Travel and expense management is a critical component for many enterprises aiming to optimize costs, improve compliance, and streamline employee reimbursements. SAP Concur is a leading cloud-based solution for automating travel, expense, and invoice management. To fully leverage its capabilities, organizations often need to integrate SAP Concur with their broader enterprise landscape, including ERP, finance, and HR systems.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration (SAP CPI) offers a powerful, flexible, and secure platform to build advanced integrations with SAP Concur, enabling seamless data flow and process synchronization across systems.
SAP Concur handles core travel and expense data, but financial accounting, budget control, and payroll often reside in backend systems like SAP S/4HANA, SAP SuccessFactors, or third-party ERPs. Integrating these systems delivers:
Automate the transfer of approved expense reports from SAP Concur to SAP S/4HANA Finance for accounting and payment processing.
Synchronize employee master data, cost centers, and project codes between SAP SuccessFactors or ERP systems and SAP Concur to ensure accurate expense reporting and cost allocation.
Connect SAP Concur travel bookings with internal HR or ERP systems to track travel expenses against approved budgets and policies.
Integrate invoice data from SAP Concur with Accounts Payable systems to automate payment runs and improve cash flow management.
SAP CPI facilitates these integrations through its cloud-native middleware capabilities:
SAP Concur exposes RESTful APIs supporting JSON format, which SAP CPI can consume using the HTTP adapter or REST adapter. CPI can also connect to on-premises systems via secure tunnels (Cloud Connector).
SAP provides integration packages for common SAP Concur use cases, such as expense and invoice integration with SAP S/4HANA, accelerating deployment.
Developers can design iFlows to:
SAP CPI supports OAuth 2.0, API key, and basic authentication methods required by SAP Concur APIs. It ensures secure, encrypted data exchange meeting compliance standards.
Built-in message monitoring and alerting help track integration health, quickly identify failed transactions, and support corrective actions.
Leverage SAP Concur’s webhook events to trigger real-time updates in SAP CPI, enabling near-instantaneous synchronization of expense approvals or travel bookings.
Use batch jobs in SAP CPI to periodically poll SAP Concur APIs for updated expense reports or invoices, ensuring data consistency without overloading systems.
Design workflows that detect discrepancies between SAP Concur and ERP data, automatically flag exceptions, and initiate manual or automated reconciliation processes.
Implement throttling in CPI to comply with SAP Concur API limits, ensuring reliable integration without service interruptions.
Advanced integration between SAP Concur and enterprise systems using SAP Cloud Platform Integration unlocks significant value by automating and streamlining travel and expense management processes. SAP CPI’s flexible architecture, robust connectivity options, and comprehensive monitoring capabilities make it an ideal choice for organizations seeking seamless, secure, and scalable SAP Concur integrations.
By connecting SAP Concur to core business applications, companies can enhance financial control, ensure compliance, and deliver superior employee experiences.