A SAP Concur blog post notes that as the U.S. elderly population grows, demand for mobile healthcare rises, increasing driving mileage for healthcare staff. Manually tracking mileage is complex and expensive, and self-reported mileage can lead to fraud and compliance risks. SAP Concur's Concur Drive solution automates distance capture, improving accuracy and reducing spending.
A SAP Concur blog post offers six ways to optimize invoice processes during disruption. Citing a GBTA survey where 96% of businesses described COVID-19's impact as significant, it recommends accelerating invoice capture, approvals, and processes. Methods include: doing things digitally, eradicating duplication and fraud, on-the-go approval, automating policy adherence, keeping communication with suppliers, and spotting trends to adapt. The article also describes how Concur Invoice provides visibility, speeds up payments, and integrates travel and expense data.
SAP Concur published a blog post on creating inclusive workplaces for people with disabilities. Citing UN data, 80% to 90% of working-age people with disabilities are unemployed in developing countries, and in industrialized countries, the unemployment rate is at least twice that of those without disabilities. Accenture research found that corporations with high disability inclusion are twice as likely to have higher total shareholder returns, and those that improved inclusion over time are four times more likely to outperform peers. The article offers recommendations for building an inclusive culture, providing accessible content, reevaluating team events, and implementing inclusive meetin…
SAP Concur announces the integration of AvidXchange's AvidPay with Concur Invoice, providing cloud-based accounts payable automation. This integration allows Concur Invoice customers to pay suppliers efficiently through the AvidPay Network, including virtual card and AvidPay Direct (ACH+ product). Customers benefit from fast and secure payments, reduced check processing costs, lower fraud risk, and support from a supplier services team.
SAP Concur blog highlights that employee T&E fraud can severely damage healthcare organizations' brand reputation. Nearly 20% of T&E expenses fall outside policy. Healthcare workers drive 1,700 miles annually on average, claim 20% more mileage than other industries, and over-estimate mileage by 15%. 58% of respondents are unsure if their company is at risk for global compliance. 33% still spend 76+ hours monthly auditing expense reports. Automation can reduce errors by up to 66% and cut auditing time by as much as 90%.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses AI and machine learning in travel and expense. It cites Frank Chen, Sundar Pichai, and Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder, suggesting AI and machine learning could be the next big wave in computing. SAP's portfolio of intelligent applications is called Leonardo Machine Learning. Concur already uses machine learning and related data science algorithms to simplify travel and expense, such as using OCR and machine learning to extract total amount, date, currency, and expense type from receipt images and create expense entries. Concur Expense for Outlook (beta) can pre-populate expense entries from electronic receipts received via email. Other applications include h…
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the value of automating the accounts payable (AP) process. Citing an AMI-Partners survey of 420 companies across five countries, it finds that automating invoicing delivers significant benefits: savings of more than $34,000 annually ($1,100 for every 100 invoices processed), a 16% reduction in time spent on invoice management, 54% of companies reporting improved analytics, and 46% finding increased employee satisfaction. The article emphasizes that AP solutions should go beyond automation to improve underlying processes and support mobile access.
SAP Concur's blog argues that expense processes need not trade off finance efficiency against employee experience. Mobile receipt photo submission, automated policy prompts, mobile approvals, and a unified interface can speed reimbursement, improve compliance, and reduce finance workload. Research suggests automation can reduce the review-to-reimbursement period by up to 80%.
A SAP Concur blog post highlights that each fraud instance in the U.S. federal government costs an average of $194K. It notes that agencies have additional travel policies beyond the Federal Travel Regulations, which are difficult to communicate to field offices, leading to errors on travel vouchers. SAP Concur offers enhanced services where experts audit travel documents before final payment approval, helping to avoid embarrassing news coverage and congressional audits.
SAP Concur's blog emphasizes the importance of sustainability in business travel, suggesting companies start with supplier selection, traveler guidance, and progress tracking. It notes airlines are increasingly using sustainable aviation fuel, and businesses should craft policies making sustainable choices the default.
A SAP Concur blog post provides a 90-day action plan for new finance leaders, divided into three months: month one focuses on information gathering and learning, month two on evaluating learnings and identifying improvement opportunities, and month three on collaborating and creating a plan. The article emphasizes building relationships, understanding systems and data, and using technology to optimize expense and accounts payable processes.
SAP Concur notes that the pandemic shifted employee travel and spending behavior, such as moving from hotels to apartments or vacation rentals and extending business trips with personal vacation. These changes create significant gaps between organizations' travel and expense (T&E) programs and employees' real-life needs. The article recommends gathering and measuring employee sentiment data, combining it with operational data, assessing how policies affect sentiment, and using the data to improve T&E programs, which can enhance compliance, cost efficiency, and duty of care.
SAP Concur and Oversight released the "2021 Spend Insights Report" analyzing 2021 spending to inform 2022. The report shows significant rises in expense violations and exceptions: duplicate mileage submissions rose 2,127% from Q3 to Q4, missing receipt affidavits rose 306% over the year, excessive personal expenses rose nearly 22%, and excessive missing receipts rose almost 60%.
SAP Concur introduced a new algorithm in the latest Concur Mobile release that predicts the total amount directly from a receipt image, running on device rather than relying first on OCR text extraction. Trained on millions of receipt images, it handles printed and handwritten totals, notably U.S. meal receipts with handwritten tips. SAP Concur says it holds the largest T&E dataset, citing IDC for more than 51% T&E market share, and processed over $115 billion in customer expenses in Q3 2018. The standalone ExpenseIt Pro app was sunset on December 31, 2018, with ExpenseIt now available inside the SAP Concur mobile app.
A SAP Concur blog post notes that receipt management is a common pain point for business travelers, with receipts easily lost and causing reimbursement issues. It recommends reducing paper receipts and fraud risk with eReceipts, mandating corporate card use to reduce receipt volume and increase visibility, and using the SAP Concur mobile app to photograph paper receipts for automatic upload. The post also notes that T&E spending is about 10-12% of a typical company budget, businesses lose 5% of revenue to fraud annually, and 83% of fraud cases involve asset misappropriation.
A SAP Concur blog post says that over the past two years corporate policies and processes have been scrutinized as revenue, spending, workplaces and travel shifted, and that employee experience deserves ongoing attention. It cites data that recent surveys find 25% to 40% of workers might quit within a year, while 78% told partner Accenture their employer is responsible for helping increase job satisfaction and well-being. The post describes several SAP Concur solutions: ExpenseIt for photographing and auto-categorizing receipts, Concur Request for pre-approval, Concur Detect for automated data review, Intelligent Audit using AI to find non-compliant spending, Concur Invoice for invoice auto…
The article notes that state and local governments face unique challenges modernizing legacy IT systems, including tight and scrutinized budgets, heightened citizen and employee expectations, and limited manpower, so innovation may not be a priority for every agency. Yet CIOs are recognizing the benefits of cloud-based SaaS spend management: significantly reduced upfront investment versus building expensive in-house systems, which are costly to maintain and often become antiquated within a few years. SaaS solutions can be quickly implemented and are continuously updated by third parties. With tighter budgets, governments need high transparency and control over taxpayer resources, and employ…
SAP Concur published an article outlining three key categories of documentation needed for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness: payroll expense documents, headcount records, and non-payroll expense support. The article advises businesses to seek help from accountants and consult the Treasury Department website. Application requirements depend on loan size and business nature, but documentation must be kept available even if not required for submission.
The article addresses challenges faced by higher education institutions such as declining enrollment and budget cuts, proposing five ways to streamline invoice processes: integrate with existing systems, empower users with mobile devices, consolidate data, leverage staff strengths, and repurpose budgets. Automation can reduce invoice processing costs by up to 70%.
SAP Concur announced that Concur Expense has been named a 2019 Top Rated Expense Management Software by TrustRadius. The award is based entirely on customer feedback, with about 400,000 B2B technology buyers using over 208,000 verified reviews on TrustRadius each month. Reviews highlight features like mobile receipt capture, automated workflows, auto-populated expense reports, and tools to enforce company finance policies.
An SAP Concur blog post notes that the pandemic accelerated finance digital transformation and significantly shifted employee spending patterns. In 2020, SAP Concur customers saw a 58% increase in the 'Other' expense category, signaling reduced spend visibility. The article advises CPOs to address three questions: whether travel and expense data are connected, which channels employees use to spend company funds, and how to capture rogue spend outside traditional travel channels. It stresses that procurement executives should not focus solely on cost reduction when renegotiating travel supplier agreements, but must ensure key suppliers are adequately compensated for traveler health efforts.
SAP Concur addresses public sector IT leaders with talking points for modern AP and expense management software: improving spend transparency and accountability, planning budgets on real data, improving employee experience and retention, and eliminating errors and fraud. It suggests extending AP automation to state and local governments.
SAP Concur announces new Community Impact Partnerships with Washington STEM, Summer Search, and CARE to promote STEM education and digital inclusion for underserved communities.
This article highlights the value of SAP Concur data, including increasing VAT recovery, identifying spending trends, benchmarking, and budget control. With Taxback International's VATConnect, clients can increase VAT reclaim by up to 50% on average. Data can also be used to identify non-compliant spend and strengthen negotiation positions.
A SAP Concur blog post introduces four tools to help users speed up expense reporting. These include ExpenseIt in the SAP Concur mobile app, account connections (such as Uber and Lyft), TripIt, and Concur Drive. By automating receipt capture, expense categorization, and mileage tracking, employees can get reimbursed faster and avoid corporate card late fees.
The article says healthcare organizations still rely on manual processes, disconnected systems and spreadsheets for accounts payable, limiting visibility into invoices, suppliers and spending. Citing Ardent Partners' Accounts Payable 2026 report, it identifies automation, data management, real-time compliance, fraud prevention and closer AP-treasury alignment as major 2026 forces. An IOFM report found best-in-class AP teams operate at 77% lower invoice-processing costs, process more than twice as many invoices per employee, and need correction on only 7% of transactions.
SAP Concur blog gathers expert panel insights on managing travel costs. 96% of employees are willing to travel in the next 12 months. 45% feel unable to develop business connections completely virtually. 89% will add personal vacation time to business trips in the next 12 months. 40% would prefer to sit next to a crying toddler rather than relinquish control over how they travel. Experts recommend AI/ML auditing and corporate card programs.
SAP Concur blog notes that CIOs can achieve a quick win by modernizing travel and expense systems, opening the door to more complex cloud transformation in finance. 66% of senior executives believe a strong IT-finance partnership enables agility. An IDC report found roughly 80% of AP managers' time is spent on lower-level tasks. 53% of respondents manage different spending types with separate applications. An ACFE report says it takes on average 14 months to detect a fraud scheme.
SAP Concur published an article citing an IDC study of several businesses, finding that companies deploying Concur Invoice saw multiple benefits: greater visibility into business performance driving smarter decisions; 505% return on investment over five years; a five-month payback period; 99% of employees using a cloud-based system complied with company procurement policy; and productivity increased an average of 11% due to mobile enablement. IDC said automating the invoice process not only improved efficiency and productivity but also provided big-picture data visibility and increased employee satisfaction.
SAP Concur VP of Product Management A.G. Lambert discusses in an AccountingWeb article how automated T&E management can help companies save costs and improve compliance. He suggests further maximizing ROI by empowering employees with mobile, connecting business systems, and making data work harder.
The article highlights challenges faced by higher education institutions during the pandemic in invoice and expense management: 44% of finance and admin leaders struggle with invoice volume, 42% with new spending categories, and 41% with unexpected expenses. Manual processes lead to fraud risk, errors, and delays; automation is the solution.
SAP Concur published an article introducing Budget by SAP Concur. The tool brings together travel, expense, invoice, and budget data into a single solution, providing clear visibility into spend to enable better, timelier decisions. Users can view all budgets through intuitive dashboards, import budgets from ERP systems, and see spend before it occurs. The tool also supports near real-time viewing and approval of spend on mobile devices and one-click data export.
SAP Concur published an article introducing its Expense Management Solution ROI Calculator. Citing a 2022 Analysys Mason study, it states that small to mid-size businesses (1-999 employees) saved an average estimated $49K annually by implementing an automated travel and expense solution and saw positive ROI within eight months. Customer examples include Avocados From Mexico reducing expense input time by 50% and Bishop-Wisecarver cutting month-end close from 15 days to 3 days.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses the problems caused by disconnected employee spend data. Employee spending (travel expenses, POs, non-PO invoices, p-cards, corporate cards, etc.) typically falls into the bottom 20% of overall spend yet involves the majority of vendors and department time. Data spread across multiple systems or paper-based processes leads to a lack of accurate and timely data, difficulty staying on top of payment due dates resulting in late fees, and limited insights to maximize working capital. The article recommends an integrated, cloud-based, single solution to connect all spend data for strategic decision-making.
The IRS issued guidance on December 14, 2018, for the 2019 business mileage reimbursement rate, effective January 1, 2019. The rate increased from 54.5 to 58 cents per mile, a 6.4% increase and the highest in over 10 years. SAP Concur advises companies to use data analytics to assess impact, update reimbursement rates, and develop strategies to reduce waste and fraud, such as setting thresholds for personal vehicle use, adopting FAVR programs, or GPS mileage tracking.
A SAP Concur blog post states that cloud technologies are bringing world-class software solutions to small and midsize companies, and automating invoice processing can significantly improve efficiency, visibility, and scalability. According to AMI Partners, 82% of firms that have automated invoice processing are already using cloud solutions. A typical small to midsize business processes 450 invoices a month with a duplication rate of 1.29%, and labor costs typically make up 62% of total accounts payable costs. Automation can largely eliminate these labor costs, enabling intelligent matching of invoice line items with purchase orders, built-in approval policies, reduced duplicate invoices,…
In this SAP Concur podcast, Andrew Walker and EY consultant Crystal Schoenhals discuss the importance of employee experience data. They emphasize that companies should continuously collect feedback, not just annual surveys, and use it to drive policy changes. Employees expect to see action taken on their input; otherwise, they may leave. The conversation highlights the need for iterative, operationalized experience management.
A SAP Concur blog post aimed at SMBs argues the question is not how much a travel and expense management solution costs but how much it saves. Citing IDC MarketScape, it recommends moving from spreadsheets and manual expense reports to cloud-based T&E management software. The article stresses that employee safety is paramount: without visibility into itineraries and credit card spend, it is difficult to locate, reach, and if necessary retrieve employees, making duty of care hard to fulfill. Real-time T&E data viewable by category, vendor, cost center, team, and employee helps cut costs, spot savings, expose hidden spending, and strengthen supplier negotiations. Automation and analytics also…
In an SAP Concur podcast conversation, Bennett Ulmer, Operations Analyst and Manager of Analysis and Audit for Penn State University, shared how he leveraged an already successful travel and expense program to improve central IT processes. As one of the longest-running SAP Concur customers for more than 17 years, Penn State University expanded pre-approval functionality from travel to corporate card programs through cross-departmental collaboration and trust. The program integrates expense data with the financial ERP system. Ulmer emphasized the importance of using existing systems rather than buying new tools in budget-constrained higher education environments, and advised including IT and…
Part two of SAP Concur's blog series discusses how to prevent employee expense fraud by reviewing T&E policies, establishing prevention and detection processes, using reporting to monitor data, and comparing control benchmarks. ACFE's Global 2020 Study on Occupational Fraud shows companies with internal policy controls have lower fraud losses and quicker detection. The article recommends regularly updating T&E policies, clarifying acceptable expenses, and setting up automated audit rules.