Invoice Pay

SAP Concur has been pursuing a multi-year effort to transition our portfolio of payment solutions to partner-enabled solutions. This is evidenced by our robust partner options for Concur Invoice payments.

At this time, SAP Concur is accelerating the decommissioning of the Invoice Pay ACH feature of Concur Invoice as of 1 January 2022. As we move into the next phase of our pay strategy via partner solutions, this decommission will require clients using Invoice Pay ACH to enable alternative solutions as payments will not be made to suppliers after 15 November, 2021.

MANAGING BATCHES FOLLOWING THE CUTOFF DATE

Classic Invoice Pay ACH funding accounts will remain active following the cutoff date at which time payments will no longer be made to suppliers. This means payment data will not be sent to be processed but batches in Open status will continue to close. Payment demands in the batches can be found in the Failed Payments queue where they can be managed.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change is part of a transition to partner-enabled solutions to support future product enhancements and richer integration.

As part of the new Invoice Provider ACH feature, funding accounts with Bambora/Worldline that have an Accepted status may now be activated, and approved invoices processed, for ACH payment by Bambora/Worldline. For Classic Invoice Pay ACH, funding accounts can remain active and open payment batches will continue to be processed for payment until 15 November, 2021. After this date, new invoice payments through Classic Invoice Pay ACH funding accounts will end.

Currently, USD ACH payments by Bambora/Worldline as the payment provider are supported.

For more information on the retirement of the Invoice Pay ACH feature, refer to the Invoice Pay Solutions FAQ (English Only).

For more information on moving invoice ACH payments from Invoice Pay ACH to the Invoice Provider ACH feature and Bambora/Worldline, refer to the SAP Concur Invoice Provider ACH migration (English Only) page.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: To better serve clients, Invoice Provider ACH is replacing the Invoice Pay ACH feature as part of a transition of Invoice Pay to a payment provider solution for invoice payments.

The following actions have been added to the Actions list on the Invoice Pay Payment Manager > Funding Accounts page:

• Activate Funding Account

• Deactivate Funding Account

• Move Batches to Active Funding Account

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The new options make managing funding accounts easier and more efficient.

Purchase Order

SAP Concur has implemented a 7 MB limit on the total size of the Purchase Order (PO) file transmitted to suppliers from SAP Concur. When supporting file attachments (images) are uploaded to purchase requests or purchase orders and included with the PO file transmitted to the supplier, the system will verify that the total size of the PO file is not greater than 7 MB. If a file being uploaded would cause the total size of the PO file to exceed 7 MB, the file will fail to upload, and a message will appear. The user can reduce the file size and try reuploading it.

If POs created before the change have attachments that exceed the limit, when a user transmits the POs, the POs remain in a Pending Transmission status, and the user sees a message that the PO cannot be transmitted due to the size of the attachment. The user can remove the attached files and upload images that meet the requirement and then transmit the PO.

If POs created before the change have attachments that exceed the size limit and the POs are set to auto transmit, the user who owns the PO receives an email notification that the PO was not transmitted. The user can then sign in to their SAP Concur solution, upload a smaller file, and manually transmit the PO.

As part of this change, on the Purchase Order Configuration page, the size limit of the file that can be uploaded as Supporting Documents has been updated. A single file that is 3 MB or less in size can be uploaded.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change helps to ensure that the Concur Invoice email service supports PO transmission in all environments.

Authentication

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

The Concur Expense Service (CES) SSO was decommissioned on 29 October, 2021.

SAP Concur now provides a Single Sign-On self-service option that enables client admins to set up their SAML v2 connections without involving an SAP Concur admin.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This change provides better security and improved support for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.

A new Company Request Token self-service tool is now available to SAP Concur admins who have been assigned the Company Admin or Web Services Admin role.

The Company Request Token self-service tool enables clients to generate the Company Request Token that is required to request a JSON web token (JWT) when connecting to APIs on the SAP Concur platform.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The Company Request Token self-service tool enables clients to generate Company Request Tokens without contacting SAP Concur support. This tool also enables clients to generate a replacement Company Request Token without assistance from SAP Concur support if their Company Request Token expires or is lost.

Client Web Services

Beginning with the October release, clients who have SAP Concur Client Web Services can request access to a new application management self-service tool, OAuth 2.0 Application Management. This self-service tool is enabled by the Client Web Services team for SAP Concur Web Services clients who request it.

When enabled, the tool is available from the Authentication Administration page to admin users who have been assigned the Web Services Admin role.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The OAuth 2.0 Application Management tool enables clients to generate Client IDs (App IDs) and Client Secrets without contacting SAP Concur support.

File Transfer Updates

This release note is intended for technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur products. For SAP Concur customers and suppliers participating in data exchange through various secure file transfer protocols, SAP is making changes that provide greater security for those file transfers.

As of 10 April, 2021, non-SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) protocols and SFTP password authentication are not allowed to connect to SAP Concur for file transfers:

• Non-SFTP file transfer accounts must switch to SFTP with SSH Key Authentication.

• SFTP file transfer accounts that use password authentication must switch to SSH key authentication.

• SFTP password reset requests require the client to provide an SSH key for authentication.

On 12 April 2021, SAP started disabling non-compliant file transfer connections. The process of disabling non-compliant accounts will continue throughout 2021. If you have multiple file transfer connections configured, this change applies to all of your file transfer connections.

This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:

• st.concursolutions.com

• st-eu.concursolutions.com

• vs.concursolutions.com

• vs.concurcdc.cn

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

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) remains supported for existing clients but will be deprecated in the future.

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.

This Release Note is intended for the technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur. For our customers 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.

Localisation

With the November release, SAP Concur is changing the following terms in the Traditional Chinese version of the SAP Concur user interface to bring consistency in translation of the term “Distribute”:

Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These revisions provide a more accurate translation and improved user experience.

Miscellaneous

On 27 October, SAP released Concur Experience Optimiser.

Concur Experience Optimiser collects and analyses employee sentiment and buying behaviour data from SAP Concur solutions, enabling clients to assess and make changes to improve the user experience, increase efficiency, better manage spending, help ensure compliance and better align with their sustainability goals.

Concur Experience Optimiser is available to clients who meet the following criteria:

• The client has Concur Expense or Concur Travel & Expense.

• The client has Concur Intelligence or Consultative Intelligence.

• The client has licences for Qualtrics Employee XM for IT.

Concur Experience Optimiser includes the following features:

• Diagnostic feedback templates to gather employee sentiment

• Dashboards to analyse and understand data

• Expert services to help interpret data and develop an effective response to findings

• Qualtrics platform to ensure availability, scalability, confidentiality, data privacy and security

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: Concur Experience Optimiser helps clients to optimise their SAP Concur solutions to improve employee sentiment and efficiency, to help ensure compliance and to support client sustainability goals.

On 20 September, a new permission, SAP Fiori Theme Preview, was added to the list of permissions in Concur Travel Professional edition. When the SAP Fiori Theme Preview permission is assigned to a user, the user sees a new switch in the header of their SAP Concur site. They will also see a New Theme info bubble.

The switch enables the user to switch from the SAP Concur standard theme to the SAP Fiori Theme. The info bubble displays a brief message about the switch.

The new theme includes changes to visual elements such as fonts, colours and icons. In addition, some top-level tabs and menu items are relocated to the SAP Concur Home menu. These changes are site-wide and apply to all of the user’s SAP Concur products.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: The SAP Fiori theme harmonises the look and feel of the SAP Concur UI with the look and feel of other SAP products, providing a more consistent user experience. The permission enables a client admin to allow designated users to preview and test the SAP Fiori theme.

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 November 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.

SAP Concur User Assistance

SAP has updated the Help menu in the SAP Concur solutions to point to the online help content on the SAP Help Portal (http://help.sap.com). SAP Help Portal includes a new look and feel for the help and additional functionality, while the help content remains the same.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: This update consolidates the SAP Concur solutions documentation with other SAP products on the central SAP Help Portal.

User Assistance

As of 4 November 2021, SAP Concur admins have the ability to enable a new user assistance tool for end users. The new tool helps end users learn and complete tasks more quickly by providing guided help.

On entities with admin user assistance enabled, user assistance for end users is enabled for all end users by default. User assistance for end users can be enabled and disabled by country/region or globally on the User Assistance Settings page.

SAP Concur clients who do not have admin user assistance enabled and who would like to have the ability to enable end user assistance can open a service ticket to enable the feature.

Business Purpose/Client Benefit: User Assistance for End Users assists users to learn new tasks more quickly and efficiently, driving user adoption, increasing efficiency and improving the end user experience and end user satisfaction with SAP Concur solutions.

There are currently no planned changes