SAP Concur year-end insight

Get SAP Concur ready for year-end before the holidays hit.

Year-end is when Concur's loose ends become finance's problem: reports stuck in approval, card charges nobody expensed, and people who left months ago still active. Starting in early November gives you time to clean up before everyone leaves for the holidays.

Why start now

December moves faster than anyone plans for.

Holidays shrink December. Approvers are out, employees submit late, and reports sit in queues while finance is trying to close.

Unsubmitted and unapproved expenses make year-end accruals harder and can push spend into the wrong year. Card charges that never make it onto a report are even harder to explain in January.

New-year rates and policy changes need to be ready on January 1, not discovered in February when the first reports come back wrong.

The year-end checklist

Six things to clean up before December 31.

Work through these with your Concur admin, AP and travel teams. Most can be started this week.

Reports in flight

Clear the backlog

Find what's still open before it becomes a year-end surprise.

  • Run a report of unsubmitted expenses and reports waiting for approval.
  • Follow up with the owners of the oldest items first.
  • Set a submission cutoff date and announce it early.

Company cards

Chase unassigned card charges

Card transactions that never reach a report are the hardest to explain later.

  • Find card charges not yet on an expense report.
  • Remind cardholders, starting with the oldest charges.
  • Follow up on cards belonging to people who have left.

Approver coverage

Set delegates before the holidays

One approver on vacation can hold up a whole team's reimbursements.

  • Ask approvers to set a delegate before they're out.
  • Check approval queues for anyone already away.
  • Confirm who covers if an approver can't be reached.

Users and roles

Clean up who has access

Start the new year with an accurate user list.

  • Deactivate employees who have left.
  • Update approvers and cost centers after reorganizations.
  • Review who has admin access, and remove what's no longer needed.

Rates and limits

Get new-year rates ready

Have changes ready to take effect January 1.

  • If you reimburse mileage at the IRS rate, watch for the new rate. The IRS typically announces it in December.
  • Review policy limits and expense types that change with the new year.
  • Test changes before they go live.

The December release

Review it before the slowdown

The last SAP Concur release of the year lands in mid-December.

Tip: Announce your submission cutoff three times: once in early November, again in early December, and a final reminder the week before.

A simple timeline

Spread the work across three windows.

You don't need to do it all at once. Here's one way to pace it for a calendar-year close.

  1. 01

    Find the backlog

    Run your open-item reports, deactivate leavers and announce the submission cutoff date.

    Early November

  2. 02

    Clear and cover

    Chase card charges and late reports, set approver delegates and review the December release.

    Mid-November to mid-December

  3. 03

    Lock in the new year

    Send final reminders, confirm approvals before close and have new-year rates ready for January 1.

    Mid to late December

Your dates may differ. Adjust the timeline to match your fiscal year and close calendar.

Short on hands this year-end?

Close the year with a clean Concur program.

DJC's managed services cover exactly this kind of work: user changes, configuration updates, reporting and the monthly release review. We can work alongside your team through year-end. Book 20 minutes and we'll map out your timeline, 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.