Integrate expense report to 2 systems

[qtian]

Hi,

Has anyone done the expense report integration to 2 systems? If yes, can you please share how these 2 processes work? We know the integration is checking the expense report status to decide which one it should pull into the other system. With 2 systems need the same expense report, is there a need to add additional set of statuses on expense report in order to handle the needs from 2 systems? Any insight will be highly appreciated!

Thanks,

Tina

[rohanpatil]

Hello @qtian ,

I would say that Concur does not expect the same expense report to go to two systems. This is why there is only one field for payment confirmation and single payment status. I would go as far as to say this is not possible via SAP ICS.

Only possibility that I would see is that you send the SAE content to the other system and post via a custom development program. You can also maintain some sort of table that keeps track of postings to the two ERP systems outside of Concur. Hope this helps.

[qtian]

@rohanpatil Thanks for the quick response! The 2 systems are not both ERP systems. One is ERP and the other is PSA system (for example, Certinia, formerly FinancialForce). Have you seen this case?

Thanks,

Tina

[rohanpatil]

Hi @qtian 

Perhaps I am missing the point. Why do you need to send the information to the other system? I have seen cases where the information is sent to ERP for payment and then Concur Intelligence or ERP interfaces transfer information to other systems for payroll/ taxation/ social security. However the information on the second data flow is not sent to Concur.

[qtian]

@rohanpatil We are thinking to send expense report to PSA system from the same source (Concur) to consolidate time and expense. If this is not possible, would you please share how SAE work from ERP system?

Thanks,

Tina

[rohanpatil]

Hi @qtian 

SAE is the file that Concur can generate. Clients either use SAP ICS or SAE integration to post expenses. You can find more information about SAE at the below link.

http://www.concurtraining.com/customers/tech_pubs/Docs/_Current/SPC/Spc_Exp/EXP_SPEC_SAE_V4.pdf

[qtian]

@rohanpatil I will review the document and let you know if I have further questions.

Thanks,

Tina

[qtian]

Hi @rohanpatil 

I reviewed the document that you shared. I have a few questions:

1. My understanding is SAE will be generated when expense report is approved by processor. So this can be real time as well other than batch job? Would you please help me to understand how the process work in terms of real time (if there is) vs. Batch job. If use batch job, will it know what expense reports got approved by processor since last batch job ran? We currently don't have access to the SAE configuration which we can talk to Concur support.

2. For the 2nd system to get and consume this SAE, is sftp the only way to get it? Or can be done via API?

3. When configure SAE, we can choose only to extract expense report related fields, like expense report header, entry and tax?

Sorry for many questions!

Thanks,

Tina

[rohanpatil]

Hi @qtian 

1. SAE is only generated as part of the overnight processing. However, I think we can also trigger the generation of the SAE via an API. I have unfortunately not used it recently.

2. For SAE, you only have SFTP option. You can fetch the data using API's. However this is going to be complicated

3. No. SAE has a fixed format. You will find the details in the file.

[qtian]

Hello @rohanpatil :

Thanks for your answers!

Just want to make sure the SAE job will get delta data which means every time it runs, it will get the expense reports that have been approved by processor since last run, correct?

I am assuming there is a way to do initial extract, let's say, all expense reports approved by processor after certain date?

Thanks,

Tina

[rohanpatil]

Hello Tina @qtian ,

You made me think a bit more and I am afraid the SAE solution may not be the best recommendation as it relies on the approval status for the extraction. I believe that it will pickup claims that are in the status 'Processing payment' once extracted the status will change to 'Sent for payment'. This would interfere with the working and status changes by SAP ICS. Also, I now recollect that when we moved from SAE to ICS in the past, there were some limitations that came into play. This makes me think that the two cannot work together anymore. Sorry that I only think of this now.

My advice it therefore to focus on supplying the data to the second system either via Concur Intelligence reporting or API's.

https://developer.concur.com/api-explorer/v3-0/Reports.html

https://developer.concur.com/api-explorer/v3-0/Entries.html

[qtian]

@rohanpatil Thanks for the additional information! Yes, if SAE interfere with the status and change it to sent for payment, we can't use this. Maybe that why you mentioned SAE is mainly used for payroll. 

We can explore more on API.

Thanks you so much for helping me understanding this! I am sure I'll have more questions later about this topic.

Thanks.

Tina

[rohanpatil]

@qtian Happy to help. I am sure that I will get to learn a thing or two from you and others on this forum in the future.

[qtian]

@rohanpatil @leedau Thanks for your suggestions! Do you have any document that talks about the customizations that need to be done in Concur to host Certinia Projects and Assignments? Especially how the cost objects should be set up for the projects & assignments and how the expense report approval workflow should work?

Thanks,

Tina

[rohanpatil]

Sorry @qtian . I do not have such a document with me. Hope that someone else on the forum can share something that can help you.

[qtian]

@rohanpatil Thanks! It's ok. We'll see if anyone else will reply to this thread.

Best regards,

Tina

[leedau]

@qtian Thanks for your post. If it is to send data to a third party system for reporting purposes (versus accounting or payment) - you can consider using API's as @rohanpatil suggested or you can submit a support case in the SAP Concur Support Portal to see if your assigned Report Admin can help build a custom report based on your requirements. It all depends on your uses and needs.

It sounds like you need the data in both ERPs, versus splitting the data where some data loads to the first ERP and another set of data loads to the second ERP. Is my understanding correct?

I look forward to hearing back from you.