Come See Innovation in Expense Management at Microsoft Convergence 2015
Convergence 2015, Booth # 1354
Microsoft Convergence 2015 is around the corner (3/16 to 3/19) and Gorilla Expense is excited to share several new features and updates for our T&E expense reporting solution. We will be doing live demos at booth # 1354. So come by, grab a seat and let’s chat!
Here is a quick recap of some of the new features:
- The new ‘never get in front of a computer’ mobile app
- Automated integration with Project module in Dynamics GP
- Do mileage expenses with integrated Google maps
- Ability to include multiple Dynamics NAV Dimensions
- The ‘FWD and forget’ email feature
- Advanced cost center allocation capability (split expenses across multiple companies, business units and cost categories)
- Plus several other additions and updates
We also have a secret new product launch at Convergence 2015 which will make (hint hint) expense reconciliation for AP a breeze! That is all we can say at this time. But come meet us at Convergence and learn more.
We look forward to meeting y’all in ATL! Follow us on Twitter: @GorillaExpense #CONV for the latest updates.
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Sincerely,
The Gorilla Expense Team
Our 2015 Goal – To Be More Than The Best Expense Reporting Software
Happy New Year and hope your 2015 is off to a great start! We are really looking forward to a very exciting new year with you. Our 2015 plan is to continue excelling in areas where we do really well:
Our #1 priority was, is and will always be our customers & partners
We maintain very strong personal and professional relationships with our customers & partners. The philosophy we live by every day is – ‘We are successful only when our customers & partners are successful’. We look forward to expanding our relationship and continuing to amaze our customers & partners in 2015.
Innovation
Our technology team really pushed the edge in 2014 and released several new features that our customers are raving about (read the raves here). Here is a recap of key features:
- The new ‘never get in front of a computer’ mobile app
- Automated integration with Project module in Dynamics GP
- Ability to include multiple Dynamics NAV Dimensions
- The ‘FWD and forget’ email feature
- Advanced cost center allocation capability (multiple companies, business units and cost categories)
- Do mileage expenses with integrated Google maps
- Plus several other additions and updates
We are going to continue the rapid development pace into 2015. We have exciting new-product launches planned this year. Stay tuned for more ‘Wow!’ news.
Having fun
Even after long days, the entire team at Gorilla Expense enjoys the work and has fun with it. We love working with customers, solving problems creatively and putting smiles on faces. We are ever-enthusiastic in coming up with new ideas to solve unique challenges. And we encourage you to contact us – it doesn’t even have to be expense reporting related! (isn’t that how great ideas are born?)
In conclusion, 2014 was one of our best years ever, and 2015 is going to be even better (and bigger!). We thank you for your support, guidance and friendship. Lets Rock On together in 2015!
PS: And don’t forget, we have a new Star Wars movie coming out in 2015 (a friendly reminder from the Gorilla techies)
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Sincerely,
The Gorilla Expense Team
Sending Travel Expenses with Value Added Tax to Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Within the Gorilla Expense application, when users create travel expenses, depending on their location additional tax reclaim fields can be enabled and the data can be sent to Dynamics NAV. We provide a total of 4 sub-amount fields in the application. These sub-amounts can also be configured differently to Add-to the value entered in the Transaction Amount.
For our Canadian customers (or customers with users that travel to Canada), the frequently used fields are GST, PST and HST. The user can enter amounts for these fields within the transaction from the receipt, and of course, also attach the receipt. For our European customers, these are the different flavors of VATs, based on the country.
Shown below, as an example, is a completed transaction with the tax values entered for a Canadian customer:
Canadian-tax-reclaim-fields
The Gorilla Expense integration app, which automates the integration between our web application and Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and above can send the amounts listed in these fields directly to Dynamics NAV with the click of a button.
If the company has different GL codes associated with each of these fields, then those can be setup in the integration app as well. Once done, our integration app will post amounts in the specific fields to the respective GL code(s). Once the data is sent to NAV, then the accounting manager can reconcile it and issue a cumulative report from within NAV for reclaim from the government. This report will usually include the total reclaim amount based on expenses submitted by all users. Typically, the taxation rules are setup in NAV since the tax rates can vary based on province and as the ERP system, it makes sense for NAV to manage that complexity.
To learn more, discuss your requirements and view this travel expense integration with NAV in detail, send an email to info@gorillaexpense.com. We always love hearing from you!
Expense Reporting for Dynamics NAV and Comparison Tool
During discussions with customers on our Expense Reporting Solution for Dynamics NAV, the inevitable question we get asked is what versions do we support or integrate with. And the answer is really most versions of NAV are supported.
Of course our expense reporting product’s integration with NAV 2013 and NAV 2009 is more seamless and robust simply because these architectures lend themselves better and offer more flexibility. Due to this we can be more be innovative and customer specific when integrating with these systems.
Needless to say, we spent quite of a bit of time initially reviewing the various NAV versions. We recently found a resource from Microsoft Dynamics that does a comparison of all the NAV versions which we wanted to share. For all the customers, fellow ISVs and VARs out there, here is a link to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Feature Comparison Tool.
Hope you find this to be as useful as we did! If you have any questions or want to send us your feedback, please contact us at info@gorillaexpense.com.
Three Amigos: NAV2013, Gorilla Expense and The Cloud
We have been receiving several inquiries over the last few months about our integration with NAV2013 in relation to what would happen if NAV is hosted on the cloud. Here is the quick scoop –
Microsoft has made significant investments towards the “hostability” of NAV2013. This helps deploying and using NAV in the cloud, thus benefiting both customers and partners. Microsoft is currently fine-tuning deployment scenarios and developing guidance for deploying NAV on Azure. Microsoft expects to make deployment of NAV on Azure broadly available in Q1, 2013. They had initially planned it closer to Nov 2012.
Our application is deployed on the cloud too (as one of the options), specifically Azure (Yes, we are heavily Microsoft oriented and we love it :). With this option, the customer has nothing to worry about in regards to hosting the data, managing the application or tackling the overhead associated with maintaining a server, support etc. Our integration with NAV is agnostic to the hosting format employed. NAV can be on a dedicated server on the cloud or we could be co-hosted with NAV too. Neither approaches affect out integration from the user’s perspective. On the back-end, there will be a few more gerbils turning wheels. But the customer will always experience a seamless and fully automated integration between our solution and NAV.
This flexible integration and hosting capabilities between our solution and NAV makes life much easier for the customer, the partner and of course for us too. Read about our integration with NAV here. If you would like to learn more or have any further questions, send us a message at – info@gorillaexpense.com.
Meanwhile, here are some more tidbits about NAV013 you may find useful
– Microsoft announced the availability of NAV 2013 in 15 markets. With significant improvements in functionality and several new capabilities, this launch was hailed as the most significant release of NAV yet
– Functionality such as Cash Flow Forecast, Cost Accounting, and Excel Integration to Query enable greater accounting efficiency for customers while offering partners the ability to develop customized solutions
– The new NAV web client allows users to access NAV from virtually any device. Improved query and charting offer compelling ways to analyze and display data for more users
– Improvements to the migration tool, partner development tools, and increased interoperability with Microsoft technologies mean less time is needed for partners to customize and deploy solutions, and they are easier for customers to learn and have impact
– Specifically useful for partners, NAV2013 enables easier deployment, configuration and installation through the RoleTailored developer experience. The new .NET Framework enhancements makes it easier to build, deploy and integrate high-performing add-ons with existing NAV solutions, and share data more easily
Adios!
GP2013 new features and integration with Gorilla Expense
Microsoft Dynamics GP2013 which was released on Dec. 19 has several new features that are designed to help SMBs grow their businesses. These features are powerful and very easy to use. From our preliminary research, some of the key enhancements that we have seen include:
- A rich web client to access information when you need it and on the device of your choice
- Improved cloud-deployment model to streamline deploying and managing GP in the cloud
- Faster deployment with new “RapidStart” tools that significantly reduce time to configure GP for each customer
- Deeper interoperability with Office 365, other Microsoft technologies & ISV products
Microsoft has indeed made interoperability very easy for ISVs like us. We integrate fully with GP2013 and it is seamless while the implementation time for our solution is almost immediate. The mechanism is similar to GP2010, in that once expense reports are approved by the manager within our system, the data is automatically pushed as GL entries to GP2013 with the single click of a button! This definitely provides a robust value add-on for T&E expense reporting and also extends the company’s investment in GP2013. We are extremely thrilled with the advancements made by Microsoft in GP2013 and look forward to seeing more.
Gorilla Expense showcases T&E innovation at the prestigious DEMO Conference
We had a very successful exhibition of our T&E expense reporting solution at DEMO last week. DEMO is one of the biggest technology launchpad conferences in the US that provides a stage for young companies with disruptive and game-changing solutions. The event has been in existence since the 1980s. Some of the name brands that have emerged from DEMO include Salesforce.com, Tivo, VMWare and WebEx among others.
Microsoft selected us from several global companies and sponsored us to attend and present at this show (thanks again Microsoft!). It was great to receive kudos and recognition from someone like Microsoft. Our solid integration with Dynamics GP, NAV, AX and SL caught their attention and they wanted us to discuss the innovations we were making in T&E expense reporting – an old pain point that hasn’t been solved yet!
It was very exciting to fly out to SFO and showcase our solution in the heart of the Silicon Valley. We were also 1 of the 2 companies from Georgia. This is great news for the Southeast hi-tech scene. It puts Georgia on the map for hi-tech innovation compared to the bigger players like Boston, New York and of course the Silicon Valley.
We look forward to being part of the DEMO alumni and continue taking the pain out of expense reporting for companies and employees!
Contact us at info@gorillaexpense.com for more information. We love to hear from you!
How Gorilla Expense Enhances Microsoft Dynamics GP
Over the last few months, we have been interfacing with several companies that use Microsoft Dynamics GP. The inevitable question that we hear during the requirements phase is related to importing transactions from the corporate credit card. How does it work? Basically, a corporate card is provided to each employee and they are expected to enter/import expenses on the card within the reporting system. Once the expense report is approved, the data is pushed to GP. After this, the accounting department then does the reconciliation between the employee-submitted corporate card expenses and the card statement. If everything is correct, this should balance out. That’s the gist of it.
As we know, GP has an Expense Management add-on called eExpense. This provides online expense reporting and helps companies automate their expense submission process. But eExpense does not provide an interface for managing and tagging corporate credit card expenses. That’s where we come in!
Within the Gorilla Expense application, users can import transactions from their corporate card and even their personal cards. For this discussion, we will stick to the corporate card only. After the transactions are imported, our application allows the users to tag them with specifics – such as expense type, codes, projects, cost centers or account numbers. These fields are setup in the Gorilla application based on how it is setup in GP. The user can also split each card transaction into multiple cost centers. Once the compiling and tagging is done, the report is then available to the manager and finally the accounting folks to approve.
Once the approval is complete, the final ‘gatekeeper’ sends the transactions to GP using the Gorilla Integration Manager (GIM). The GIM is a very versatile & flexible tool that allows the gatekeeper to map specific parameters and fields to codes and accounts within GP. So, with the push of a button, all the transactions are available within GP and they have been tagged appropriately and immediately.
Our application combined with the GIM takes the pain out of importing and processing corporate credit card transactions. It is a “cannot live without” (actual customer quote) tool for accounting folks that cuts-down the processing time, effort involved and importantly data entry errors. So there you have it. A quick synopsis of the Gorilla Expense – Great Plains symbiosis!
If you have any questions or need assistance in implementing or customizing our application with GP, send us a message at info@gorillaexpense.com or 877.973.6737.
T&E expense forecasts for 2012. How does it look?
So what is the prognosis for business travel in 2012? Here is the long story short:
1) Companies are expecting more business travel
2) Increased pricing from suppliers across the board
Sounds like more of good news with a little bit of bad news. Companies are looking to grow their businesses and therefore expect more travel. Increased supplier pricing is expected to put a small dent. Companies can expect to see their corporate travel budgets rise.
Here is the numerical breakdown of % price increase in a few key areas:
Flights
* North America Short Haul (Economy): 2 – 5%
* North America Long Haul (Economy): 0.5 – 3.5%
* North America Short Haul (Business): 5 – 7%
* North America Long Haul (Business): 3 – 5%
Hotels
* North America Mid-Range: 2.5 – 6.5%
* North America Upper-Range: 1.5 – 5.5%
Car Rentals
* North America Base Rates: (-1)% – 0%
* North America Rate Per Day: 2 – 3%
For detailed information, see the reference article .