Concur Invoice Standard Edition Administration Help

December 2018 Expense Standard Edition Admin Summary

Initial Post

Admin

Updated Email Format **Ongoing**

SAP Concur is in the process of updating the format of all email notifications. These changes will provide a fresher, consistent look and feel across all SAP Concur services.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The intent is to provide a consistent, updated look for users.

IMPORTANT

Note the following:

  • Be aware that the email content has not changed – just the look and feel.

  • The changes will appear over time. Each product team (Expense, Invoice, Travel, etc.) decides when to use the new format. Timing will be based on resource availability and the priority of other scheduled enhancements.

  • Do not expect that all product emails will change at the same time. For example, perhaps Expense approval email will be first, and then other Expense notifications will follow.

  • There is no assigned end date to the project. Expect that the changes may take longer than a year.

  • Each team will provide release notes when their new emails are scheduled to appear.

Email Infrastructure Change **Ongoing**

Add IP Addresses to Safe Sender List

SAP Concur is transitioning to a new email infrastructure for outbound email from our products to SAP Concur users. Because of this, companies who filter inbound email based on the sending IP address must add the new IP addresses to their Safe Sender list to ensure that their users receive email from SAP Concur.

Concur Expense Only: Be aware that – at this time – the issue described here affects only companies that use Concur Expense and filter incoming email based on IP addresses. (This includes all editions of Expense – whether the company uses Expense by itself or integrated with any other SAP Concur product or service.) Other SAP Concur services (such as Travel and Concur Pay) are not currently affected.

We are currently targeting the first quarter of 2019 to make additional changes. Please monitor the release notes for more information about the timing of the additional changes.

Expense Assistant

Expense Assistant Can Create Trip-Based Expense Claims

Expense Assistant can automatically create trip-based expense claims and add trip-based expenses to these expense claims. Currently, Expense Assistant automatically creates monthly expense claims as a user's expenses flow into Concur Expense. This is known as creating a calendar-based expense claim.

With this enhancement, Expense Assistant can create either of two types of expense claims: calendar-based and trip-based. When Expense Assistant creates a trip-based expense claim, Expense Assistant will automatically create an expense claim based on a specific trip booked in Concur Travel and will populate the expense claim with the client's expenses that occur between the trip's start and end dates.

Users using Expense Assistant will only be able to have Expense Assistant automatically create calendar-based or trip-based expense claims, not both types of expense claims.

This functionality was made generally available for the existing Expense user interface on 17th November. For users using the NextGen Expense user interface, the user onboarding messaging was made generally available on 28th November.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature automates more of the expense reporting process, to provide an easier end user experience.

Expense Pay

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

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. 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 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 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, 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.

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

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.

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 SAP Concur’s 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.

Products and Users Affected: In order to take advantage of these improvements, Expense customers will be required to transition to NextGen Expense. The following provides information about the timeline and resources available to ensure this process is smooth and efficient for all users.

These UI changes apply to:

  • All editions of Concur Expense (Professional/Premium and Standard)

  • End users; there are no changes for approvers, processors or admins

IMPORTANT! TIMELINE AND MILESTONES

There are three important milestones for customers as they transition from the existing UI to NextGen Expense.

  • We are currently in the Preview Period: During this time, the new UI is available to customers worldwide. We encourage administrators/power users to use the Preview Period to become familiar with the new interface and process flows. This is also an excellent time to begin updating internal training materials and preparing the organisation for the mandatory transition.

  • General Availability (Opt In Period): Following the Preview Period is General Availability. During this period, NextGen Expense will be complete; all features from the existing UI will be available.

    Customers should use this period to execute their organisation's transition plan to the NextGen Expense UI.

  • Mandatory Cutover to NextGen Expense: All customers will be required to move to NextGen Expense. This ensures that SAP Concur continues to offer a consistent user experience for all customers and allows for superior product support.

    Customers are encouraged to complete the tasks necessary to ensure a smooth transition for their organisation during the Preview Period and then transition during General Availability.

Product Settings

Cost Tracking Now Has a New Look, New Name – Released 27 November, 2018

The Cost Tracking page in Product Settings now has a new look and flow, and a new name. All existing functionality remains with improved usability for field setup and management.

This feature was released on 27 November, 2018.

The new enhancements include the following:

  • The Cost Tracking page has been renamed Manage Custom Fields. The new Manage Custom Fields page allows client admins to manage custom fields starting from one page. Linked Lists have been renamed Multi-Level Lists.

  • A new Add New Field page is accessible from the Manage Custom Fields page. The Add New Field page allows client admins to create fields by selecting the field's type and then selecting field options. Client admins can then opt to add list items for the new field, add another field or return to the Manage Custom Fields page.

  • Admins can create up to 12 custom fields, which can be created by typing in a custom field name or choosing from a list of suggestions. Previously, a maximum of 12 custom fields were allowed, but only six could be fields created by typing in a custom field name with the rest having to be chosen from the selected list. This feature will be available to everyone on Wednesday, 5th December, 2018. Until then, only six of the 12 fields can be created by typing in a field name.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature improves custom field management by providing a better end user experience.

Planned Changes

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

Admin: **Planned Changes** Archive Deactivated User Data

As SAP Concur continues to grow, steps must be taken to enhance and improve the performance of our system so that we can meet customer expectations and the needs of their business.

Our overall goal is to significantly improve the performance of SAP Concur services by reducing the amount of data that is stored in our Production datastore. By reducing the data in the Production system, we can use server memory much more efficiently, which reduces processing time for transactions. For this reason, SAP Concur is developing an archive process for users who have been deactivated by their employers for at least three years. The archive process moves this "deactivated" user data from our Production datastore to a separate Reporting datastore.

User / Customer Benefit: Moving deactivated user data will provide faster processing time for transactions. In addition, it provides a more secure environment for inactive users' personal information.

IMPORTANT!

We are currently piloting the process and evaluating the results. Our goal is to ensure that customers are not negatively affected, that we have considered all pertinent scenarios and that the archiving process provides the desired results.

There is no target date for the implementation of this new process. We will announce via release notes well ahead of time.

Admin: **Planned Changes** New SAP Concur Sign In Page

SAP Concur is planning to add a new Sign In page, providing an updated login experience for users who log in with a user name and password credentials. Current Single Sign-On (SSO) users will log in without having to enter additional credentials. This feature is planned for 2019.

The new Sign In page feature includes the following:

  • Two-step login: provides enhanced security, meets current industry standards and provides a better login success rate

  • Multi-account login: allows administrators to log in with multiple accounts

  • Password hint removal: provides better security for users and SAP Concur

  • User avatar: enhances the user experience (planned for a future release)

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides better security and a faster, convenient experience for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.

Budget: **Planned Changes** Workflows for Budget

In a future release, workflows will be available for Budget. Workflows define how the system routes invoices, expense claims and requests through approval and processing steps. SAP Concur's flexible workflow feature for Budget allows companies to design workflows specifically tailored to their unique needs.

Without budget review, budgets may become fully consumed well before the end of a period or year leaving an organisation with limited options and budget owners with, for example, exceeded budgets. In addition, early spending means that more important (to the organisation) spending will be declined because lesser important spending consumed the budget early on.

Combining budget review in the workflow adds value. Audit rules and workflow step rules can help organisations to add in controls when it makes sense to fine tune to an organisation's specific needs.

Equally important is the determination when a spending item is regarded as committed toward a budget. In most organisations, the commit is when a spending item is paid; it went through most if not all approval steps. In other organisations, the commit occurs much earlier. As soon as a purchase request or an authorisation request is approved, it is regarded as "promised".

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature will provide clients with control over the budget spend to, for example, avoid exceeded budgets too early in a budget period or budget year.

Expense Pay – Global: **Planned Changes** (USD) New Payment Processing Partner: WUBS

Public sector clients will be able to use Western Union Business Solutions (WUBS) to process their United States Dollar (USD) payments.

The Expense Pay – Global product functions the same way regardless of which payment-processing partner your funding account is configured to use. What is different about WUBS compared to Bambora (or classic Expense Pay) is how your funding accounts are set up in Concur Expense. Each payment-processing partner has unique forms that must be completed, submitted and approved as part of the onboarding process.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This additional payment-processing partner increases the value of our Expense Pay – Global offering.

Product Settings: **Planned Changes** Single Sign-On (SSO) Self-Service Option Coming to SAP Concur

Single Sign-On allows users to access multiple applications using one set of login credentials. Currently, SAP Concur has two methods for signing in: with a user name and password or using SSO with identity provider (IdP) credentials, such as a user's login credentials for their organisation.

SAP Concur is planning to add a Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature to SAP Concur Standard Editions of Expense, Invoice, Travel and Request to provide clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO for their organisation.

The new Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature will be accessible from the Access To Concur section of Product Settings.

  • Single Sign-On can be managed for Standard Travel if it is bundled with Expense, Invoice and/or Request.

  • For standalone Standard Travel, the Manage Single Sign-On feature will be accessible from the Travel Settings page.

Other SAP Concur products and services are outside the scope of this initial release.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides a self-service option for setting up SSO.

Security: **Planned Changes** Update to File Transfer Authentication

SAP Concur is planning to update an authentication setting for clients who transfer files to/from SAP Concur. The updated setting will lock out user accounts after five failed authentication attempts. Some accounts are already using this setting, and this change will update all accounts to this setting. This authentication change does not impact the main SAP Concur application login, only the file transfer process.

Clients who have locked themselves out of their accounts should contact SAP Concur Client Support to unlock their accounts.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides better security for clients when accessing extract and import files.

Client Notifications

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