5 Best Practices for Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Expense Management Integration

When it comes to AP and expense management, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) provides a host of enhanced features, with everything from invoice matching to customized payment schedules. And unlike Microsoft GP, Microsoft Dynamics is completely cloud-based and offers free updates, as well as access to its dimensional reporting system.

But the biggest benefit is the access to countless add-ons that accelerate your Microsoft Dynamics application and boost productivity.

At Gorilla Expense, our expense management automation platform makes it a cinch to streamline accounting processes. Automated workflows for purchase orders and invoices provide enhanced functionality and increased visibility that saves accounting teams money and time down the road.

The best part is that our Microsoft Dynamics BC expense management integration is a fairly straightforward process.

Managing a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central integration

The Gorilla Expense Dynamics automated workflows offer easy integration in the web application. When implemented, expenses will be pushed to Microsoft Business Central as a General Journal Entry, Job Journal, or Purchase Invoice.

But the real steal is how the integration can map to a specific, customized layout in a business’s ERP and sync data in real-time. For example, a best-in-class expense management integration should understand an ERP configuration and directly send expense data to those customized points. 

Let’s look at a Purchase Invoice as an example. Once configured to your integration needs, our application syncs the following data to your Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC application: 

• Vendor Name – The vendor name is documented on the user profile within Gorilla Expense and can be associated with the user’s out-of-pocket and credit card payment methods.

• Posting Date – The posting date can be mapped to the current date or expense report start date or expense report end date.

• Document Date – The document date can be mapped to the current date or expense report start date or expense report end date.

• Vendor Invoice Number– This will be the unique expense confirmation number generated by the expense report.

• Account Type and Account Number – The General Ledger (GL) Account Number is stored in the Gorilla Expense database. Depending on the expense type selected by the user, the Gorilla Expense Integration will map the associated GL Account number to the Purchase Invoice Line.

• Description– The description is prepared by selecting one or a combination of multiple fields on the integration setting screen. It can be set as a combination of expense confirmation number, name, and comments.

• Tax Area Code – For customers who have GST/VAT requirements, the expense integration maps the Tax Area code to the Purchase Invoice — depending on the selected Province or State.

• Tax Group Code – As another GST/VAT measure, our solution pushes the Tax Group code to the Purchase Invoice based on your Province or State.

• Shortcut Dimensions – Dimensions, also called segments in Microsoft GP, are custom fields that are maintained on the user profile or structured as a dropdown on each expense line. The expense integration can align these custom dimension values to their fields on the purchase invoice lines.

• Incoming Document File – The expense report’s receipts can be mapped as PDF documents.

 

How does the expense integration know what to do?

When setting up the expense integration, our team maps your desired information through the map to Business Central. This ensures that all fields, including custom fields, are pushed to BC automatically, and can be found exactly where you want them to be. 

A particular data type is the shortcut dimension. These dimensions are often specific from business to business. Our integration can map to these specific fields and push data accordingly.

To review your dimension mapping, you can visit your Expense Report Integration page under the Integration tab on your dashboard. Then click on the button that says Integration Settings. 

From that point, there are only three simple steps:

• Set the values you want to use to true.

• Select which field you want to map.

• Save the integration changes.

But this is only the starting point. To really leverage your Dynamics integration, there are a few best practices to consider.

6 best practices for expense management with Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC

Before splitting payment methods for a single invoice or compiling stellar reports, there are a few best practices to follow when planning to add expense automation to your ERP. Applying the following concepts to your new Dynamics integration will allow your team to gather granular data for each expense.

In turn, you’ll be able to figure out when someone is approaching their spending limit, estimate GST/VAT taxes, and perform other high-level tasks in seconds.

1. Map out everything

First things first, it’s critical to map out how you plan to structure your documentation. One of the most versatile aspects of automation expense integration is the ability to map custom expense fields to certain dimensions. Mapping out what information you need and how you expect it to be presented will save a lot of headaches.

2. Understand how users might use the product

Next, you’ll want to consider how your accounting team will interact with the files and what structure will make more sense to them. For example, Gorilla Expense can combine estimated tax into a total amount or provide a line-by-line breakdown. Which version you need will depend on your preference and types of payments.

There are also times when AP professionals will want to export data into various sections of the accounting system like General Ledger or Purchase Invoice. Ensure that your expense integration has this capability. 

3. Pick a secure integration

Every software decision must balance the power of automation with security. The more access your Dynamics integration has to customer data, the less secure your data is.

At Gorilla Expense, our integration does not touch or retain any specific vendor or customer data from Microsoft Dynamics. Since our expense management system uses a SOAP/ODATA to access Microsoft Dynamics after getting Admin approval, the connection is simple and secure.

While it’s not critical to understand the technical jargon, asking your chosen integration team about their security measures can be useful.

Gorilla Expense’s solution ensures that the incoming and outgoing connections with corporate card data are secure. This is possible because the Gorilla Expense works with almost all banks in the US and Canada. In addition, this network allows the expense integration to seamlessly pull your business card and corporate card data directly into the platform. 

4. Optimize your configuration for various requirements

Not every expense report needs to be added as a Purchase Invoice in BC. Accounts payable professionals also send data in a General Journal Entry with the ability to dynamically define the Balancing Account Type and Value. This feature is especially useful for corporate card expenses when the statement is already paid.

5. Make room for GST/VAT

GST/VAT is applicable in over 160 countries. For organizations with business travelers, it’s helpful to have a program that tracks GST/VAT taxes and keeps information in your system. Since Gorilla Expense uses receipts when calculating and storing data, the expense integration maintains GST/VAT reclaims compliance. Furthermore, our solution sends the GST/VAT criteria to BC from the respective GL Account, Tax Area Code, or Tax Group Code.

5. Leverage digitized receipts

The ability to send receipts to Business Central is also a convenient feature that will save financial professionals time and provide peace of mind. AP departments need an expense reporting integration to effortlessly export receipts into BC. 

Our integration pushes receipts to BC and scans them and auto flags duplicates, errors, and policy violations. 

Schedule your demo

Ready to streamline your expense management workflow? Schedule a demo with us today and learn more about how the Gorilla Expense Microsoft Dynamics integration can power your AP system. 

 

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