July 2017 Expense Standard Edition Admin Summary
Last Update: July 28 2017
Expense Pay – Global
Assistance Ensuring Onboarding Information is CompleteClients are no longer able to accept Bambora terms and conditions (for setting up payment-processing partner funding accounts with Bambora) until they have filled in all of the required fields and uploaded all the required documents.
Users filling out Bambora onboarding forms which lack the required information, are no longer allowed to proceed to accepting the terms and conditions. If information is incomplete on one of the Directors tabs, the corresponding tab displays a red exclamation mark.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Clients will no longer be under the impression that the application form is complete if it is not. The ability to accept the terms and conditions and submit the form ensures that the form is complete when presented to the payment-processing partner.
New USD and CAD Card Program: Diners MasterCardExpense Pay – Global now supports Diners MasterCard credit cards for the following currencies:
- United States Dollar (USD)
- Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change adds value for our Expense Pay – Global clients.
Currency-Specific Address Fields for Bambora FormsConcur has changed the names of three address fields. The names are now accurate for the location corresponding to the currency selected.
Concur renamed the following fields for the United States Dollar (USD):
|
Previous Field Name |
New Field Name |
|---|---|
|
Region |
State |
|
Postcode |
ZIP Code |
Concur renamed the following field for the Canadian Dollar (CAD):
|
Previous Field Name |
New Field Name |
|---|---|
|
Region |
Province |
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This localization provides a better client experience.
Audit Codes Replaced with Meaningful TextTo improve the usefulness of information about why employee payment was denied, Concur has replaced Bambora return codes with reason text.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Users and admins will have textual information, rather than a return code, to help them understand why the banking system denied a payment.
QuickBooks
Mapping QuickBooks Items to Expense Types by Policy Group (QBD)Concur now supports mapping expense types to QuickBooks items by policy groups for companies using QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) that are connected to QuickBooks using the QuickBooks Web Connector.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement provides admins with another option when mapping expense types.
Audit Trail
Improved Auditing of Submitted and Returned Expense ReportsWith this release, the Expense audit trail log for an expense report will now include a complete history of changes made by any user. These changes are logged from the initial submission and on throughout the life of the report, including a returned report action. The changes include (but are not limited to) the following actions:
- Expenses added, moved, or deleted by any means, including manually, by Available Expense association, and expenses moved to report
- Changed or deleted receipts
Expense reports returned after submission include changes made on return, including:
- Modified expense line item values, such as expense type, location, amount, vendor, transaction date, and custom field values
- Modified report header values, including policy, custom fields (Cost Center; etc.)
- Cash expenses removed from the returned report
- Receipt images added to or removed from the report or the associated expenses
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement improves the logging capability of the Audit Trail feature.
Setup
Company Industry List UpdatedConcur updated the Select your company's industry list on the Accounting page in Setup. A number of popular industries were added to the list, some items in the list were renamed, and some were removed.
The industry selected from the list is informational only and helps determine which cost tracking fields are displayed under Most frequently used by your industry section on the Cost Tracking – Data To Track page in Setup.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement provides clients with an updated list of popular industries to choose from.
Supported Configurations
Support for TLS v 1.0 Encryption Protocol to End – COMPLETEUPDATE: Please note these dates:
- EU datacenter: Completed on Tuesday, April 4 2017
- US datacenter: Completed on Wednesday, July 12 2017
Several months ago, Concur announced an End of Support cycle for version 1.0 of the TLS encryption protocol, continuing support for the more secure 1.1 and 1.2 versions of TLS. As background, the TLS protocol allows secure back and forth communications between a phone or computer and a cloud-based service.
This process has spanned several months and is now complete.
Travel Allowance
Change in the Calculation of Meal Allowance for a Mixed Trip – Czech RepublicConcur has changed the Czech Republic calculation of meal allowances for two kinds of mixed trips:
- Mixed trips consisting of more than five hours of domestic travel and between five hours and twelve hours of foreign travel
- Mixed trips consisting of foreign travel that is more than 12 hours, but less than 18 hours
The new, legally compliant, calculations are shown in the following table:
BEFORE AND AFTER
|
Kind of Mixed Trip |
Previous Calculation |
New Calculation |
|---|---|---|
|
Domestic travel > 5 hours plus Foreign travel > 5 hours and < 12 hours |
Domestic meal allowance plus 1/3rd of full foreign meal allowance |
1/3rd of full foreign meal allowance |
|
Foreign travel > 12 hours and < 18 hours |
Domestic meal allowance plus 2/3rd of full foreign meal allowance |
2/3rd of full foreign meal allowance |
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The change allows Concur clients who do business in the Czech Republic to maintain best-practice legal compliance.
Recently, we stated that the accessibility feature will no longer be optional and that the feature will be defaulted to ON for all Concur sites.
Upon further research, we have concluded that this change would provide mixed results. Our intent going forward is that – for Expense clients – there will be no change from what they see today and how they use Expense.
Link for Accessing Expense Reports Updated
When an employee submits an expense report for approval, Concur automatically generates and sends the expense report approver the You have a report pending your approval email message. In the auto-generated message, the links to the expense report pending approval were consolidated into one button, View Report.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This update simplifies the email message, making it easier to understand.
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.
**Planned Changes** Enhanced Fiscal Calendar for Analysis / IntelligenceConcur is now targeting to release the enhanced fiscal calendar for Analysis/Intelligence in August. A fiscal calendar allows organizations to define their accounting periods independent of the standard calendar year. Many organizations define their own calendars to model their financial reporting to reflect seasons in their business, to compare results with direct competitors, and to avoid the busy year-end season in January.
The new fiscal calendar will be available under Reporting Configuration, which is accessed via Administration > Expense Settings or Administration > Invoice Settings.
For more information, refer to the release notes for Analysis / Intelligence.
**Planned Changes** Setup is Getting a New Look and Improved NavigationThe current Setup navigation links that appear on each of the Setup pages will be reorganized into a central Settings page containing tiles that provide access to each setup page. The tiles will be grouped by business purpose and will contain a brief description of the associated Setup feature to help administrators understand the purpose of the feature. On clicking a tile, for example Users, you would go to the existing Users page that you use today. A navigation breadcrumb provides a path back to the central Settings page.
Concur is targeting to release this update in the August release.
In future releases, Concur will be making additional improvements to some of the Setup features. Additional information will be available in future release notes.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement will help improve the Setup navigation, and make it easier for new administrators to understand the Setup features and complete the setup tasks.
**Planned Changes** Check for Missing Account Code Later in WorkflowEmployees will be able to save, submit, and approve an expense report even if one or more account codes are missing for expenses in the report.
Currently, whenever an expense is saved, the system validates that an account code has been provided for the related expense type and adds that account code to the expense (a process not visible through the UI). If there is no account code associated with the expense, the expense cannot be saved.
With this update, the report can be submitted and approved. However, the system will block the expense data from being extracted or posted to your financial system until your Concur company administrator provides an account code mapping for the expense type in Setup.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Employees are no longer prevented from completing their expense reports when an account code is missing in the expense type configuration. Account codes are now populated at a single, consistent point in the workflow.
**Planned Changes** Microsoft IE v.10 Browser Support Ends August 18, 2017Support for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 10 browsers under Concur products will end August 18, 2017. Concur strongly advises clients using IE v.10 to update to the latest IE browser version before that date, or to install and work with another supported browser.
Users still using IE v.10 will see a banner.
*Planned Changes** USB IC Card Readers – Japan: Support is EndingThe USB IC Card reader solution for capturing Japanese IC Card travel information in Expense utilizes a reader connected to a single computer. Because Microsoft is deprecating the ActiveX technology leveraged by this solution, Concur is ending support for the solution.
Important dates:
- On August 1, 2017, Concur will no longer support this solution.
- After December 31, 2017, the solution is being retired and will no longer work in Concur.
As a replacement, Concur's current solution uses a Network IC Card Reader, which our Japanese clients are already deploying. The Network IC Card Reader has the benefit of allowing multiple users to import transactions at a central location.
For the Network IC Card Reader release note, refer to the March 2017 version of this document.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This retirement keeps Concur users aligned with current technology.
**Planned Changes** Quick Tips Section To Be Removed from Concur Solutions PageThe Quick Tips section of the Concur Solutions home page (concursolutions.com) is targeted to be removed in the August service release.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This update simplifies the home page, making it easier to view and access the information on the page.
Client Notifications
Concur Non-Affiliated SubprocessorsThe list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: Concur Non-Affiliated Subprocessors (English Only)
Monthly Browser CertificationsMonthly browser certifications, both current and planned, are available with the other Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Standard Edition
