[Kalman Hui]

Hello everyone,

We are looking into AP Automation and see if it helps with our AP process and looking for suggestions and / or experience since we might use AX a bit different than others. We are a small gov’t agency focus in transportation so we are pretty much project based organization. We are trying to see if AP automation could help with our complex AP input process or even having our vendor enters for us. If you have experiences with the 2 notes below, please let us know how you deal with these situations so we can learn from you.

2 important notes:

1) We use Project Module heavily so the AP Automation has to able to code into Projects, WBS, and Categories.
2) We invoice directly from Purchase Agreement (instead of PO) so the AP Automation need to able to map to Purchase Agreement instead

Feel free to let us know if you have any thoughts.

Bests,

Kal

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Kalman Hui
Controller
San Francisco County Transportation Authority
San Francisco CA
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[Ben Green]

The ROI was tough for us on any of the products available, but I liked Bottomline Transform AP the best.  It seemed to have the best AX integration and reasonably good scanning/email handling features.  We also looked at Concur and a couple of other ones.  Be wary of solutions who state they’re ERP “agnostic”.  That often means they don’t have a pre-built connector and a lot of development/customization work is necessary.  One vendor SWORE up and down they had other AX customers, and that they were using MRP to create inventory PO’s, but then was unable to produce a reference.  Their product didn’t work correctly if they weren’t the origination point for all PO’s.

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Ben Green
Orion Energy Systems
Manitowoc
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[Matt Alford]

I saw a demo for dooap at AXUG in Tampa. You may want to look into it.

http://www.dooap.com

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Matt Alford
Sr. Manager of Information Technology
Delta Apparel
Duluth GA
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[Tom Reznicek]

Hi Kalman,

My name is Tom Reznicek and I work in our Microsoft Dynamics Public Sector practice at Crowe Horwath.  We have implemented or are currently implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX at various transportation entities throughout the United States.  We have deep specialization in Microsoft Dynamics AX more specifically in the Project management and accounting module as well as the Accounts payable module.  It would be great to have a quick conversation around your current pain points and whether or not we can help.  Please send me an email so we can touch base. 

Take care,

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Tom Reznicek
Tom.Reznicek@crowehorwath.com
Crowe Horwath LLP
Chicago IL
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[Zvika Rimalt]

Hi Tom,

I am sure there are more people on this forum (including myself) who are interested in the answer to this question.

So rather than just a private sales pitch it would be great if you could share your expertise in the subject with all of us regarding the original question:
What 3rd party AP automation products out there allows coding into projects, using WBS and categories?
What automation tools can integrate with invoicing through purchase agreements? 

Zvika

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Zvika Rimalt
Functional Solution Architect
Vancouver BC Canada
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[Kalman Hui]

Thanks everyone for the inputs!

We do like the usability and functions of Dooap, TAP and Metaview and also looking into Vendor Portal within AX as well (that’s sounds like what Tom would be able to help). 

I agreed with Zvika that I cannot tell which 3rd AP solutions will work with our set up (invoice thru PA and coding to Project module) just by reading their site and watching youtube demo online. We will continue our search in 2017 and hope to find the right tools at the right price.

Feel free to throw in any thoughts or any other considerations I should look into.

Thanks again for everyone help!

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Kalman Hui
Controller
San Francisco County Transportation Authority
San Francisco CA
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[Tom Reznicek]

Kalman,

Implementing the vendor portal may help automate your AP process.  Incorporating the vendor portal will require your team to on-board any and all vendors you want to include in your automation efforts.  In order for them to interact with the vendor portal they will need to register and can do so utilizing a few methods (Azure control access, Live ID, etc.).  Once the vendor registers, they are able to interact with your team by submitting invoices against purchase orders, reviewing purchase order details, reviewing and interacting with solicitations, updating their vendor profile, suggesting areas of work for future solicitations and more.  Workflow can be enabled so that each interaction is approved by a SFCTA employee. The key component for SFCTA would be accepting an invoice that will directly invoice a purchase agreement that is tied to project, project category, and potentially the activity number. Out of the box the vendor portal does not directly link to purchase agreements like it does with purchase orders. However, this can be changed by customizing the vendor portal and altering the logic.

With that said, the vendor portal out of the box has its challenges. Like I mentioned before the vendor portal does not directly connect to purchase agreements, which can be altered.  Vendor registration needs to be carefully vetted as there are pros and cons of each authentication protocol (ACS, Live ID, etc.). There are private and public vendor portal sites that need to be installed and configured.  The City of Columbus recently did an amazing webinar on the vendor portal for AXUG.  If you are seriously considering the vendor portal for your AP automation needs and if AXUG allows play back of past webinars, I recommend you watch their webinar as they talk about the good and the bad of implementing the vendor portal.   

Utilizing the vendor portal might give you more than just automating your AP process at the end of the day. It will be a more involved solution internally and depending on your current IT team might require additional help. Crowe Horwath has experience implementing and customizing Microsoft Dynamics AX and the vendor portal in the public sector space. If you would like to talk in more detail please let me know.

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Tom Reznicek
Consultant
Crowe Horwath LLP
Chicago IL
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[Kalman Hui]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the details!

If the vendor portal not working out of the box, we not able to deploy it since we are 35+ employee gov’t agency with no internal IT dept so it might be too much of maintenance for us after reviewing the City of Columbus. It seems 3rd party solution might be more suitable for us.

Thanks again!

Kal

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Kalman Hui
Controller
San Francisco County Transportation Authority
San Francisco CA
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[Tom Reznicek]

Kalman,

Makes sense!  I know it has been said already but try looking at MetaViewer or Bottomline for 3rd party AP automation tools as both require less integration from outside vendors.  Good luck on your search.

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Tom Reznicek
Consultant
Crowe Horwath LLP
Chicago IL
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