Concur

Overview

Concur, an SAP company, offers a suite of cloud-based solutions for managing business travel, employee expenses, and invoices. The platform is primarily designed for large enterprises and organizations with complex travel policies and extensive global operations. Concur's core products include Concur Expense for automated expense reporting, Concur Travel for booking and managing business trips, Concur Invoice for processing vendor invoices, and Concur Request for pre-trip authorization and budget control. These modules are integrated to provide a unified view of employee spending and facilitate policy compliance.

The system automates various aspects of the expense management lifecycle, from receipt capture and categorization to approval workflows and reimbursement. Concur Travel allows employees to book flights, hotels, and rental cars within company policy, often integrating with global distribution systems (GDS) and direct supplier connections to provide booking options. For financial teams, Concur aims to provide visibility into spending patterns, enforce corporate policies, and simplify reconciliation processes. It supports multiple currencies and tax regulations, which is critical for multinational corporations. The platform also offers tools for auditing expenses and identifying potential fraud or non-compliance.

Concur is typically implemented in environments where manual expense processes are time-consuming, error-prone, or lack granular control and reporting capabilities. Its strength lies in its ability to handle high volumes of transactions and integrate with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, such as SAP's own offerings and other major platforms, to ensure data consistency across financial operations. The platform's developer portal provides comprehensive API reference documentation, allowing for custom integrations and extensions to meet specific business requirements Concur API reference documentation. Authentication for these integrations primarily uses OAuth 2.0.

Key features

• Automated Expense Reporting: Digital receipt capture, optical character recognition (OCR) for data extraction, and automated expense categorization.
• Travel Booking and Management: Integrated online booking tool for flights, hotels, and car rentals, with policy enforcement and preferred vendor management.
• Invoice Processing: Digital invoice capture, automated routing for approvals, and integration with accounts payable systems.
• Request & Pre-Approval: Workflow-driven system for requesting and approving travel or spending prior to incurrence, ensuring budget adherence.
• Policy Enforcement: Configurable rules to ensure employee spending complies with company policies and regulatory requirements.
• Mobile Access: iOS and Android applications for on-the-go expense submission, approval, and travel management.
• Reporting & Analytics: Dashboards and customizable reports to gain insights into spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, and monitor compliance.
• Global Capabilities: Support for multiple currencies, languages, and tax jurisdictions to cater to international operations.
• Integration Capabilities: APIs for connecting with ERP systems, payroll providers, credit card feeds, and other business applications.
• Audit & Compliance Tools: Features to facilitate expense auditing, fraud detection, and adherence to financial regulations like SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA Concur security and compliance information.

Pricing

Concur offers custom enterprise pricing, which is typically determined based on the specific modules selected, the number of users, the volume of transactions, and the level of required support and integration. Organizations interested in Concur's solutions generally engage directly with their sales team to receive a tailored quote.

Common integrations

Concur provides APIs and pre-built connectors to integrate with various enterprise systems, enabling data synchronization and workflow automation.

• ERP Systems: Integration with platforms like SAP ERP, Oracle Financials Cloud, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for general ledger posting, vendor master data, and cost center management Concur ERP integration details.
• Credit Card Providers: Direct feeds from corporate credit card programs to automatically import transactions into expense reports.
• Payroll Systems: Integration to facilitate employee reimbursement processing through payroll.
• HRIS Platforms: Synchronization of employee data, organizational structure, and departmental information.
• Travel Agencies and GDS: Connections with global distribution systems (Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport) and corporate travel agencies for booking data.
• Supplier Networks: Integration with supplier networks for invoice submission and processing.
• Single Sign-On (SSO): Support for SAML-based SSO solutions to streamline user authentication.

Alternatives

• Expensify: Offers expense reporting and corporate card solutions, often favored by small to mid-sized businesses for its user-friendly interface Expensify homepage.
• Ramp: Focuses on corporate cards, expense management, and spend control, emphasizing real-time visibility and automation Ramp homepage.
• SAP Ariba: Provides a broader suite of procurement and supply chain solutions, including expense management, often used by large enterprises within the SAP ecosystem SAP Ariba homepage.
• Workday Expenses: Part of the Workday cloud-based human capital management and financial management suite, offering integrated expense reporting Workday Expenses overview.
• Zoho Expense: A cloud-based expense reporting software suitable for businesses of all sizes, offering features like receipt scanning and automated expense reports Zoho Expense product page.

Getting started

To interact with Concur's APIs, you'll typically need to register an application and obtain OAuth 2.0 credentials. The following example demonstrates a basic Python request to retrieve a user's expense reports using the Concur API, assuming you have an access token.

import requests

# Replace with your actual access token obtained via OAuth 2.0
ACCESS_TOKEN = "YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Concur API endpoint for expense reports
# The specific endpoint might vary based on the Concur API version and scope
API_BASE_URL = "https://www.concursolutions.com/api/v3.0/expense/reports"

headers = {
    "Authorization": f"OAuth {ACCESS_TOKEN}",
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

try:
    response = requests.get(API_BASE_URL, headers=headers)
    response.raise_for_status()  # Raise an exception for HTTP errors

    expense_reports = response.json()
    print("Successfully retrieved expense reports:")
    for report in expense_reports.get('Items', [])[:5]: # Print first 5 reports
        print(f"  Report ID: {report.get('ID')}, Name: {report.get('ReportName')}, Total: {report.get('TotalAmount', {}).get('Value')} {report.get('TotalAmount', {}).get('CurrencyCode')}")

except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
    print(f"Error making API request: {e}")
    if response is not None:
        print(f"Response status code: {response.status_code}")
        print(f"Response body: {response.text}")
except ValueError as e:
    print(f"Error parsing JSON response: {e}")

This Python snippet demonstrates how to make an authenticated GET request to the Concur API. Developers should refer to the official Concur API Reference for detailed information on available endpoints, request parameters, and response structures.