To track and evaluate what happened to the Concur documents that were transferred to the SAP system, go to the Setting Up the Integration with SAP Concur screen and choose the button for the respective import function, for instance Financial Posting, and then select Concur Documents.
We distinguish between the following document types:
- Expense Report: the company credits the employee or credit card provider
- Cash Advance: the employee requests the money before traveling
- Invoice: the company credits the vendor
Use Search to view the documents that were already imported into the SAP system from Concur.
Attachments
For expense reports, you can also import attachments. Note that you have to enable this function in the Financial Posting wizard first. As soon as the expense report has been posted successfully, the associated attachments are retrieved from the Concur system. Currently, only attachments can be imported for expense entries; importing attachments at the header level is not supported.
The Attachments Retrieved column indicates that a check was performed verifying that all available attachments were imported. However, only attachments of newly imported expense reports are considered in this process. You can import attachments for older documents using the manual process: Feedback Loop -> Step-by-step -> Retrieve Attachments.
If the number of retrieved attachments differs from the total number of available attachments, then attachments were subsequently removed in Business Add-In BADI_CTE_FIN_HANDLE_ATTACHMENT, using method RESTRICT_ATTACHMENTS.
In case you are missing certain attachments, go to the aforementioned BAdI and add the attachments again.
For deltas, it is also possible to append new attachments to or delete old attachments from an expense report. Here is a clearer overview of what happens to attachments during a zero or delta posting, if applicable, when the JSON file shows the following:
- New entry and reversal entry have the same receipt ID
- Zero: No changes are made.
- Delta: The attachment is linked to the new posting document, and the link to the previous FI document is still saved.
- New entry and reversal entry have different receipt IDs
- Zero: The old attachment is deleted, and the new attachment is linked to the entry’s initial posting.
- Delta: The old attachment is deleted from the previous FI document, and the new attachment is linked to the new posting document.
- New entry has a receipt ID while the reversal entry doesn’t
- Zero: The attachment is linked to its original posting document.
- Delta: The attachment is linked to the new FI document.
- New entry doesn’t have a receipt ID while the reversal entry does
- Zero and Delta: If the attachment has been deleted in Concur, then it’s also deleted from the previous FI document. Otherwise, no changes are made.
- Only a new entry exists (i.e., there’s no reversal entry)
- Zero: The attachment is added to the current posting document.
- Delta: The attachment is added to the new posting document.
- Only a reversal entry exists (i.e., the new entry was deleted)
- Delta: The attachment is deleted from the posting document.
Bear in mind that an expense report is locked when attachments are imported. Therefore, if you try to simultaneously import the attachment(s) for multiple revisions of the same expense report, only the latest revisions will be successful and an error message will inform you that the others failed because of the lock.
To view the attachments, select the line with the respective expense report and choose Display -> Attachments. The Business Document Navigator opens where you can find the attachments listed in the General documents folder. You can also view attachments from within the financial document itself: choose Display -> Posted Document. On the Display Document screen, choose the Services for Object button in the top left corner and select Attachment List. If attachments are available, they will be listed accordingly.
The number of attachments displayed in the table may differ from the amount in the financial document. This is due to the fact that attachments can be manually added to or deleted from the financial document which is not reflected in the table on the Concur Documents screen.
Note: In some cases, more than one attachment might be appended to one expense item. These attachments are consolidated into one PDF file in the financial document. This consolidated version is counted as one overall attachment – regardless of how many individual attachments are collected within the file. Thus, if two attachments were appended to expense type taxi, the Number of Attachments column will show one.
Currency Conversion
Before the documents arrive in the SAP system, theamounts are already converted into the currency defined in the Concur employee master data.
For example, an employee based in France who is reimbursed in Euros, submits an expense report worth 1,500 USD. Before the document arrives in the SAP system, the amount was converted from USD to EUR in the Concur system.
You can see this in the JSON document: on the Concur Documents screen, select a line and choose Display -> Original File (JSON format). Scroll to section “report” and check the currency specified for “employeeCurrencyAlphaCode”. This is the currency defined in the Concur employee master data into which the amount was converted.
Note that currency exchange discrepancies can occur in intercompany scenarios or when credit cards are used.
Document Statuses
The documents can have the following statuses:
- New
Documents that are retrieved from the Concur financial posting queue. - New (Runtime Error)
New documents for which a dump occurred during posting. - Successful
Documents that are posted successfully in the current system. - Failed
Documents that failed to be posted in the current system. - Blocked (Temporarily)
This status can be used to temporarily prevent the document from being posted.
To put a document on hold, select the line with the document and choose Document -> Temporarily Block. - Blocked (Runtime Error)
Indicates that a document which was previously marked as New (Runtime Error) is now blocked to prevent the document from constantly dumping during posting. You can either unblock the document and try to post it manually or set it to obsolete. - Obsolete
Shows that a document is no longer relevant. - Reversed
Indicates that a successfully posted document was reversed.
The following notifications are sent to Concur:
- Acknowledgement
Used to notify the Concur system that the document arrived in the SAP system with status New. - Confirmation
Concur is notified about whether the documents were posted successfully or not. For failed postings, additional details are included in the notification. - Payment Status
If you enabled payment notifications in the Financial Posting wizard, the payment status for expense reports is sent to Concur to conclude the notification process. The possible statuses are not paid, partially paid, paid, and not relevant. Not relevant is set when the document does not apply to vendors, for instance Expense Pay, credit cards (CBCP), payroll payment, or in the case of a zero posting.
Not paid is the initial status and is not sent to Concur. With the next payment run/synchronization, the status changes to partially paid, paid, or not relevant and is passed on to Concur accordingly.
Note that expense reports that are transferred before activating this functionality will show an initial value in the Payment Status column.
You can track the statuses and notifications with the Document Protocol which you’ll find by choosing Display.
Note: Depending on the document type, the column ID (Employee ID / Vendor ID) either relates to the employee ID or the vendor ID coming from the Concur system.Apart from Invoice which contains the vendor ID, all other document types contain the employee ID.
The complete cycle of the document processing is called the feedback loop. Let’s explain its purpose using expense reports as an example:
- After approval, the expense report document arrives in the Concur financial posting queue.
- If the automatic import is enabled, the expense report is automatically retrieved from the queue by the SAP system. The document status is New.
- An acknowledgment is sent to the Concur system that the expense report arrived and was accepted by the SAP system.
- Now the document is posted – either successfully or fails. A confirmation is sent accordingly. In the case of an error, the employee or administrator can correct the expense report in the Concur system and re-submit it in which case it will be forwarded to the financial posting queue again. If enabled, attachments are now retrieved from the Concur system and the payment notification is passed on eventually.
Navigating on the Concur Documents Screen
By double-clicking the respective cell, you are directed as follows:
Document Type, Document Key, Document ID, Revision Number, Document Name, Employee/Vendor ID and Created – displays the financial document (if posting was successful).
Document Status, Acknowledgement Sent, Confirmation Sent – leads you to the Document Protocol.
Attachments Retrieved – leads you to the Business Document Navigator where you can view the attachments.
Payment Status, Payment Status Sent – leads you to the Payment Status screen.
Modified by Customer, Customer Modification – leads you to the Customer Modifications screen.
Changed – displays the Original File (JSON Format).
Alternatively, you can also place the cursor in a cell and right-click your mouse to view all available navigation options.
Manual Processing
You can also trigger the loop manually, for instance, if one of the steps fails. To do so, choose Feedback Loop -> Step-by-Step and then start by importing the documents from the queue, followed by Send Acknowledgement, Post, and Send Confirmation to conclude the process. Next, you can retrieve attachments if applicable.
If you enabled payment notification in the Financial Posting wizard, choose Document -> Synchronize Payment Status and then send the Payment Status to Concur via Feedback Loop -> Step-by-Step -> Send Payment Status.
Important: the steps mentioned above must be repeated and completed for every document type!
To view a successfully posted document, go to Display -> Posted Document.
Delta Handling
When a change must be made to a posted expense report, then a delta of that expense report can be submitted and posted. Let’s take a look at how a delta for an expense report fits in with the feedback loop when FI is the reimbursement method:
- The SAP system imports a submitted expense report from the queue where it is identified as Revision Number 1.
- The document is acknowledged, posted, and the confirmed posting is sent to Concur. The 90-day period to submit deltas begins.
- The report is reopened in Concur where the necessary changes are made, and the document is resubmitted as a delta.
- The SAP system picks up the delta and identifies it as Revision Number 2.
- The delta completes the feedback loop.
- Should it be necessary, you can submit a second delta, i.e. Revision Number 3, at this time.
Important: For an expense report to be eligible for reopening, certain criteria must be met. For the full list, please see SAP Note 2923196 – FAQ: Financial Posting in the Concur Integration.
Once you’ve started importing deltas, you can quickly identify them by checking the Revision Number column on the Concur Documents screen. While the initial document is marked with a 1 in this column, deltas are identified with a number higher than one. The number appearing in the column indicates how many revisions of that document in total the system has imported so far.
While you can submit as many deltas as required during the 90 days following the initial posting, note that a discrepancy may arise between the number of documents imported and the number of posting documents available. A new FI posting document is generated when a change made in the delta document is relevant for the FI posting. When a change is made that is not relevant, then it’s handled as a zero posting, meaning that no FI posting document is generated for that revision number.
Setting Documents to Obsolete
For documents that have the status New, Blocked, and Failed, you have the option to set them to obsoleteby choosing Document -> Set to Obsolete.
This step can be necessary, for instance, if you don’t want an expense report that contains errors and whose posting consequently fails, to remain in the regular queue. Although obsolete documents are technically regarded as failed documents that run through the feedback loop and forward a notification of failure to Concur accordingly, they do not appear in the list of failed documents. New documents that have not yet been acknowledged are set to obsolete and can be re-imported from the queue right away.
When you choose to set a newor blockedacknowledged document to obsolete, you’ll be prompted to provide a reason. In the Document Protocol, you’ll see that the posting failed and – in the detailed information section – that the document was set to obsolete due to the reason provided earlier on.
At a later stage, it might turn out that the document is relevant after all and is re-submitted in the Concur system. As soon as the documents are picked up from the queue again, the status of the previously obsolete document switches to new.
Synchronizing the Payment Status
To verify that the status of successfully posted documents reflects the result of the current payment run, you can select the line(s) with the document(s) in question and choose Document-> Synchronize Payment Status. If the status in the Payment Status column differs from the current status of the payment run, it is updated accordingly. This change is then also shown in the Document Protocol (choose Display) as Payment and includes the amount and currency.
Reverse Posting
A document that was posted successfully can be reversed, for example because it was posted by mistake. Select the line(s) with the document(s) in question and choose Document -> Reverse Posting.
Note that a reverse posting is only possible as long as no line items have been cleared. To reverse a document after line items have been paid, the clearing reference information needs to be reset first.
Important: The reversing of a posting is not supported when secondary documents, like documents from event-based revenue recognition for example, have been created. In such cases, you must manually revert the posting.
- Expense Reports, Cash Advances, Invoices
You’ll be prompted to provide a reason and the posting date to avoid reversing a document in a financial closing period. After you’ve received the success message, you can double-click the document ID to display both documents – the successfully posted and the reversed document.
Note that the financial document is reversed, not the expense report as such. Keep this in mind if you have several documents relating to one expense report. Although you’ll notice a status change in the table (reversed), no information is sent to the Concur system regarding the reversal, and the employees will therefore not see any changes in their expense report.
Also, if you plan to post a reversed document after all, you must do so manually as the documents are no longer included in the standard feedback loop process. However, no information will be sent to Concur notifying the employees that their documents were eventually posted manually.
- Delta
For expense reports, it is possible to reverse any and all deltas but be aware that information about delta reversals is not sent to Concur.
Important: Reversing a delta increases your chance for errors and is done at your own risk. There is no support for errors arising from delta reversals.
