By: SAP Concur Implementation Leader
SAP Concur Request is a module that allows companies to keep track of spending through approval requests for the most important events during business trips: Travel Reservations, Cash Advances, and Expenses that require a pre-authorization.
Customers who have implemented the Concur Request process in their company manage to comply with the limits allowed in their policy before the trip concerning the items described above, however another key point to achieve better control of spending is that the correct validation of the current budget is carried out.
Those companies that have a detail of their budget in an external ERP such as SAP, nowadays they can automatically reflect it in SAP Concur through the certified solution: Axosnet ERP Connector for Encumbrance. But at what time and how does this validation happen?
The flow of the requests
Travel Requests have a configuration approval flow according to the client's expense policy. A common example is that the request goes to an immediate boss and sometimes to a processor -role covered by the accounting team-. When it is decided that the request goes through an automatic budget validation a step is added within that flow. In the case described, the flow would be as follows:
Budget validation
It is worth mentioning that this budget query is done in real-time and that response takes almost seconds. Additionally, the Axosnet ERP Connector for Encumbrance response complements information on the budget reserve number made in SAP, information that will be used in the expense module to carry out the verification and, in effect, the release of that budget, also with the interface.
Consult your commercial advisor if you want to implement Axosnet ERP Connector for Encumbrance, our team can also advise and support you in your configuration of the SAP Concur Request through the Axosnet SAP Concur Consulting Service.