It’s December, it’s cold and it’s time to hibernate. Yet, finance and AP departments are busy closing the books, reconciling data and checking receipts. And guess what – this process is a last minute rush every year for employees, managers and AP.
But there are better ways to manage this work at the end of the year. And we’ve got the expense claims + receipts side of things taken care of for you. How do we do this? By being creative and smart with technology.
Smartphones are for more than Instagram
Most travelers own a smartphone and this is a very convenient medium for travelers to submit expenses in a few clicks. Receipt capture is the most common feature used on Gorilla Expense’s mobile app. We make it easy to also attach those pesky multi-page PDF receipts from our mobile app by syncing with Dropbox.
The magical cloud
Web based, accessible anywhere, data at your fingertips…..That’s how the Gorilla Expense web application works. Companies are increasingly looking towards web based solutions to tackle their expenses including getting manager approvals done sooner. The availability of analytics and reporting modules makes it super convenient to analyze the entire year’s data and review trends.
No joy in manual data entry
Finally, once all the expenses are submitted and approved, AP has to key in the data manually into Dynamics ERP (GP / NAV / AX / SL). Not anymore! We make the process seamless and as automated as possible. Click a button on our integration app, grab some egg nog and 5 minutes later all the data is in the ERP. Simple right? (well, we recommend egg nog after 5pm)
In conclusion….
December can be a very busy time for most finance and AP departments with plenty of things to juggle already. To ease the workload when it comes to expenses, receipts and mainly to reimburse employee sooner, look at automating T&E in your company. This could be one of the best investments in 2015!
Microsoft officially announced that Business Portal and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 runtime will be discontinued in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015. They plan to focus instead on including most of the functionalities directly into the core code base of Dynamics GP 2015.
“The plan is to basically phase out Business Portal as we release apps or modules inside Dynamics GP that replace the same functionality”, said Microsoft’s Kelly Obach, Manager of the Executive Business Center.
Business Portal has been an important and integral part of Dynamics GP for many years. Users could gain a quick peek into a company’s data and run graphical reports quickly. Of course all the goodness did not come without challenges, ranging from software requirements, tricky admin functionality of the module and proprietary architecture. Business Portal also provided a basic non-mobile solution for capturing project related expenses.
GP 2015 Features (Click on Image)
For customers looking to upgrade to Dynamics GP 2015 from older versions or for customers looking to migrate to GP 2015 from other systems, Business Portal will no longer be available. If T&EExpense Management in Dynamics GP is an important requirement for your business, what do you do?
That’s where ISVs like Gorilla Expense fill the gap with our expense reporting software for GP, which integrates with various versions (GP 10, GP 2010, GP 2013). While Microsoft Dynamics brings great features to the core ERP product, we bring the robust expense related pieces which include Mobile Apps, Web Application, Credit Card Integration and seamless + fully Automated Integration into Dynamics GP using our proprietary Integration App.
Not only does it solve the challenges and pain points for the customer, it also enhances capabilities within GP. Check out the video of our automated integration with GP (VIDEO)
Our solution is not only powerful but also very easy to use and intuitive. And most importantly, we pride ourselves in providing the best support you have ever seen from an ISV. Our goal is to ‘Wow!’ the customer every time. Don’t believe us? See what our customers are saying about us (TESTIMONIALS)
As a Premium GPUG member, you can also view the webinar we did with GPUG on ‘Make T&E Expense Reporting for Dynamics GP Painless & Paperless’ here (WEBINAR)
GPUG Premium Member
If you are interested in a personalized demo of our expense management software for Dynamics GP, contact us at sales@gorillaexpense.com
Gorilla Expense offers a robust and fully automated integration of credit card data into Dynamics NAV. This is available for all versions of NAV. Using our proprietary Gorilla Expense Integration App, the AP Manager can import credit card transactions (or the App can do it 100% automatically), auto-categorize the transactions to specific expense types/cost categories using our mapping algorithm and then send the data to Navision with a click of a button!
Typically the data is sent to the Purchase Journals in NAV (video of integrating expenses to Purchase Journals) so that an invoice is created to pay the credit card company. But we can also send the data to the General Journals (video of integrating expenses to General Journals) as well as Purchase Invoice screen (Visit our main Expense Reporting for Dynamics NAV page for more details). Any relevant information supplied by the credit card company in the data file can also be referenced in the ‘Description’ field within the Journals or Purchase Invoice Lines in NAV.
The advantages that the Gorilla Integration App offers are:
* Send credit card data to NAV through automation
* Complete visibility of credit card expenses in NAV
* Prevent duplicate expenses in NAV
* Improve the reconciliation process through reporting and analytics within Gorilla Expense
* Eliminate time consuming manual work of keying in data
Gorilla Expense supports integration with all the major credit card companies – AMEX, VISA and MasterCard and their various file formats. The flavors of credit cards that we support range from the standard Corporate Credit Card for T&E Expenses to Purchase Cards or P-Cards for making purchases on behalf of the employer.
Here is how the process works:
Step 1> The AP Manager opens the Gorilla Integration App and logs in as the Admin. Here we have selected NAV as the system to send the data to. The Integration App is typically accessed by the Admin user (belongs to Accounting/AP/IT etc.) in a company.
Logging into Integration App as Admin
Step 2> Once logged in we want to select and import the credit card file supplied by the card provider that is typically downloaded by the Admin on a weekly or monthly basis. In this example, we are using a file supplied by our AMEX corporate card on a monthly basis. The following screenshot shows how the Admin can select the respective card and its format.
Selecting the card and format
**Note: Depending on how the credit card program is setup and services offered by the card provider, Step 2 can be fully automated with no human intervention. In that case, the Gorilla Integration App will automatically ‘pick up’ and import the latest file supplied by the card provider from an FTP site. AMEX typically enables this offering by default for all their corporate card and P-card programs and Gorilla Expense supports this approach**
In the screenshot below, the admin has selected the AMEX file – ‘Transactions.csv’ for import. The file was downloaded from our online AMEX account.
Selecting the file downloaded from the AMEX website
Step 3> Once the file is selected, the Integration App automatically associates the expense type and vendor using our mapping algorithm as shown in the screenshot below. This makes the transactions complete and no manual work is need to categorize the transactions.
Auto-allocation of expense type and vendor
Step 4> The Admin can now select all transactions or select specific transactions to import into the system and send to NAV. The screenshot below shows that two transactions were selected to send to NAV. Out of the two, only the one shaded in Green was sent. The transaction shaded in Yellow was already submitted earlier and is highlighted as a duplicate transaction.
The Gorilla Integration App prevents duplicate transactions from being sent to NAV by using the ‘Unique Identifier’ number supplied by the credit card as part of their file. This a is a powerful feature that saves AP Managers lots of time in checking for duplicates and also makes the reconciliation process easier.
Import transactions and prevent duplicates
Step 5> Once all the transactions are imported into the Gorilla application, they are dragged and dropped into a batch and send to NAV through automation using the same Integration App. The transactions show up as invoices within a batch called ‘GORILLA’. Depending on the payment method defined in the Gorilla application, the invoices are created to pay the employee or the corporate credit card.
In this example, our AMEX card has the payment method defined as AMEX which is tied to the ‘American Express’ Vendor ID defined in NAV. Here is a screenshot that show the expense data in Purchase Journals in NAV.
Expenses in Purchase Journals
All the details from the credit card transaction, namely the vendor and the report number are also made available to provide additional visibility for the CFO / accounting manager and to make it easier to search for expense data in NAV.
This explains how credit card data can be integrated into NAV using the Gorilla Expense Integration App. The App is very flexible in allowing credit card data from multiple cards and various formats to be imported into the system. If you would like to see a live demo of the App or have any additional questions, please contact us at info@gorillaexpense.com
It’s been a few weeks since SAP agreed to purchase Concur. The deal makes plenty of sense for SAP because of their focus in the ‘enterprise + powered by the cloud’ market. In a similar vein, it has been a few years since SAP purchased Ariba and SuccessFactors. With Concur now folded into the giant SAP umbrella, SAP will have access to an enterprise T&E solution that they can sell to their 200K + enterprise size customers.
But equally important over the next several months, SAP has its work cut out in trying to build an enterprise suite with these cloud acquisitions – a tricky job that will consume plenty of resources and time.
Concur’s focus in the last few years has been primarily in evolving their travel booking solution, investing in travel related apps and setting up of their marketplace. But the next few steps are going to be critical for Concur – they currently have the huge 15 year US government contract that they must deliver, meet additional requirements and opportunities from SAP and evolve their mobile and web mobile expense platforms to keep up with nimble and innovative cloud travel & expense competitors like us.
Above all, supporting all of these initiatives equally well through the choppy seas of a typical M&A process is paramount. While the cloud is very attractive to most customers, SAP must understand that no customer wants to be stuck with segmented cloud applications from different acquired vendors that don’t ‘talk’ to each other.
The marriage of Concur and SAP makes a lot of sense for both companies and the enterprise market. But, what does this mean for SMBs? Would the SAP-Concur nexus consider SMB travel and expense requirements to be mere distractions? Perhaps too small to worry or even care about? Will they even have the resources and time to help the ‘little guys’ out?
SMBs must take a very close look at this situation and understand where they fit in the landscape. There are different aspects to this – how is the Concur service going to be in the future now that they are a small part of a much larger behemoth? Would Concur’s travel & expense solution pricing change? Where do SMBs fit in Concur’s plan as they reach out to larger enterprises with SAP?
These are all big questions. But one thing is guaranteed – Gorilla Expense will continue to service the needs of SMBs at the same economical price and exceptional service that our customers are used to. The SMB market is our sweet spot and we pride ourselves in working with customers like you. If anything, the SAP-acquiring-Concur transaction has redoubled our efforts and renewed our long-term commitment to this space.
Our recent update of our mobile app – Gorilla Expense Pro is proof of that. We evolved the mobile app to the point where users don’t have to get in front of a computer to submit expenses anymore! This is very important and powerful for the typical SMB where employees are increasingly juggling more work and time spent on unproductive tasks is directly related to lost dollars for the company. In our journey through working with several SMBs, we realize that no two companies manage their T&E processes in the same way. Our focal points have always been:
– Make the solution super easy to use (if you have to read our manuals, then it means we are not doing our jobs)
– The solution is flexible and can be configured to meet the customer’s requirements
– Provide exceptional customer support (Wow! the customer all the time)
– Keep the solution economical to own for our customers (less than the price of 3 cups of Starbucks coffee per month)
We really strive to make a difference in our customer’s lives and also be successful in this space. We don’t compromise performance for price. We realize that SMBs frequently operate in a cost control mode and should not have to pay for features that are unnecessary to them.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Gorilla Expense is currently offering an attractive switchover program for current Concur users. As part of this program, you will get access to our entire solution – mobile, web and integration (credit card, travel, accounting and payroll systems). Customers who have made the move typically see savings ranging from 10% to 60% of Concur’s price. To learn more, please contact us at info@gorillaexpense.com.
According to the Aberdeen Group research, surveys based on millions of expense reports submitted by 3,000 companies reveal that U.S. T&E costs are constantly rising. The largest increases were in airfare (up 5.7%), hotels (up 4.5%), and meetings (up 7.7%).
With T&E spend ranging from 7% to 15% percent of the total budget for the average mid-market company ($50 million to $800 million in revenue), the challenge facing CFOs and Controllers in this area is dramatic with millions of dollars at stake! For most companies, travel related expenses remain a significant area of spend – second only to payroll.
Scope of challenge
Fundamentally, most companies struggle to tackle these challenges because of not knowing where to start, when it comes to managing their T&E Expense reporting process, resulting in thousands of dollars of reckless spending and waste. Aberdeen’s report (Expense Management for a New Decade and The Mid-Market Expense Management Program) says that:
* 56% of mid-market companies have limited visibility into T&E spending
* Less than 45% track their expenses via analytics and business intelligence in real time
* Only 33% leverage cloud-based expense reporting solutions and 28% integrate corporate cards
* Just 15% provide T&E data to C-level executives for financial forecasting purposes
Solutions for a new decade
The good news is that cloud-based solutions have significantly brought down the cost of automating T&E expense reporting. These solutions have been shown to deliver huge reductions in expense processing costs. But the big questions is – where do you start?
The Best-In-Class corporations (a term used by the Aberdeen Group to classify the top 20% of companies that manage their expense related processes by creatively blending technology & strategy) combine strategy, core capabilities, technology, a culture that embraces change and a desire to optimize. The objectives of most Best-In-Class programs include cost savings, enhanced productivity, improved efficiencies and better compliance. This is usually achieved by unifying the different processes in the lifecycle.
By advocating a culture that fosters Best-In-Class programs and by investing in a system that ensures achievement of this status, Best-In-Class companies constantly reap gains and realize immediate ROIs.
Here are the 10 Commandments of Expense Reporting that Best-In-Class companies consistently execute on:
1. Centralize the control and operation of T&E expense management programs
2. Automate the process to greatly reduce unproductive manual work and eliminate errors
3. Integrate the front-end expense reporting system to the ERP system to minimize manual data entries and errors (here is a video of automated integration with Dynamics GP)
4. Establish generally accepted corporate-wide policies and processes
5. Educate employees regularly on expense report related policies and processes and appoint a designee for any questions from employees
6. Encourage usage of corporate cards for better accuracy and mobile device applications for convenience to users (read our blog on Credit Card Integration)
7. Leverage and close the loop on expense management data to fine-tune the system and also provide better deals with travel vendors for the company
8. Develop audit mechanisms that capture errant data and provide real-time visibility into spend
9. Invest in the latest technology to maximize efficiency, provide long term ROI and reduce paper usage
10. Provide flexibility and convenience to the end users to improve productivity, reduce inherent delays and to capture expense data immediately after incurred
For some companies, executing on all 10 steps immediately might prove to be a challenge. In those cases, it would be beneficial to select a few and to focus on those, till the desired results are obtained.
Automating T&E processes does more than just reduce costs. It makes it harder for employees to inflate expenses — and far easier for companies to detect fraud. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, up to 13% of company fraud arises in this area, so that’s a huge advantage. Expense reporting time is reduced and employees are reimbursed faster which is a major boost to morale. Automation results in an average 28% reduction in expense approval times and 27% reduction in employee expense report creation times according to the latest Aberdeen reports.
To read the complete white paper on ’10 steps towards best-in-class status for expense management’, click HERE
If you have any specific questions that we can help with or need more information, contact us at questions@gorillaexpense.com
Additional resource:
To calculate savings from automating the T&E Expense Reporting Process, click HERE
We get asked about ‘our story’ at different times by different folks – customers, prospects, partners, new employees and even competitors! What is our story? Why are we doing this? Why now? Well, it is very simple:
Our team has been in the Travel + Expense Reporting space for many years with a combined experience of several decades. The backgrounds of our management team comes from working with / implementing / developing other T&E expense reporting systems like Concur, SAP, Oracle’s iExpense and other Goliaths in the past.
These are large companies with big legacy systems. And we fully understand what works and what doesn’t work with the solutions provided by these companies, which not only includes products but also support.
Learning from the mistakes of our competitors, we wanted to offer a solution that was nimble yet powerful in being able to handle all requirements ranging from a 20 user application to one used by our large multi-national customers. (And this caught the attention of Microsoft for their Dynamics ERP product line, when they sponsored us to attend DEMO – read more here)
But our focus is more than just the product – we also pride ourselves in providing exceptional support, where our competitors don’t do the best job. Every customer that signs up with us becomes THE customer for us while they may be A customer for our competitors, which is a big difference.
Our customers don’t just subscribe to our solution or buy our products – they approach us for advice and guidance to solve their challenges with expense reporting and support our mission. And we love solving their problems while putting a smile on the faces of their Travelers and Finance teams.
So, that’s our raison d’etre. As far as we know the T&E pain point hasn’t been solved yet. And that’s why we are here today – to finally fix it for customers like you and have fun while doing it! Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for your support….
As we all know Dynamics GP provides an organization with solid agility and flexibility in meeting their business needs today and also into the future. With such flexibility, comes the ability to configure GP in many different ways to meet unique requirements of the organization – and this extends to expense reporting as well.
Gorilla Expense offers a fully automated and seamless integration with GP. We refer to this as ‘1-click’ integration’. We do this by using web services and eConnect, depending on the customer’s preference. While we can do a flat-file based integration, our customers love the way our integration app sends the data from several expense reports to GP with just a click! When it comes to expense reporting, there are multiple ways to integrate the data from our system to GP. In this series, we will be exploring the different flavors of our integration with GP.
Integration with Payables in GP – Series (1 of 3)
This is the standard and most common format of our integration with GP. Here, we send the expense data as a Payable Transaction Entry within the Purchasing module in GP. Expenses sent from our system will show up as invoices. Depending on the payment method defined in our system and the setup of vendors, the invoice will be issued for the employee or the corporate credit card.
Integration with Project Accounting in GP – Series (2 of 3) Here, we send the expense data from our system to the Project Accounting module in GP, where expenses will be captured against different cost categories and tied to specific open projects. The project workflow is also mapped within our system such that the respective project owner(s) will be approving the expense reports before they are sent to GP.
Integration with Receivings in GP – Series (3 of 3) Here, we will send the data as a Receivings Transaction Entry within the Purchasing module. The expenses are allocated to different cost categories and the PO number is referenced. Since these expenses will show up as Receivables once posted, this integration is used when the customer is planning to bill back their clients. The customer name /PO number is referenced in our application so that the expenses are tied to it.
Besides these, we can also configure our Integration App to do other forms of integration as needed. In the next article, we will showcase our integration with Payables in GP. Stay tuned!
As part of a recent research, most managers and travel budget owners for small and medium businesses cited managing costs as the primary goal for 2014. The methods companies use to achieve this goal, vary widely within the SMB segment. The travel spend for companies in this group range from less than $2MM in annual US booked travel to $12MM on the high end.
Most SMBs struggle with the same challenges – lack of internal resources to manage T&E, no dedicated travel manager, missed supplier relationships and a general cookie-cutter travel management program setup by the travel agency, if one exists at all. The best of breed companies may have better control on travel spend with elaborate procurement strategies and internal resources that manage the company’s travel program and spend carefully. These resources typically report to the CFO, thus offering the finance office full visibility into spend.
Visibility-of-travel-expenses
The reason that travel management as a concept is a challenge for SMBs is because there are many factors that drive a company’s travel strategy: travel patterns, international vs domestic, company culture, senior management’s support, business focus and others. Regardless of the status quo, it is never too late for a company to manage its travel and T&E processes more efficiently.
“I don’t believe there’s a company out there that can’t benefit from some level of a managed program,” said Directravel president Sam DeFranco. “When a company feels like there’s a lack of control of their spending and they only have basic expense processes in place, their antenna should be up.”
Several SMBs were focused on getting the right tools and processes in place in 2014. One was in the midst of “designing and implementing a full-scale travel management program,” while others were planning to implement a robust automated expense-reporting system as soon as possible in 2014.
In the various SMBs, even with senior management support, a planned travel policy, TMC relationship and T&E expense reporting solutions in place, companies reported ongoing challenges with compliance. Several of the companies reported their greatest travel management challenge today was to get travelers to comply.
“At larger companies, you’re dealing with a multitude of people that touch T&E,” said DeFranco. “At one company alone, you could have a travel manager, a director of procurement, a director of purchasing, expense management, HR and a risk manager. Inherently, the SMBs simply do not have the same infrastructure, so to compensate for that, the travel management company account manager essentially becomes an extension of the customer.” One company highlighted the biggest travel management challenge as “achieving objectives with limited resources.” It’s a position in which many managers in the small and midsize segments find themselves.
What are your challenges when it comes to managing travel and travel related expenses? What are your goals for 2014? Let us know in the comments below.
Reference: BTN, "BTN's 2014 Small & Medium Enterprise Report, Apr 15, 2014"
By popular customer demand, we have released a new (and cool) feature where the application will automatically calculate the number of miles using Google Maps. For this, the user will need to enter the start & end locations on a map within the web application. Once selected, the application will calculate the number of miles and drop it into the transaction. Since we already pull-in the IRS defined mileage rate, the math to calculate the amount is complete! The application also saves the Start and End locations in the comments field for reference. Here is how it looks:
1) Open an expense transaction and pick Mileage expense type. There the user will see a Google Maps link. Click on it. In the next screen as shown below, enter the Start and End Addresses, then select on the ‘Import Mileage’ button
Mileage-Expense-Map
2) Once this done, the mileage expense type is complete as shown in the image below. As you can see, the application automatically imports the IRS mileage rate and does the math. It also adds the Start and End addresses to the Comments box. After the user clicks on Save, the transaction can be added to an expense report for submission.
Done… Accurately and in less than 5 seconds! And conveniently from within our application, without having to go to an external map application every time.
Our customers frequently ask us questions on this topic. Mainly – What is the IRS policy for a receipt? And is it only needed for expenses greater than $50? There seems to be a lot of confusion and misinformation on this topic. So, to clarify doubts, here is the scoop –
1) The IRS accepts electronic receipts, but there are a few caveats (read more on this from a previous blog article we wrote. Click here)
2) Actually, the IRS does not need a receipt for expenses less than $75 (believe it or not!). Here is the text from the IRS publication 463 that validates it –
What Are Adequate Records?
You should keep the proof you need in an account book, diary, log, statement of expense, trip sheets, or similar record. You should also keep documentary evidence that, together with your record, will support each element of an expense.
Documentary evidence. You generally must have documentary evidence, such as receipts, canceled checks, or bills, to support your expenses.
Exception. Documentary evidence is not needed if any of the following conditions apply.
You have meals or lodging expenses while traveling away from home for which you account to your employer under an accountable plan, and you use a per diem allowance method that includes meals and/or lodging. (Accountable plans and per diem allowances are discussed in chapter 6.)
Your expense, other than lodging, is less than $75. <——
You have a transportation expense for which a receipt is not readily available.
If you want to read the entire publication, it is available here. Hope you found this article to be useful! Now you can light a mini-bonfire and burn those <$75 receipts.
Please note that this is NOT legal or tax advice. Please contact your attorney or accountant for more information.
