April 2019 Expense Standard Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Note Summaries
Admin
Add IP Addresses to Safe Sender ListSAP Concur is transitioning to a new email infrastructure for outbound email from our services to SAP Concur users. Because of this, companies who filter inbound email based on the sending IP address must add new IP addresses to their Safe Sender list to ensure that their users receive email from SAP Concur.
Initially, the issue described here affected only companies that use Concur Expense. Starting in January, email from other SAP Concur services (such as Travel and Concur Pay) will move to the new email infrastructure.
We will continue to add other services. Please monitor the release notes for more information about the timing of the additional changes.
Reminder: No Personal or Sensitive Data in Custom FieldsAll companies must take all reasonable steps to protect the personal and sensitive information of their employees. As per recommended security-related best practices, remember that custom fields should not contain personal and sensitive data.
Next Steps
If your company is currently using custom fields to store personal or sensitive data (for example, Social Security numbers, family member names, or any other personally identifying information), you should plan to remove this information from your existing fields within the service and modify your current configuration.
Refer to the FAQ (English Only) for additional information.
Budget
Workflows for Budget Now AvailableWorkflows are now available for Budget. Workflows define how the system routes invoices, expense reports, and requests through approval and processing steps. The flexible workflow feature for Budget that SAP Concur offers 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 organization with limited options and budget owners with, for example, exceeded budgets. In addition, early spending means that more important (to the organization) 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 organizations to add in controls when it makes sense to fine tune to an organization's specific needs.
Equally important is the determination when a spending item is regarded as committed toward a budget. In most organizations, the commit is when a spending item is paid; it went through most if not all approval steps. In other organizations, the commit occurs much earlier. As soon as a purchase request or an authorization request is approved it is regarded as committed.
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
(USD/CAD) Update: Retirement of Classic Pay and Migration to Global Pay (Deadline Sept 1)SAP Concur’s Expense Pay (classic) products execute payments associated with processing expense reports. 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 anExpense 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: SEPTEMBER 1, 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 September 1 retirement date. Expense Pay – Global supports USD, CAD, GBP, and Euro today. Customers using other currencies on classic Expense Pay are not mandated 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, 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 MaintenanceThe 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.
Languages
Country Pack Now Includes Language Support (Indonesia)Previously, the Indonesian country pack came with English only. The Indonesian country pack now includes Indonesian, as well as English. Indonesian language support is available to new and existing customers, who have the Indonesian country pack.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement provides greater functionality for global companies.
Next Generation (NextGen) Expense
New User Interface for Concur Expense End Users **Ongoing**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.
Planned Change Summaries
Admin
**Planned Changes** SAP Concur Product Access Changes (June)Customers will need to access SAP Concur products and services via the following domains:
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*.concursolutions.com
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*.concurcdc.cn
This change is targeted for June 8, 2019.
SAP Concur recommends clients migrate to one of the domains at their earliest convenience, if they are not already using one of them.
Please contact appsec@sap.com for any questions regarding this change.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change will allow customers to access SAP Concur services in a consistent, secure manner.
Authentication
**Planned Changes** New Forgot Password Page and Related Feature DeprecationThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
SAP Concur will have a new Forgot Password feature added to the SAP Concur Sign In page, providing an updated login experience for users who log in with user name and password credentials.
Currently, depending on a company's configuration, there may be several options available for the forgotten password process. When the new Forgot Password feature becomes available (targeted for May 11), those additional options will be removed. They are:
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Security Questions: Users will no longer receive security question prompts for login authentication.
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On-page text: Company custom text will no longer display.
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Password hints: The option, Send me an email with my password hint, will no longer be available.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides greater security for user passwords and streamlines the user experience.
**Planned Changes** New SAP Concur Sign In PageThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
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 be able to start the SSO login process at www.concursolutions.com. This feature is planned for 2019.
The new Sign In page feature includes the following:
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Two-step login: provides enhanced security, meets current industry standards, and provides a better login success rate
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Multi-account login: allows administrators to log in with multiple accounts (planned for a future release)
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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.
**Planned Changes** No Future Bulk Password Resets or Updates via Import FileThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
The password field in the 100, 300, 305, 310 record sets will no longer be used to update or bulk reset user passwords. SAP Concur will change the functionality in imports such that the password field is only used when a user account is created. The field will no longer be used to update or bulk reset user passwords. The update and replace password features on the 100 record will no longer be used.
This change impacts the employee import and the user import features.
EMPLOYEE IMPORT
The password field will remain available in the 100, 300, 305, 310 records sets, but will only be read during an initial import of the file, or when creating a new user in the system. Subsequent uses of the field will be ignored by the system. The update and replace password features on the 100 record will no longer be used.
For general information about this functionality, refer to the Shared: Employee Import User Guide for Concur Standard Edition (English Only).
USER IMPORT
The password field will remain available in the downloadable Excel template, but will only be read during an initial import of the file, or when creating a new user in the system. Subsequent uses of the field will be ignored by the system.
For general information about this functionality, refer to the Shared: User Setup Guide for Concur Standard Edition (English Only).
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change provides greater security for user passwords.
**Planned Changes** Single Sign-On (SSO) Self-Service Option Coming to SAP ConcurThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
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 organization.
SAP Concur is planning to add a Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature to SAP Concur products which provides clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO for their organization. SSO is currently supported for Concur Expense, Invoice, Request, and Travel.
The new Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature is a replacement tool for clients using existing SSO configuration and a new tool for clients that now want to implement SSO at their organization. Existing SSO configuration and the new SSO Self-Service tool will both be available until everyone has migrated to the new SSO Self-Service tool.
Other SAP Concur products and services are outside the scope of this initial release.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides SAP Concur clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO.
E-Receipts
**Planned Changes** New Look for Air E-ReceiptsAs part of our ongoing commitment to e-receipts and the effortless expense report, air e-receipts generated by SAP Concur based on ticket and coupon data from GDS and some TripLink transactions are getting a new look.
User / Customer Benefit: This change brings air e-receipts up to SAP Concur’s standard e-receipt format, providing users with a more consistent experience in Concur Expense. The format is also more convenient for users working in NextGen Expense. This change also eliminates a performance/stability issue for end users who would sometimes not see new air e-receipts as quickly as they should have.
Receipts
**Planned Changes** Receipt Digitalization (Paper into Digital) (France)SAP Concur will soon allow the conversion of paper receipts into digital copies with legal value. Receipt Digitalization 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 Receipt Digitalization feature requires that users must be using the NextGen Expense UI. It is recommended that customers migrate to the NextGen Expense UI before activating this service.
To capture legal 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.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides a paperless receipt option that adheres to local requirements and regulations for paper into digital tax receipt processing and compliance.
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
