February 2019 Invoice Professional Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Notes
Concur Invoice
Menu Changes to Invoice Pay and Invoice Capture FeaturesSeveral design changes have been implemented in Concur Invoice. The Services menu has been removed, a new menu named Payments has been added and the Invoice Capture and Payment Manager options have been moved to new locations.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement makes it easier for clients to navigate to the Invoice Capture, Payment Manager and Provider Payment Manager features.
**Reminder** New User Interface for Concur Invoice Available for Client Review and Opt-InClients still have the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new user interface as SAP Concur prepares for general availability targeting the second quarter in 2019.
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.
Invoice Pay
New Provider Payment Manager FeatureWith the February release, Invoice Pay clients who have signed up with a payment provider on the App Centre will be able to use the new Provider Payment Manager feature.
The Provider Payment Manager feature offers clients, who use external payment providers, the option to view details and status of their payments in SAP Concur without having to log into their providers' systems.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The Provider Payment Manager feature makes it easier for clients to keep track of their payments when their payments are processed by a third-party payment provider.
Invoice Capture
Verification Page Changes for Large DocumentsIn previous releases of Invoice Capture, when uploaded batches containing documents with more than 500 pages were viewed on the Invoice Capture Verification page, clients could view every page in each document.
Beginning in this release, if a document has more than 500 pages, the first page will be displayed on the Verification page. To view all pages in a document, you can download the document in PDF format.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change improves the performance of the Verification page.
Supplier Management
Audit Trail for Supplier Changes (Released 22 February)Clients with the Create and Approve Suppliers feature enabled can now track changes to a supplier through the Audit Trail page within the supplier record in Supplier Manager. For example, when a supplier is approved or updated by the Supplier Manager, those actions appear on the Audit Trail page.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables users with the Invoice Supplier Manager role to track changes made to supplier information in Supplier Manager.
Create and Approve Suppliers Feature Available in Test Environments (Released 22 February)The Create and Approve Suppliers feature is now available in test environments.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change enables developers and implementation teams to work with the Create and Approve Suppliers feature prior to moving to a production environment.
Support for Multi-Level Connected Lists With Create and Approve Supplier (Released on 29 January)On entities with the Create and Approve Suppliers feature enabled, the supplier information form now supports the use of multi-level connected lists.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature enables the Invoice Configuration Administrator to customise the supplier information form with multi-level list fields.
Invoice e-Bunsho Timestamp
Updated Invoice e-Bunsho Timestamp IconThe icon for the Invoice e-Bunsho Timestamp feature has been updated from an analogue clock symbol to a check mark symbol.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change improves the usability of the feature.
SAP Concur Email
**Ongoing** Email Infrastructure Change - Add IP Addresses to Safe Senders ListSAP Concur is transitioning to a new email infrastructure for outbound email from our services to SAP Concur users. Because of this, companies that filter inbound email based on the sending IP address must add new IP addresses to their Safe Senders list to ensure that their users receive email from SAP Concur.
Initially, the issue described here affected only companies that use Concur Expense. Starting in January, email from other SAP Concur services (such as Concur Travel and Concur Pay) will move to the new email infrastructure.
We will continue to add other services throughout the first quarter of 2019. Please monitor the release notes for more information about the timing of the additional changes.
**Ongoing** Updated Email FormatSAP Concur has provided a release note about the updated email notifications for several months. Be aware that we will discontinue this release note in two months.
IMPORTANT
Note the following:
The email content has not changed – just the look and feel has been updated.
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 that all product emails will change at the same time. For example, the Expense approval email might be first, and then other Expense notifications might follow.
There is no assigned end date for the project. The changes might take longer than a year.
IMPORTANT FOR SSO CUSTOMERS
For customers who use SSO, a lengthy URL might be replaced with www.concursolutions.com. For example, the URL in the expense claim status change email might be replaced. Because some URLs can reach 200 characters in length, the decision was made to provide the www.concursolutions.com link instead, providing a better experience for users.
The link in the email still works as it always has – redirecting the user for proper SSO authentication. The user can see the underlying URL at any time by hovering the mouse pointer over the www.concursolutions.com link.
This change does not affect those emails where the user clicks a button – instead of a link – to access Concur Expense.
SAP Concur Support Portal
Security Questions Available When Using the SAP Concur Support PortalPrior to 2017, Authorised Support Contacts (ASCs) using the SAP Concur support portal were required to answer security questions prior to interacting with support. This feature was retired while it was being redesigned.
As of 3 January, the feature is again available.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Customers appreciate this feature because it provides another layer of security. It prevents someone from impersonating:
An ASC and then requesting an improper or unexpected configuration change
– or –
An end user and then accessing their confidential data
Miscellaneous
Reminder: No Personal or Sensitive Data in Custom FieldsAll companies must take all reasonable steps to protect the personal and sensitive information of their employees. Per recommended security-related best practices, custom fields should not contain personal or sensitive data.
NEXT STEPS
If your company is currently using custom fields to store personal or sensitive data (for example, Social Security numbers, family member names or any other personally identifying information), you should plan to remove this information from your existing fields within the service and modify your current configuration.
For additional information, refer to the FAQ (English Only).
Planned Changes
Concur Invoice
**Planned Changes** New User Interface for Concur Invoice Targeted for April ReleaseSAP Concur will soon offer a new user experience that is particularly targeted at the Accounts Payable (AP) user who is constantly monitoring the health of the Invoice lifecycle within the system. With a new AP landing page, concepts of "call to action" and "work to zero" are being brought to the forefront to better inform AP users to ensure they are working on the highest priority task.
The new user interface in Concur Invoice that clients can now review and familiarise themselves with is targeted for general availability the second quarter in 2019.
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.
**Planned Changes** Payment Request(s) Renamed to Invoice(s)Business Purpose / Client Benefit: 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 Concur 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 ImportsThe Import Now feature enables clients to import PO and PO receipt files into Concur 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 synchronised 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.
Budget
**Planned Changes** Workflows for BudgetIn a future release, workflows will be available for Budget. Workflows define how the system routes invoices, expense claims and requests through approval and processing steps. The flexible workflow feature for Budget that SAP Concur offers 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 organisation with limited options and budget owners with, for example, exceeded budgets. In addition, early spending means spending that is more important to the organisation 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 organisations to add in controls when it makes sense to fine tune to an organisation's specific needs.
Equally important is the determination when a spending item is regarded as committed toward a budget. In most organisations, the commit is when a spending item is paid; it went through most if not all approval steps. In other organisations, the commit occurs much earlier. As soon as a purchase request or an authorisation 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.
Company Administration
**Planned Changes** Single Sign-On (SSO) Self-Service Option Coming to SAP ConcurSingle 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 organisation.
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 organisation. SSO is currently supported for Concur Expense, Concur Invoice, Concur Request and Concur Travel.
Other SAP Concur products and services are outside the scope of this initial release.
The new Manage Single Sign-On (SSO) feature will be accessible from the Administration > Company > Company Admin page.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature provides SAP Concur clients with a self-service option for setting up SSO.
**Planned Changes** New SAP Concur Sign In PageSAP 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.
Training Administration
**Planned Changes** Optimising and Relocating the PageTo simplify the Training Administration page, the functionality and content will be changing.
In addition to content changes, access to the Training Administration page will move from Company Admin to Tools.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes will make the Training Administration feature easier to find and use.
Miscellaneous
**Planned Changes** Archive Deactivated User DataThis information will no longer appear in the release notes.
For more information about deactivated users, refer to the General Information: Archiving Deactivated User Data Fact Sheet.
Test User Admin
**Planned Changes** Retiring the Purge Test User Transactions FunctionalitySAP Concur is retiring the functionality in the Test User Admin feature that removes the transactions of test users from Concur Expense, Concur Invoice, Concur Travel and Concur Request.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change will allow SAP Concur to devote more resources to development and maintenance of features that are used by many or most of our clients.
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 - Professional Edition