Admin Tips & Tricks: Spend Management - Card Programs

Erica Brown · Dec 7, 2025

Take Control of Spend

We’ve gathered proven tips and expert insights to help you tighten compliance, reduce manual work, and improve the accuracy and speed of your spend processes. Many of these best practices come straight from SAP Concur administrators who’ve been where you are—working to avoid common pitfalls, shift from reactive to proactive, and focus on what drives real value.

In this section, you will find peer and expert-sourced guidance on the following topics:

Card Programs

Analyze payment types to uncover compliance risks

Use the Payment Type Analysis report (in the Expense Processing folder) to understand how much of your spend is cash versus card. High cash usage can signal potential issues like fraud or noncompliance. Aim to minimize cash spend by identifying barriers to card adoption – whether geographic, cultural, or process-related – and address them. For additional impact, send automated emails to users with high cash usage. Customize the sender address to appear from a senior leader to increase visibility and encourage behavior change.

Add more payment type options for better expense clarity

If your organization uses multiple corporate card programs, you can configure additional payment options to appear when users manually create expenses or use ExpenseIt. This helps users select the correct corporate card type during entry – improving reconciliation and reporting accuracy. Note: This does not impact card feed data; it simply enhances manual entry options. Configuration is required.

Use spend thresholds to guide corporate card distribution

Not sure who should have a corporate card? Review expense data from non-cardholders and identify employees who regularly submit high out-of-pocket spend. Consider setting a threshold – such as $1,000+ annually – to determine who should be issued a corporate card. This can reduce reimbursement volume, improve spend visibility, and strengthen policy control.

Help cardholders stay on top of corporate card charges

Make sure users with corporate cards are familiar with the View Transactions page in Concur Expense. This page helps them easily track and reconcile charges. By default, it shows unused transactions, but user can adjust filters to view charges by date range or status – supporting timely expense reporting and reducing missed or duplicate entries.

Keep card spend current with audit rules*

Use audit rules in Concur Expense to ensure all prior corporate card transactions are submitted before a new report can be filed. This helps keep spend documentation up to date and prevents backlog or forgotten charges. You can also restrict cash reimbursements until outstanding card transactions have been submitted.

*This functionality requires Custom Audit Rules and is only available in Standard Edition

Track fraudulent charges with a dedicated GL expense type

Create a specific General Ledger (GL) expense type in Concur Expense to categorize suspected or confirmed fraudulent corporate card charges. This makes it easier to monitor and reconcile those transactions—and simplifies the process when applying a refund or chargeback from the bank to balance your accounts.

Restrict deletion of corporate card charges unless using IBIP

To maintain data integrity and accurate reconciliation, corporate card charges in Concur Expense should not be deleted or edited - unless your organization uses the Individual Bill, Individual Pay (IBIP) model. For other billing types, ensure system settings prevent users from modifying imported card data.

Manage personal charges on corporate cards with audit rules and reminders*

When employees accidentally use a corporate card for personal expenses, set up an audit rule in Concur Expense to require a comment explaining the charge. You can also automate a follow-up email the day after report submission to remind users to reimburse the company or pay the card issuer—helping reduce delinquencies.

*Audit rules require Custom Audit in Standard Edition. For Professional Edition customers, consider enabling the Redirect Funds feature to automate repayment from payroll.

Hold employees accountable for credit card late fees

Import the Merchant Category Code (MCC) associated with late fees from your credit card program and configure these charges to default as personal in Concur Expense. This reinforces that employees are responsible for paying late fees themselves—not the organization. You can apply the same rule to other expense types, such as fraudulent charges, to prevent reimbursement for non-business spend.

Easily reconcile Lodge Card statements using import logs

As a Card Administrator, you can reconcile your bank’s Lodge Card statement with imported transactions in Concur Expense. Use the “Download” link under View Import Logs to export a summary of all card transactions—regardless of their status (Hidden, Unassigned, or Assigned to Report). This makes it easier to match transactions and ensure nothing is missed during reconciliation.

Hide non-reimbursable transactions by Merchant Name

If certain corporate card charges shouldn’t appear in the employee’s expense report flow—such as non-reimbursable or personal-use vendors—you can hide them in Concur Expense. As a Card Administrator, use the Manage Transactions screen to filter by Merchant Name and hide specific transactions. This removes them from the employee’s Available Expenses without deleting them from the system.

Track down “missing” corporate card transactions

If a transaction isn’t appearing in Concur Expense, start by asking your card provider to confirm when the charge was sent. Then, as a Global Card Administrator, use the View Import Logs to download the Transaction Details XLS for that import file. This allows you to verify whether the transaction was received and helps identify any issues with data transmission or file matching.

Monitor aging transactions to reduce delays and improve compliance

Run reports regularly to identify unsubmitted or unassigned corporate card transactions. Aging charges can lead to delayed reporting, missed policy deadlines, or compliance risks. Use these insights to follow up with employees and encourage timely submission—helping maintain accurate books and avoid reimbursement delays.

Educate and remind users to reconcile card transactions

Set up automated email reminders for employees with unsubmitted corporate card charges to encourage timely reconciliation. Pair these reminders with simple training resources that walk users through how to manage and submit card expenses in Concur. You can also customize the message to align with your company’s tone, policy, or urgency—making it more relevant and effective.

Monitor unassigned cards to ensure proper assignment

Regularly review unassigned corporate cards to confirm they’re matched with the correct users—this helps prevent orphaned transactions and improves program visibility. See if your credit card company can automatically assign cards using Employee ID to streamline the process and reduce manual effort.

Streamline card requests using Concur Request

Use Concur Request to manage processes like corporate card applications or limit increase requests. Bringing these workflows into the Concur system centralizes approvals, improves visibility, and ensures proper documentation – making it easier for both employees and program administrators to manage card access.

Simplify P-Card reconciliation with Company Bill Statements

For Purchasing Cards (P-Cards), consider using Company Bill Statements, from SAP Concur. This tool consolidates all charges into a single statement for your organization, reducing the burden of reconciling individual transactions and improving control over high-volume, low dollar spend.