Revolutionizing Payment Automation in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations 

Enterprises face constant challenges when managing outbound payments—especially when dealing with multiple banks, entities, and vendors within a single system. If you’re using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, you may find that juggling different payment formats, currencies, and bank relationships is cumbersome and prone to errors. Many times, when trying to manage and balance all these variables it leads to inefficiencies; inefficiencies here can strain vendor relationships and increase administrative costs. 

Fortunately, modern payment automation tools are stepping in to address these pain points. By leveraging innovative solutions within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, you can reduce errors, enhance security, and streamline the entire payment process from initiation to journal posting. 

Multiple Banks and Countries 

Many enterprises operate across borders, requiring payments in various currencies and through multiple banking platforms. Navigating each bank’s unique format and compliance rules can be a logistical nightmare without a central automated system. 

Diverse Vendor Requirements 

Each vendor has unique preferences—some want checks, others want electronic bank transfers, and some request specialized payment details. Without an automated process, this can lead to manual back-and-forth and increased potential for errors. 

Risk of Errors and Delays 

Handling large volumes of payments manually increases the possibility of typos, incorrect amounts, and other mishaps. These errors can result in missed deadlines, penalty fees, and tense vendor relations. 

Demand for Transparency 

Auditability is no longer just a nice-to-have; regulatory agencies and business stakeholders increasingly require real-time reporting on transactions and payment statuses. Manual procedures often make it difficult to produce quick, accurate, and comprehensive audit trails. 

Vendor Payment Automation 

Automating vendor payments is a powerful way to streamline your financial processes and minimize the operational friction that often arises from manual tasks. At its core, Vendor Payment Automation allows you to set up payment runs that follow predetermined schedules and use carefully crafted templates, ensuring that each transaction is executed with minimal human intervention.  

One of the major benefits of this approach lies in its capacity to reduce time-consuming data entry—traditionally a major bottleneck in accounts payable departments. Through using a seamless connectivity platform to transmit your files from your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system directly to your banking platforms, you effectively create a seamless process where each step is logged, verified, and executed according to specified rules. This reduces keying errors, strengthens audit readiness, and fosters a culture of accountability within your finance team.  

Moreover, automation can incorporate sophisticated validation measures to ensure that each payment adheres to defined policies—such as country-specific regulatory requirements. Another advantage is the scalability that automation brings. As an organization grows, the volume and complexity of vendor transactions can skyrocket, and relying on manual processes becomes both risky and inefficient. Automated payment solutions enable finance teams to handle these increases without sacrificing speed or accuracy.  

Vendors also benefit, since they receive payments more predictably and can rely on consistent notification processes—an aspect that significantly improves communication and trust. Ultimately, Vendor Payment Automation combines efficiency with reliability, creating a robust financial infrastructure that can adapt to evolving business needs while safeguarding the integrity of every transaction. 

Multi-Company File 

A Multi-Company File approach is specifically designed to tackle the complexities that arise when organizations operate across multiple entities, each with their own bank accounts, currencies, and compliance obligations. Instead of dealing with disjointed payment processes, a Multi-Company File consolidates all payment instructions into a single, standardized document or file. This offers a major efficiency boost by reducing administrative overhead—rather than juggling separate workflows for each subsidiary or regional office, finance teams can run one unified process that automates disbursements across the board.  It also reduces the number of files sent to the bank, which can streamline processing, simplify reconciliation, and potentially lower transaction or transmission fees charged by banking partners. 

Positive Pay 

Positive Pay is an essential security feature designed to combat the pervasive issue of check fraud, which can be devastating both financially and reputationally for organizations. In a Positive Pay setup, the company provides its bank with a list of checks it has issued, detailing the check numbers, payment amounts, and payee information. When a check is presented for payment, the bank cross-references the details on the check with the information on file, ensuring that unauthorized or altered checks are flagged. This means that any discrepancy—such as a check number that doesn’t match, a mismatched amount, or even a misspelled payee name—triggers an alert so the bank and the organization can investigate further.  

By adopting this approach, businesses significantly reduce the risk of financial loss from counterfeit or doctored checks.  

Another advantage of a Positive Pay solution is the automated file delivery to the bank—no manual intervention required. This eliminates the risk of errors or delays that can occur with manual uploads, streamlining the process and ensuring timely, accurate check verification. By removing the need for user action, organizations can further strengthen internal controls and reduce operational friction. 

Payment Factory Automation 

Payment Factory Automation is a strategic solution designed to centralize all outgoing payments directly in your existing ERP. It enables automated scheduling of multiple AP Payment Journals and multiple AR Customer Payment Journals throughout the day using a flexible payment calendar – giving finance teams control over timing and volume across entities, helping streamline operations and reduce manual effort. 

In addition, the built-in Payment Switchboard ensures the correct bank account is automatically selected based on payment method, currency, and business rules — eliminating manual effort and reducing the risk of misrouted funds. This logic-driven approach ensures that each payment is executed in alignment with treasury strategy, compliance requirements, and operational policies. 

Automation plays a key role in Payment Factory, which can be configured to run overnight—automatically performing payment validations so that journals are ready and waiting for AP/AR teams to process the next day. Flexible parameters allow you to route any validation errors to a separate payment journal, streamlining exception handling and minimizing disruption. For even greater automation, journals can also be submitted directly for approval, reducing manual touchpoints and accelerating the disbursement process. 

Ultimately, Payment Factory Automation enhances financial operations by driving efficiency and strategic alignment. By consolidating payment processes, organizations can reduce redundancy, lower operating costs, and build a scalable, resilient financial infrastructure capable of scaling as the company expands. 

A prime example of how payment automation can revolutionize processes is found in the success story of Pattern Energy. By implementing SKsoft’s automation solutions in their Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations environment, Pattern Energy optimized their outbound payments, reduced manual tasks, and significantly improved their payment accuracy and speed. You can read their case study here: 

 Pattern Energy Case Study 

Key takeaways from their experience include: 

Outbound payment management doesn’t have to be an administrative burden. By embracing automation such as SKsoft’s Treasury Automation Suite embedded within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, businesses can not only reduce errors and delays but also strengthen vendor relationships and increase operational efficiency. 

If your organization is ready to take the leap toward revolutionizing its payment processes, explore the range of automation tools and solutions available in the market. The future of payments will only grow more sophisticated, and enterprises that invest in automation stand to gain a significant competitive edge. 

Take the first step toward a better payment experience: Centralize your payment processes, reduce manual input, and elevate vendor trust. Embrace the next generation of payment automation—because in today’s world, efficiency is everything. 

For 25+ years, SKsoft has pioneered the development of embedded banking and treasury automation software and continues to be a leader in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 channel.   

SKsoft is a premier Microsoft Dynamics ISV, providing solutions and expertise in Banking and Treasury Automation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain, and Business Central. In addition to embedded software in D365, SKsoft deploys and maintains BankFabric, an application built by developers at SKsoft to provide seamless banking connectivity, so that customers can securely store and transfer files to and from the ERP and their bank.