Travel Allowance Upgrade AMA

MitchellW · ‎Jul 17, 2024

This is your space to ask your questions prior to and during the event.
Simply "Reply" to the event above to ask your questions about the Travel Allowance Upgrade to our experts. Your questions will be answered on July 22nd from 9am - 10am PT.

shellshearer · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Can you provide a comparison screen shot of what it looks like now versus what the change will look like for the base upgrade?

MatthewZ · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Our documentation toolkit (which can be accessed here) includes numerous screen captures of the new Travel Allowance Service UI in the Introduction & Considerations documents. Those are slightly different across the different markets. Additionally, there is instructions on how you can enable "Preview Mode" in which you can access the Travel Allowance Service UI to verify, test, and document without enabling.

bogdanbieganski · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Do I have to switch from the legacy Travel Allowance into the new one? Can I stay with legacy Travel Allowance, and will I be able to update the rates for legacy Travel Allowance in the future (for current configuration of legacy Travel Allowance)?

MatthewZ · ‎Jul 22, 2024

We strongly recommend that customers start to evaluate the configurations available for upgrade and start the process. We are communicating now so that customers can benefit from the new Travel Allowance Service as early as possible. There is no set deadline at this time, but it will eventually be required. Our legacy TA feature remains supported until it is fully decommissioned, which will be announced well in advance.

As per rates, they are updated automatically in the Travel Allowance Service for the given statutory markets. You can also continue to update legacy rates concurrently.

bergauc · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Thanks for holding this AMA. It's my understanding that Legacy travel allowance rates are already updated automatically, syncronized annully with the GSA rates. Are you saying that the legacy system will no longer automaticaly update the rates? And if so, when will the legacy stop the automatic update?

rspanos · ‎Jul 18, 2024

Please provide clarification on what will happen to reports that have been submitted but not fully approved when the change over is made. Will they still be able to be approved as is? Will they have to be sent back to be updated? And if a report has daily allowance added but has not yet been submitted, will it have to be updated before it can be submitted?

MartinGregory · ‎Jul 22, 2024

In-flight reports containing itineraries created under Legacy TA do not need to be submitted prior to the switch to the TA Service, so there should be no need for a hard cutover. This is because the Legacy TA configuration will remain in the system, hence, any report containing Legacy TA can still be edited under the original configuration. Only newly created reports will use the TA Service.

George1011 · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Hi Team, client question, is this change mandatory or can clients stay on the older solution for TA ?

MatthewZ · ‎Jul 22, 2024

We strongly recommend that customers start to evaluate the configurations available for upgrade and start the process. We are communicating now so that customers can benefit from the new Travel Allowance Service as early as possible. There is no set deadline at this time, but it will eventually be required. Our legacy TA feature remains supported until it is fully decommissioned, which will be announced well in advance.

linh · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Hello team,

We need to know if this upgrade effects the Accounting extract 256 file ? Thanks.

marketa_c · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Hello, the Accounting extract 256 includes all travel allowance columns as the newer versions of SAE extract files, so no difference from this perspective.

Ali_C · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Hi Team,

I noticed that it states that custom reports would need to be recreated due to different data captures. We have a number of Cognos custom reports, a few that are complex and critical relating to supporting payroll based on travel allowance data.

My questions are:

For the Cognos reporting fields, is there an "old legacy"->"new service" mapping table available ?
Is there any risk that it would not be possible to recreate our existing legacy reports after implementing the new service ?
Would there be any limitations on us implementing the new service including the Cognos reporting to our sandbox environment so we could perform a review ?
Will old legacy travel allowance data remain available in Cognos reporting ?

Thanks in advance.

MatthewZ · ‎Jul 22, 2024

We offer a different but similar reporting model in new Travel Allowance Service to capture as many customer requirements as possible. Legacy data will continue to be available after the upgrade is engaged. Please work with your reporting team on understanding the details of the elements and options.

Ali_C · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Thanks for your reply.

All our reports are built in-house. What reporting team are you suggesting ? Via Concur support, since we have no internal knowledge ?

Please also comment question 3, the sandbox question. Are there any limitations ?

MatthewZ · ‎Jul 22, 2024

If you're building reports in house, then you'll be able to test it out in the sandbox environment, once you configure the new Travel Allowance Service there.

ConYoDog · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Can we convert countries that were setup via custom template? I have not seen that HU, LT, ZA on the conversion documentation and would like the new layout asap.

MartinGregory · ‎Jul 22, 2024

Upgrades of a unsupported non-statutory country for which SAP Concur does not currently provide a Concur-managed Statutory Rate Bundle (Generic), requiring the creation of a custom Client Rate Bundle, are not yet currently available. Dates for upgrading custom legacy travel allowance will be made available in the future.

wstutz · ‎Jul 22, 2024

If/When will new statutory rate bundles be added to the rate bundle lists for other countries such as India?