Comments v Business Purpose field in Expense mobile

[DeanR]

When creating an Expense on the mobile app, either through ExpenseIt or from a Receipt, the Comment field is displayed but the Business Purpose field is not.  This seems backwards to me, since the shipped Expense Entry Forms from Concur mostly have Business Purpose mandatory but Comment non-mandatory.  The result is a poor user experience:

1. Users complete all available fields when creating the Expense, then get exception errors when the Expense is moved to a Report because they haven't completed the mandatory Business Purpose field.
2. Data entry is duplicated, as often the Business Purpose is the same response as they've already entered in the Comment field.

Could anyone from Concur explain why these fields are set up this way on mobile?  There are many existing Solution Suggestions to change it but no action from Concur's side.

[KevinD]

I want to preface my response by saying I am not on the Mobile team here at SAP Concur, so my answer is based solely on my experience in training and using our products every day. 

Receipt capture with ExpenseIt and creating and expense from a previously captured receipt is capturing what I refer to as a Quick Expense. This allows the user to get the receipt into the mobile app and  to get some very basic information regarding the expense into the mobile app. to ensure they don't forget about the expense. The idea behind this is to quickly get a receipt in the system. It is not intended for complete expense creation. Also, ExpenseIt items and quick expenses are not yet on a report, so mandatory fields are not yet available for these items because they aren't associated to any expense forms. That's why they get the exception message. Personally, I do not add any comments to ExpenseIt items because I know that I will need to enter a business purpose when I add it to a report. 

I hope this sheds some light on your question for you. 

Kevin

[DeanR]

Hi @KevinD ,

Thanks for your response.

I'm probably getting more user feedback at the moment because we've recently introduced ExpenseIt.  Previously a lot of users would simply capture the receipt and not create a Quick Expense, where ExpenseIt encourages them to enter/update additional data at the time of receipt capture, then the most prominent option from that screen is 'Move to Claim/Report'.  The difference between Comments and Business Purpose is nuanced from a user point of view; they tend to just fill in what fields are made available to them and they probably don't realise that Comments aren't mandatory.  It may just be a training/learning issue.

I still think there is scope to expose the Business Purpose field prior to moving the Expense to a Report.  I think Business Purpose would be mandatory many more times than not across Concur's customer base. (Purely my opinion, no stats to back that up!)

Kind regards,

Dean

[zluna]

Hi Kevin,

Can we add any existing expense entry field to the mobile entry form?

Regards,

Zluna

[KevinD]

@zluna in the Mobile app when you have added an expense to your expense report, you should see all the fields you would see as if you were using the Desktop version. So, if you add a new field to an expense form it should be reflected in the mobile app. 

I don't believe you will have fields you currently see in the desktop version that are not showing in the mobile app. 

I hope this makes sense. 

Kevin

[zluna]

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for your prompt response!

The mobile form I am refering to is the add expense form.

In my particular situation one group of employees can access two sets of expense types, by filtering the policy at the report header level.

Currently, the mobile user can only see one set of expense types (default) when adding an expense in mobile. As a result, the user must create a new report, select the other policy, in order to access the other set of expense types.

My question was about the possibility of placing the field "policy" at the mobile "add expense form", so the mobile user would be able to select the desired set of expense types without having to create a new report. The custom field that houses "policy" resides at the report header level only (for now).

Best,

Zluna

[KevinD]

@zluna If I'm understanding your question correctly, you want them to be able to select the policy after they have already created the report? So, in essence the user can choose one policy to see the expenses associated to that policy and select an expense type. Then when adding a second expense, choose the second policy so they can then select an expense type that is associated to that policy. They would be able to toggle between policies when adding expenses. Am I understanding you correctly? 

If so, what you are asking is not possible. You would have to create a third policy that contains all the expense types this group should have access to. The system is designed to only allow one policy per report. 

[zluna]

@KevinD No, this all pre-report creation. What I would like the users to do (while in mobile) is for them to be able to add a new expense in mobile (quick expense) without having to create a new expense report (a delegate will do that later), and have access to all expense types (from both policies). Placing the policy filter at the mobile "add expense entry form" would allow the selection of which expense type set to use (no mixing of expense types). I am just wondering if it is possible to add the policy field in the entry form (to work as a filter), however, it is only available at the report header level at this time.

[KevinD]

Okay, now I see. This isn't possible either. Policies get tied to expense reports, so it can only be selected at the Report Header level. That is by design. I like your out of the box thinking, but unfortunately it isn't possible.

[zluna]

@KevinDThank you Sir!