Introduction to SAP Concur: The Modules (1/3)

SAP Concur is an integrated "Travel & Expense" solution, meaning it manages business travel and professional expenses. It is called "end-to-end" because it allows managing the entire chain from searching for travel services, booking and payment, to reimbursing expenses incurred by employees.

The solution is recognized as a market leader in travel management and expense management categories. In 2025, SAP Concur has more than 55,000 clients worldwide with 92 million end users.

This article presents and introduces the main modules offered by SAP Concur. It is part of a series of articles that aims to provide an overview of the offering from the vendor. The information presented comes from our knowledge of the solution but does not necessarily provide an exhaustive list of products and services that are constantly evolving.

The Main Modules: Travel, Request, Expense and Invoice

The solution is offered in modular format. Thus, clients can choose to acquire all the products offered or only certain modules, or even a single module. This flexibility allows organizations of all sizes to start digitizing their business travel and/or expense management processes. Many clients begin their journey with only a single module like Concur Expense and eventually add other modules over time. The advantage of such an approach lies in SAP's ability to meet all business needs. While some companies want complete and integrated coverage, others prefer to combine multiple vendors and solutions to meet their needs.

Concur Travel

Concur Travel is a business travel management module. For end users, it manages the search for services (air, rail, accommodation and car rental), their booking and a single place to view upcoming trips as well as past travel.

For "Travel Managers" (business travel managers in large companies) or the Purchasing department, it ensures that the company's travel policy is respected, that contracts negotiated with travel providers are used, and finally to effectively measure amounts spent.

For the Human Resources department, the solution offers the advantage of centralizing all travel and therefore knowing at any time where traveling employees are located (employer's responsibility towards employees in case of accidents or events occurring in the world, otherwise called "Duty of Care").

Key Advantages of Concur Travel:

-Integration with multiple content offerings: travel agencies (via GDS), content providers (such as hotel content providers like HCorpo or HRS), rail companies (Trainline, SNCF, Deutsche Bahn, CFF, Trenitalia, etc.), airlines via NDC (Air France-KLM, British Airways, Emirates, Finnair, Qantas, Lufthansa, etc.), low-cost airlines (Ryanair, EasyJet, Vueling, etc.) as well as a very wide range of providers available through the application center.

• Online and offline booking: booking can be done entirely from SAP Concur but the solution also offers the possibility to switch to "offline" booking via the travel agency. In the case of an offline booking, the booking content will be reversed into SAP Concur (for travel centralization and reporting).

• Integration with other solution modules: Concur Travel integrates with Concur Expense and Concur Request. In the first case, it means having all expenses in the expense management module (possible reimbursement depending on payment method, visibility and consolidation). For the second case with the Request module, see below.

• Mobility: travel booking can be done from a browser or from the SAP Concur mobile app.

Concur Request

The Concur Request module offers a variety of possibilities. Its primary function manages travel authorizations and expense approval before they are incurred.

Travel authorizations are very often mandatory for public organizations. However, many private companies also use it to ensure validation of travel and amounts committed before actual booking of travel services.

The module thus offers the possibility to create a future trip, list the different travel segments and planned expenses, estimate costs and offers simple to very advanced approval workflows.

One of the strengths of Concur Request is the ability to allocate costs by cost center, project code or any other organizational level. This allows approval management that goes beyond simple managerial validation. For example, the mission or trip can be validated by one or more cost center managers.

SAP Concur also provides reliable estimation of the total trip amount based on AI. Thus validation can be done with full knowledge, with trip details and projected costs.

The module is integrated with Concur Travel and thus allows booking travel online once the travel authorization is validated. It also communicates with Concur Expense.

This module can also be used in other contexts:

• Simple travel approval without cost estimation and without detailed itinerary (Quick Request)

• Implementation of an enrollment process for the company corporate card program

• Management of offline travel bookings handled by the travel agency without using the Concur Travel module

Concur Expense

Certainly the main module of the solution, Concur Expense digitizes professional expense management from expense capture to employee reimbursement.

The module is based on a 4-stage lifecycle:

1. Expense capture
2. Expense report submission
3. Expense report validation
4. Integration of the accounting entry into the financial system

Expense capture is a key element in process automation. This step consists of transforming an invoice or receipt (paper or digital) into an expense ready to be integrated into an expense report. It involves capturing the information contained on the receipt but also ensuring reliable document capture and certified storage according to different legislations.

This is the step that saves time for employees and the entire organization provided the solution offers a range of possibilities and reliable capture. Concur Expense is very effective in this area as it offers many features:

• Receipt capture via mobile app (OCR and AI technology)
• Receipt capture via email transfer (practical for invoices received by email)
• Integration of corporate card programs (when paying with a credit card, expense information is sent to SAP Concur by the card provider or bank)
• Automatic integration of expenses from Concur Travel module
• Automatic expense creation via application center partners (for example, if the Uber partner is activated, the expense is automatically created in SAP Concur once the ride is completed, with the receipt attached)

Report submission allows sending one or more expenses for validation. Expenses can be grouped according to a frequency or linked to a mission. This step triggers controls related to each company's policy. In case of a blocking error, the employee must correct their expense report before the approver is even notified.

Validation can be done in one or more steps depending on the defined approval cycle. As with the Request module, the solution offers a range of possibilities from managerial validation to complex workflows that can be based on amounts, expense allocations, internal company rules, etc.

Finally, accounting integration is a major step as it involves ensuring that the expense report will become an accounting entry, correctly entered and allocated in the financial system. For this step, Concur Expense offers many possibilities but we will come back to this in a future dedicated article.

Key Strengths of Concur Expense:

• Many expense capture possibilities
• Very varied and flexible approval workflows (even automatic approval if no control rule is triggered)
• Very large coverage of local and legal needs: Concur Expense offers tax calculation models, employee benefits, lump-sum reimbursements (Per Diem or Allowances) and mileage allowances for many countries on all continents. This is certainly the greatest advantage if you want to deploy a solution internationally.
• Integration with Concur Request and Concur Travel for a unified, end-to-end experience.

Concur Invoice

The Concur Invoice module is somewhat different from the other three as it is not part of the "Travel & Expense" suite. It is aimed at the Purchasing department and manages the purchasing cycle from purchase request to supplier invoice payment (we speak of "Procure-to-Pay" or "P2P"). This module is not limited to travel service purchases but covers all purchases made from company suppliers.

Concur Invoice uses the same major principles as the other modules, meaning an integrated and intuitive experience, a powerful invoice capture system (OCR technology), a flexible approval workflow and the ability to integrate expense policies and control rules.

The Module Covers the Following Processes:

• Purchase request and its approval
• Purchase order generation
• Goods and services receipt
• Invoice receipt with OCR capture
• Invoice validation cycle
• Invoice integration into the accounting system
• Supplier management (creation, approval and management)

Concur Invoice enables automation of comparison between purchase order and invoice (2-Way Matching) as well as comparison between purchase order, receipt and supplier invoice (3-Way Matching). The comparison solution is flexible and allows amount tolerance discrepancies, exceptions by supplier or expense type as well as triggering additional validation steps based on discrepancies or amounts.

This module, unlike the other 3, is not available in all countries but is offered in North America, United Kingdom as well as in several European countries including France, Belgium and Switzerland.

Thank you for reading and do not hesitate to contact us to learn more or react.

Find the second part of this series here — covering additional modules such as Expense Pay, Central Reconciliation, Budget, Analysis and Intelligence.