Gorilla Expense offers full integration to push expense data to Microsoft Dynamics GP (various versions). Expenses can be posted to GP 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 GP 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 GP via the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Service or GP eConnect. This can be done on-demand by an accounting user or on a scheduled basis by a service account. 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 GP 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 Invoice Document screen. Distributions are created based on the expense transactions entered on a report.
The main fields that we populate on the GP Payables Invoice screen are -
- Batch Name – Batch Name has is defaulted to GORILLA
- Document Type – These parameters are typically defaulted to Invoice
- Document Number – The expense confirmation number from Gorilla Expense is mapped to this field. This helps with cross-reference at a later point in time
- Misc Fields – Gorilla Expense Integration manager can also integrate with fields like Tax, Credit Card and Checks available on the Payables Invoice.
- Distributions / Account Number & Amount – Expense transactions are defaulted as “PURCH” type distribution 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 and sends it to GP Payables Invoice Distributions along with the corresponding amount entered on the expense report line.
- Distributions / 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.
- Distributions / GL Segments – Based on varying requirement, Gorilla Expense Integration Manager can dynamically derive the complete GL Account number with all segments. We use various parameters defined on the user profile or on the report to determine the segments.
To view a demo of the integration between Gorilla expense and GP click on the video link below