Concur, the university’s travel and expense system, is getting an upgraded user interface that offers easier and more intuitive navigation to employees creating or approving expense reports.

The new interface, which will be available Jan. 26, includes the following upgrades:

Home page

• The home page now has a ‘dashboard’ design for easier and faster use.
• Key actions are highlighted at the top of the screen.
• Users now have the capability to “know at a glance” what work needs to be done.
• All approvals are located in one area for easier and faster access.
• The booking process is simplified through detailed steps that are logically organized.
• The trip summary clearly shows users where they are in the process.
• A footer offers easy access to help and other information from Concur.

Expense landing page

• Key actions and notifications are clear and easy to find.
• Everything users need to manage expenses (i.e., active reports, available expenses, and available receipts) is located on a single screen, which allows faster report creation.
• Expenses can now be easily moved to a report with a drag-and-drop feature.
• Receipts and related details appear on the same page, allowing more efficient matching to reports.

“A pilot group of nearly 50 Concur users from various units across the university, including LSA, the College of Engineering, the School of Education, Office of Research, and the Medical School worked with the Procurement Services Department to test the new interface for several weeks and provide feedback,” said Colin Anderson, interim director of procurement services.

Concur also gathered feedback from users at a number of other universities around the country, including the University of Colorado, University of Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and the University of Texas. Concur has incorporated most of the input provided by its higher education customers into the new user interface and is evaluating the remaining feedback.

“Moving forward, Concur will be releasing a second phase of improvements later this year that focus on the actual creation of expense reports,” Anderson said. “In addition, an 80-member user group that includes representation from several units throughout the university is continuing to pilot a mobile app for Concur. The mobile app is expected to be available to the university community in late winter.

“We want to thank the members of both pilot groups for working with Procurement Services to test Concur’s new user interface as well as the mobile app. Their assistance is invaluable as we continue to look for ways to enhance Concur for the university community.”

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• Concur