August 2018 Invoice Standard Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Invoice
New User Interface for Invoice available in Early Access ReleaseSAP Concur has introduced the first version of a new user interface for Invoice clients. Version 1.0 of the new user interface is targeted at the Accounts Payable (AP) user who is constantly monitoring the health of the Invoice lifecycle within the system. With a new AP landing page, concepts of "call to action" and "work to zero" are being brought to the forefront to better inform AP to ensure they are working on the highest priority task.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The new Invoice user interface enables clients to work more efficiently and provides them greater visibility into their invoices in flight.
Payment Request
Historical Origin SourceA new origin source type, Historical Invoice, has been added to the Origin Source field that appears on the Invoice Details page for an invoice. The Historical Invoiceorigin source type indicates that an invoice was imported as a historical invoice.
For more information about historical invoices, refer to the Historical Record (Record Type 210) section in the Invoice: Payment Request Import V2 (Current) Specificationguide.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The addition of the Historical Invoice type to the Origin Source field enables the Invoice Processor and the Invoice Payment Manager to find and filter invoices that were imported into Concur Invoice as historical invoices. The addition of the Historical Invoice type also enables the Invoice Admin to set up audit rules for historical invoices.
Purchase Order APIs
v3.0 Purchase Order and Purchase Order Receipt APIs Updated to Support JWT AuthenticationSAP Concur now supports JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication through the following v3.0 purchase order and purchase order receipt APIs that are available on https://developer.concur.com (English Only):
PURCHASE ORDER APIS
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POST
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PUT
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GET
PURCHASE ORDER RECEIPT APIS
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POST
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PUT
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GET
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DELETE
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes enable SAP Concur to expand partnerships with third-party integration partners, which will provide additional integration options to our clients.
Vendor APIs
v3.0 Vendor APIs Updated to Support JWT AuthenticationSAP Concur now supports JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication through the following v3.0 vendor methods and APIs that are available on https://developer.concur.com (English Only):
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POST
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PUT
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DELETE
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Add/Update Vendor Banking
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Add Vendor Group
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Delete Vendor Group
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes enable SAP Concur to expand partnerships with third-party integration partners, which will provide additional integration options to our clients.
QuickBooks
Prevent Connection to or Disconnection from QuickBooks When Reports or Invoices are In-FlightSAP Concur has updated the connection/disconnection process for QuickBooks to prevent clients from either connecting or disconnecting the integration when they have expense reports or invoices in-flight. The in-flight reports and invoices may have posting issues when the integration is disabled or re-enabled.
This change impacts all QuickBooks integrations:
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The QuickBooks Connector, using QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop
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The Concur Financial Integration with QuickBooks, using QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop (currently in Early Access)
SAP Concur has identified some situations where it is necessary to disconnect the integration despite in-flight reports or invoices. In those cases, clients should contact Concur Client Support for assistance.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature prevents posting failures at companies that need to either connect or disconnect the integration.
Plain Text FTP Support
Support for Plain Text FTP to End on September 1st, 2018SAP Concur announced the End of Support for the use of plain text FTP for transferring data to and from SAP Concur.
Plain text FTP is not a secured protocol and has inherent security vulnerabilities. On September 1st, 2018, SAP Concur Operations will apply a security update to our File Transfer infrastructure, restricting the use of plain text FTP as a part of our ongoing commitment to securing our customers’ data and meeting the audited security requirements of the SAP Concur Trust Platform.
For more information, refer to the Plain Text FTP Retirement FAQ (English Only).
What This Means – The Client Experience: After September 1st, 2018, uploads of file types such as Employee, List, Attendee, and other Import files as well as downloads of SAE and other Extract files that use Plain Text FTP will not be accepted via SAP Concur’s Filemover system. This will significantly impact client usage of SAP Concur products such as Concur Travel, Concur Expense, and Concur Invoice, as well as integration activities to customers’ financial systems. There will be no exceptions beyond September 1st, 2018.
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.
Invoice
**Planned Changes** Payment Request(s) Renamed to Invoice(s)In a future release, SAP Concur will replace instances of the term "payment request" and its iterations with the term "invoice" and its iterations. These changes will be made in the user interface, the Invoice documentation, and any other SAP Concur product documentation where it appears.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change helps to ensure that the terminology used in SAP Concur is consistent with industry standard terminology.
Purchase Order
**Planned Changes** Purchase Order Extract for Invoice Standard EditionIn a future release, SAP Concur will enable Invoice Standard clients to configure purchase order extracts.
With the purchase order extract feature, buyers can extract a purchase order for the vendor goods and services they need in electronic format. The data extracted from Invoice can be used to populate data in the client's financial system.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables clients to automate the extraction of purchase order data from Invoice.
**Planned Changes** Purchase Order Receipt Extract for Invoice Standard EditionIn a future release, SAP Concur will enable Invoice Standard clients to configure purchase order receipt extracts.
The Purchase Order receipt extract enables clients to update their ERP or inventory system with Invoice purchase order good’s receipt data. On extract from the Invoice system, the client can import the extracted receipt data into their system of record so that the inventory values reflect the quantities received.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables clients to automate the extraction of purchase order receipt data from Invoice.
Purchase Request
**Planned Changes** New Receipt Type Field in Custom Audit RulesIn a future release, the purchase request Receipt Type field will be added to the list of fields that are available when the Invoice Admin configures custom audit rules for purchase request items.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables the admin to enforce rules regarding what the Receipt Type field in a service type purchase request must be set to before the purchase request can be submitted.
Create and Approve Vendors
**Planned Changes** Fields No Longer Required When Creating a VendorAt a future date, when a new vendor is created through the Create and Approve Vendors feature, the Vendor Code and the Vendor Address Code fields will no longer be required. These fields will be required when approving a vendor but will not be required when creating a new vendor prior to approval.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement enables the Vendor Manager to allow the Vendor Code and Vendor Address Code field data to be generated automatically by Invoice. This enhancement also ensures that these codes are unique to the vendor.
Concur Open
**Planned Changes** Personalized Concur OpenConcur Open is the SAP Concur service status dashboard. It displays known and widespread outages and incidents for select SAP Concur services and all data centers. Concur Open displays the current service status as well as incident history for the past 20 days.
In a future release, new functionality will be added to Concur Open. Users will continue to access Concur Open and view Concur service availability; no functionality will be removed. However, with the release, SAP Concur users will be able to log in to Concur Open and:
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View service status for the services and the data center that are specific to their company
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Access subscription options for updates about the incidents that impact the services specific to their company
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View service history for the past two years as well as detailed root cause analysis information and the actions taken by SAP Concur for specific incidents
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Customers use Concur Open to monitor their SAP Concur services outages, status, and availability. The new functionality will provide customers a personalized view of their service status and availability. SAP Concur's goal is to provide a more accurate and transparent view of incidents/outages.
Client Notifications
SAP Concur Non-Affiliated SubprocessorsThe list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: SAP Concur list of Subprocessors (English Only)
Monthly Browser CertificationsThe SAP Concur Release Notes – Monthly Browser Certifications document lists current and planned browser certifications. The document is available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes.
