API Release Notes, May 2021

Contents

Ongoing: Retirement and Decommission of Existing Concur Request APIs (v1.0, v3.0, v3.1)

Effective July 1, 2020, SAP Concur has retired the Concur Request APIs (v1.0, v3.0, and v3.1). These APIs are replaced by the Concur Request v4 API.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

The Concur Request APIs v1.0, v3.0, and v3.1 only support the previous authentication method, which is not best security practice and does not meet the Oauth2 standards. In addition, the previous versions of the Concur Request APIs provided limited possibilities for moving a Request through the approval workflow, as well as managing custom simple & connected list fields. These issues are resolved with the new Concur Request v4 API.

In addition, SAP Concur has run a backward compatibility project between the current Concur Request APIs and the new Concur Request v4 API (not iso-compatibility) in order to have the vast majority of use cases managed in the previous versions also be managed in the Concur Request v4 API.

Ongoing: Retirement of List v1 API

Effective July 15, 2021, SAP Concur will retire the List v1 API, so it will not be supported after that date. This API is replaced by the List v4 API.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This update removes an outdated API. The List v4 APIs use more secure and modern, fine-grained methods. These APIs use Universal Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) and use JSON instead of XML. Also, authentication to the List v4 APIs may be performed with a User JWT or a Company JWT, providing the opportunity to apply the principle of least privilege.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The List v1 API is being retired in accordance with the SAP Concur API Lifecycle & Deprecation Policy.

If you currently use the List v1 API, please plan to migrate to the List Item v4 API as soon as possible.

Ongoing: Retirement of List v3 API

Effective April 16, 2021, SAP Concur has deprecated the List v3 API. This API is replaced by the List v4 API. List v3 is planned to be retired in a future release.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This update removes an outdated API. The List v4 APIs use more secure and modern, fine-grained methods. These APIs use Universal Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) and use JSON instead of XML. Also, authentication to the List v4 APIs may be performed with a User JWT or a Company JWT, providing the opportunity to apply the principle of least privilege.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The List v3 API has been deprecated in accordance with the SAP Concur API Lifecycle & Deprecation Policy.

If you currently use the List v3 API, please migrate to the List v4 API as soon as possible.

Ongoing: Retirement of List Item v3 API

Effective April 16, 2021, SAP Concur has deprecates the List Item v3 API. This API is replaced by the List Item v4 API. List Item v3 is planned to be retired in a future release.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This update removes an outdated API. The List Item v4 APIs use more secure and modern, fine-grained methods. These APIs use Universal Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) and use JSON instead of XML. Also, authentication to the List Item v4 APIs may be performed with a User JWT or a Company JWT, providing the opportunity to apply the principle of least privilege.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The List Item v3 API has been deprecated in accordance with the SAP Concur API Lifecycle & Deprecation Policy.

If you currently use the List Item v3 API, please migrate to the List Item v4 API as soon as possible.

Ongoing: OAuth 2.0 Migration

SAP Concur will be converting from the legacy authentication (deprecated 2017) method to the new OAuth 2.0 authentication method. This effort will be taking place starting in the third quarter of 2021 and will conclude by the end of the second quarter of 2022.

Any existing partners, Client Web Service (CWS) clients, and clients with a Hosted Customer Connector using the legacy authentication (deprecated 2017) will need to be converted to the new OAuth 2.0 authentication. If you are a partner or a client using the legacy authentication (deprecated 2017) method, SAP Concur will be reaching out and will provide communication on how to convert to the new OAuth 2.0 authentication. Clients with a Hosted Custom Connector will be handled by the SAP Concur Development team.

For more information, please refer to Authentication.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This update provides more secure authentication methods.

Planned Changes: Deprecation of Travel Profile Notification v1 API

SAP Concur is deprecating the Travel Profile Notification v1 APIs due to low usage.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

The Travel Profile Notification v1 APIs support older, less secure authentication methods.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The Travel Profile v1 APIs are being deprecated in accordance with the SAP Concur API Lifecycle & Deprecation Policy.

Planned Changes: Identity v4 API Available

The Identity v4 service will enable callers to create, read, update, and delete a user’s core/identity profile information.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

With granular access control, this API can be used access to user’s profile information on a need-to-know basis.

Planned Changes: Cash Advance v4 API Available

The Cash Advance API will empower an employee to request and receive cash in advance of a trip. Cash Advance will ensure that a user is not out of cash during a business trip. In markets where corporate cards are seldom issued, Cash Advance will provide a useful mechanism to ensure the employee is not out of pocket.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

SAP Concur Cash Advance API will provide partners and customers the ability to manage cash advances. While using the API, customers can create, view, and issue a cash advance. The API will help customers to customize the usage of cash advances according to their needs.

Planned Changes: Deprecation of Bulk User v3.1 API

SAP Concur will be deprecating Bulk User 3.1 in 2021. This API will be replaced by Identity v4. After the deprecation of Bulk User v3.1 retirement will follow.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This update will remove an outdated API. The Identity v4 API allows for a granular access control and fetch limited data as per the need. This service is more resilient than Bulk User v3.1 API.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The Bulk User v3.1 API is being deprecated in accordance with the SAP Concur API Lifecycle & Deprecation Policy.

If you currently use the Bulk User v3.1 API, please plan to migrate to the Identity v4 API as soon as possible.

Planned Changes: Request v4 API Agency Proposal Endpoint

SAP Concur will soon be releasing an additional Request v4 API endpoint that will offer the ability for travel agencies to interact with Concur Request to propose travel itineraries directly into a request, via the agency proposal feature with Request v4 API.

The support of the agency proposal feature through our v4 APIs, available on the Request NexGen UI, will bring benefits of a better experience, simpler connectivity, and deeper integration between travel agencies and Concur Request, as well as a better user experience in their interaction with their travel agencies.

This new endpoint will provide added value to the existing Request v4 API, which already offers the ability for a user to interact with Concur Request to perform the following:

  • Get the list of existing Requests.
  • Get the detailed information of existing Requests.
  • Create, Read, Update, or Delete an existing Request.
  • Move an existing Request through the approval flow.
  • Get the list of Expected Expenses (including trip segments) in a Request.
  • Create, Read, Update, or Delete an expected expense (including trip segments) for a Request.
  • Get the list of Request policies assigned to a given user.
  • Get information of a travel agency office.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This additional endpoint will provide better capabilities for travel agencies who want to benefit from the Concur Request agency proposal feature with a direct consumption of the Request v4 API.

Configuration / Feature Activation

Depending on your travel agency, this feature may not be available for your company. Please liaise with your travel agency to confirm their development completion of the required Request v4 API endpoints to benefit from this feature.

Additional information, please see the Request v4 API documentation.

Planned Changes: New Invoice Pay v4 GET Call Parameter

SAP Concur will be releasing an additional parameter for the Invoice Pay v4 API. GET calls will have the option to use the new invoiceId parameter to retrieve payment information and the ERP Document ID associated to the invoice.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This update will allow Invoice Payment Provider Partners to retrieve the payment information and ERP Document ID of a single invoice.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The feature will be automatically available; there will be no additional configuration or activation steps.

Planned Changes: New Invoice Pay v4 PATCH Endpoint

SAP Concur will be releasing a PATCH endpoint for the Invoice Pay v4 API. With the new PATCH, the invoice will be updated with the erpDocumentNumber value in the body whenever an invoiceId is passed as part of the API URL.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This update will allow Invoice Payment Provider Partners to update the ERP Document ID field on an invoice. Customers will then be able to use the ERP Document ID to help reconcile extracted invoices from SAP Concur with invoices in their ERP system.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The feature will be automatically available; there will be no additional configuration or activation steps.

Travel Profile v2 Canonical Value Changes

SAP Concur is enforcing validation for the NamePrefix, NameSuffix, and PreferredLanguage fields. SAP Concur is enforcing canonical values for these three fields, in two phases:

  • In April 2021, existing values that are not on the list of canonical values for these three fields, will be returned to callers of the GET requests as empty strings.
  • In May, 2021, any updates to these three fields that do not conform to the lists of canonical values, will be set as an empty string in the user’s profile, and the API will return an error.

Updates to other user profile fields will not be affected.

For more information, refer to the Travel Profile v2 API.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

Reduction of risk in sharing personal data in unintended ways. More consistent user data will result in better stability and fewer escalations.

Configuration / Feature Activation

This feature is enabled by default. There are no configuration steps.

Hotel Service v2 Hotel Confirmation Numbers

As of May 22, 2021, SAP Concur will begin collecting the hotel confirmation numbers from Hotel Service v2 content providers.

With this change the hotel-specific confirmation number will become available in Hotel Service v2 reservation response.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

This information is necessary to facilitate the booking, and critical to ensuring a traveler’s itinerary, including details they need to successfully check-in.

Configuration / Feature Activation

The reservation’s ID will be supported as a required field in the Hotel Service v2 Reservation response to exclusively support the confirmation number received from the hotel reservation system. This confirmation number should be stored as the ID for the UniqueID element under the Hotel Reservation element with the type set to 40.

For more information, refer to the Hotel Service v2 API.

Fetch List Callout Configuration Change

The Fetch List callout allows users to import list items from a system outside of SAP Concur to Concur Expense when a user is filling out list fields for an expense.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

The configuration process for setting up a Fetch List callout has been updated to make the setup process more efficient and self-service. Now, Concur Expense Admins will be able to directly associate the desired configured lists with the Fetch List callout via the configuration user interface.

Configuration / Feature Activation

Callouts are activated through the Application Connector Registration process through Web Services.

Expense must have a list field configured to use an external source before this callout can be used. The client’s list or lists must be configured before the Fetch List callout can be configured.

The following are the steps to set up the Fetch List callout:

  1. Third-party developer, client or SAP Concur downloads, installs, configures, and customizes the application connector.
  2. SAP Concur registers the application connector.
  3. Expense Admin creates a new list in List Management.
  4. Expense Admin configures the Fetch List callout
    • On the home page, select Administration.
    • Select Company.
    • Select Web Services.
    • Click Manage Application Connectors.
    • Select the registered application connector.
    • Click Modify.
    • Select Fetch List.
    • Click Configure.
    • Enter the configured list(s) information from Step 3: List Name, List Category, Language Code, and the Connected List Level (Note: these values must match the configured list precisely. The Language Code is the language code for the List Name provided. If this is not a connected list, the Connected List Level value should be 1.)
    • Click the Active checkbox
    • Click OK.
  5. If using a connected list, Expense Admin creates a connected list definition in Forms and Fields.

Concursolutions.com SSL Certificate Renewal

To ensure the ongoing security of our products and services, the concursolutions.com SSL certificate is updated on an annual basis. The current certificate was issued on April 14, 2020 and will expire when SAP Concur issues a new certificate on May 26, 2021.

Clients who have not pinned the expiring certificate do not need to take any action as their expiring certificate will be renewed automatically. Most clients do not pin the certificate.

SAP Integration with Concur Solutions (SAP ICS) clients and all other clients who have pinned the expiring certificate must update to the new certificate before the new certificate is issued on May 26, 2021.

Clients who have pinned the certificate and do not update it with the new certificate by May 26, 2021 will experience disruption to SAP Concur products and services.

Business Purpose / Client Benefit

Annual certificate renewal provides ongoing security for our products and services.

Configuration / Feature Activation

Please consult with your IT department to check if this applies to you. The new SSL certificate can be accessed here.

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