Model Changes

With this release, there are new guest information-related fields for Expense.

DESCRIPTION: These fields allow users to report on the details and spend for guest users.

The new guest information-related fields are located in the following folders:

With this release, there is a new merchant-related field for Expense.

DESCRIPTION: This field allows users to report on the merchant tax ID for the merchants associated with credit card transactions. The Supplier Tax ID field helps users report on the tax information they need to meet their tax obligations for their corporate tax processing.

The new merchant-related field is located in the following folder:

With this release, there is a new merchant-related field for Expense.

DESCRIPTION: This field allows users to report on the merchant ID for the merchants associated with credit card transactions.

The new merchant-related field is located in the following folder:

Report Changes

Analysis and Intelligence clients can use the new Company Billed Transaction Reconciliation (Calendar Month) report to view a summary of the Company Bill Statement transactions billed for a period to assist with reconciling purchasing card transactions.

LOCATION OF THE REPORT

The report is located here:

Analysis and Intelligence clients can use the new Attendee Summary report to view a summary of the spending on attendees by expense type, instance and reporting group and currency.

The Attendee Summary report provides one or more years of statistics, enabling long-term trend analysis about expenses involving money spent by an employee to cover expenses for fellow employees or non-employee clients or prospective clients.

LOCATION OF THE REPORT

The report is located here:

The Invoice Management Overview dashboard provides key metrics for your company's payment requests (invoices) and purchase requests, and the payment request and purchase request life cycles, at a glance. The dashboard can help you track how the metrics are trending, the impact on cash flow and help evaluate the need for changes in the procurement process to optimise it and optimise cash flow.

DASHBOARD FEATURES

The Aging Payables section provides a visualisation of the outstanding (not paid) invoice payables grouped by the age of the invoices in days. Unpaid invoices are grouped in 30-day increments up to 90 days. Unpaid invoices older than 90 days are grouped together under the 90> bar. To the right of the bar graph is the total number of unpaid invoices and the total amount due for these unpaid invoices currently in Invoice. The bar graph only includes unpaid invoices that are past due.

The data in the Aging Payables section matches the data in the existing Invoice report: Request Ageing Report. The calculation for aging is the difference between the Date of Invoice and the Current Date field values. The dollar amounts are based on the Approved Amount field.

The information in this section can be used to help manage cash flow and determine whether there are outstanding accounts payables that are past due and require attention.

Placing your pointer over a bar displays the invoice aging time period for the bar and the total amount of money associated with unpaid invoices for the time period.

The Total Invoice Spend section provides a visualisation of the total invoice spend for the year-to-date by quarter. The spend is derived from invoices that have a status of Paid.

The information in this section can be used to help forecast budgets and spend.

Placing your pointer over a bar displays the quarter and the total year-to-date invoice spend for the selected quarter. To the right of the bar graph is the total invoice spend for year-to-date.

The PO vs Non PO Spend section provides a visualisation of the purchase order spend versus non-purchase order spend for the year-to-date by quarter. The purchase order spend is derived from invoices that have a status of Paid and have an associated purchase order number. Non-purchase order spend is derived from invoices that have a status of Paid and do not have an associated purchase order number.

The information in this section can be used to help evaluate purchase order spend and determine the best approaches for driving more spend through the purchase order system.

Placing your pointer over a segment on a bar displays whether the segment spend is purchase order spend (PO Spend) or non-purchase order spend (Non-PO Spend), the quarter and the percentage of PO Spend or Non-PO spend for the quarter-to-date.

The Top 10 Suppliers section provides a visualisation of the company's top 10 suppliers with the highest total invoice spend for the year-to-date. The Top 10 Supplierssection also displays the payment terms and average days to pay for the top 10 suppliers. The Total Spend value is the year-to-date spend based on the invoices with a status of Paid. The Avg Days to Pay value is calculated using the Invoice Date and the Paid Date.

The information in this section can be used to help negotiate the best rates and terms with your suppliers, and determine if cash flow is maximised by not paying invoices too soon, based on the invoice payment terms.

The Spend Trend by Expense Type section provides a visualisation of the year-to-date spend by quarter for the top five Invoice expense types. The spend for the remaining Invoice expense types are combined within the Others category. The spend by expense type is derived from invoices that have a status of Paid.

The information in this section can be used to help forecast and budget for spend.

Placing your pointer over an expense type segment on a bar displays the Invoice expense type, quarter and the percentage of spend from paid invoices that are associated with the expense type for the quarter-to-date.

The Payment Method section provides a visualisation of the year-to-date spend by quarter for each payment method used to pay for invoices. The spend by payment method is derived from invoices that have a status of Paid.

The information in this section can be used to help optimise spend on your credit card programmes.

Placing your pointer over a payment method segment on a bar displays the payment method, quarter and percentage of invoices paid by the payment method.

The PO Adoption section provides a visualisation of the adoption rate, represented as a percentage, for your purchase order system for the year-to-date by quarter. The purchase order adoption rate is defined as the percent of invoices that have an associated purchase order number compared to the total number of invoices.

The information in this section can be used to help evaluate purchase order adoption rate for your organisation and determine the best approaches for driving more spend through the purchase order system.

INFORMATION TOOL TIPS

Each section of the Invoice Management Overview dashboard contains the information icon. Clicking the icon opens a tooltip with the calculation information for the section and the Learn More link. The Learn More link opens the Chapter 16: Folder – Persona Dashboards in the Standard Reports by Folder guide (English only) in a separate window.

DRILL-THROUGH REPORTS

Each section of the Invoice Management Overview dashboard contains the report drill-though icon. Clicking the icon opens the list of reports associated with the section.

Selecting a report in the list opens the report in a separate window.

LOCATION OF THE DASHBOARD

The Persona Dashboard is located here:

The Invoice Management Overview dashboard is located here:

LOCATION OF THE INVOICE REPORTS AVAILABLE FROM THE DASHBOARD

All of the drill-though reports you can view from the Invoice Management Overview dashboard, with the exception of the Invoice Spend by Payment Method and Supplier – Details report, are located here:

The Invoice Spend by Payment Method and Supplier – Details report is located here:

For more information about the Invoice Management Overview dashboard, refer to Chapter 16: Folder – Persona Dashboards in the Standard Reports by Folder guide (English only).

Some updates were made to the Department Manager Overview dashboard and its Current Quarter Spend Details drill-through report to make the make the dashboard and report more accurate.

Changes to the Department Manager Overview dashboard:

Changes to the Current Quarter Spend Details drill-through report:

LOCATION OF THE DASHBOARD

You can access the Department Manager Overview dashboard from the Quick Access Menu page on the Persona Dashboard by clicking Department Manager.

The Persona Dashboard is located here:

The Department Manager Overview dashboard is located here:

For more information about the Department Manager Overview dashboard, refer to Chapter 16: Folder – Persona Dashboards in the Standard Reports by Folder guide (English only).

The Manager Dashboard now captures additional spend categories for meals and hotels.

For meals, the dashboard now uses the following spend category codes and spend categories:

For hotels, the dashboard now uses the following spend category codes and spend categories:

Previously, the Manager Dashboard only captured one meal category: Meal, and one hotel category: Accommodation – Track Room Rate Spending.

LOCATION OF THE DASHBOARD

The Premium Dashboard is located here:

The Manager Dashboard is located here:

For more information about the Manager Dashboard, refer to the Analysis/Intelligence: Actionable Analytics User Guide (English only).

The Top Invoice Supplier Spend – Details and Top Invoice Supplier Spend – Summary reports will soon have new prompts on the Prompts page. The new prompts will include prompts for Payment Process Date and Include Only Paid Items. These changes are being made to allow these reports to be used as the drill reports for the Invoice Management Overview dashboard.

LOCATION OF THE REPORTS

The Top Invoice Supplier Spend – Details report is located here:

The Top Invoice Supplier Spend – Summary report is located here:

Other Changes

Currently, whenever a journal entry in the reporting database is marked as manually paid, the job run ID is automatically set to job run 1 and the associated job run date is set to 1-1-2003. With this release, the job run date for a journal entry marked as manually paid is now set to null (empty).

Please note these dates:

- EU datacentre: Completed on Tuesday, 4 April 2017

- US datacentre: MOVED TO Wednesday, 31 May 2017

Concur announces 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.

Note that, since less than 1% of Concur users are logging in to Concur Solutions using browsers or phones limited to version 1.0, a very small number of users are affected by this support discontinuation.

PLEASE NOTE NEW END DATE OF SUPPORT IS MAY

We have moved the date in order to give our clients ample time to understand and make the required manual changes to their browser's security settings. These changes will be detailed in an upcoming service release.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Concur is taking this step after careful consideration of both the client’s security and ease of upgrade to the newer, more secure 1.1 and 1.2 versions of TLS. This end of life plan for TLS v 1.0 ensures our clients are communicating with Concur services in a safe and secure manner using TLS v. 1.1 and newer.

After Concur has deprecated TLS 1.0 from concursolutions.com, Internet Explorer 10 will be queued for deprecation in August 2017. Microsoft deprecated Internet Explorer 10 as of 12 January 2016.

A banner will be added in Concur in April 2017 to notify remaining users of Internet Explorer 10 that their browser version will no longer be supported and to upgrade to Internet Explorer 11.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Upgrading to Internet Explorer 11 will enable companies to use a supported Microsoft browser that – by default – supports TLS 1.2.

Concur will soon provide an enhanced fiscal calendar for Analysis / Intelligence. A fiscal calendar allows organisations to define their accounting periods independent of the standard calendar year. Many organisations 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.

UPCOMING CHANGES FOR ANALYSIS AND INTELLIGENCE

With the release of the enhanced fiscal calendar, BI Managers will be able to create a budget that aligns with fiscal quarters. Currently, BI Managers can only align their budgets with calendar quarters.

Additional enhancements will come with this change. For example, Concur will be updating several existing standard reports and dashboards, including the Department Manager Overview and Expense Management Overview dashboards, so that they can be aligned to the company’s fiscal year.

Concur will also be enhancing the Actionable Analytics Percent of Budget alert and report so it will be sent to the BI Manager when the defined percent of budget is reached during a fiscal quarter (for companies who have specified a fiscal calendar). Currently, it is sent based on calendar quarter.

Additional information will be available in future release notes.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature gives clients the flexibility to define their accounting periods independently of the standard calendar year.

WHAT THE ADMIN SEES

The enhanced fiscal calendar is available in the Reporting Configuration tool in Administration > Expense and Administration > Invoice.

In addition, the Fiscal Calendar Set Up tab is now called Fiscal Calendar.

The Fiscal Calendar has five buttons, which are described in the following table:

CONFIGURATION/FEATURE ACTIVATION

To access the Fiscal Calendar (Professional):

1. Click Administration > Expense or Invoice > Reporting Configuration (left menu). The Reporting Configuration page appears.

2. Click the Fiscal Calendar tab.

For more information, refer to the Shared: Reporting Configuration Setup Guide.

To access the Fiscal Calendar (Standard):

1. Click Administration > Expense Settings or Invoice Settings > Reporting Configuration. The Reporting Configuration page appears.

2. Click the Fiscal Calendar tab.

For more information, refer to the Shared: Reporting Configuration Setup Guide for Concur Standard Edition.

The Business Intelligence (BI) Manager Set Up tab on the Reporting Configuration page will be renamed to Preferences. Also, the BI Manager settings on the page will be renamed to improve the readability of the settings.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes improve the usability of the tab and expand the purpose of the tab to support the addition of future preference settings.

WHAT THE ADMIN SEES

The tab is renamed to Preferences and the settings are renamed:

LOCATION OF THE PREFERENCES TAB

To access the Preferences tab (Professional):

1. Click Administration > Expense or Invoice > Reporting Configuration (left menu). The Reporting Configuration page appears.

2. Click the Preferences tab.

For more information, refer to the Shared: Reporting Configuration Setup Guide.

To access the Preferences tab (Standard):

1. Click Administration > Expense Settings or Invoice Settings > Reporting Configuration. The Reporting Configuration page appears.

2. Click the Preferences tab.

For more information, refer to the Shared: Reporting Configuration Setup Guide for Concur Standard Edition.

CONFIGURATION/FEATURE ACTIVATION

Concur will implement this change with the May release; there are no configuration or activation steps.

Support for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 10 browsers under Concur products will end on 18 August 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.

IMPORTANT: In addition, this change is a result of deprecating TLS 1.0. Upgrading to Internet Explorer 11 will enable companies to use a supported Microsoft browser that – by default – supports TLS 1.2.

Background: Beginning 12 January 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical support and security updates from Microsoft in accordance with their Product Lifecycle programme (view at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/microsoft-internet-explorer).

For more information about supported browsers under Concur products, refer to the Browser Support section of the Concur: Travel & Expense Supported Configurations - Client Versiondocument.