Microsoft Dynamics GP and AP Automation


Category: Blog  |


Microsoft Dynamics GP and AP automation go hand in hand.  Automating AP processes with enterprise content management alleviates the time spent entering data and empowers staff to focus on more important tasks.

With a number of business process automation and enterprise content management platforms on the market, it’s important to find a partner who can help maximize your investment by taking full advantage of streamlined reporting, flexibility, and intelligent data capture – without doing double the work.

Microsoft Dynamics GP and AP Automation – Four Key Integration Areas

To best leverage your Microsoft Dynamics GP investment, there are four key areas AP automation should focus on to help collaboration, efficiency and overall productivity:

  • Reduce procure-to-pay processing time – Effective AP automation system securely capture, process, and route AP invoices automatically.  Invoices can be indexed and via workflow rules, matched against Microsoft Dynamics GP vendor, PO, and receipt data.  An integration eliminates the need for double or even triple data entry.
  • Intelligent document data capture can automatically recognize and assign vendor ID, default GL and other vendor/invoice information.
  • Eliminate demand for physical storage space – Effective AP processing integration will enable you to store all invoices and supporting documentation in one database – including audit trails and notes – and access them directly from Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Files can be stored according to your business regulations or requirements ensuring compliance and eliminating the need for costly storage space, printing and file destruction costs.
  • Access critical data instantly – To improve operational efficiency, vendor relations and customer service, integrated system make it easy to instantly locate invoices with supporting documentation. Documents can be retrieved, viewed, printed and emailed from any computer. With a complete audit trail and notes all instantly accessible, each employee has access to the data they need to get their job done effectively. Being able to access all data from one cloud application means your employees have the ability to work from multiple devices and physical locations. With user permissions assigned, it also means they have access to all of the information they need – wherever they may be, across the globe.

It’s important to work with a technology partner who understands your business and has the flexibility to grow with you.  DocStar is working with some great companies using Microsoft Dynamics GP and AP automation.  For example:

  • Gillette Pepsi – Gillette Pepsi supplies 670 brands and package sizes to thousands of restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, shops, and stores based throughout southern Minnesota, northeast Iowa, and southwest Wisconsin. Using DocStar ECM AP Automation with Dynamics GP, moving to electronic invoices has reduced AP processing time by 25 percent alone, and the turn-around on invoices has been reduced by four to six days.  Now, a single person can easily manage their average 500 invoices a month. DocStar has improved the accuracy of Gillette Pepsi purchasing activities, allowing the company to have a far better idea of inventory. Cashflow has even improved since Gillette Pepsi now pay invoices at any given time, while taking advantage of early pay.
  • Health Food Associates – Health Food Associates owns and operates 16 retail locations under the Akin’s Natural Market and Chamberlin’s Natural Market brands. With Microsoft Dynamics GP and AP automation integration, they have reduced the time spent on invoice transactions and electronic view of past and present work in the queue. This increased the accuracy of the AP process, so Health Food Associates can spend more time on verifying the accuracy of vendor pricing and other activities that can help the company save money. Plus, manual mistakes have dropped since invoices are automatically coded with individual store information.  Errors have decreased and the time disbursing checks and sending payments has been reduced by 25 percent.  Health Food Associates processes 4,000 invoices per month.
  • Hanor Family of Companies –Hanor Family of Companies is the tenth largest pork producer in the U.S. Microsoft Dynamics GP and AP automation integration is 50 percent faster than their previous system. In the past, the electronic receipt of 80-page fax documents would clog the delivery of other paperwork. Now, the use of multiple servers has enabled the company to receive separate documents simultaneously—reducing bottlenecks. The ability to track the status of invoices through a variety of different accounting packages is huge. It’s lowered man hours and made Hanor more aware of its financial status at any given moment.
  • Crescent Crown Distribution – The 10th largest beverage distributor in the United States, Crescent Crown Distributing sells and delivers over 26 million cases annually. Processing invoices across seven locations and two states, it was very challenging to manually track down invoices. Prior to the implementation, everything was processed manually. The company scanned and entered tens of thousands of invoices and checks into Microsoft Dynamics GP per year. By fully integrating ECM AP Automation with Microsoft Dynamics GP, they now have insight into every invoice and check in the system and have improved productivity through workflow automation in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

If you are still performing manual data entry, you are only half way to achieving the real benefits of your Microsoft Dynamics GP system. By finding the right integration partner, your base hit can turn into a grand slam – with minimal upfront cost and a whole lot of upside potential.