SAP Concur release insight

SAP Concur changes every month. Here's a 60-minute release review routine.

SAP Concur publishes release notes every month. Most changes are small, but some affect what users see, how approvals route, or what data flows to your ERP. You don't need a large team to stay ahead of them. You need an owner and a routine.

Why unreviewed releases cause problems

Most Concur "surprises" aren't bugs. They're release changes nobody read.

When no one owns the release notes, users find changes before the person who owns Concur does, and support requests spike.

Configuration or integration changes can quietly affect approvals, audit rules or ERP extracts. By the time anyone notices, the cause is weeks old and harder to trace.

A recent example: the August 2026 release notes listed the new Custom Audit Rules page design becoming the default page. Small on paper. But if the person who maintains your audit rules didn't read it, the first they heard of it was a screen that no longer looked the way they left it.

Leadership loses confidence when reports shift without explanation, and whoever owns Concur ends up explaining changes instead of managing them.

The 60-minute routine

Five steps, about an hour a month.

Run it the week the Preview release notes come out. That gives you about eight days before the release goes live. Each step builds on the last.

Step 1 · 15 minutes

Read what's changing

Open the Preview release notes for each SAP Concur product you use, plus the Shared release notes.

  • One product? Go straight to that product's release notes on the SAP Help Portal.
  • Several products? Start from the page that brings them all together: SAP Concur Release Information.
  • Get the whole month in one PDF. Expand the year and month in the Table of Contents. Open the PDF menu at the top and choose to create a custom PDF. Check the month's Revision History, choose "Select parent and children," then click Create PDF and Download. The topic count at the bottom should jump (October 2026 was 23 topics). If it says 1, you only selected one page; older months are organized differently, so check Release Notes and Preview separately.
  • Check the list. Make sure every product you use is included before you start reading.

Step 2 · 15 minutes

Flag what touches your setup

Give every change one of three labels: no impact, watch or action needed.

  • Look closest at workflows, audit rules, the user interface, mobile and integrations.
  • When in doubt, mark it "watch" and check it again next month.

Step 3 · 15 minutes

Test the risky items

Only the "action needed" items need testing.

  • Check the change in your test environment if you have one.
  • If you don't, walk through it with a small group of users.
  • Note anything that needs a configuration change or a heads-up.

Step 4 · 10 minutes

Tell users before they notice

Send a short note to the people affected, in plain language.

  • What's changing, and when.
  • What they need to do, if anything.
  • Who to ask if something looks different.

Step 5 · 5 minutes

Log what you decided

Record what you reviewed and what you decided for each item.

  • Keep one running log in a shared location.
  • Next month, and the next admin, will thank you.

Ownership

Who should own it

One named person should own the routine, with a backup.

  • Finance, travel or IT can review specific items.
  • Someone still has to make sure it happens every month.

Tip: Download the month's PDF on Preview Friday, mark it up as you review, and save it with your log. You'll have a record of every release, and the next admin will have it too.

The 2026 release calendar

Every month follows the same three dates.

SAP Concur's 2026 calendar covers Expense, Travel, Invoice, Request, Analysis/Intelligence and TripLink. Once you know the pattern, you know when to block your hour.

  1. 01

    Preview release notes

    Planned changes are published on a Friday, about a week before release. This is when to run your review.

    October: Friday, Oct 9

  2. 02

    Final release notes

    The confirmed list is published the next Friday. Check it for anything added or changed since the Preview.

    October: Friday, Oct 16

  3. 03

    Release day

    Changes go live the following day. By now your testing is done and your users have heard from you.

    October: Saturday, Oct 17

Put it on your calendar. Add two reminders for each month on the release calendar: Preview Friday to download the notes and run your review, and Final Friday to check what changed before release day. Set them up for the rest of the year in one sitting, and the routine runs itself.

Five reminders, through December. Opens in Outlook and Apple Calendar. For Google Calendar, save the file, then use Settings > Import.

Coming up: November Preview Nov 6, Final Nov 13, release Nov 14. December Preview Dec 4, Final Dec 11, release Dec 12. The SAP Concur mobile app, App Center and API platform release on their own schedules.

No time to review every release?

Every SAP Concur release reviewed before your users hit it.

Preview notes, final notes, and changes across every product you run. Knowing where to look is step one. Knowing which changes matter for your setup is where experience counts. If nobody has the time or the Concur depth for that every month, it's one of the easiest things to hand off. DJC's managed services include a release review every month. Book 20 minutes and we'll talk it through, whether or not you work with us.

Led by Duwana Jones, former SAP Concur solutions leader, who ran SAP Concur for more than 20,000 users before joining Concur.

Book a 20-minute fit call See managed services plans

Prefer email? info@duwanajconsulting.com

Not ready to talk? Follow Duwana on LinkedIn for practical SAP Concur tips.