Mass download of images of expense report cover sheets

[cmadeira]

Hello SAP Concur community,

I'm wondering if anyone can help.

For VAT reclaim purposes in some European countries, our tax department needs us to do a mass download of the expense report cover sheets in pdf format.
Has anyone experienced such a challenge? Does anyone know if there's a way to do this mass download, instead of having to download the cover sheets individually?
Our need comprehends 1431 cover sheets and our deadline is quite tight.

Thanks for your help.

Best regards,

Carlos

[PoojaKumatkar]

Hi @cmadeira ,

Can you please help me understanding you are referring to exactly what as expense report cover sheet? If you could provide screenshot then it will be helpful to understand.

[cmadeira]

Hello dear Pooja,

Hope all is well.
Thank you very much for having taken the time to help me.
The company I work for is also based in Europe and although we operate Concur merely in a digital environment, some tax authorities are demanding the Expense report cover sheet as showcased below, for purposes of VTA reclaims. Whilst we have access to the mass download of the invoices via the daily image delivery file, we need to be able to export in mass the expense report cover sheets.

Thanks again and wishes of a good day,

Carlos

[PoojaKumatkar]

Hi @cmadeira ,

This is a printed report that is typically available within each individual expense report.

From a technical standpoint, it is not feasible to export these printed reports in bulk for all expense reports.

Each report must be accessed and downloaded individually.

If this answers your query, then please mark solution as accepted.

[cmadeira]

Hi Pooja,
Thank you very much for your feedback:
During today's call with our CAS rep (Concur Audit Services), she mentioned that she had other clients with the same request.
Long ago we created a routine to process the daily image extract file alongside the daily SAE file and in our home grown ERP have access to all the supporting invoices for the transactions submitted through Concur, with the possibility to produce mass invoice downloads by several different downloading possibilities, country, expense type, etc. We can report on the data, export it to Excel and along with it a zip file of the respective images.
I'm wondering if there's any type of connectivity through an API that can enable us the mass download of the expense report cover sheets. Surely they must be stored somewhere.
I'll create a Concur support case to understand if despite your view, which I also share, there's any way to extract these based on a specific query.
I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again for your input.

Kind regards,

Carlos

[PoojaKumatkar]

Hi @cmadeira ,

I believe the CAS representative has misunderstood the requirement. The process they referred to image extract along with SAE is a standard service that is already available.

However, your actual requirement is related to printed expense reports (pdf format), not image extracts or report data extracts.

I researched this further by reviewing online resources as well as the Concur Developer Portal, and I did not find any API that supports extracting printed reports. Additionally, this is confirmed in an older Concur Community post, which aligns with our understanding that, from a technical standpoint, it is not feasible to mass export printed reports.

Attaching old community posts URL for your further reference:

https://community.concur.com/t5/Concur-Expense-Forum/Extract-PDF-expense-report-from-API/m-p/68234?u...

If this answers your query, then please mark solution as accepted.

[cmadeira]

Hello dear Pooja,

I hope you and your loved ones are all well.

Thank you very much for your dedication and willingness to help us, as well as by investigating the possibility to find any API that supports extracting printed reports, and for sharing the link to the older post.
We appreciate it vey much.
We're trying to assess all possibilities, if any, to generate a mass export of these printed reports.
I've heard of other companies experiencing this functionality for VAT reclaim purposes and I'm looking forward to hearing more from Arntzie's solution.
I'll keep you posted on any information I manage to gather.
Thank you and best regards,

Carlos

[Arntzie]

We also get similar requests.  We've built a custom report that replicates the cover sheet which we've used in the past and haven't encountered any issues.  Maybe this would work?

[cmadeira]

Hello dear Arntzie,
I hope you and your loved ones are all well.
Thank you very much for having taken the time to post your reply. Very much appreciated!
We're also considering a similar solution.
Can you please help us understand better what your company did to generate the expense report cover sheets, and if you can replicate these in mass?
After a request of roughly 1400 expense report cover sheets to support a VAT reclaim, which had to be generated individually and manually by printing the cover sheet from Concur to pdf, 10 mouse clicks per each cover sheet, we've now been requested an additional 715 cover sheets. We anticipate more requests from different Tax Authorities and must bring efficiency into the process Urgently.
Thanks again for your time.
Best regards,

Carlos

[Arntzie]

Hi - We basically created a custom Cognos report which replicates the cover page.  I have a data scientist on my team who was able to build it in such a way that it looks very much like the printed report.  The receipts are not downloaded but I provided this detail, and it was accepted by the auditors.  I'm not sure if this would fit for you but it worked for us.

[cmadeira]

Hi Arntzie,
Thanks for your reply!
That is an interesting option, I believe I'll pursue something similar.
Can you please confirm if you can generate in mass Exp report cover sheets in pdf format?
Something like if you have a list of Report Ids for a given criteria, can you create the respective query in Cognos and produce in mass let's say 1400 pdfs to be provided to the requesting Tax Authorities?
Thank you and Best regards,

Carlos

Thank you.

[Arntzie]

Yes, you can pull multiple and have the output in Cognos as PDF.  We have run into some volume limitations, but I don't recall off the top of my head what they are.  If you have someone on your team that can build a custom report, they should be able to play around to determine if 1400 is too many.   If yes, then back it down or shorten the time period. 

[JR1982]

I've asked for this many times before and Concur has always told me it's not possible.  We ended up getting a couple of contractors to manually do it.  Hopefully you find a better solution!!

[cmadeira]

Hi JR1982,

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my plea.
Do you know if you did it also via a Cognos report?
Are you able to do the expense report replication in mass, and save each expense report cover sheet in pdf format. Presently we have to save individually each pdf with the report ID as name. We had to do 1,400 and now a new request came in for an additional 715.
Thank you for your time and willingness to help and share your knowledge.

Best regards,
Carlos