Import Attendees from outlook calendar invite

[RG1487]

Since Concur NextGenUI has discontinued oulook calendar invite attendees import for Business Meals. I am wondering if there are any alternatives to have this feature, any customizations that we can do in Concur to import attendees. If an organization has implemented this feature, would love to hear the solutioning.  

[MelanieT]

@RG1487 Hello!  Your user's can use a Personal Attendee Import.  Here are steps to set this up and now they can use this. 

An administrator with the Expense Configuration Administrator (Restricted) or the Expense Configuration Administrator (Unrestricted) role can follow the steps below to create or modify the Personal Attendee Import:

1) To create the Personal Attendee Import:

1. Navigate to Administration > Expense > Attendee Import Templates
2. On Select Language drop-down, select the desired language for which the Attendee Import Template will be created​​​​​​
3. Click Generate Base Template and a pop-up window will appear
4. Save the Attendee Import Template to your computer
5. Configure the Attendee Import Template according to your needs

• For more information, review the Attendee Guide, on Procedure: Part 2 – Edit the Worksheet section)
• Make sure the first two rows are not deleted. First row can be hidden, but not deleted. 

6. After reviewing the template, go back to the Attendee Import Templates menu and make sure to select the desired language. 
7. Click Upload Template
8. Click on Choose File to select the template file from your local computer 
9. Click Upload Template
10. The template will be displayed under the Available Templates option and the Attendee Import Template has been configured

2) To modify an existing Personal Attendee Import template:

1. Navigate to Administration > Expense > Attendee Import Templates
2. Click View Templates
   • All uploaded templates will be displayed showing the language associated to it (regardless of the language selected on Select Language drop-down)

3. Click View in the row of the desired language
4. The current template for the language is downloaded automatically
5. Configure the template file with the changes you desire
6. Go back to the Attendee Import Templates and click View Templates again
7. Click Delete in the row of the desired language to delete the current template (make sure you have a backup of this file)
8. Under Select Language, select the language you would like to upload the updated template
9. Click Upload Template > Choose File and select the file you modified

 Please also see the Attendee Tech Pub I have attached here. Starting on Page 24 there are steps to actually use the import in an expense report. 

Remember to tag me if you respond or feel free to mark this post as Solved if you don't have further questions or comments. To tag me on your response, you click the Reply button, first thing to type is @. This should bring up the username of the person you are replying to.

[RG1487]

Hi @MelanieT  Thank you for the detailed information! We currently leverage the import tool for attendees. However, we are looking to onboard Outlook calendar invite for various other applications and Concur is one of them. Can we use API to import business meal attendees from outlook to Concur? or any other customizations that we can use...

[KevinD]

@RG1487 from the little bit I read, I don't think this is possible. It appears our APIs can create a new attendee in the system and be used to edit these attendees, but no mention of them coming from Outlook. I believe these attendees would be added in to the system so they can be searched for and added to reports. My other guess is because we no longer use the Outlook option for adding attendees to business meals, it wouldn't be something an API could do. 

[RG1487]

Thanks @KevinD. We are exploring options to have this feature for our Org employees. I have couple of questions on APIs
1. Can we use API to submit draft expense reports on behalf of employees? 

2. If yes to above, can we also submit Business Meals expense type and API import the list?

[KevinD]

@RG1487 APIs aren't my area of expertise, so I'm going to email a colleague your questions.

[KevinD]

@RG1487 I heard back from my colleague. See his replies inline.

1. Can we use API to submit draft expense reports on behalf of employees? I know you can create expense reports on behalf of the employee via APIs.  I am unsure if you want to submit them.  There are legal “user agreements” that you are bypassing.  You are opening up the ability for the employee to say “I didn’t do that”.

2. If yes to above, can we also submit Business Meals expense type and API import the list? Yes, you can create expenses.  You can also import Lists via APIs as well.

If you haven't already, visit: developer.concur.com to learn more about our APIs.

[MelanieT]

@RG1487 Let's see if @KevinD has any input on this.