Initial thoughts on the new Expense UI.

[RichardG]

I'm interested in users thoughts on the new UI Expense release - the pros and cons - no holds barred.

Kind regards

[Josh]

Overall, I think the change is for the better. The side-by-side view of expense details and the receipt image is great. The ability to view past reports on the main Expense Center page is also a welcome adjustment.

I would, however, agree with Sandra and say that an option to View All past reports is a puzzling omission. Sure, you can set the date parameters, but what if you don't know when an employee began? A simple View All option would be a simple way to ensure no report gets left behind.

Also, it is curious as to why icons indicating certain properties of an expense are no longer present. For instance, the credit card icon indicating an expense is linked to a company credit card, an icon to indicate comments are present, and an icon for a personal expense. The layout before was able to give an approver a very good sense of the report with a quick glance, and now, they're left with just lines of text. The overall organization of a given report is great, but the aesthetic design seems a step down from the previous UI.

Before, for company credit card info, you could just hover over the icon and see the data. Move your mouse down a few pixels and you can see the next one. Now, you've got to open up an expense and click on the Company Card link at the top of the page. To go to the next, you have to close the transaction info box, close the expense, open the next one (hoping you remember your place on the list), and click the Company Card link again. Again, the organization and presentation is very sharp, but the practical reality of how it functions seems too complex. This is likely going to significantly increase the time it takes for an approver to view all this info on a given report.

It'd be great if an identifier (like an icon) was on the list view of the report that indicates a company card transaction is linked. Click that icon and the transaction info pops up like the receipt image pops up now (lightbox - a great improvement). Sure, the Payment Type lists the company card payment method, but again - organization is great, aesthetic design seems bland and unremarkable.

Also - and I know I'm going on and on about this, sorry! - the top menu on a page is no longer static. The SAP Concur logo, Travel, Expense, Reporting, etc. menu used to stay at the top of the page and the rest of the page scrolled underneath it. That way, you scroll all the way down a page and then can just move your mouse up to the top of the page and switch to an Admin page or the Expense Center or whever you need to go.

Now, the top menu  just scrolls with the rest of the page, and in order to access it you have to scroll all the way back up to the top. It would be so helpful if it remained static like it did before the update.

Besides those tweaks, I'm not sure I have many other big issues with it. I love the way Allocations work now. You go to add a new allocation, and it prompts you for all the Cost Tracking fields right away. Before, all those fields had the potential to load in as blanks, causing issues, but this fixes that in a very nice way.

Can't wait to see the rest of it as we update our internal end user documentation.

[Josh]

Oh! And the new icon for a Missing Receipt Declaration is great. Much easier to tell it's there at a glance.

Although now I just noticed something else. If a report has more than 25 expenses on it, there will be two pages, and you have to click to the next page to view them. The page indiciators on the bottom of the page are surprisingly small.

Given that if an approver were to miss seeing these (and I'm confident many of ours could potentially miss it), they could approve a report without even seeing some of the expenses, I'm surprised that these page selectors are not more prominent.

Why do reports need to be split up into only pages of 25 expenses in the first place? I think it would be much better to just have all the expenses (whether there are two expenses or a thousand) on a single page. Maybe with the new UI that's not technically feasible for ease of navigation, and would slow down the site dramatically. If that's the case, and there must be multiple pages for a report with loads of expenses, I suggest that the page indicators at least be more prominent, like the Copy Report and Submit Report buttons at the top of the report. That way, it is very clear to anyone reviewing / approving reports that there are more expenses present than the ones on the first page.

Anyway, just my 2 cents 🙂

[RichardG]

I wonder if the 25 transactions per page is something that can be altered? @KellyR - could you please seek a response for Josh on this?

[AmberLee]

Does the report total show on every page or just the last page? That might be a good way to let people know there are more expenses on the next page.

[RichardG]

Hi Josh - totally get where you are coming from. This will be a change that will get the proponents and opponents of the icons in full conversation. I personally am an opponent of the icons - infact I had to shut the travel booking shells off for our users because it caused so much confusion - i.e do I acquit this or has the airline charged me twice? Examples of the types of questions I was getting - seeing the word " pending transaction" makes more sense to me - just my 2 cents. Happy to discuss further offline if you want to send me a PM. You raise some great issues that will be common to many users!

Kind regards

[Josh]

Hey @RichardG, I totally get it. My company does not utilize Concur Travel, so for us, the only icons that were ever present on a report were:

-Receipt Attached
-Missing Receipt Affadavit Attached
-Comments
-Personal Charge
-Allocated / Partially Allocated
-Company Card Transaction Linked

So we're not seeing any other icons from the Travel side of things. I think that if we did, we would likely turn them off much like you did. Given how some things in Concur already cause confusion, I can't imagine how much more confusion those would create - ha!

I wholeheartedly agree that seeing 'Pending Transaction' is a much clearer message, and on our side of things, when the payment type is 'Cash' - obviously that's a clear indicator that a card transaction is not linked. Similarly, seeing our company credit card program name as the payment type does make it clear that it's linked to a transaction. I believe that's going to help our approvers a great deal, and re-reading my previous message, it does sound like I'm campaigning for the icon to replace the payment type, which is not the case.

My main concern is ease of access to the company card data (the info that could be accessed by merely hovering over the company credit card icon previously). Since Concur has seemingly done away with hover-over popup boxes and replaced them with lightboxes (of which I'm in favor), I think it would be great if they allowed the company card data to be viewed on the main report screen, much like all receipts are visible by clicking the thumbnail. I thought they could include a small icon on the expense that would serve as the click-point to view that info. In addition to serving that role, it could add some color / imagery to break up the mostly text-based view. I'm all for cool design 🙂

[wbhicks]

My quick feeback is that it's pretty bad...and I'm not someone who doesn't like change or doesn't adopt it quickly and easily. As an Expense User and Approver, I want to be able to see an Entire Report while I'm working on one specific line-item. Instead, with the new UI, you get taken to an entirely separate screen to work on or review one entry without any reference to the remainder of the Expense Report. Losing the ability to hover over the Card Icon and quickly see the Credit Card Data (including Level 3 details) is also a big negative. Only 25 lines per page...also a negative. I can absolutely guarantee that many Approvers won't ever make it past Page 1. Also if you want to see Attendees...that's an entirely separate page. What a disaster. 

Basically Concur took what was a great/informative one-page layout for Users/Approvers and made it more difficult to use just so Receipts were bigger/easier to read...completely short-sighted. Consider me totally unimpressed...and I'm the biggest champion for use of Concur in our entire Company. Technology should be an enabler...this is a huge step backwards. I have no doubt that this will not be favorably received, especially by our Sales Associates who make up the vast majority of our Expense Users and even more so for our Sales Managers who will be reviewing the largest # of Expense Reports. 

[wbhicks]

Here's another one I just discovered. If you sort by Amount or Requested (I usually do highest to lowest when reviewing) and drill into a specific line item...when you close out of that line item and go back to the main page with all Expenses (or at least the first 25), you lose the Sort Order you just performed. 

[DavidW]

We have 10 people trying it out.

So far, they love it...and it is easier for them to use.

I'm an icon liker, so I miss that. However, they haven't complianed. My thought was more about icons since they can be INTERNATIONAL and tkae up less space right?

You could just have 

But in text it would be happy (English) ...glücklich (German)...etc.

[PamSciarra]

I just turned on the new UI to try it out and the font is HUMONGEOUS.  I have to scroll down on every expense entry just to see if there are any comments.  I wonder if there is a way for Concur to allow the selection of screen or font sizing.  This is crazy big and guarantees a lot of scrolling.

Also, I definitely don't like having to hunt for the attendee link (preferred seeing attendees on the same screen as the entry.

[PamSciarra]

My fellow administrator just discovered that the Mileage Calculator is no longer there.  Is this one of the items that isn't fully functional yet....or is this something that will not appear in the New UI?  Right now, an employee can enter the two address points, but has to manually enter the distance traveled (rather than the system doing the calculation.)  I really hope this is something that is being addressed.

[RichardG]

Hi Pam - I believe the 'test release' does not contain all the functions that will be available in the September release. I attended the session in Fusion the big crowd pleasers appeared to be easier itemisation of hotel expenses and adding of attendees to events. I have no doubt all this feedback will be taken on board between now and the opt in date.

Kind regards

[GPThompson]

I like it overall but, as mentioned by a few people, the loss of the icons is a problem, particularly for credit cards, flights and hotels. It’s hard to know what comes from a card source or from an itinerary at first glance.

Itemisations and allocations are so much easier now

[knaimoli]

I am excited about the new UI. The icons are a huge pain point for us and my most asked question is about the smart expenses. I have to tell people all the time that if there is no credit card icon then it's not an expense and does not need to be expensed. 

I also LOVE the new itemization screen and it will help so many people here who get held up on different rates and non recurring charges. 

My biggest con right now is the viewing of previous reports. Why isn't there an all option? It was so useful! 

I am also eager to see what CBS changes will look like so I can start playing around on our Pcard side! 

[valegre]

Richard,

This is what I have seen so far.

The size of the letters and the fields are too big compared to the other screens (i.e. "Manage Expense" and “Home Page"). Once I switched to the other screens it takes time to adjust the eye sight. If I adjust the screen resolution then the asterisk for the required fields are too small to be noticed.

The codes are being duplicated by the system. In the NextGen UI I see 2 company numbers 2 HBU and 2 cost codes on the fields. Not sure if this is a glitch for now or will stay this way. 

The rate for the mileage is not visible. In the current interface we have a link that shows “View Reimbursement rates”.

I also cannot find the option to change the approver for a single expense reports. The only option is to change it at the profile level.

I would like for SAP Concur to reconsider and keep the icons. They help the approvers to identify if the transactions are in compliance with the companies’ policy. The icons also help the administrators to troubleshoot the reports and provide assistance.

I like the itemizations for the hotel. This is a good improvement.

And last every time I tried to preview or revert (Between the old and the new UI) I have to log out and log back into the system.

Regards,

[SandraA]

I agree with most of the comments here.   But I'm still a little puzzled about why people want the icons, especially for Card charges.

Instead of the icon you have Payment Type.   Why can't you use Payment type to distinguish card charges and train employees?

To me it's easier to say "Corp Card" then to say "look for the round orange icon".

[Josh]

Hi @SandraA,

The Payment Type being listed is, I agree, much more clear, and should be a great help in quickly identifying expenses not linked to corporate credit card transactions. For my company's purposes, though, I'm suggesting some kind of identifier *like* an icon, as a means to quickly access the transaction info. This is my main interested - whether or not it's an actual icon is irrelevant.

The info about Transaction Date / Posted Date, last four of the card, any Level 3 data, etc. was previously accessible simply by hovering over the icon on the main report view. Now, to view that same info, one must open a given expense and click on the Company Card link at the top of the expense page view. Burying this data inside an expense, and not making it visible while viewing the report as a whole is puzzling to me, as it will make any thorough examination / audit of a report take significantly more time.

It would be great if there was something - some identifier - on the expense line that you could click to make that transaction data pop up in a lightbox (like how the receipts function now on the main report view). Whether the identifier is an icon, or a small symbol like the Missing Receipt Declaration, or just the words of the Payment Type itself, I'd be fine with it. As long as the data could be easily accessible.

[Nancyagfa]

On the use of icons - The icons are a benefit to us as we don't have Concur Travel and only have corp card charges coming in. Right now, it is very easy to spot cash expenses or charges not on the corp card, as there is no icon on that expense line.  We have Amex, which when you hover over the icon, gives you valuable data on the charge that can easily be compared to the entry. We also use the absence of the card icon to quickly identify duplicate charges where someone manually entered on the mobile app but did not match the charge before submitting.  It' a very easy proof of duplicate when one is on the card bill and the other is not.

[Jody]

Thank you, @Nancyagfa! We're hearing--and listening--to all the customer guidance around the information provided by the icons. (The info is still there, albeit accessed differently now as you can see.)

Please keep the feedback coming.

[AmberLee]

@Jody ,
Love that you differentiate between hearing and listening. #smooth #iseewhatyoudidthere

[melodiehayes]

The payment type is helpful, but if you need to allocate to departments, you get more detail by hovering over the credit card icon, without having to click to another screen.