To combine expenses in SAP Concur, select two related expense line items in the Available Expenses section and click the “Combine Expenses” button. This merges a receipt or cash entry with a matching corporate card transaction into a single line item, keeping your expense report clean and avoiding duplicates. The process works slightly differently depending on whether you’re using the desktop web interface or the mobile app.
When You’d Need to Combine Expenses
The most common reason to combine expenses is when you have two entries for the same purchase: one from your corporate card feed and one you created manually or by uploading a receipt. Concur treats these as separate line items until they’re matched. If the system doesn’t auto-match them, you’ll see what looks like a duplicate on your report. Combining them links the receipt to the card charge so it shows up as one clean entry.
Combining Expenses on the Desktop
Open your expense report and look at the Available Expenses section, which lists unattached transactions waiting to be added to a report. Find the two entries you want to merge. Select both of them (click the checkbox next to each), then click “Combine Expenses.” Concur will merge them into a single line item, typically keeping the corporate card transaction as the primary record and attaching your receipt image and any details you entered manually.
One important rule: the two expenses must have different payment types. You can combine a cash or out-of-pocket entry with a corporate card transaction, or a pending card transaction with a receipt you uploaded. You cannot combine two entries that share the same payment type. If you’re trying to merge two corporate card charges or two cash entries, the Combine Expenses button will be grayed out or unavailable. This is by design, since combining is meant to match a charge with its supporting documentation, not to merge two separate purchases.
Combining Expenses on the Mobile App
On the Concur mobile app, much of this happens automatically. When you snap a photo of a receipt and upload it, Concur attempts to match it with an existing corporate card transaction based on the amount, date, and vendor. If the match is found, the receipt image and the card charge merge into one expense without any extra steps from you.
If the automatic merge doesn’t happen, you can still handle it manually. Open the expense report in the app, find the unmatched receipt entry, and look for an option to attach it to an existing card transaction. The exact menu path can vary slightly depending on your organization’s Concur configuration and app version, but the logic is the same as desktop: you’re pairing a receipt with a card charge.
Why the Combine Button Might Not Work
If you can’t find the Combine Expenses option or it appears grayed out, check a few things. First, confirm the two items have different payment types. Two corporate card transactions won’t combine, and neither will two out-of-pocket entries. Second, make sure both expenses are in the Available Expenses section and haven’t already been added to different reports. Expenses that are already submitted or sitting in separate reports can’t be merged from the available queue.
Currency mismatches and certain company-specific policy settings can also block the combine function. If your organization has customized Concur’s expense types or approval workflows, your admin may have restricted which transaction types can be merged. When none of the obvious fixes work, your company’s Concur administrator or travel desk is the right place to ask, since they control the configuration settings that affect what you see.
Separating Expenses You Already Combined
If you accidentally combine the wrong items, you can undo it. Open the combined expense entry and look for a “Separate” or “Detach” option, which splits the line item back into its original components. This returns the card transaction and the receipt entry to the Available Expenses section as individual items, letting you re-combine them correctly or attach each to the right report line.
Separating works only before the report is submitted. Once your expense report has been sent for approval, you’ll typically need to have it sent back to you (or have an admin return it) before you can edit the individual line items again.
Tips for Cleaner Expense Matching
Upload receipts promptly after each purchase. The sooner a receipt image hits Concur, the more likely it is to auto-match with the incoming card transaction, saving you the manual combine step entirely. When you create a manual expense entry, match the date and amount to your card charge as closely as possible. Even small differences, like entering $47 when the charge was $47.12, can prevent Concur from recognizing them as the same transaction.
If you regularly expense the same types of purchases, get in the habit of checking the Available Expenses section before creating new entries. Your corporate card charges often appear within a day or two, and starting from the card transaction (then attaching a receipt) is usually faster than creating a manual entry and combining later.