Travel and expense management is a critical business function that impacts operational efficiency and employee satisfaction. SAP Concur is a leading cloud-based solution that automates travel booking, expense reporting, and invoice management. To maximize its value, enterprises often need to integrate SAP Concur with other core business systems such as ERP, finance, or HR platforms.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) offers a robust, scalable, and secure middleware environment to seamlessly connect SAP Concur with SAP and non-SAP systems. This article discusses how SAP CPI enables integration with SAP Concur, key integration scenarios, and best practices.
Integrating SAP Concur with other enterprise systems helps:
- Automate data exchange to reduce manual effort and errors.
- Ensure real-time visibility of travel and expense data across financial systems.
- Streamline end-to-end processes such as expense reimbursement and accounting.
- Maintain compliance with corporate policies and regulatory requirements.
SAP Concur exposes RESTful APIs that enable external systems to send and retrieve data related to travel bookings, expense reports, approvals, and invoices. SAP CPI acts as the middleware that:
- Connects to SAP Concur APIs securely.
- Transforms and maps data between SAP Concur and backend systems.
- Orchestrates business processes by integrating Concur data with financial, procurement, or HR workflows.
- Provides monitoring and error handling for integration flows.
- Automate the transfer of approved expense reports from SAP Concur to SAP S/4HANA Finance or other ERP systems for reimbursement processing.
- Synchronize employee and cost center master data for accurate expense allocation.
- Validate expense policies and control limits through integrated workflows.
- Import travel itineraries and booking details into ERP or HR systems for compliance checks and reporting.
- Update employee profiles in Concur based on HR system changes.
¶ 3. Invoice and Supplier Integration
- Integrate Concur invoice data with procurement or accounts payable systems to streamline invoice processing and payment.
- Manage supplier master data and contract compliance.
SAP provides prepackaged integration content for Concur integration available on the SAP API Business Hub or SAP Store. These packages include preconfigured integration flows, data mappings, and API connectors that reduce implementation time.
SAP CPI supports secure OAuth 2.0 authentication, which is required by SAP Concur APIs, ensuring safe data exchange. The HTTP adapter handles RESTful communication with Concur’s API endpoints.
Using SAP CPI’s graphical editor and scripting capabilities (Groovy, JavaScript), integrators can:
- Convert JSON payloads from Concur APIs into formats compatible with ERP or other systems (e.g., IDoc, XML).
- Implement business logic like filtering, enrichment, or error handling.
- Orchestrate multi-step processes involving data retrieval, validation, and posting.
¶ 4. Monitoring and Alerts
CPI’s monitoring tools track message flows, API calls, and errors, enabling proactive management and troubleshooting of Concur integrations.
- Use Standardized APIs and Integration Packages: Leverage SAP’s official API and integration content to ensure compatibility and faster delivery.
- Secure Credentials and Tokens: Manage OAuth tokens securely and refresh them as per SAP Concur API requirements.
- Design for Scalability: Anticipate transaction volumes, especially during month-end or travel peak periods.
- Implement Robust Error Handling: Use CPI exception subprocesses to catch and manage API failures or data inconsistencies gracefully.
- Maintain Data Consistency: Regularly synchronize master data between SAP Concur and backend systems to avoid discrepancies.
Integrating SAP Concur with core business systems is essential to create efficient, automated travel and expense management workflows. SAP Cloud Platform Integration offers a comprehensive and flexible platform to build, manage, and monitor these integrations securely and at scale.
By leveraging SAP CPI’s connectivity, prebuilt content, and advanced orchestration capabilities, enterprises can streamline processes, improve data accuracy, and deliver better visibility across their travel and expense operations.