Expense Delegate

[travelexpexpert]

We have some employees delegating to another employee at the same hierarchy level. This doesn’t align with our company’s policy as the employee has to delegate to their superior or someone one level above.

If I understand the delegation configuration option correctly, it's not possible per standard to fulfil this requirement? 

Am I right?

Any workarounds? 

We've discussed if we can force delegation only to an approver, as in this scenario, it will always be 1-up.  But we can only see the same level or higher option. 

Ole 

[rohanpatil]

 Hi @travelexpexpert 

The expense delegation configuration accommodates your requirement when you use authorized approvers with limits. If you do not use such a approval setup in your organization then I would assume that this can be checked via Concur intelligence reports. Assumption being that you have the employee level information available in Concur.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,
Rohan

[travelexpexpert]

Thanks for your input. Much appreciated. 

We do not have employee-level information in Concur or limits. 

Ole 

[rohanpatil]

Hi @travelexpexpert 

If that is the case then I see Intelligence as the only option. I assume that it should be possible to check delegate data and even burst out emails to non compliant managers. All the best.

BR, Rohan

[KevinD]

@travelexpexpert what are these employees delegating to others? The ability to create and submit reports or the ability to approve on their behalf?

[KevinD]

@travelexpexpert you are correct. Only same level or higher. There is no option to only allow one level up or higher.

If you are doing approving delegation, why doesn't your company allow someone with the same level of approval authority to approve for someone?

[travelexpexpert]

@KevinD, thanks for your confirmation. 

This is not only related to approver delegation but to any employee. 

Ole 

[KevinD]

@travelexpexpert I see. So, your company doesn't want Employees that are at the same level preparing and submitting reports for one another?

The thing with delegates and using the Can Prepare and Can Submit options is that there is only one choice for restricting this and that is by only allowing someone to add a delegate to prepare and submit that is in the same group as the user. Other than that, you cannot restrict who an employee adds as a delegate.

I'm still unsure of why your company has the policy it does in regards to delegates. Why do you not allow an approver with the same level of approval authority to approve for someone else? Maybe if you could provide some explanation as to the policy and reasoning behind it. 🙂

[travelexpexpert]

@KevinD I understand your quandary and admire your persistence. 

It's just the policy that has been implemented by management. 

That said I wonder why SAP Concur has made the decission not to develop the delagate feature more flexible. This would not be a big delvelopement and after all they do offer a very flexible work-flow feature. I am sure the current policy is not going to change just because a 'system' can't support 😉

It's just one of these perhaps marginal issues we encounter from time to time, like in some countries pre-approval seems to be by law but it dosen't merit implementing Request. 

Ole

[KevinD]

@travelexpexpert I don't know why the Delegate feature isn't a bit more flexible, but let me throw this out there. I've been here at SAP Concur getting close to 15 years. This is the first time I've had someone ask about this. What that tells me is, that it isn't something a majority of our customers have thought they needed. If I had to guess, that is why isn't more flexible. Now, we have had many many customers ask about adding the Delegate feature to our mobile app and that has been implemented.

You could consider submitting your idea of having the option to restrict approving delegation to approvers one level up or higher through our improvement request program. That way it has visibility to others and they can vote on it if it something they think their company can benefit from. Let me know if you want the link to our improvement request. 🙂

[travelexpexpert]

Please send me the link so I am sure that it's the correct one. 

Best, Ole