In the Accounting Extracts and Payment Accounting job types, our mission is to seamlessly retrieve data from expense reports and invoices that currently reside in the "Processing Payment" status. Subsequently, the system updates their status to either "Sent for Payment" or "Paid," depending on the workflow settings and any potential customizations that have been applied.
Sometimes, a pertinent question arises: what occurs when modifications are introduced into the system during the "Processing Payment" status, just before the extraction process?
If you happen to have multiple expense reports or invoices in the "Processing Payment" status and decide to amend details within the lists, forms, fields, or even user configurations, it's prudent to bear in mind that these alterations will not immediately reflect in the documents currently residing in the "Processing Payment" status. In the event of their extraction, they will inherit the pre-existing information that was present in the system prior to any updates you may have made.
This behavior stems from the fact that SAP Concur systems rely on information tied to each expense report or invoice, considering their respective creation dates. To elucidate this concept further, let's delve into a didactic example:
- John Doe, an SAP Concur User, initiates the creation of an expense report on a Monday. He enters certain expense types and leaves the remainder to be completed during the week.
- On Tuesday, Richard Roe, a company back-office personnel with SAP Concur Elevated User access, makes various alterations to lists and information within the system as part of a company-wide hierarchy update.
- On Wednesday, John Doe adds a few more expense items to his report and submits it for approval. His manager approves the report, which then transitions to the "Processing Payment" status.
- On Thursday, Richard Roe executes the expense accounting extract, and John Doe's expense report is included. However, he observes that the information within this report does not align with the updates he made to the lists, and the old information persists. Consequently, he reaches out to SAP Concur Support to inquire why the lists haven't been updated on the expense report.
As demonstrated in the example, because John Doe initiated the expense report creation on Monday, the system associates all information with that date. But how can we ensure that changes are incorporated into the expense reports before the extraction process, thus ensuring that the accounting extracts contain the most up-to-date data?
To effect the inclusion of new data within the expense reports, Richard Roe, in his capacity as a back-office employee with elevated access, must undertake the following steps:
- Return all expense reports or invoices in the "Processing Payment" status to the respective users.
- Implement all necessary updates to lists, forms, fields, and other pertinent elements.
- Instruct users to re-save and resubmit their respective expense reports or invoices.
- Proceed with the workflow as usual, knowing that the new information will be inherited once the accounting extract is executed.
It is imperative to maintain vigilant oversight over changes made to site settings and establish comprehensive policies for change management. Depending on the company’s document volume, there exists the potential for a variation of issues related to the accurate posting of information and data.
