2018 Review of Concur Expense

From the 2018 review of Travel & Expense Management systems.

Concur Expense from SAP Concur is suited for small, mid-size and large businesses that wish to better manage employee travel and employee-based spend management. Along with Concur Expense, the company also offers Concur Travel and Concur Invoice, which integrate seamlessly with one another. The latest versions of SAP Concur products integrate with Budget, a new tool designed by SAP Concur to enable administrators and managers to better track and manage budgets in real time. Budget synthesizes data from Concur Expense, Invoice, Purchase Request and Travel Request, creating a comprehensive dashboard for spend before and after it occurs. As a result, finance leaders, sales leaders, and project managers alike can see spending events unfold. 

Concur Expense is cloud-based and can be used on desktops, laptops, smart phones and tablets. Users can simply snap a photo of any receipt and attach it directly to their report. All receipts uploaded are analyzed using Optical Recognition Technology (OCR), and once available are automatically itemized using the ExpenseIt feature, which uses machine learning to provide automatic itemizing and categorizing of all line items. Users can easily review the results and make any corrections prior to uploading the receipts. Concur Expense also integrates with SAP Concur’s broader partner ecosystem to manage and store eReceipts. For example, Concur TripLink connects directly with partner suppliers including airlines, hotels, rental cars and more to automatically feed booking data made outside of traditional booking channels into Concur Expense.

Concur Expense supports multiple product access levels, with administrators sending an email inviting potential users to sign up. The administrator can select the appropriate access level for each user, including the ability to submit expense reports, the ability to approve expense reports, and the ability to make system changes including setup and administrative access.

Concur Expense offers multi-currency and multi-language capability, with new languages always being added. The product also offers automatic calculations based on the current exchange rate. In addition, Concur offers many localized country packages, which fulfill the regulatory requirements of the country. SAP Concur also offers a solution called Drive that automatically tracks mileage and syncs directly to Concur Expense for inclusion on an expense report, and the company also offers integration with a variety of mileage apps including MileIQ and TripLog. For those that need better travel management, Concur Travel is a good option, and integrates seamlessly with Concur Expense for automatic processing of any travel related expenses. Concur Travel offers global booking solutions, making it easy to find the best hotel solution, book air travel with best rates guaranteed, and later send all related expenses directly to Concur Expense for easy processing. Apps are also available that offer easy time tracking and timesheet capability, making it easy to track time along with the related expenses. Credit card expenses can be automatically uploaded into Concur Travel by adding a credit card during the user setup process. This allows Concur Travel and Expense to automatically match credit card charges against line item expenses and receipt images.

SAP Concur administrators can determine the approval process during setup by identifying those that are authorized to approve expense reports. Approvers have the option to approve the entire report or specific line items, sending items in question back to the submitter for additional information. SAP Concur easily supports multiple approvers, with the ability to route reports based on specific criteria established during the setup process. A variety of expense related reports are offered in Concur Expense including the Top Spenders Report, Top Vendors Report, Expenses by Type Report, and Transaction Details Report. Those using Concur Travel will also have access to a variety of travel-related reports that highlight travel spending details, with more than 25 reports available. The product also provides access to a report training option, where users can view all reports available, and obtain help in accessing those reports. All reports can be viewed on screen, emailed directly to recipients, or exported as a CSV file or to Microsoft Excel for further customization if desired.

To help companies gain a more comprehensive view of corporate spend, SAP Concur offers Concur Invoice to process and manage vendor payments. The solution connects with POs, e-invoices, paper and e-mailed invoices and supplier networks to collect, manage and pay invoices. Employees can review and authorize payments via desktop or the Concur mobile app. Concur Invoice can also create pre-defined reports, dashboards and key metrics to provide an overview of spend for cash flow management.

Concur Expense integrates with popular ERP applications such as QuickBooks, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Intacct, Salesforce, and SAP products. The product also offers hundreds of travel, expense, invoicing, and related business apps that sync with the core system to provide extended application functionality. For example, SAP Concur integrates with accounting apps like Taxback International and VAT IT to automate the value-added tax reclaim process and generate savings for travel expenses.

SAP Concur recently integrated with Slack to create Concur Travel and Concur Expense bots for Slack, which use natural language processing (NLP) so employees can book business travel and submit expenses directly within Slack. Users can complete common travel and expense functions such as uploading receipts, generating and approving expense reports, searching and booking flights and retrieving itineraries through simple text commands within Slack.

SAP Concur users can access various help and support options by logging into the Concur Help system, which provides access to a toll-free number for support, though users can also access support via email. The portal also offers access to a searchable product knowledgebase, where users can search for solutions to frequently occurring issues. A Concur Training Toolkit is also available, which offers access to product resources such as getting started guides and report training guides.

Ideal for businesses of any size, SAP Concur offers two versions of Concur Expense; one for businesses with less than 1,000 employees, and one for businesses with more than 1,000 employees. The average price of the Standard Edition is billed at $8.00 per user, per month with Concur Expense, Concur Travel and Concur Invoice pricing available upon request. Concur Expense, Concur Travel, and Concur Invoice can be bundled together if desired. Those interested can download a trial version of the application to try out prior to purchasing.

2018 Rating 5 Stars