Lawson INFOR Expense Automation 101

With over 70,000 customers worldwide, Lawson INFOR is a premier business software across several industries. Robust and easily customized for unique needs, AP teams know INFOR more for its expense management capabilities than anything else. An upgrade from the regular spreadsheet, the Lawson INFOR expense management dashboard is fairly easy to use. There’s just one problem.

Like any ERP, the INFOR experience is still a manual process. Employees still need to input data, review receipts, evaluate each payment request for policy compliance, and finally give their stamp of approval.

These manual processes offer low visibility and efficiency. In fact, 68% of finance professionals believe manual processes directly cause compliance breaches, and 65% relate these processes to lower employee productivity.

To make matters worse, the complex and tedious nature of expense reporting often translates into greater risk and opportunity for fraud.

But AP automation can change all that.

Before we get to how automation for expense reporting works in INFOR, let’s step back and review the Lawson INFOR platform.

Expense Management with Lawson INFOR

As more and more organizations lean into digitizing their accounting and billing operations, Lawson INFOR has become a popular solution among mid-sized and enterprise businesses. The INFOR expense management tool is a cloud-based solution that streamlines compliance, tracks travel expenses, and makes it easy to approve documents on the fly—whether you are on your work computer or at home on your mobile phone.

With Lawson INFOR, AP professionals can:

• Scan and store receipts and paper documents
• Receive compliance alerts for travel policies
• Review and approve T&E reimbursement
• Create accurate timesheets
• Record international and domestic transactions

Considering that employee expenses are the second-largest cost businesses face after payroll, an ERP like INFOR provides greater visibility and control over expense management.

The problem is that digitization doesn’t remove the need for manual data entry, which is a considerable waste of talent, time, and resources.

This is where automation comes in.

AP automation isn’t an out-of-the-box setting for Lawson INFOR. However, all you need to automate expense reporting is the right integration. 

The power of expense reporting automation

An accounting employee can free up time through the right AP automation integration while gaining access to vital insights about the payment and approval process.

Generally, an efficient integration for expense management should be able to collect travel and expense information from credit card statements, email, and OCR, as well as web and mobile entries. This wealth of data is stored in the integration’s web application. In the case of Gorilla Expense, users can approve reports, receive e-alerts, and set policies within our portal. 

Data is synced in real-time and can be used to compile detailed reports for a thorough review of expenses. The integration then pushes information to Lawson’s AP or Payroll modules, so the information is always within your ERP. Each module requires different file types, AP520 and PR530, respectively. So your chosen integration should support both files to ensure proper synchronization. 

Ideally, an automation integration should also be configurable to your unique needs. The Gorilla Expense team works tirelessly to ensure that your integration maps perfectly to your current or desired AP workflow. 

Expense reporting automation is the only solution that effectively streamlines the approval process. AP automation can provide:

• 100% visibility
• Enhanced data and analytics
• One-click reports 
• Detailed cost allocation
• VAT/GST tracking
• Accurate receipt storage and data capture

All of these features contribute to reduced risk and fewer opportunities for fraud. 

Besides speeding up the approval process and providing end-to-end visibility into employee expenses, automation also reduces costs. According to Ardent’s 2020 ePayables report, automation for invoices alone cuts processing costs by 80%.

The future of expense reporting

The pandemic accelerated digital transformation across AP departments. And as more and more organizations use automation integrations, the automated expense reporting process will be less of a competitive advantage than a minimum requirement. 

With the rapid growth of cross-border payments, the labor shortage, and worker overload, it’s clear that financial professionals need the support of smart tools. Leveraging automation in the workplace allows these professionals to focus on high-level tasks that make a difference instead of manual data entry.

Gorilla Expense provides a best-in-class expense reporting automation integration for Lawson INFOR and other major ERPs. Our integration seamlessly integrates and analyzes expense data and streamlines the expense reporting process. By supporting the AP520 and PR530 file types for INFOR’s AP and Payroll modules, we can effortlessly push data to the ERP. 

Our expense reporting automation integration for Lawson INFOR gives you total control over your AP workflow with an easy-to-use interface and customization. At the same time, our solution has been shown to be up to 65% more economical than other solutions. 

Ready to get away from the manual process for expense reports and revolutionize your AP workflow? Schedule a demo with us today. 

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