciphers:

  • (key exchange) diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1

  • (encryption) aes128-cbc

  • (encryption) aes192-cbc

  • (encryption) aes256-cbc

  • (message authentication code) hmac-md5

  • (message authentication code) hmac-sha1-96

  • (message authentication code) hmac-md5-96

This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:

  • st.concursolutions.com

  • st-eu.concursolutions.com

  • st-cge.concursolutions.com

  • st-cge-dr.concursolutions.com

  • vs.concurcdc.cn

If assistance is required, please contact SAP Concur support.

For more information, refer to the Shared: File Transfer for Customers and Vendors User Guide (English Only). (This guide is located with the other Expense, Invoice and/or Request setup and user guides.)

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

Financial Integration

Sage Accounting Integration and Sage Accounting Integration for Invoice Processing Now Available

SAP Concur and Sage are partnering to make accounting for expenses in Sage Accounting easier. Concur Standard Edition will now let you import Sage Accounting data (master data) into your SAP Concur configuration. This data allows you to utilise your unique accounting data when entering expenses and/or invoices. The data is updated in SAP Concur regularly. The master data export loads employee and invoice vendors/suppliers from Sage Accounting to SAP Concur during the implementation.

The financial posting process sends expense claims and invoices that are ready to be posted from SAP Concur to Sage Accounting, utilising APIs from the SAP Concur Platform. SAP Concur sends the expense data as a vendor bill (for cash reimbursements) or as an "other" payment (for credit card charges). The integration sends the invoice data as a vendor bill (US) or purchase invoice (UK). The integration manages the transmission of expense and invoice data from SAP Concur to Sage Accounting, and the transmission of status information back to SAP Concur. The financial posting happens as soon as the claim or invoice is approved for payment, without waiting for a batch schedule. The client will see 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.

The SAP Concur integration is available for the Sage Business Cloud Accounting (formerly Sage One) product. The integration does not work with other Sage products (Sage 50, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, etc.).

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

Japan Public Transportation (JPT)

Jorudan Maintenance

The Japan Public Transportation (JPT) database of stations and lines received routine maintenance changes such as additions, name changes and removals.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Lists in Concur Expense continue to reflect JPT's current stations and lines.

Miscellaneous

Updates for Concur Open and Personalised Concur Open

Over the next several weeks, users will see several enhancements to Concur Open and Personalised Concur Open.

What the User Sees

Subscriber Email (Concur Open and Personalised Concur Open)

The email sent to subscribers has been rebranded and styled to match the SAP experience while displaying an easier-to-read content layout. The content of the subscriber email has not changed, but the look-and-feel and the headings have been updated.

The current and new headings are:

Current HeadingNew Heading
Initial Impact AssessmentIssue Identified
Confirmed ImpactStatus Update
Update
ResolvedIssue Resolved
After the FactIssue Identified and Resolved

Service Status Dashboard (Concur Open and Personalised Concur Open)

When a user clicks the red or partial red dot to view status information on the Service Status Dashboard page, the information appears just as before but the headings have been updated to match the new subscriber email (as shown in the table above).

Service Status History Dashboard (Personalised Concur Open)

Just as before, the link in the lower-left corner of the Personalised Concur Open Service Status Dashboard page provides access to the Service Status History Dashboard page. On that page:

  • The current column heading of Detailed RCA has been changed to Root Cause Analysis.

  • A link to view the Root Cause Analysis report for each P1 will appear in the Root Cause Analysis column.

Next Generation (NextGen) Expense

**Ongoing** New User Interface for Concur Expense End Users

Update: In order to respond to and take advantage of feedback from customers, and to align with the SAP Concur commitment to ensure a smooth and successful transition, we are working on a revised deployment strategy for Next Generation Expense.

SAP Concur is dedicated to the consistent improvement of our products, not only the features they provide, but also the experience of using those features. How users interact with technology changes over time, along with needs and expectations. We are constantly listening to our customers and soliciting feedback on how we can improve the user experience.

NextGen Expense is the continued evolution of the SAP Concur user experience. It was built from extensive user research and data analytics that include 680 1:1 conversations, 58 usability studies, 3,000+ survey responses and 1.3B monthly user actions.

Customers will have the ability to preview and then opt in to NextGen Expense before the mandatory cutover.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The result is the next generation of the Expense user interface designed to provide a modern, consistent and streamlined user experience. This technology not only provides an enhanced UI, but also allows SAP Concur to react more quickly to customer requests to meet changing needs as they happen.

Product Settings

User Export Allows Bulk Edit of Multiple Users

Client administrators are now able to export all existing users in SAP Concur to an Excel spreadsheet file, allowing admins to make bulk edits for multiple users. Once edits are made in the spreadsheet, the information can be uploaded into SAP Concur, populating user profiles with new data.

Previously, if client administrators needed to edit user profiles, the edit would need to be done individually for each user in their user profiles. This was a time-consuming process for admins.

The new user export feature allows client admins to:

  • Export a list of existing active users and their profile attributes

  • Perform a bulk edit of user data, such as marking multiple users as inactive

  • Complete user profile information imported using QuickBooks Web Connector

  • Populate custom field information when new fields are created after the initial user import

Existing users are downloaded into the existing spreadsheet template. The structure of the employee import spreadsheet template remains the same, except that it is now also used to export users. The spreadsheet includes all existing user attributes except for passwords and credit card and banking information. Up to a maximum of 1,000 users can be included in the export.

This change is available to new and existing clients.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature allows client administrators to bulk edit multiple users and upload the data from the spreadsheet back into SAP Concur.

Quick Expense

Quick Expense v3 Deprecation

SAP Concur is deprecating the Quick Expense v3 API due to security vulnerabilities identified. This API is being replaced by Quick Expense v4. Quick Expense v3 will be decommissioned in a future release. Please migrate to the Quick Expense v4 API.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The Quick Expense v3 API only supports the previous authentication method, and it provides access to some fields that are not necessary to expose. These issues are resolved with the new Quick Expense v4 API.

Quick Expense v4 API Available

SAP Concur is releasing Quick Expense v4 for partner and client use. Quick Expense v4 includes the following improvements over Quick Expense v3:

  • Secure authentication: This API supports the current SAP Concur authentication method.

  • Multi-part messages: A developer can post both the data & receipt image in a single call rather than separate calls required by v3.

  • Supports digitisation status: Quick expense v4 POST API supports the eBunsho timestamp requirement, if the client is using this functionality and has completed the required configuration in Concur Expense.

  • Global availability: Quick expense v4 POST API is supported in all SAP Concur data centres.

Quick Expense v4 removes some of the functionality available in v3:

  • ReceiptImageID attribute will no longer be exposed: This attribute may contain personally identifiable information and therefore has been removed to increase data security.

  • GET, PUT and DELETE endpoints will no longer be exposed: These endpoints are not provided in v4 as there is no known business need.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This new version of the Quick Expense API supports the latest SAP Concur API authentication method, and provides several enhancements to the POST functionality.

Screen Share for SAP Concur Support

Introducing Screen Sharing for Authorised Support Contacts

SAP Concur support is implementing the Co-browse feature, a screen-share application that is available to all Authorised Support Contacts (ASCs).

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Screen sharing often makes a problem easier to describe, easier to understand and quicker to resolve – saving time for ASCs and SAP Concur support.

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 August 2019 Shared Planned Changes Standard Edition Admin Summary.

Company Cards

**Planned Changes** Amex Business Card Connection (US)

SAP Concur will soon offer an American Express (Amex) business card connection. The Amex Business Card direct connect feature will allow customers to connect Amex business credit cards while in Concur Expense.

The Amex Business Card feature provides the following functionality:

  • Provides an automatic daily refresh of transactions from Amex to SAP Concur (Concur Expense users do not need to sign into Amex to refresh transactions)

  • Offers compatibility with SAP Concur Expense Assistant

  • Allows the primary card holder to manage transactions without having to view all supplemental card transactions

  • Supports Delegate and Proxy capabilities on transactions

  • Provides transaction currency handling for foreign transactions

  • Includes viewing available transactions

  • Includes Concur Analytics for Standard reporting (including unsubmitted transactions)

This feature is targeted for Q3 2019. Additional countries will be included in future releases.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides SAP Concur customers with a business card connector.

Receipts

**Planned Changes** Receipt Digitalisation (Paper into Digital) (France)

SAP Concur will soon allow the conversion of paper receipts into digital copies with legal value. Receipt Digitalisation will provide SAP Concur customers the ability to conform a paper receipt into a legal digital copy according to their country's regulatory or government authorities.

Once it is available for general release, this feature will be available to new customers and existing customers in France and those who have configurations in France. Additional countries will be included in future releases.

The initial release for France will include:

  • Enabling the conversion of paper receipts into digital copies with legal value

  • Viewing the “Certified” status of the receipt image in NextGen Expense (planned enhancement)

  • Configuring an audit rule that looks for expenses with paper receipts

The Receipt Digitalisation is automatically on for users who are using the NextGen Expense UI. Users who are using the current UI will see no change and the feature will not be in effect for them.

To capture legal paper receipt images, clients must also be using the SAP Concur mobile app and can use ExpenseIt with the mobile app, though ExpenseIt is not required. The user will take a picture of the paper receipt within the mobile app. Once the picture is taken, the digitisation process will be applied to the image. Once the process is complete, a stamp will display on the receipt image in the mobile app confirming whether the receipt is certified or not.

Digitised paper receipt images will display for users in NextGen Expense in Available Expenses, Available Receipts, and in the expense list, like any other receipt.

Approvers and processors will view the certified receipt status in the expense claim and expense list in the existing version of Concur Expense. An audit rule can be created that identifies certified receipts on the expense line item. A new icon will display for receipts that are certified.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides a paperless receipt option that adheres to requirements and regulations for France for paper into digital tax receipt processing and compliance.

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