Add Boyer ERP Connect as part of your Boyer Managed Service Plan
Roughly seven years ago Boyer started helping clients with automating AP for Business Central. We helped clients across three Dynamics ERP platforms to stop printing checks — as much as possible — and start paying vendors electronically via ACH/EFT. Clients loved the improvements in how much time they saved paying vendors. They also loved the saved costs with vastly fewer checks, envelopes, postage, issues with wrong check numbers, etc.
That was step one to automating Accounts Payable within Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.
We are in a similar place now with having access to simple/proven “step two” AP automation programs that integrate well with our offerings. We just need to help clients understand the real savings in time and money. This post will be dedicated to automating AP within Business Central, and a future post will discuss automating AR with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
The purpose of this post is to help clients understand why “step two” in automating AP makes sense. Specifically, we are discussing how to gain efficiency by automating the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) “keying” of vendor bills, proper electronic routing, or workflow of those vendor invoices.
The main idea is that if you can get vendors to send you pdf invoices, you should not have to waste someone’s time keying invoices. Introducing the vendor’s invoice to the OCR program takes a little time with each vendor. Once configured, however, there are serious time savings just in that one area.
The other nice thing about automating AP is that AP workflow gets introduced. How often does accounting get a bill that they don’t know if they should approve or not? Invoices can get paid that should not be paid, or not paid when they should be paid. Sometimes the accountant has no idea what the bill is for but needs to get checks cut and doesn’t have time to check with everyone on outstanding bills. Automating approval of invoices allows you to automate the approval to the right person when you set up the vendor. You can also configure approval cut-off amounts, where certain invoice amounts need a higher-level person or more than one person to approve.
Typically, with an OCR program, you are paying for a range of monthly invoices for storage and a licensing fee. However, this is not material when compared to improved productivity your AP people can realize by using these automation programs. Volume-based pricing is typically offered as well, so the more you scan, route, and store, the more you save.
Note below in the 239% ROI example that researching archived invoices saves tremendous time since they are stored in a manner that makes them easier to find.
Here is one partner’s pricing for those of you who love the details:
And here is a sample ROI based on an estimated 10,000 invoices monthly, for base three modules:
As part of Boyer’s Managed Support & Services plans, we can help you set up your AP workflow, AP digital invoice capture from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and implement the portal software. Additional partner software subscriptions may be needed as referenced above. Signing up for the Foundation Plus Managed Service also gets you access to 30 other highly useful programs that enhance Business Central — from useful dashboards to tools that help you ensure your sub-modules stay in balance with your General Ledger.
If you want more information on automating AP, AR or enhancing Business Central, contact us today.
