February 2021 Invoice Standard Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Note Summaries
Capture Processing
Instructions Now Also Available in a Separate WindowSome clients have instructions that they need to follow when verifying an invoice on the Verification page. To make it easier to access these instructions, Capture Processing clients can now click an option in the Instructions section to open a separate window with these instructions. Clients can move and resize this window so that the instructions are easily available next to the invoice they are processing.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement facilitates the processing of invoices. Clients will have the instructions readily available next to the invoice they are working on.
Authentication
**Ongoing** Deprecation of Director SAML Service and Migration to SAML v2These changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
Support for the Director SAML service is being deprecated. Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and SAP Concur personnel will soon begin assisting clients who currently use Director SAML to migrate to SAP Concur SAML v2 SSO (SAML v2).
Clients currently using Director SAML are encouraged to migrate to SAML V2 as soon as possible.
Deprecation of support for the Director SAML service is dependent on the following requirements:
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SAP Concur technicians and TMCs assist existing SAP Concur clients to migrate from the Director SAML service to SAML V2.
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All clients that currently rely on the Director SAML service have migrated from Director SAML to SAML V2.
Migration from Director SAML to SAML V2 requires the following general steps:
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The client identifies an admin to act as the SSO admin and assigns the proper permission/role.
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The SSO admin coordinates with their SAP Concur technician to obtain the SAP Concur SP metadata.
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The SSO admin configures the SSO settings at the IdP based on information from SP metadata.
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The SSO admin retrieves IdP metadata from the IdP and delivers the metadata to the SAP Concur technician.
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The SSO admin adds a few testing users and tests the new SSO connection.
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With successful testing, the company rolls out SSO to their SAP Concur users
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).
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change provides better security and improved support for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.
**Ongoing** Deprecation of HMAC and Migration to SAML v2 and the SSO Self-Service ToolThese 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 setup 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:
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Clients must have an identity provider (IdP) or a custom SAML 2.0 compliant solution.
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Clients begin testing authentication using SAML v2.
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TMCs prepare to onboard new SAP Concur clients to SAML v2.
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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.
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Existing clients using HMAC must migrate to SAML v2.
PHASE II:
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TMCs have migrated all existing SAP Concur clients from the HMAC service to SAML v2.
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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.
Authorized Support Contacts
Security / Data Protection Contact Option to be Added to SAP Concur Support Portal Profile (Dec 3)SAP Concur has added an option to the SAP Concur support portal that enables Authorized Support Contacts (ASCs) to designate whether they should be contacted regarding a security or data protection topic.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement gives clients more control over who in their company is contacted regarding security or data protection topics and provides greater control over which notifications an ASC receives.
File Transfer Updates
Rotating PGP Key Available for File Transfers (January 15)Files transferred to SAP Concur solutions must be encrypted with the SAP Concur public PGP key, concursolutionsrotate.asc.
concursolutionsrotate.asc
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Key file is available in client’s root folder
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Key ID 40AC5D35
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RSA 4096-bit signing and encryption subkey
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Key expires every 2 years
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Client is responsible for replacing the key before it expires
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Next expiry date: September 4, 2022
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SAP Concur plans to replace the current rotating public PGP key in the client’s root folder 90 days before the expiration date
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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, January 15, 2021.
This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:
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st.concursolutions.com
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mft-us.concursolutions.com
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vs.concursolutions.com
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st-eu.concursolutions.com
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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 MigrationThis release note is intended for the technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur. For our clients and vendors 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 July 31, 2021. After they are migrated to the more efficient process, clients will see the following improvement:
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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:
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st.concursolutions.com
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide greater security and efficiency for file transfers.
Financial Integration
Other Current Liabilities QuickBooks Account Type Now SupportedBeginning with the February release, the Other Current Liabilities QuickBooks account type is now supported.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change improves the functionality of the SAP Concur QuickBooks integration with Concur Expense and Concur Invoice.
Release Notes
Preview Release Notes No Longer PublishedStarting with the January 2021 release, SAP Concur Technical Publications will no longer publish the preview release notes. This change is being made to streamline our client communication. With this change, only two sets of release notes will be published for each monthly release cycle: draft release notes and final release notes.
The 2021 Release Calendar (English Only) will be updated to reflect this change.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change simplifies the release notes communications.
For more information about the publishing dates for the draft and final release notes, refer to the 2021 Release Calendar (English Only).
User Administration
**Ongoing** New User Administration PagesOn February 11, SAP Concur made new Add User and Edit User pages available to all Standard edition clients. Clients can opt-in to use the new pages and can provide feedback on the pages through a survey.
The functionality of these pages is the same as the functionality of the preexisting Create User and Edit User pages. The format of the pages has changed and the fields on these pages have been reorganized.
On March 11, 2021, the new Add User and Edit User pages will become the default pages and clients will have the option to revert to the current pages.
At a future date, the new Add User and Edit User pages will replace the current Create User and Edit User pages for all clients and the option to revert to the current pages will be 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 February 2021 Shared Planned Changes Standard Edition Admin Summary.
Concur Invoice
**Planned Changes** Download as Excel From All Sent to Purchasing List View on My Invoices Page – STATUS UPDATESAP Concur is currently in the process of re-evaluating this change. With the next release, this information will be removed. If this change is again considered, information will appear in the release notes document.
Financial Integration
**Planned Changes** Sage Intacct Integration (US) (Mar 1)SAP Concur and Sage are partnering to make accounting for expenses in Sage Intacct easier.
Concur Standard Edition enables participating clients to import Sage Intacct data (source data) into their SAP Concur configuration. This data enables clients to utilize their unique accounting data when entering expenses and/or invoices. The data is updated in SAP Concur regularly. The source data export loads employee and invoice vendors/suppliers from Sage Intacct to SAP Concur during the implementation.
The financial posting process sends expense reports and invoices that are ready to be posted from SAP Concur to Sage Intacct, utilizing APIs from the SAP Concur Platform. SAP Concur sends 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 vendor bill. The integration manages the transmission of expense and invoice data from SAP Concur to Sage Intacct, and the transmission of status information back to SAP Concur. The financial posting happens as soon as the report 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 report 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 both SAP Concur and Sage Intacct.
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
