Gorilla Expense offers full integration to push expense data to Microsoft Dynamics SL (various versions). Expenses can be posted to SL as Payables Invoices.
Technical Overview
The integration is done using a light-weight .NET based app called Gorilla Expense Integration Manager, which can be installed on any PC or server within the client’s network. It does not have to be installed on the SL servers. The Gorilla Expense Integration Manager will fetch all “Manager Approved” expenses from Gorilla Expense cloud based web-app using secured transport mechanism (SSL/HTTPS) and send them to Microsoft Dynamics SL via the Custom Stored Procedures that will have to be deployed on SL SQL Server. The stored procedures will create Payable Vouchers in SL. This integration can be done on-demand by an accounting user. Below is the high-level representation of the various components involved.
Please note that this architecture ensures that Gorilla Expense Cloud Infrastructure is unaware of customer ports, firewall, IP Addresses and more importantly any SL specific details. While this enhances security, it also reduces the complexity associated with opening ports or making modifications to customer’s infrastructure.
Functional Overview
Typically, the integration is done by posting an expense as a Payables Voucher And Adjustment Entry screen. Distributions/Detail Lines are created based on the expense transactions entered on a report.
The main fields that we populate on the SL Payables Voucher and Adjustment Entry screen are -
- Document Type – Defaulted to Voucher
- Invoice Number – The expense confirmation number from Gorilla Expense is mapped to this field. This helps with cross-reference at a later point in time
- Vendor – The vendor number from user’s profile in Gorilla Expense is used to create the voucher
- Misc Fields – Gorilla Expense Integration manager can also integrate with fields like Invoice Date which is defaulted to current date and can be changed to desired date
- Details / Account Number & Amount – Expense transactions are defaulted as “Invoice” type lines. The GL Account Number is maintained in the back-end within Gorilla Expense. It is not required for the users to remember the Account Number while entering expenses. The only requirement is to select the Expense Type. Once this is done, Gorilla Expense finds the Account Number associated with the selected expense type and sends it to “Account” field in the detail section of the voucher along with the corresponding amount entered on the expense report line.
- Details / Payables Account – This is defaulted from the Pay Method used by the user on individual transactions of the report. In a multi-country setup, the Payables Account can be driven by user’s profile as well.
- Details / Sub-account – Based on varying requirement, Gorilla Expense Integration Manager can dynamically derive the complete sub-account number with all segments. We use various parameters defined on the user profile or on the report to determine the segments.
- Details / Company – Company field is populated in the details section. The company is defaulted based on the default company assigned on the user’s profile in Gorilla Expense. The company field can also be enabled on Expense Line level so that user can assign a different company than the one defaulted on the user’s profile. In such case, company is mapped from the expense line level in Gorilla Expense to the line on the Voucher, else by default the company from user’s profile is mapped
- Details / Project and Task – If Project and Task fields are enabled on expense line level in Gorilla Expense, these can be mapped to the voucher as well on the line level.
To view a demo of the integration between Gorilla Expense and SL click on Video below