June 2018 Expense Professional Edition Admin Summary
Update #2
Admin
End of Support for TLS 1.0 Email – Targeted for Wednesday, 27 June 2018In 2017, SAP Concur announced that it would end support for version 1.0 of the TLS encryption protocol.
Be aware that – targeted for Wednesday, 27 June 2018 – SAP Concur will disable the ability to accept incoming email via TLS 1.0 connectivity for plans@concurtravel.com and plans@tripit.com.
There should be very little customer impact since the vast majority of customers have already disabled the ability to send email via the TLS 1.0 protocol.
**Reminder** New Cookie Consent ProcessEurope has very specific user-consent requirements for cookies. There are two types of consent when allowing cookies to be saved on the user's computer. As described on the following pages, each country decides which option to use. The options are:
- Active consent: The user actively agrees to allow cookies. In this case, SAP Concur is required to obtain user consent before saving any cookies on a user's computer.
- Passive consent: The user does not disallow cookies.
Each country decides which option it wants to use.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes keep SAP Concur in compliance with global privacy requirements.
**Reminder** Whitelist for TrustArc.comThe May release notes included an item named New Cookie Preferences Link in the SAP Concur Footer. It describes cookie-related process changes that were introduced in the May 12 release because of specific consent regulations in Europe.
To ensure that SAP Concur properly responds to the regulations, SAP Concur has enlisted the assistance of TrustArc, a global privacy and data governance provider. Please ensure that your organisation's IT (or similar) department adds TrustArc to its whitelist, so TrustArc can properly monitor and manage these processes.
TrustArc must be whitelisted by domain – not IP – since the IP is variable. Please whitelist these domains:
- trustarc.com
- prefmgr-cookie.truste-svc.net
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Whitelisting ensures that TrustArc has the proper access to manage consent regulations on behalf of SAP Concur.
Company Cards
AirPlus CDF3 Lodge - Transaction Identifier MappingWith this release, the unique identifier (_TransId) of an AirPlus Lodge transaction will be mapped to FinancialTransaction_5000/AcquirerReferenceData instead of FinancialTransaction_5000/MasterCardFinancialTransactionId.
This update, made at the request of AirPlus, will allow customers to automatically clear the credit card account based on the provided AirPlus Document Number (AcquirerReferenceData). Note that the MasterCardFinancialTransactionId value will continue to be used for Lodge transactions coming from MasterCard, and for Corporate Cards, including those coming from AirPlus.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement provides flexibility when working with the AirPlus card account.
Diners Australia: Support for Copy Down of GST Supply Indicator into a Custom FieldWith this release, any value detected in the GST Supply Indicator field (at position 779) of the Diner’s Club data feed importer is now stored by Expense in a transaction-level custom field. This change supports copy down from the card transaction to an expense entry field where it is visible to the user for further processing.
Prior to this change, this value in the Diner’s Club data feed importer was ignored by Concur on the integration side.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This enhancement brings the Diner’s Club data feed importer to parity with other importers that perform the same function. Additionally, this functionality allows customers to require only a receipt on verification of tax requirements.
Currency Admin – Postponed
(Venezuela) New Currency Supported: Bolívar Soberano VESThe new currency, Bolívar Soberano (VES), is currently available in Concur; however, the ISO 4217 AMENDMENT NUMBER 166 announcing the new currency has now been superseded by ISO 4217 AMENDMENT NUMBER 167, which postpones the redenomination of the currency for an indefinite amount of time.
SAP Concur will provide an update to remove the new currency in the near future.
Expense Pay – Global
(United States) Additional Card Programme Now Supported for USDExpense Pay – Global for Expense now supports the following credit card programme for the United States Dollar (USD $):
- Silicon Valley Bank MasterCard USD
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This additional option can expedite the processing of credit card expenses.
Japan Public Transportation (JPT)
Jorudan MaintenanceThe Japan Public Transportation (JPT) database of stations and lines received routine maintenance changes such as additions, name changes and removals.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Lists in Expense continue to reflect JPT's current stations and lines.
Next Generation (NextGen) Expense
**Ongoing** New User Interface for Concur Expense End UsersSAP Concur is dedicated to the consistent improvement of our products, not only the features they provide, but also the experience of using those features. How users interact with technology changes over time, along with needs and expectations. We are constantly listening to our customers and soliciting feedback on how we can improve the user experience.
NextGen Expense is the continued evolution of the SAP Concur user experience. It was built from extensive user research and data analytics that include 680 1:1 conversations, 58 usability studies, 3,000+ survey responses and 1.3B monthly user actions.
Over the next year, customers will have the ability to preview and then opt in to NextGen Expense before the mandatory cutover date.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The result is the next generation of the Expense user interface designed to provide a modern, consistent and streamlined user experience. This technology not only provides an enhanced UI, but also allows SAP Concur to react more quickly to customer requests to meet changing needs as they happen.
SAP Concur's Platform
Callout Server Requirements UpdateSAP Concur is upgrading the servers that support the SAP Concur Platform Callouts. This maintenance includes the Production Proxy Migration (North America Data Centre only) and PWS Server Migration to VM (EMEA and North American Data Centres only). The PWS Server Migration to VM was completed on 2 May, 2018. The Production Proxy Migration began on 9 May 2018, and will be completed in a future release.
These servers support the following functionality:
- Fetch Attendee Data Callout
- Fetch List Item Callout
- Event Notification Callout
- Launch External URL Callout
- Concur Salesforce Connector
Be aware that this maintenance means that for any customer callout URLs, SAP Concur has the following requirements:
- The endpoint is secured with SSL/TLS.
- The endpoint uses a minimum of TLS 1.0, but TLS 1.2 is preferred.
- The endpoint must employ Diffie-Hellman cipher suites with key sizes >1024 bits.
- Due to the ever-evolving world of SSL and standards, we do not publish a specific list of permitted cipher suites, but we generally advise that a modern industry supported list is utilised.
- The endpoint must present an SSL certificate with a chain to a valid root that can be verified. If the chain cannot be verified without installing additional certificates, the calls from SAP Concur will fail.
- Clients who whitelist access for Concur callout traffic from the North America Data Centre (not common) may need to update their access control list (ACL) to IP 12.129.29.86.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This maintenance will mitigate the out-of-warranty issue with our current hardware.
Admin
**Planned Changes** Expense Assistant Can Create Trip-Based Expense ClaimsAdmins can now pre-configure Expense Assistant options.
Expense Assistant can automatically create trip-based expense claims and add trip-based expenses to these expense claims. Currently, Expense Assistant automatically creates monthly expense claims as a client's expenses flow into Concur. This is known as creating a calendar-based expense claim.
With this enhancement, Expense Assistant can create either of two types of expense claims: calendar-based and trip-based. When Expense Assistant creates a trip-based expense claim, Expense Assistant will automatically create an expense claim based on a specific trip booked in Concur Travel, and will populate the expense claim with the client's expenses that occur between the trip's start and end dates.
Users using Expense Assistant will only be able to have Expense Assistant automatically create calendar-based or trip-based expense claims, not both types of expense claims.
The type of expense claims created by Expense Assistant will be defined at the group level.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This feature automates more of the expense reporting process, to provide an easier end user experience.
**Planned Changes** Personalised Concur Open
Concur Open is the SAP Concur real-time service status dashboard, which displays outages and incidents for select SAP Concur services and all data centres. It displays the current service status as well as history for the past 20 days.
Targeted for 23 June, there will be several enhancements for Concur Open users. The user can still obtain general service information but, upon signing in, the user can access:
Subscription options
Service status for the products and data centre specific to their company
Service status history for the past two years
Root cause analysis information for service incidents
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Customers use Concur Open to better understand and monitor outages and incidents. These enhancements provide a more focused view as well as additional history and incident information.
**Planned Changes** Processor Privacy Statement Link in Online Help – Targeted for July
The Processor Privacy Statement link is available in the SAP Concur footer.
However, not all pages in SAP Concur display the footer. In this case, the user can return to the Home page and click the Processor Privacy Statement link there.
Also – targeted for July – SAP Concur will add the Processor Privacy Statement link to online Help.
**Planned Changes** Support for Plain Text FTP to End on 1 September, 2018SAP Concur announced the End of Support for plain text FTP to transfer data to and from SAP Concur.
Plain text FTP is not a secured protocol and has inherent security vulnerabilities. On 1 September, 2018, SAP Concur Operations will apply a security update to our File Transfer infrastructure, restricting the use of plain text FTP as a part of our ongoing commitment to securing our customers’ data and meeting the audited security requirements of the SAP Concur Trust Platform.
For more information, refer to the Plain Text FTP Retirement FAQ (English Only).
Client Notifications
SAP Concur Non-Affiliated SubprocessorsThe list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: SAP Concur list of Subprocessors (English Only)
Monthly Browser CertificationsMonthly browser certifications, both current and planned, are available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Professional Edition