The ultimate guide to a stress-free implementation of Concur Expense
by Kara Bernard, Chief Revenue Officer
Managing expenses is more than just a finance function—it’s a strategic imperative. Yet, many organizations treat expense management as an administrative afterthought, relying on manual processes, outdated spreadsheets, and compliance risks that drain resources.
The Concur Expense solution strengthens the impact of spend management by going beyond automating approvals. It unlocks control, real-time visibility, and compliance by consolidating every transaction and related data into a single solution.
However, a hard truth underlies this advantage: success depends on preparation, strategy, and execution, not exceptional technology.
The importance of a well-planned implementation
As an SAP partner, we’ve seen many companies try to rush their implementation of Concur Expense. But this approach inevitably undermines long-term value by injecting integration gaps, leaving policies misaligned, and driving low adoption rates.
What separates a functional system from one that delivers measurable business value? A well-planned implementation strategy that helps ensure connected workflows, strong compliance enforcement, and real-time visibility. This enables organizations to take control, optimize decisions, and drive financial success, instead of reacting to expense management challenges.
Let’s walk through the critical steps to help ensure your deployment of Concur Expense is not only successful—but also a game changer.
Step 1: Define your project scope and objectives
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when implementing Concur Expense is failing to set clear objectives. Without well-defined goals, projects become prone to delays, misalignment, and unnecessary complexity.
Before you begin configuration, take the time to clarify:
What success looks like: Defining clear, measurable goals will shape the entire project. For example, consider whether your team aims to reduce expense processing time, improve policy compliance, or gain real-time financial visibility.
Who needs to be involved: Travel and expense management impacts multiple departments, including finance, HR, procurement, and IT. Acquiring input from each organization early on helps prevent deployment and adoption roadblocks.
A realistic timeline: Many organizations underestimate how long it takes to align stakeholders, migrate data, and refine policies. Setting milestones for key phases—planning, testing, training, and going live—helps avoid last-minute chaos while managing expectations.
Step 2: Assemble the right team
Even the best technology fails when the right people aren’t driving the implementation. Companies that lack clear ownership often struggle with decision-making and bottlenecks. By assigning the right team members upfront, you create a structure that enables informed, timely decisions.
A strong, cross-functional project team includes the following key roles:
A dedicated project manager: Whether from an in-house IT team or an SAP partner, this person helps ensure accountability from all stakeholders and project members and keeps the project moving forward.
Departmental champions: Representatives from finance, HR, and procurement organizations help ensure the solution aligns with company policies and workflows.
Technical expertise: IT involvement from the start is essential for integration, security, and data migration readiness.
Step 3: Address system and data readiness
Data quality is one of the most overlooked aspects of an implementation. If employee records, travel policies, or expense categories are outdated or inconsistent, deployment delays and frustration are inevitable.
To prevent this, organizations should prepare with an:
Assessment of existing systems: Identify integration points between Concur Expense and your ERP, HR, and finance systems to avoid disconnects.
Pre-migration data cleanse: Address duplicate employee records, outdated approval hierarchies, and inconsistent expense categories to prevent system errors.
Defining of integration requirements: Decide whether APIs, file transfers, or middleware should be used to connect Concur Expense with other systems, and map out workflows before configuration begins to prevent complications.
Step 4: Establish requirements and design for scalability
With Concur Expense, organizations can customize workflows, capabilities, and user experiences. However, overcomplicating configurations leads to maintenance headaches, limited upgrades, and data silos.
Organizations that document requirements before jumping into configuration avoid costly rework and ensure their system scales with business growth. The key is to balance flexibility and simplicity with an infrastructure supported by:
User profiles and permissions: Define access levels to help ensure security without unnecessary restrictions.
Policy configurations: Align workflows, reimbursement types, and audit rules with company policies to drive compliance and efficiency.
Ledger mapping: Categorize expenses correctly for financial reporting and cost allocation.
Step 5: Test, validate, and iterate
The goal of testing is much more than finding and fixing bugs. It’s about delivering a smooth transition for employees and administrators. Yet too often, companies treat testing as a checkbox rather than a priority.
Even the most minor of configuration errors can become system-wide issue once employees start submitting expenses. That risk can be mitigated with:
Functional testing: Verify that policy configurations, travel bookings, and reimbursements work as expected.
Integration tests: Help ensure Concur Expense communicates correctly with ERP, HR, and financial systems.
Engagement with real users in testing: User acceptance testing (UAT) identifies usability issues early, improving adoption rates.
Step 6: Invest in training and change management
Resistance to change is one of the most significant barriers to successful adoption. Employees who don’t understand how to use a new solution—or why the change is happening—may revert to manual processes or bypass policies.
Employees are more likely to embrace solutions such as Concur Expense as a tool that simplifies their work when a strong change management plan is in place, enabling:
Tracking of process changes: Document what’s changing in workflows, approvals, and policies so employees understand the impact.
Customized training for different audiences: End users must know how to submit expenses, while finance teams require deeper admin training.
Documentation: UAT user feedback can help create training materials, FAQs, and support guides.
The bottom line: Success starts before implementation begins
Committing to a well-planned implementation transforms Concur Expense from a basic tool into a strategic powerhouse. But success goes beyond technical setup—it requires alignment, data preparation, and process design.
Organizations that prepare ahead of time see the best results. Don’t wait for challenges—get ready before you get started.