Happy Holidays!
We hope this Christmas enriches your life;
May each day be happy and bright,
Overflowing with pleasure and love;
May your Christmas be filled with delight.
To all our dear friends, from the team at Gorilla Expense……
Archive for year: 2014
Make Expense Tracking for Dynamics ERP Painless in 2015
Take the pain out of year end expenses!
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!
Happy Thanksgiving!
From all of us at Gorilla Expense – A warm & beautiful thanksgiving greetings to you and your near & dear ones.
Expense Tracking for Dynamics GP and Goodbye Business Portal in GP 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&E Expense 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
Import Credit Card Data into Dynamics NAV Through Automation
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
While SAP Acquires Concur, We Renew our Commitment to SMBs
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.
Demystify Expense Reporting and Integration of T&E Data to GP
Ask any traveling employee or AP Manager for a task they dislike the most in their day-to-day work. The inevitable answer will be – expense reporting.
Let’s face it – expense reports are despised, they are delayed, they are viewed as distractions and simply considered to be a hassle. But they are a necessary element of today’s increasingly mobile workforce. With corporate cards, foreign currencies, cash advances and many other moving pieces, expense reports continue to be daunting. And that is where technology and automation comes to the rescue.
Many companies struggle to tackle challenges and take firm steps with automating the expense reporting process because of not knowing where to start, when it comes to automating the process. Aberdeen Research Group’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
* Only 33% leverage cloud-based expense reporting solutions
* Only 28% utilize corporate credit cards and integrate the data in T&E systems
* Just 15% provide T&E data to C-level executives for financial forecasting purposes
The good news is that cloud-based T&E software’s like Gorilla Expense have significantly brought down the cost of automating the expense reporting process. The software provides significant reduction in expense processing costs and removes frustrations for the travelers and accounting teams.
To reap the benefits and take the hassle out of this process, here are three steps that companies can execute on immediately:
1> Automate the T&E process to eliminate manual work while utilizing the latest technology
Gorilla Expense provides multiple options for users to submit expenses – mobile, web, corporate credit card import and email forwarding. By utilizing the mobile app, the entire expense report can be submitted from the mobile device by the user without having to get in front of a computer!
The advantage for the user is that the expenses are done immediately after incurred along with all the relevant information including expense categorizations and receipts. Since the managers can approve expense reports on the mobile device, their work becomes quick and simple too.
2> Integrate the expense data into Dynamics GP and stop manual data entry
Once the expense report is approved, the most preferable way is to send the data to GP without having to manually key in the data.
Gorilla Expense’s ‘1-click’ integration can send the data to GP in seconds with a single click! The standard and most common integration is to Payables within GP. Here, Gorilla Expense sends expense data as a Payable Transaction Entry within the Purchasing module.
Gorilla Expense can also integrate the data to the Project module in GP for project related expenses. The project managers can be setup as approvers in the chain so that there is full visibility of T&E spend related to projects.
3> Educate employees regularly on expense report related policies and processes
Companies that are serious about tackling the challenges associated with a manual T&E process must provide clear guidelines to employees and communicate them consistently.
When it comes to policies, companies must inform and educate employees about what are considered soft violations, what are hard violations and what are the ramifications for breaking policies. Companies must appoint a designated expert who can answer questions from employees and clarify doubts.
In conclusion, by simply following these 3 steps, companies can derive benefits immediately and make life easier for the road warriors and accounting personnel. And that’s a sure-fire way of improving productivity and cutting costs overnight versus a manual expense process that can be wasteful and reckless.
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Interested in visualizing the benefits of T&E automation? Curious to see how the various moving pieces like corp. card, mobile expenses come together? Want to see the GP integration in action?
Join us on the webinar to learn more and see a live demo of the solution.
Mobile Expense Reporting – Making Your SmartPhone Smarter
The new and updated Gorilla Expense Pro mobile app makes your smartphone smarter when it comes to expenses. The app is powerful in its capabilities, yet simple to use for travelers and managers. Users will be able to submit entire expense reports from the mobile device without having to get in front of a computer.
We even have a challenge based on how easy it is to use this app to submit expenses. it is called the ‘Complete your expense reports in 7 seconds or less’ challenge! Try it out and post your feedback on Twitter. Use the #7secondchallenge hashtag so that we can promote your tweet.
So, how does this new mobile app work? What are the key features? Lets take a look under the hood….
The Mobile App
The app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android phones. Once the app is downloaded, the user enters the username and password (same as web application). Once logged in to the app, the user is presented with 4 buttons on the home page of the mobile app, as shown below.
By clicking on the ‘Expenses’ button, the user can submit individual line item expenses. This is described in more detail below in the ‘Expenses’ section. The ‘Reports’ button is where users can create and submit an entire expense report from the device. An expense report can consist of multiple individual transactions. These transactions could be a mix of corporate card transactions and out of pocket expenses.
Gorilla Expense Pro
Expenses
The expenses button is used to create individual line item transactions. These transactions include the receipt, expense type categorization, vendor, amount, other co-workers that were part of the expense, like a Meals expense type and other fields. Once the transactions care created, they are ‘uploaded’ and can then be ‘dragged and dropped’ into an expense report.
The app provides for three options to create/submit expenses, as shown in the 3 tabs in the screenshot below: Mobile, Bank and Email. Their functions are described below.
Upload Expenses
Mobile: In the mobile tab, the user can create expenses, attach receipts to transactions and categorize or code the expenses to specific GL codes / expense types. Additional details at the transaction level such as the vendor, other employees who were part of the transaction can also be entered to complete the expense. The app provides for multiple options to attach receipts – Photo Gallery, Camera and Dropbox, as shown below.
Using the photo gallery, the user can attach a receipt that is saved in the photo gallery of the device. Or the user can use the camera to take a picture of the receipt at that point. Finally the user also has the option of attaching a multi-page PDF receipt sitting in their Dropbox account by clicking on the Dropbox link. This is especially useful for those pesky 5 page receipts from hotels.
Attach receipt to expense
Bank: In the bank tab, users will see expenses imported into the system from their corporate cards and / or personal cards. Similar to the mobile tab, the user can attach receipts to these transactions, categorize them based on GL code / expense type and then drop them into an expense report. The big advantage here is that users can easily and conveniently attach receipts to these corporate card expenses and submit them as part of the same expense report. This makes reconciliation much easier for AP Managers and improves visibility of spend on corporate card for the stakeholders.
Email: This feature allows users to FWD an email that has a single PDF receipt attachment to a fixed email account (example: receipts@abc-inc.com). Once the email is forwarded, the app will create an expense line item and attach the PDF receipt. This is made available to the user in the email tab of their mobile app to be incorporated into an expense report.
If the email does not have a PDF receipt attached and if the email itself functions as a receipt, then the user FWDs the email itself for the application to create a PDF of the body of the email and attach it to the transaction. For greater detail on this functionality, read our article here.
Reports
When the ‘Reports’ button is clicked, the user can create an expense report, add transactions to the expense report and submit it from the mobile device. Here is a screenshot of an expense report that shows the report level details. There is information on the report name, report type, date range, cash advance and comments explaining reason for the trip.
Report level
Once the skeleton expense report is created, the user can add transactions to the report. This is done by clicking on the Add Existing Transactions button (shown below). These are the transactions that have been uploaded by the user as we discussed in the Expenses section above. The screenshot below shows a few expenses added to the expense report, with different payment methods – some are out of pocket expenses and there is one corporate card expense, which is shown in the Red text color.
Expenses added to report
The app breaks down the expenses at the bottom of the page while providing a convenient summary of the expenses for full visibility. The cash advance amount entered at the top of the expense report is also shown at the bottom. If the expense report is complete, the user can validate the report and then submit it. The validate process checks if any policies were violated. Once that is done, the user can submit the expense report. The user is then presented with a confirmation screen that shows the expense report confirmation number, as shown below.
Expense report confirmation
Once the expense report is submitted, the manager will receive an email with details about the expense report. At that point, the manager can choose to approve, reject, redirect or edit the expense report. The manager approval process can be done from a mobile device as well. Subsequently, the user is informed of the status of the expense report once the manager has taken action on it.
That shows how an entire expense report can be created on the mobile device, then submitted and approved as well. In conclusion, the major advantages with the mobile app are:
– It makes it very easy and convenient for users to submit expense reports
-Expenses are done immediately after they are incurred
– All the relevant information is included and broken up by line item expenses
– The mobile app also works in an Offline mode, so that users can still create expenses when there is no 4G or Wi-Fi connectivity
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Interested in seeing a live demo of the mobile app? Send us a message at info@gorillaexpense.com and we will get a demo scheduled immediately
Dynamics GP Credit Card Integration
Gorilla Expense offers a robust and fully automated integration of credit card data into Dynamics GP. This is available for all versions of GP (GP10 and above). Using our proprietary Gorilla Expense Integration App, the AP Manager can import credit card transactions (or the App can do it automatically), auto-categorize the transactions to specific expense types/cost categories using our mapping algorithm and then send the data to GP with a click of a button. Any relevant information supplied by the credit card company in the data file can also be referenced in the ‘Memo’ field in GP, within Payables > Distributions.
The advantages that the Gorilla Integration App offers are:
* Send credit card data to GP through automation
* Complete visibility of credit card expenses in GP
* Prevent duplicate expenses in GP
* 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 GP2013 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 GP. The screenshot below shows that two transactions were selected to send to GP. 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 GP 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 GP 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 ‘AMEX’ Vendor ID defined in GP. Here are a couple of screenshots that show the expense data in GP > Payables.
Invoice in Payables
When Distributions is opened, the details from the transactions, 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 GP.
Distributions in GP
This explains how credit card data can be integrated into GP 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
Corporate Cards for T&E Expenses – See How Your Peers Use Them
The GBTA did a survey of more than 200 travel managers in the US on which expense types they mandate the usage of corporate card
No surprises that Airfare was the top at 67%. This is mainly to better manage the spend related to airfare and utilize programs and partnership with air travel vendors. Plus, in some cases, if tickets are canceled or modified, corporate cards have discounted change-fees for being part of the air travel vendor program. Closely following the Airfare expense type are Lodging and Rentals both of which maintain a similar philosophy.
Charging meals to the corporate card provides greater visibility from a compliance perspective. This is especially true if meals are related to Entertainment type expenses. Companies are also increasingly asking employees to charge misc. business expenses like internet, phone calls, faxes etc. to the corporate card to prevent potential frauds. For sales people on the road all the time, the corporate card is a big convenience for mileage and gas related expenses as well.
So, how do your company stack up compared to this? Which expense types do you mandate your users to use the corporate card for? Let us know in the comments below.
Reference: GBTA April 2014 survey. Chart provided by Travel Procurement, part of BTN Newsletter