Concur Invoice Standard Edition Administration Help

November 2018 Invoice Standard Edition Admin Summary

Initial Post

Concur Invoice

New User Interface for Concur Invoice Available for Client Review and Opt-In

After a successful Early Access program of the new user interface, SAP Concur now offers an opt-in phase where all clients have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the new user interface as SAP Concur prepares for general availability targeting the first quarter in 2019.

Through a new setting in Invoice Preferences, clients can enable the new user interface and review the new Invoice Manager page functionality that is targeted at the Accounts Payable (AP) user who is constantly monitoring the health of the Concur Invoice lifecycle within the system.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The new Concur Invoice user interface enables clients to work more efficiently and provides them greater visibility into their invoices in flight.

Purchase Request

New v4 Purchase Request API

A new Purchase Request API is available from the SAP Concur Developer Center.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The Purchase Request API enables developers to create and automatically submit purchase requests for preauthorization leveraging external data, and to retrieve purchase request numbers and statuses by using the POST and GET methods.

Purchase Order

New Purchase Order Extracts Feature With Two New Extracts

On systems with Purchase Request enabled, a new Purchase Order Extracts page is available to the Purchasing Admin. In addition, two new extracts, Purchase Order Extract and Purchase Order Receipt Extract, are available on the Purchase Order Extracts page.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The new Purchase Order Extracts page enables the Purchasing Admin to run an on-demand job to extract purchase order or purchase order receipt data from the Concur Invoice system. After the data is extracted, clients can download the data and then import it into their system of record so that the inventory values reflect the quantities received.

Accounting

New Options in Accounting Software

The following new options are available in the Select your accounting software list on the Accounting page in Product Settings.

  • Sage Accounting

  • Sage Enterprise Management

  • Sage Financials

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement helps maintain current accounting software listings by reflecting popular, current accounting software options.

SAP Concur Email

**Ongoing** Email Infrastructure Change- 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. Be aware that all affected companies will be notified well ahead of time and will be provided all possible options for managing this issue.

**Ongoing** Updated Email Format

SAP Concur is in the process of updating the format of all email notifications. These changes will provide a fresher, more 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:

  • 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 all product emails to 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 for the project. The changes might take longer than a year.

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

QuickBooks

Update QuickBooks Online Integration Authorization

SAP Concur has updated the authorization process for the QuickBooks Online integration to allow clients to re-enter their QuickBooks Online credentials if they have received a re-authorization prompt.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature allows the administrator to re-enter their QuickBooks Online credentials without disconnecting from and reconnecting to SAP Concur.

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.

Concur Invoice

**Planned Changes** New Import Functionality Available for Electronic Invoices

In a future release, SAP Concur will enable Concur Invoice Standard clients to import electronic invoices (e-invoices) into Concur Invoice through the Payment Request Import functionality. When this functionality becomes available, clients will be able to import their e-invoices into Concur Invoice by supplying SAP Concur with a file containing e-invoice data that conforms to the specifications described in the Payment Request Import V2 (Current) Specification.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This functionality will make it easier for clients to import invoice data into Concur 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 in all 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** Import Now for PO and PO Receipt Imports

The Import Now feature enables clients to import PO and PO receipt files into Invoice immediately without having to wait for an overnight scheduled import. This is beneficial for clients who need to import POs and PO receipts and work with them in the Concur Invoice product the same day they are created externally. This also allows clients to do multiple PO and PO receipt imports a day for more synchronized and up-to-date data.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature gives clients control over when and how frequently to import POs and PO receipts into Concur Invoice.

Vendor Management

**Planned Change** Audit Trail for Vendor Changes

In a future release, clients with the Create and Approve Vendors feature enabled will be able to track changes to a vendor through the Audit Trail page within the vendor record in Vendor Manager. For example, when a vendor is approved or updated by the Vendor Manager, those actions will appear on the Audit Trail page.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change will enable users with the Invoice Vendor Manager role to track changes made to vendor information in Vendor Manager.

**Planned Changes** Field Added to Default Vendor Information Form

In a future release, the default form for adding and updating vendor information will include the Country field.

The Country field contains the country associated with the vendor address.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This field enables clients to include additional information about requested and approved vendors.

**Planned Changes** Descriptions Tab Added to Vendor Import and Vendor Banking Import Templates

In a future release, the downloadable Vendor Import and Vendor Banking Import templates will include a new tab that provides details about the columns in the template.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The additional details help the client to ensure that the information in the vendor import template meets the requirements of the fields into which the information will be imported.

**Planned Changes** Vendor Import Messages Improved

In a future release, some of the messages that are displayed in Vendor Manager when clients import vendors using the vendor import template will be improved.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The improved messages will more clearly describe issues that were encountered during the import process so that the Vendor Manager can more easily identify and address these import issues.

**Planned Changes** Create and Approve Vendors Available in Test Environments

In a future release, the Create and Approve Vendors Feature will be available in test environments.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables developers and implementation teams to work with the Create and Approve Vendors feature prior to moving to a production environment.

Budget

**Planned Changes** Workflows for Budget

In a future release, workflows will be available for Budget. Workflows define how the system routes invoices, expense reports, 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 organization with limited options and budget owners with, for example, exceeded budgets. In addition, early spending means spending that is more important to the organization will be declined because less 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 "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.

Product Settings

**Planned Changes** Cost Tracking to Have New Look, New Name – Targeted for End of November

The Cost Tracking page in Product Settings will soon have a new look and flow, and a new name. All existing functionality will remain with improved usability for field setup and management.

This feature is targeted to release on November 27, 2018.

The new enhancements include the following:

  • The Cost Tracking page will be renamed to Manage Custom Fields. The new Manage Custom Fields page will allow client admins to manage custom fields starting from one page. Linked Lists will be renamed to Multi-Level Lists.

  • A new Add New Field page will be accessible from the Manage Custom Fields page. The Add New Field page will allow 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. The remaining six had to be chosen from the provided list.

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

**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 organization.

SSO is currently supported for Concur Expense, Invoice, Request, and Travel. SAP Concur is planning to add a Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature to SAP Concur which provides SAP Concur clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO for their organization.

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 SAP Concur clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO.

SAP Concur

**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 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 log in 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, more convenient experience for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.

Miscellaneous

**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 the deactivated user data from our Production datastore to a separate Reporting datastore.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Moving deactivated user data will provide faster processing time for transactions. In addition, it provides a more secure environment for the 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 targeted date for the implementation of this new process. We will announce the date via release notes well ahead of time.

Additional Information in Future Release Notes: This release note provides basic, general information about the process. Greater detail – for example, about reactivating an archived user, user imports, and admin functions – will be provided in future release notes.

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

The 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.