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    SAP Concur guide

    How to attach a receipt in SAP Concur

    Six ways to get proof of an expense into SAP Concur, step by step, and what each one means for your expense compliance.

    Updated October 1, 2026 · 9 min read

    There are six ways to get proof of an expense into SAP Concur Expense. They all end up looking like "a receipt" on the expense line, but they do not carry the same level of trust, and they do not ask the same effort from your employees.

    Quick answer

    1. Snap a photo of a paper receipt with the SAP Concur mobile app.
    2. Upload or drag and drop an image or PDF in Concur Expense on the web.
    3. Forward the email containing the receipt to receipts@concur.com (receipts@eu.concursolutions.com for European data center customers) from a verified address.
    4. Let e-receipts flow in from connected partners (airlines, hotels, car rental, ride-hailing).
    5. Rely on the corporate card feed, which brings structured transaction data but no receipt image.
    6. Attach a structured e-invoice, such as a CFDI XML in Mexico or a Peppol or national-format invoice in Europe.

    The further down this list you go, the less your employees have to type, and the harder the proof is to alter. That is the whole compliance story in one sentence. The rest of this guide explains how each method works, step by step, and what it means for your controls.

    The less the employee handles the receipt, the harder it is to alter Six ways to attach proof of an expense in SAP Concur, from weakest to strongest 1. Mobile photo Image of a paper receipt, made by the employee 2. Web upload or drag and drop Image or PDF file, uploaded by the employee 3. Email to receipts@concur.com Merchant PDF, forwarded by the employee 4. E-receipt from a partner Structured data from the merchant's system 5. Corporate card feed Payment data from the network, no receipt 6. Structured e-invoice XML via a regulated platform (CFDI, Peppol) The employee brings a file easy to edit, needs forensics A system sends the data hard to alter, needs matching weaker proof stronger proof
    The first three methods depend on a file the employee brings; the last three receive data straight from a system.

    1Take a photo with the SAP Concur mobile app

    This is the method most employees know, and the default for paper receipts: restaurants, taxis, parking, small purchases on the road.

    How to do it

    1. Open the SAP Concur app and choose the receipt capture option (the camera icon).
    2. Photograph the receipt, flat and well lit, one receipt per photo.
    3. The image lands in your available receipts, ready to attach to an expense. If your company uses ExpenseIt, the app reads the receipt and creates a draft expense with the amount, date and vendor already filled in.

    Since late 2025, ExpenseIt also includes a receipt analysis agent that infers missing details such as location, vendor and expense type from context (SAP Concur).

    The compliance view: convenient, but the weakest proof on this list. What Concur receives is a picture of a piece of paper, and the app can also pick images from the phone's gallery. OCR reads what it sees: it does not tell you whether what it sees is real. The typical issues are well known to every expense controller:

    • a card payment slip instead of the itemized receipt, which proves a payment but not what was bought
    • the same receipt photographed twice, or claimed by two colleagues
    • blurry or cropped images that cannot be read
    • several receipts on a single photo
    • screenshots, edited images and, more recently, receipts generated by AI image tools

    Tip for employees: always photograph the detailed receipt, not the card slip, and capture it the day you get it.

    2Upload or drag and drop on the web

    When the receipt is already a file on your computer (a scan, a downloaded invoice, a booking confirmation), the fastest path is the Concur Expense web interface.

    How to do it

    1. Open Concur Expense in your browser.
    2. Drag the file into one of three places: the available receipts area of the home screen, the add receipt area of a new or existing expense, or directly onto an expense line in a report. Drag and drop into these three areas has been available since January 2023 (SAP Concur).
    3. Or use the upload button if you prefer to browse for the file.

    Accepted formats are PNG, JPG, JPEG, PDF, TIF and TIFF (SAP Concur).

    The compliance view: the method itself is neutral; the risk depends on the file. A native PDF downloaded from a merchant's portal is good evidence. A scan, a screenshot or a file that has been opened and saved again in an editing tool is not. Concur stores what it receives, and it is up to your controls to tell the difference.

    3Email your receipts to receipts@concur.com

    Most receipts today arrive by email: hotel folios, train and plane tickets, online purchases, SaaS subscriptions. Instead of downloading and re-uploading them, you can forward them straight to SAP Concur.

    How to do it

    1. Verify your email address first. In your Concur profile, open the email addresses section, click Verify, and paste the code Concur sends you. Receipts sent from an unverified address are not processed.
    2. Forward the email, with the receipt attached, to the address that matches your setup (see the table below).
    3. The receipt appears in your available receipts, ready to attach to an expense.

    Which address should you use?

    AddressWhen to use itWhere the receipt lands
    receipts@concur.comStandard setup, companies hosted in Concur's US data centerAvailable receipts
    receipts@eu.concursolutions.comCompanies hosted in Concur's European data centerAvailable receipts
    receipts@expenseit.comYour profile has ExpenseIt activatedAvailable expenses, as a draft expense created from the receipt

    If ExpenseIt is active on your profile, receipts sent to receipts@concur.com also show up in available expenses rather than available receipts (SAP Concur). Not sure which data center your company uses? Your Concur administrator can tell you, and it is worth stating the right address once in your internal expense guide.

    You can verify up to five email addresses if your company uses both Concur Travel and Concur Expense, and up to three with Concur Expense only. Accepted attachments are PNG, JPG, JPEG, PDF, TIF and TIFF (SAP Concur).

    The compliance view: a step up from photos. A PDF sent by the merchant is the original document, with a text layer that can be read reliably. But PDF is still an easy format to alter: online editors, re-printing to PDF, a text box pasted over an amount. Two other traps are common: forwarding a screenshot or a photo of the email instead of the attached invoice, and attaching a quote or proforma instead of the final invoice. The good news is that a PDF keeps a trace of how it was made, which is exactly what forensic controls look at.

    4Activate e-receipts and connect App Center partners

    E-receipts are the method employees like most, because there is nothing to do once they are set up: the receipt arrives on its own, already matched to the expense.

    How to do it

    1. In Concur, open your profile settings and find the e-receipt activation option. Click Enable and confirm.
    2. In the credit cards section of your profile, tick the option to receive e-receipts for each card you use.
    3. In the App Center, connect the travel and transport apps you use, for example Uber or Lyft, by selecting the app and clicking Connect.

    E-receipts are provided by most major airlines, hotels and car rental companies, but not all of them (SAP Concur).

    The compliance view: a real change of category. The data comes from the merchant's own system, not from a picture taken by the employee. Nobody retypes the amount, nobody can crop or edit an image, and the expense shows up complete. Two limits remain. Coverage depends on which suppliers are connected, and on each employee linking their own accounts. And the tax value of an e-receipt depends on the country: in many European countries, recovering VAT still requires a compliant invoice made out to the company, which an e-receipt is not always.

    5Corporate card feeds: structured data, no receipt

    Strictly speaking, a card feed is not a way to attach a receipt. But it is how a large share of expenses enter SAP Concur, and many companies let card transactions below a threshold go through without an image.

    How it works: your card program sends transactions to Concur, where they appear as available expenses with the merchant, date, amount and currency already filled in. The employee adds the business purpose and, where required, attaches a receipt using one of the methods above.

    The compliance view: the data comes from the payment network, so the employee cannot change the amount or the date. That makes the card feed the best reference to check everything else against: does the receipt amount match the transaction, has this transaction already been claimed?

    But a card transaction proves that money was spent, not what it was spent on. US rules are explicit: for lodging, and for any expense of $75 or more, a card statement alone is not enough, and records must show the amount, date, place and business nature of the expense (IRS Publication 463). The "receipt not required" threshold is a useful convenience, and it is also where uncontrolled spend tends to concentrate.

    6Structured e-invoices: CFDI in Mexico, e-invoicing in Europe

    The most reliable proof is not a picture or a PDF at all, but a structured file issued and registered through a tax authority's system. Mexico has worked this way for years, and Europe is now following.

    Mexico: the CFDI

    In Mexico, the legal invoice is the CFDI, an XML file validated through the tax authority (SAT). The PDF is only a printed version of it. For a business expense to count, the XML must be valid and issued to the company. In SAP Concur, this is typically handled through validation apps listed in the App Center: the employee attaches the CFDI XML to the expense, and the app checks its compliance and sends the result back to Concur (SAP Concur App Center, Axosnet).

    Europe: e-invoicing is becoming the rule

    Several countries now require structured B2B invoices:

    • Belgium: mandatory for all VAT-registered businesses since January 1, 2026, through the Peppol network.
    • Poland: the national KSeF platform became mandatory in February 2026 for large taxpayers and in April 2026 for most other businesses, with micro-enterprises following in January 2027 (SPS Commerce).
    • France: since September 1, 2026, all companies must be able to receive e-invoices, and large and mid-sized companies must issue them (Babelway).
    • EU-wide: the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, adopted in March 2025, brings structured e-invoices and near real-time reporting to intra-EU transactions from July 2030; for those, plain PDF and image invoices will no longer qualify (Sovos).

    What this means for expenses: most everyday T&E spend (a lunch, a taxi) is a sale to a consumer and stays outside these B2B mandates. But hotel stays, conferences, training or train tickets invoiced in the company's name are B2B invoices. They increasingly arrive as structured files on the company's e-invoicing platform, not in the employee's inbox. The expense process was designed for the employee to bring the proof. With e-invoicing, the proof reaches the company directly, and it has to be matched to the right expense line, in the right format, without asking the employee to attach it again.

    The six methods compared

    The right method is not the same for every expense: what matters is that each type of spend goes through the most reliable channel available for it.

    MethodTypical spendWhat Concur receivesWho produces the dataEffort for the employeeCan it be altered?Proof strength
    Mobile photoMeals, taxis, parkingImage of a paper receiptThe employeeMedium: capture each receiptEasilyLow
    Web upload or drag and dropScans, downloaded invoicesImage or PDF fileThe employeeMedium: download, then uploadEasilyLow to medium
    Email to receipts@concur.comHotels, tickets, online purchasesPDF or image attachmentThe merchant, forwarded by the employeeLow: forward the emailPossible, leaves tracesMedium
    E-receipt from a partnerAir, hotel, car rental, ride-hailingStructured receipt dataThe merchant's systemNone once set upHardHigh
    Card feedAll card spendTransaction data, no receiptThe payment networkNoneVery hardHigh for the payment
    None for the content
    Structured e-invoice (CFDI, Peppol, national formats)B2B invoices in the company's nameXML or structured invoiceThe supplier, through a regulated platformNone to lowVery hardHighest

    Your receipt mix is a compliance indicator

    Most companies know how much they spend on travel and expenses. Few know how that spend is proven: what share rests on a phone photo, what share on a merchant PDF, what share on an e-receipt or a card transaction alone. Yet that mix says a lot about where the risk sits, and about how much effort the process asks of employees.

    This is the kind of macro analysis we run at Tevasoft on a company's own SAP Concur data. It answers questions like these:

    • What share of meal spend is backed only by a mobile photo, and in which countries?
    • How many hotel nights have a card transaction but no itemized folio?
    • Which suppliers are already available as e-receipts but not yet connected by your employees?
    • How much spend sits under the "receipt not required" threshold, and is that threshold still right?
    • Which entities will receive structured e-invoices for expenses in the coming months, and how will those be matched to expense lines?

    The answers lead to three kinds of action:

    1. Move volume to more reliable channels. Activate e-receipts, connect the App Center partners your travelers actually use, review card thresholds. This improves compliance and makes life easier for employees at the same time.
    2. Put the controls where the risk is. A photo, a PDF and an XML file do not fail in the same way, so they should not be checked in the same way. Images call for checks on blur, duplicates, card slips, image metadata and AI-generated receipts. PDFs call for checks on document structure: how the file was produced, whether it was modified after creation, whether text was pasted over. Card-only expenses call for amount and frequency analysis. Structured invoices call for matching.
    3. Guide users at the right moment. Instead of rejecting a report days later, tell the employee, when it happens, that a card slip is not a receipt or that the hotel invoice should come from the folio.

    That is the logic behind EVA, our expense verification and audit engine for SAP Concur. EVA checks each receipt against standard and company-specific controls before the expense is reimbursed. Clean expenses are approved, clear anomalies are rejected, and only doubtful cases go to a controller, who reviews them inside EVA. Check before you reimburse, not after.

    FAQ

    How do I attach a receipt to an expense in SAP Concur?

    Open the expense and drag the file into the receipt area, or select an existing receipt from your available receipts. On mobile, capture it with the camera in the SAP Concur app. Receipts you emailed to Concur are also waiting in your available receipts.

    What email address do I use to send receipts to Concur?

    receipts@concur.com, or receipts@eu.concursolutions.com if your company is hosted in Concur's European data center, from an email address verified in your Concur profile. If ExpenseIt is activated on your profile, you can also use receipts@expenseit.com, and the receipt becomes a draft expense.

    Why don't my emailed receipts show up in Concur?

    The most common cause is an unverified sender address: check the email addresses section of your profile. Second cause: if ExpenseIt is active, look in available expenses rather than available receipts. Also check the attachment format and that you used the address matching your company's data center.

    What file types can I upload to Concur?

    PNG, JPG, JPEG, PDF, TIF and TIFF.

    What are e-receipts in SAP Concur?

    Receipts sent directly by connected suppliers (airlines, hotels, car rental, ride-hailing apps) and matched to your expenses automatically. You enable them in your profile settings and connect the apps in the App Center.

    Is a credit card statement enough as a receipt?

    Usually not. A card transaction proves a payment, not what was purchased. In the US, lodging and any expense of $75 or more require documentary evidence beyond the card statement, and your company policy may be stricter.

    How do I attach a CFDI in Concur?

    The CFDI is an XML file. Companies operating in Mexico usually connect a CFDI validation app from the Concur App Center, which lets employees attach the XML and checks it before the expense is approved.

    Need to pull receipts back out of Concur for an audit? See SMART Extract for SAP Concur.

    SAP and SAP Concur are trademarks of SAP SE. Tevasoft is an independent company.

    Sources