Document Management Solutions vs. Modern Accounts Payable Automation for Dynamics GP
As CFO, you stand at a crossroads. Having recently acquired a new company, you know that you need to change your accounts payable process to drive greater efficiency and visibility to your spending. But what is the best way to accomplish this goal? On one side, there’s the well-traveled road toward Document Management solutions that will allow your AP team to store scanned documents. On the other side, there’s the road toward Modern Accounts Payable Automation. You know you’ve arrived at this destination if your software not only manages and stores AP invoice documents but also provides a unified spend management platform for your Dynamics GP system.
More specifically, you know you’ve arrived if you’re using a solution that is built for any device and manages your complete business process – from new vendors, to capital projects, to budgets, to AP invoice processing, to payment. We’ll share with you five signs that your organization has taken the right path by selecting a modern accounts payable solution.
Sign #1: Invoices are now automatically routed for approval.
Ariett’s multi-routing capability allows different invoice types to follow different paths; for instance, CapEx purchases can follow a completely different route than office supplies. By allowing you to set different approval limits for different employee roles, Ariett helps you to make sure that approvals are provided at the proper level. For example, let’s say that your finance team members can approve purchases up to $300, the finance manager can then approve up to $1000, and the CFO can then approve anything greater than $1000. As you can see, when Ariett sends your invoice automatically on its approval path, it does much more for your team than simply entering the invoice into a database.
Sign #2: You’ve gained bi-directional integration with Dynamics GP.
When a vendor invoice is emailed to Ariett’s Cloud document service, an AP transaction is created in Ariett that includes the vendor, vendor’s address, payment terms and associated GL account. By pulling information from your Vendor Master File, Ariett automates the transfer of important data between GP and Ariett, saving your accounting team from manual data entry. To receive up-to-date budget information from Dynamics GP in Ariett, we also give you the option to have automated GL data imports. As a result, all GL journal entries and their impact on your current available budget are visible within Ariett.
Sign #3: Having real-time visibility to all invoice accruals, employee expenses and budgets.
In today’s fast-paced economy, you can’t afford to let the chips fall where they may when it comes to your company’s operations and finances. With Ariett, your AP department no longer needs to wait until invoices and expense reports have been entered into the Dynamics GP system to give you a full account of current employee and purchasing spend. For example, you can run Ariett’s month-end accrual report or a contract budget report for viewing budget availability and contract purchase commitments. For an even quicker look, you can use our advanced Search screens to view transactions, such as a complete list of invoice amounts and their status by vendor.
Sign #4: The ability to use the application seamlessly across devices.
Ariett makes it easy for you to view current budget and take action on pending transactions from anywhere by providing you with a Touch interface that adapts seamlessly to the size of your phone, tablet or desktop device. This means that your approvers can start approving invoices while on their desktop at the office and then finish up their approvals on their phone while heading home. Regardless of the device used, you gain a consistent experience in terms of the features and look/feel of the interface.
Sign #5: You have an end-to-end view of spending (including all requisitions, purchase orders, receipts and/or contracts that are associated with invoices)?
If your organization’s purchasing rules require that certain purchases go through a requisition to purchase order to receipt to invoice process, then you’ll want one solution to manage the complete business process. Using Ariett’s unified platform, your employees can submit a requisition that, based upon approval, becomes a purchase order for your vendor. When an invoice is received from a vendor, all associated invoice documents are stored along with the invoice. If, for instance, you have a capital project for IT improvements, you also have the option to simply release invoices against the initial project amount (without having to go through the requisition process). Capital projects and contracts travel through a robust approval workflow in Ariett that allows stakeholders to collaborate throughout the process.
If you were undecided before about which path to take, the decision should be clearer now: head down the path to Modern Accounts Payable Automation. Built for the future, Ariett Software not only automates invoice processing and expense reporting but also delivers one solution for managing spend across procurement, accounts payable and contract management processes – from any device. That’s much more than just Document Management!
Interested in learning more about today’s most innovative AP solutions for your Dynamics GP system? Please read our AP Best Practices Guide for 2015 by clicking HERE…
By Ariett
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