File Transfer Updates

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request, Intelligence | Professional & Standard

Files transferred to SAP Concur products must be encrypted with the SAP Concur public PGP key, concursolutionsrotate.asc.

concursolutionsrotate.asc

• Key file is available in client’s root folder

• Key ID 40AC5D35

• RSA 4096-bit signing and encryption subkey

• Key expires every 2 years

• Client is responsible for replacing the key before it expires

  • Next expiry date: 4 September 2022

  • SAP Concur plans to replace the current rotating public PGP key in the client’s root folder 90 days before the expiration date

The SAP Concur legacy PGP key (key ID D4D727C0) will be decommissioned on 11 October 2022. You must switch to using the rotating PGP key before that date. Files encrypted with the legacy PGP key will not be processed after 10 October 2022.

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 15 January 2021.

This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:

• st.concursolutions.com

• mft-us.concursolutions.com

• vs.concursolutions.com

• st-eu.concursolutions.com

• mft-eu.concursolutions.com

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The rotating public PGP key provides greater security for file transfers.

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request, Intelligence | Professional & Standard

This Release Note is intended for the technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur. For our clients and suppliers 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 24 January 2022. After they are migrated to the more efficient process, clients will see the following improvement:

• 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:

• st.concursolutions.com

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide greater security and efficiency for file transfers.

Miscellaneous

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional & Standard

In Q4, 2021, SAP Concur began redirecting clients to a new homepage. The appearance of the new homepage is identical to the previous SAP Concur homepage. The new homepage has enhanced functionality when services become temporarily unavailable.

The roll out of the new homepage is phased:

• Phase 1: At the beginning of Q4, SAP Concur began redirecting Concur Expense, Concur Invoice and Concur Request clients in the US Datacentre to the new homepage.

• Phase 2: In December 2021, SAP Concur will begin redirecting Concur Expense, Concur Invoice and Concur Request clients in the EU Datacentre to the new homepage.

• Phase 3: In Q2 of 2022, SAP Concur will begin redirecting the remaining clients in the US and EU datacentres to the new homepage. The remaining clients include those with Concur Travel standalone or Concur Travel with Expense, Invoice and/or Request.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change ensures that the SAP Concur homepage is available even when some services are unavailable and improves the consistency of the sign-in experience.

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional & Standard

Beginning in Q1 2022, the following changes will be made:

• The greeting on the SAP Concur Homepage will be removed

• If a user has entered a nickname/preferred name on the Profile – Personal Information page in Profile Settings, their nickname/preferred name will be displayed in the Profile menu.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change reflects the users preferred name in the user interface.

Product Settings

Applies to: Expense, Invoice, Request | Standard

The Product Settings page in Concur Standard Edition has been enhanced.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: These changes improve the functionality of the Product Settings page.

SAP Concur User Assistance

Applies to: All Products and Services | All Editions

Beginning with the January 2022 draft release notes, shared (SAP Concur cross-product) changes, shared planned changes and changes to SAP Concur core technologies are published in a new document, Shared Changes Release Notes. This document replaces the current Shared Planned Changes Release Notes.

Shared and core technology features and changes include, but are not limited to:

• Security-related changes—for example, annual security certificate renewals, changes to support for security ciphers, changes in support for security protocols and changes to username and password requirements.

• UI design changes that impact all products—for example, changes to the functionality or appearance of the SAP Concur home page, the addition or removal of links from the site header or footer, changes to the user profile page and theme changes that impact the overall look and feel of the SAP Concur site.

• Sign-in process changes – for example, the addition or removal of sign-in features, URL changes, domain-name changes and changes to verified email.

• Changes to production or test environments.

• Changes that impact site-wide settings, changes to global settings and changes to pages for configuring site-wide or global settings – for example, changes to the User Administration page, changes to Product Settings for Standard Edition and the introduction of new administration tools.

PREVIOUS PROCESS

SAP Concur User Assistance published the Shared Planned Changes Release Notes in coordination with each monthly release. This document included shared and core features and changes that SAP Concur plans to implement in the future. When those changes were officially released, the release or implementation of the change was distributed and documented in the product-specific release notes – for example, the Concur Expense, Concur Invoice, Concur Request or Concur Travel release notes.

NEW PROCESS

Beginning in January 2022, the implementation of shared and core features and changes to existing shared and core features are now documented in the new Shared Changes Release Notes. This applies both when the features and changes are planned changes and when they are officially released. The shared/core release notes will no longer be distributed to product-specific release notes.

Changes that are specific to one product and that impact that product's functionality or UI for admins or for end users will continue to be documented in that product's release notes.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change reduces duplication of information, ensures that the product-specific release notes contain product-specific information, and provides a single source for SAP Concur shared changes and changes to core technologies.

SAP Fiori Themes

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional

On 20 September 2021, a new permission, SAP Fiori Theme Preview, was added to the list of permissions in Concur Travel Professional edition. The SAP Fiori Theme Preview permission enables an SAP Concur client admin to allow users to preview and test the SAP UI themes in their SAP Concur site.

Initially, only the SAP Quartz Light theme was available. With the January 2022 release, a new list field, Appearance Settings, has been added to the Profile Settings > System Settings page, and users who have been assigned the SAP Fiori Theme Preview permission can choose from the following list of SAP themes:

• SAP Quartz Light

• SAP Quartz Dark

• High Contrast White

• High Contrast Black

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: SAP themes harmonise the look and feel of the SAP Concur UI with the look and feel of other SAP products, providing a more consistent user experience. Some themes also better support high contrast requirements and low light environments.

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional

With the January release, the Profile menu within the SAP Fiori theme has been updated. This update includes changes to the layout of the menu items and some changes in functionality.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The Profile menu within the SAP Fiori theme is now functionally more efficient and easier to use.

Security

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request | All Editions

Beginning on 1 February 2022, SAP Concur solutions will no longer support connections to *.concursolutions.com and *api.concursolutions.com that use the following TLSv1.2 ciphers:

To ensure that connections to *.concursolutions.com and * api.concursolutions.com are not disrupted, clients and partners who connect to *.concursolutions.com and *api.concursolutions.com through an application that uses a retired cipher must update the application to a supported cipher before 1 February 2022.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This update provides ongoing security for our products and services.

Supported Configurations

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request, Analysis/Intelligence | All Editions

On 1 January 2022, SAP Concur began transitioning away from support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11). This change is in line with other SAP solutions, industry best practices and Microsoft’s lifecycle policy for IE 11.

After 1 January 2022, SAP Concur development teams will not design new features, user interface enhancements or security or bug fixes with IE 11 in mind. Over time, new functionality and existing functionality might not work properly on IE 11.

SAP Concur users are not blocked from access when using IE 11. They can still sign in to their SAP Concur solutions. However, to ensure their users can continue to work successfully and securely with SAP Concur solutions, SAP recommends that clients move away from allowing the use of SAP Concur solutions on IE 11 and move to a more modern, supported browser.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change enables SAP to speed up adoption of the latest browser innovations and provide a stronger security posture.

Test Entities | Production Sandbox Environment

Applies to: Expense, Invoice, Request, Intelligence | Professional

SAP Concur has renamed the Permanent Test Entity (PTE) service to Production Sandbox Environment (PSE).

A PSE is a copy of a client's SAP Concur production entity. Clients can use the PSE to set up and test new products, features and services before introducing them into the production environment. The PSE can also be used to train users on SAP Concur products, features and services.

PSEs support the following:

• Testing of features and functionality in an environment that is similar to their production environment

• Cognos reporting including custom reports

• The ability to refresh the customer data in the PSE with data from their production entity

  • Clients must open a support case to request a data refresh.

  • Clients can request up to four data refreshes during the annual period defined by their subscription term.

PSEs do not support the following:

• Contract Services

• Active monitoring/reporting of issues on Concur Open

• Additional support for configuration and testing of features

• Receipt images

• Travel system configuration or data

• Travel Profile v2, Request v4 and Identity v4 APIs

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The Production Sandbox Environment enables clients to test and train on features and functionality without impacting their production environment.

Applies to: Expense, Invoice, Request, Intelligence | Professional

As part of SAP Concur routine data maintenance and operations, we will begin deleting stagnant data in SAP Concur Production Sandbox Environments (PSEs).

Beginning 6 December, PSEs that have not been signed in to within 180 days will be deleted. For example, if a PSE has not been logged into between 9 June 2021 and 6 December 2021, it will be deleted on 6 December 2021.

As of January 2022, as part of this ongoing routine data maintenance, PSEs that have not been signed in to within 180 days will also be deleted on a regular basis as such data is considered to be stagnant in accordance with applicable law. Any customisations to the PSEs will not be recoverable in the event of deletion.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This maintenance activity supports SAP and client data compliance requirements by minimising the retention of personal data outside of the live production environment.

Applies to: Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional

Some SAP Concur users use Product Sandbox Environment (PSE) entities to set up, test and train on new configurations prior to deploying them to their live production entity. SAP Concur plans to migrate PSEs as part of our move to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

For more information, refer to the SAP Concur Cloud Platform Strategy FAQ (English only).

Due to the architectural changes that SAP Concur must make to support this move, when PSEs are migrated to the new environment, some Most Recently Used (MRU) list items within the PSE will not be migrated.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: Once in AWS, PSEs benefit from the same stability, monitoring capabilities and level of performance as production entities.

Applies to: Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional

Some SAP Concur users use Product Sandbox Environment (PSE) entities to set up, test and train on new configurations prior to deploying them to their live production entity. SAP Concur plans to migrate PSEs as part of our move to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

For more information, refer to the SAP Concur Cloud Platform Strategy FAQ (English only).

Today, a user can maintain the same login ID for their test and production entities because they are in separate environments. With the plan to migrate both test and production entities to the same AWS production environment in the future, this will no longer be possible since each login ID must be unique.

While there is no action required for customers regarding this update, we want to ensure customers are aware of it because the change will be visible in certain areas of PSEs. To account for this change, SAP Concur will append all PSE login IDs with a ".uat” domain during both migration and user creation to ensure they are unique and do not conflict with any existing production login ID. For example, johnsmith@123.com will become johnsmith@123.com.uat.

This change will help to safeguard against any conflicts with production login IDs.

User Creation: Additionally, clients can use the exact same employee import files as they would in production. The uat domain will also be applied to all aspects of user creation: FTP import, Excel import, entity restore and more.

Extracts: When generating accounting extracts or financial integration documents, SAP Concur will automatically remove the uat domain from login IDs that were appended during user creation. This will help to generate realistic extracts without requiring any action from the clients, such as removing the appended domain.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: Once in AWS, PSEs will benefit from the same stability, monitoring capabilities and level of performance as production entities.

Applies to: Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional

Some SAP Concur users use Production Sandbox Environment (PSE) entities to set up, test and train on new configurations prior to deploying them to their live production entity. SAP Concur plans to migrate PSEs as part of our move to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

For more information, refer to the SAP Concur Cloud Platform Strategy FAQ (English only).

When PSEs are migrated to the AWS production environment, verified emails from the existing PSE will not carry over to the new PSE. As a result, when users test verified email functionality in a future PSE, it is recommended that the employee uses an email that is different from the email configured in their production entity. This process is required as the email in the existing PSE was most likely already verified in production and, therefore, cannot be verified in another entity.

With respect to user email addresses, the Receipt Recognition service validates user email addresses and as such, only one instance of an email address can be associated with a user account. To test in production, clients will be required to utilise alternate email addresses that are not currently associated with any production user account. If a client attempts to set up a test account in production using an email address already associated with a corresponding user profile, it will fail the validation process.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: Once in AWS, PSEs will benefit from the same stability, monitoring capabilities and level of performance as production entities.

User Assistance for End Users

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Request, Budget | Professional & Standard

The SAP Concur January release includes new User Assistance content (tours). The new tours expand the scope of information provided by User Assistance for End Users and Admins.

The following new tours are included in the January release:

• Concur Travel

  • How do I book a hotel?

• Concur Expense

  • View Expense Details

  • Move Items

  • Delete an expense

  • Combine expenses

  • Edit multiple expenses

• Concur Request

  • View audit trail and Request time line

  • Submit a cash advance

  • Add attendees to expected expenses

• Concur Budget

  • Create a team budget

  • Make an adjustment to a team budget

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: User Assistance for End Users and Admins assists users and admins to learn new tasks more quickly and efficiently by providing guided tours with step-by-step instructions for completing a task. Enabling users to learn and complete tasks more easily drives user adoption, increases efficiency, improves user experience and improves user satisfaction with SAP Concur solutions.

Web Services Administration

Applies to: Expense, Request, Web Services | Professional & Standard

These changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.

To meet new security requirements, the length of the username and password associated with an application connector on the Application Connectors page must be at least 10 characters long and not more than 50 characters long.

Some clients currently have usernames and passwords configured that do not meet these parameters.

On 28 February 2022, the 10-character minimum and 50-character maximum will be enforced. If the usernames and passwords are not updated prior to this change, some aspects of SAP Concur solutions might stop working. For example, workflow steps will not complete if using notifications, LEU windows will not open and there will be no results in fields using fetch lists.

To avoid disruption of callouts through application connections and subsequent disruption of some end-user tasks, SAP recommends updating your application connector username(s) and password(s) as soon as possible.

Application connection usernames and passwords can be updated by an administrator with the Company Administrator or Web Services Administrator role.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: Enforcing password and username length restrictions improves the security standards for callouts made through the application connector.

Fax Feature

Applies to: Expense, Invoice | Professional & Standard

On 1 October 2022, the Concur Fax Feature will be decommissioned.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: Removal of the Fax feature improves the security, performance and scalability of SAP Concur solutions.

In addition, The Concur Fax Feature attaches files only at the header level of expenses and invoices. As a result, clients who use the Fax Feature cannot take advantage of recent innovations that apply only to images and attachments at the line-item level.

Product Settings

Applies to: Expense, Invoice, Request | Standard

SAP Concur plans to add the ability to switch between basic and advanced views in Product Settings.

Prior to this change, changing the view between basic and advanced settings in Product Settings required the assistance of an SAP Concur internal administrator.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change enables client admins to view or hide their advanced settings as needed without assistance from SAP Concur personnel.

Profile Settings

Applies to: Travel, Expense, Invoice, Request | Professional & Standard

SAP Concur plans to remove the Connected Apps page in Profile Settings.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: Periodically, under-utilised features or pages are removed to improve usability. This is a rarely used page; it no longer meets its purpose of driving partner application usage.

SAP Concur Support

Applies to: All Products & Services | Professional & Standard

Targeted for Q1 2022, the Solution Suggestions platform that SAP Concur provides will be migrated into the SAP Continuous Influence – Improvement Requests program.

This change will provide a better user experience and a single place for Authorised Support Contact (ASC) users to engage with all SAP Concur Customer Influence programs.

For more information, refer to SAP Continuous Influence Sessions (English Only).

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: In addition to offering a better tool with more functionality, SAP Concur is enhancing the process of how improvement requests will be reviewed, considered and prioritised.

SAP Concur User Assistance

Applies to: All Products & Services | All Editions

SAP Concur User Assistance will archive and eventually delete documents as needed to maintain accurate, relevant and concise information for all supported audiences including end users and their administrators, along with SAP Concur support and implementation colleagues.

Archiving activities performed by SAP Concur User Assistance will comply with data retention best practices and adhere to legal compliance requirements.

The initial exercising of this notice will apply to the archiving of stale (example) online help documents currently available on the concurtraining.com server. All current online help documents are now located on the SAP Help Portal.

For more information, refer to the Help Menu Directed to SAP Help Portal release note in the November 2021 product release notes.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This notice serves to expedite the appropriate archiving of stale documentation.