Hello Community,
I’d like to bring up a topic that has become a recurring issue across several clients, especially after the implementation of S/4HANA.
Previously, processors were manually adjusting VAT-related fields in expense reports—such as Tax Codes, Tax Amounts, and Reclaimable Amounts. However, with S/4HANA, the system expects the VAT amounts to be calculated automatically based on the Tax Codes configured in SAP. It doesn’t properly recognize or interpret manual changes made by processors, or only partially does so.
Check the following example from Australia, let's say you see the Tax Code W0 that in SAP is expecting to receive a calculated VAT amount of 10% from the expense total amount in this example (90,14 AUD) then the VAT amount is calculated and you get (8.19 AUD)
Examples of manual adjustments from the Processors
Here the Processor changed the Reclaim Code and the Reclaim Transaction Amount but in SAP the Tax Code V1 is 0% VAT amount but the field has a calculation already in the background
Before S/4 the processors could change within the GST Area without receiving a posting failed the VAT amount and change it to zero but now If the VAT fields remain editable and a processor modifies them, this can cause the report to become corrupted or broken. SAP receives conflicting data—a mix of manual adjustments and system-generated calculations—which leads to integration errors. When this happens, the report often must be recreated from scratch. Alternatively, you can try the following workaround:
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🔧Workaround Steps:
1. Return the report to the employee.
2. Modify the affected expenses slightly—change the receipt type or transaction date to a different value. Then, re-enter the expense and correct the fields accordingly. This prompts the system to reprocess the VAT calculation.
3. Resubmit the report, ensuring no manual changes are made to the VAT fields this time, from the processor side.
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⚙️Configuration-Based Solution (Recommended)
To avoid manual intervention and ensure consistency, Concur administrators should configure the system to guide end users through proper VAT handling.
Recommended setup:
- Update the Tax Posted Amount field and set it as read only for the processors within the Expense Entry form in Forms & Fields. So the processors can't damage the reports anymore from that moment.
- Change the configuration within Tax Administration with all the relevant changes, to ensure that all expenses are in a group that requests the list of VAT options to the employees. (Creating a VAT form within Forms & Fields, Creating a VAT list within List Management, assign it to the VAT Form previously created and assign the VAT form to the Tax Group (for example All rates and adjust the conditions with the new VAT list) within Tax Administration, below some screenshots for an example in Australia but if you are a Concur Administrator you will know how to do it (just not to make this article super long)
- Employees must select:
- Standard (e.g., 10%) if the receipt includes VAT,
- Zero (0%) if it does not,
- Or use itemizations when a receipt contains both VAT and non-VAT components.
In mixed cases, users must choose either Standard or Zero in the main expense, but the actual VAT split should be defined in the itemization, which will determine the final calculation used by the system.
After the implemented new VAT drop down list/selection (as described in the Recommended setup in this article) the processors instead of changing the VAT fields manually (Tax code, Reclaim amount, VAT Amount) they just need to change the VAT option (like shown in the example below), and all the fields will be updated automatically following the configured conditions within the tax group
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✅Key Takeaway
With S/4HANA integration, it’s essential to eliminate manual edits to VAT fields and rely on system configuration for tax calculations. This ensures accuracy, prevents report corruption, and reduces support overhead.
Let me know if others have encountered similar challenges or have different solutions in place!
IMPORTANT!
If this information has been useful to you, or you simply want to support my initiative, just leave your thumbs up 😉
Note: @KevinD i know what you will say, and is already posted in the Admin group too 👌
@grodriguezproje you know me too well. 🙂
Thank you,
Kevin
SAP Concur Community Manager
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Hi @MonaliKale
In the tax administration you can check how the system is setup.
Background
-There is a common problem and is that sometimes the end users don't receive proper trainings, so they are not always trained to use itemizations which is the tool available in concur that need to be used in order to don't have the issues you are experiencing currently.
-In UK the invoices are quite chaotic don't understand why the government don't stablish a proper way to issue invoices where the companies needs to clearly identify each line within invoice so which part is subject to tax and which is exempt, as well as indicating in each line the percentage of VAT applied to the taxable base.
The issue is that the users type the total amount of the invoice and not everything is subject to VAT calculation but the system is calculating VAT for the whole amount depending on the setup within the Tax administration so this makes that the VAT calculated is not matching the VAT in the invoice, then the processors manually change the amount but when this goes to SAP, the system is expecting the calculated amount from Concur based on the TAX codes and so on. So the TAX fields shouldn't be touched.
SOLUTIONS
-As explained in the article above, set the Tax posted Amount field within the Forms as Read only, this will avoid the changes from the processors.
-Check the Tax codes setup within the Tax administration if you think or are sure that the system is assigning incorrectly the tax codes, the system will work the way you configure it.
-Users needs to itemize the expenses indicating which part is VAT aplicable and which part is exempt.
If this answers your query, then please mark solution as accepted.
