Concur Invoice Standard Edition Administration Help

April 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

Concur Invoice

Access Change on Unassigned Invoices Page for Processors and AP Users

Previously, clients with both the AP User and the Processor role could access the Unassigned Invoices page to process invoices. With this release, clients with these roles will be able to access the Unassigned Invoices page, but what they see is based on their supplier group access. This ensures they only see invoices that are relevant for their role.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables clients to see only invoices relevant for their user role, streamlining the content they see on the Unassigned Invoices page.

Authentication

**Ongoing** Deprecation of HMAC and Migration to SAML v2 and the SSO Self-Service Tool

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

SAP Concur support for Hash-Based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) is being deprecated. Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and SAP Concur personnel are currently assisting clients who use HMAC to migrate to SAP Concur SAML v2 SSO (SAML v2).

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).

The HMAC deprecation includes two phases:

PHASE I:

  • Clients must have an identity provider (IdP) or a custom SAML 2.0 compliant solution.

  • Clients begin testing authentication using SAML v2.

  • TMCs prepare to onboard new SAP Concur clients to SAML v2.

  • 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 to SAML v2.

  • Existing clients using HMAC must migrate to SAML v2.

PHASE II:

  • TMCs have migrated all existing SAP Concur clients from the HMAC service to SAML v2.

  • The HMAC service is deprecated. Phase II is targeted to end mid-year in 2021.

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

View Previous Changes Added to Manage Single Sign-On Page (23 Mar)

On 23 March, the View Previous Changes feature was added to the Administration > Company > Authentication Admin > Manage Single Sign-On page. This feature enables the Authentication Admin to view a table that lists SAP Concur Single Sign-On (SSO) configuration changes, view details of those changes and revert (reinstate) deleted configurations.

The View Previous Changes table can display the last 100 changes. Changes that are listed in the table include:

  • Adding a configuration

  • Deleting a configuration

  • Editing the name in the Custom IdP Name field

  • Editing the URL in the Logout URL field

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables the Authentication Admin to view and track changes made to the SSO configuration over time and to revert (reinstate) configurations that were previously deleted.

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 solutions 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 clients 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 31 July 2021. 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.

Financial Integration

Sage Intacct Integration (1 Mar) (US)

SAP and Sage have partnered to make accounting for expenses in Sage Intacct easier.

Clients who purchase the Sage Intacct integration can import Sage Intacct data (source data) into Concur Expense and/or Concur Invoice standard edition. This data enables clients to utilise their unique accounting data when entering expenses and/or invoices. The data is updated in Concur Expense and/or Concur Invoice regularly. The source data export loads employee and invoice vendors/suppliers from Sage Intacct to Concur Expense and/or Concur Invoice during the implementation.

The financial posting process sends expense reports and invoices that are ready to be posted from SAP Concur solutions to Sage Intacct, utilising APIs from the SAP Concur platform. Concur Expense and/or Concur Invoice send the expense data as a vendor 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 Concur solutions to Sage Intacct and the transmission of status information back to SAP Concur solutions. 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 Concur Expense and/or Concur Invoice and Sage Intacct.

User Administration

Updates to User Administration Pages (25 Mar)

On 25 March, SAP implemented several improvements to the SAP Concur User Administration pages, including:

  • Enabling user admins to select multiple users to activate users and send email invitations

  • Implementing an alert on the Users page that indicates that a user’s account is incomplete

  • Adding a feature to the Edit User page that lists fields that are incomplete and provides a link to quickly navigate to the incomplete fields

  • Updating the Users page so that the user admin can click the user’s last name to open the Edit User page for that user

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide a simpler, more efficient experience for user administrators.

**Ongoing** New User Administration Pages

On 11 February, SAP Concur made new Add User and Edit User pages available to all Standard edition clients. Clients were able to opt in to use the new pages and provide feedback on the pages through a survey.

The functionality of the new Add User and Edit User pages is the same as the functionality of the previous Create User and Edit User pages. The format of the pages has changed and the fields on these pages have been reorganised.

On 11 March 2021, the new Add User and Edit User pages became the default pages and clients had the option of reverting to the previous page design.

On 8 April, the new Add User and Edit User pages replaced the previous Create User and Edit User pages for all clients and the option to revert to the previous page design was removed.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide a simpler, more efficient experience for user administrators.

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 April 2021 Shared Planned Changes Standard Edition Admin Summary.

There are currently no planned changes.

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