As companies are continuing to experience accelerated growth, it is more important than ever that they have the tools to optimize their working capital and their financial processes. That’s why SK Global is excited to share that we have been ranked as one of the top AR automation providers by Emergen Research. This is a huge accomplishment and testament to the amazing team at SK Global. Here’s what you need to know about this incredible news. 

Breaking Down the Numbers

To determine the leading AR automation solution providers, Emergen Research’s research methodology focused on interviewing subject matter experts and industry professionals such as AR managers. Coupled with qualitative analysis, they analyzed secondary sources such as industry reports, annual company reports, databases, and more. Together, their analysis outlined the top 9 industry leaders in AR automation based on the reputation, quality of the solution, and their market share proportion of the overall AR automation market.  

They also provided valuable information on recent market trends and future growth opportunities for adopters of such solutions – offering an invaluable resource for financial tech professionals interested in exploring more about the current developments within this space. For more information on these areas of the report, check out the Emergen Research study here.  

What Makes SK Global Stand Out Among AR Providers

SK Global has succeeded in the AR automation industry, shining amidst prominent competitors such as Blackline, Bottomline Technologies, Kofax, Quadient, Oracle, and more. Being a small company featured alongside these large competitors has clearly shown that SK Global has succeeded in providing design excellence and technology innovation to our customers. Being recognized in this manner means SK Global is at the forefront of AR automation with our Treasury Automation Suite – a sophisticated suite with features like automated direct debit with mandate automation, robotic-process powered matching of customer payments to outstanding invoices, deduction handling, invoice presentment and credit card payment handling. 

What We Can Expect From SK Global in the Future

As SK Global endeavors to continue to be an industry leader, we are looking to add even more advanced functionality to our AR automation solutions. To help accounting teams automate their processes better than ever, we are developing innovative ways to increase invoice-to-payment matching rates and to streamline the customer settlement process. For our Direct Debit functionality, we continue to release new formats regularly so our customers can easily have access to payment files that work for their specific banks. 

The Benefits of AR Automation for Businesses and Consumers Alike 

Automating your Accounts Receivable process will not only increase the efficiency of your AR team but drive down operating costs significantly. For your accounting team, automated AR processing can give your team the tools to better track your cash flow since your team will have a clear view of who is paying on time and who is not. Most importantly, your team can even increase cash flow by completing incoming payments faster with the help of RPA-powered AR automation tools.  

Teams are also no longer bogged down by processing errors since the top AR automation solutions like SK Global’s have robust matching logic and rules for high payment-to-invoice matching. Compliance and security are also automatically embedded in all of SK Global’s solutions. 

 SK Global is a top innovator in AR automation and we are always looking for ways to streamline the AR process for accounting teams. As we have seen in the Emergen Research study, SK Global is a leader in this area and is the chosen solution provider for global accounting teams in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. If your team is currently looking to automate your accounts receivable process, book a meeting with our team at sales@sksoft.com and discover ways that your company can elevate your AR process. 

If it is a manual process, can files/data be tampered with? With BankFabric, your business can select between three options to automate and secure the process; SFTP, APIs or, through Web Services.  

SFTP

SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) is a proven communications technology. It is supported by most banks, enabling automated communications. With SK Global’s solution you can initiate payments from within either Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain or Business Central to the bank. BankFabric eliminates the need to login to a bank’s website. Our solution ensures validation and secure file transfer to any bank and enables automated import of bank data for auto-reconciliation. BankFabric will allocate bank files correctly within your Dynamics F&SC or BC environment, across any number of legal entities. SFTP functionality is built directly into BankFabric which allows you to enjoy a direct Host2Host communication line with the bank. 

APIs

While not yet supported by all banks, this will likely prove to be the future means of communication to/from banks!  APIs do not rely on files to transmit banking data, but rather just a stream of relevant information. They are highly secure since there is no file that might be left in an unprotected location.  APIs are very easily setup and administration is minor. Once the API has been developed between the ERP and the bank, it’s smooth sailing. 

Web Services

Web services have been used for a number of years. They do not have widespread adoption and generally have only been supported by banks in Northern Europe.  Just as with APIs, Web Services allow for fully automated communications between you and your bank. You will have a tighter integration as Web Services contain both a security certificate exchange, and the exchange of files in the same process. Web Services require more extensive coding to initially develop but are easy to set up and administer.  

Manual Communication 

If you prefer to upload/download bank files manually, this is also supported. You can drop files into BankFabric and still enjoy all the added automation and features within our Banking and Treasury Suite, within Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain. 

BankFabric

In a Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain production system there is no access to the underlying virtual machine and external data transfer. With this pain-point in mind, we created the BankFabric solution to provide direct bank communications, file encryption and APIs between your Microsoft Dynamics 365 system and your banks. With BankFabric, you can automatically and securely connect directly to any bank in the world to process and match payments, reconcile statements, handle Direct Debits, and more. BankFabric can be configured for automated bank communications across all legal entities within your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain ERP system, to as many banks as you are working with, globally. 

Secure and automate your bank communications and start optimizing essential financial operations activities today! 

Call our experts today and hear how you can empower your Accounting Team! 

SK Global Software

We are the leading Microsoft Dynamics ISV, providing solutions and expertise around Banking, Treasury, and Payment Automation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Supply Chain. Our Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions and services help organizations worldwide save time and money by automating key processes, increasing efficiency, and reducing risks. 

 – Microsoft Dynamics Certified ISV 

 –  Our software serves an extensive customer base world-wide  

– Scalable solutions that automate financial processes in any industry 

 – Our solutions are used in more than 80 countries 

 – Providing global bank communication  

Contact us today to learn why companies, small to global enterprises, choose SK Global Software. Call our experts today and hear how you can empower your Accounting Team! 

 SK Global Software EMEA +45.20.61.45.75 US +1.301.963.7300 Sales@sksoft.com www.sksoft.com 

Before implementing a Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&SC Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, there’s a lot of planning your organization should do to ensure a smooth implementation. An important consideration is whether your business will need to add additional automation.

How to Identify if you Need Further Automation

Determining your Software Requirements

Before deciding whether you will need to add software aside from what’s included in the standard version of Dynamics, it is recommended to first determine your teams’ requirements or expectations from the ERP system. Pinpointing the specific features, functionality, and performance that your stakeholders expect can be a challenging process. The most efficient way to determine your key requirements is through conducting a requirement analysis. To administer a requirement analysis, we recommend following these five steps:

1. Identify your Key Stakeholders

To verify that you receive all the important input needed you must first ensure you distinguish all key decision makers and users.

2. Record Requirements

Once you have determined who the essential stakeholders are, we recommend deciding how you would like to collect the requirements. Whether you decide to hold one-on-one interviews, use focus groups, leverage use cases, or build prototypes you should ensure that each important stakeholder and end user provides feedback. Axia Consulting provides a great guide in their article: Requirement Gathering Techniques.

3. Sort the Requirements Into Categories

To achieve an organized overview of the requirements we recommend categorizing them. Starting with two major categories of functional and non-functional then further organizing the requirements into smaller sub-categories.

4. Evaluating and Reviewing Requirements

For each requirement on the list, we recommend the following:

  • Describing the requirement in detail
  • Ranking each requirement on level of importance
  • Discussing the effect of the change
  • Highlight conflicting issues and resolving them with the stakeholders
  • Consider feasibility
  • Specify test scenarios

5. Stakeholders Give a Final Approval of Requirements

Before moving forward with a finalized list of requirements, it is important that all key decision makers can come to an agreement. It is suggested to have a final meeting to decide on this as a team.

6. Conducting a Gap Analysis

After finalizing your requirements, you should conduct a gap analysis comparing the features included with the ERP with what’s on your requirements list. If there are gaps you must decide how important they are to your business.

Custom Software, Bolt-On, or Built-in (Embedded) Automation

For gaps between the ERP and your automation requirements, you must decide whether you want to resolve them with an embedded solution, bolt-on solution, or paying a developer to build custom automation.

Custom Software

When considering the cost of developing something custom, there are some hidden costs that also need to be factored in. For instance, as Microsoft keeps making changes to the base software, what will be the cost of maintaining customization to keep up with these changes? For packaged solutions, it is the responsibility of the author (ISV) to keep up with those changes. Project delays are also very common. According to KPMG Information Technology, 85% of software development projects go over schedule. Most of the time, you can find the needed functionality within a built-in or bolt-on solution. However, on the rare occasion that you have a very specific automation requirement that is not offered by a software vendor, hiring a developer to build a custom solution would likely be your best option.

Bolt-On Automation

Bolt-on automations are separate systems from the main ERP system. In other words, these bolt-on’s sit outside of the main ERP system and frequently require custom integrations to be created and maintained. These bolt-on solutions have a different user interface, resulting in a different overall look and feel from the ERP.  There are three main downsides to bolt-on solutions. For one, they are difficult to integrate with the ERP at times and may have connectivity issues with the ERP. Second, the software sits outside of the ERP requiring employees to learn two different interfaces. This often leads to additional employee training time. Lastly, they often have duplicated features that are already included in D365, leading to a higher price point with no real benefits.

Built-in or Embedded Automation

Embedded automation is built-in and designed specifically for the ERP. Opting for this type of automation allows for robust data synchronization, reduced employee training time, and centralized finance and accounting procedures. For more information in our recent article Bolt-on vs Embedded, we provide a detailed comparison between these two types of automation.

Robust Financial Automation for D365

Whether you’re in the midst of an implementation, shopping around for the right ERP, or have already implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain, it is important to continually evaluate and weigh your options for adding further financial automation. To extend upon the capabilities included in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, many companies turn to Microsoft Independent Software Vendors (ISV) to meet their additional automation needs.  . From the top selling electric car manufacturer to the number one tech media company in the world, we have worked with a wide variety of companies in all different industries. With over 30 years of experience building and selling embedded add-ons for Microsoft ERP market, we have assisted Dynamics customers worldwide in further automating their financial processes. Below are some of the most common enhancement needs, we see year after year:

  • Secure Banking Integration
  • Accounts Receivable Cash Application
  • Accounts Payable Invoicing & OCR Scanning
  • Bank Reconciliation
  • Credit Card Reconciliation
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Online Bill Pay
  • Direct Debit
  • Supply Chain Financing
  • In-House Banking

Are you looking to further automate your financial processes within your D365 ERP? Join us on our weekly interactive demos to learn more about our most popular embedded solutions.

When Kayne Capital, the leading alternative to investment management firm, decided to move forward with a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations implementation they turned to SK Global’s Treasury Automation Suite to take their financial automation a step further. Prior to their implementation, Kayne Capital struggled with the following pain-points:

  • Their accounting department would spend excessive time and resources setting up entities – they have over 270+ fund entities and 80+ management companies in play at any given time, and entities were formed and liquidated all the time.
  • Complex processes around allocating income and expenses to various management companies, making ownership structure complicated. Unique equity allocation methodologies among management companies resulted in manual and high-maintenance Excel spreadsheet.
  • Lack of a fully integrated robust ERP system, caused processes like closing, financial controls, audit logs, routing of approvals to be increasingly complex.
  • Due to the absence of a consistent account structure, they did not have the transparency needed to get a complete picture of financial performance without a separate analysis.
  • The reporting system did not provide the ability to analyze real-time data, resulting in manual efforts to produce materials.

Download the full case study to see how SK Global’s Treasury Automation Suite for D365 F&O resolved these pain-points directly in their ERP system.

Complex banking structures can make it incredibly difficult for large multinational companies to control their cash and manage affiliate relationships. For large global companies, in-house banking is an ideal solution to that problem. In-house banking is a way to centralize treasury functions into one entity, which minimizes subsidiaries from having to deal with their own bank.  

As the Association of Finance Professionals notes, the benefits advantages of an in-house bank are immense. Companies that leverage in-house banking have discovered benefits like centralized control of cash, cash visibility, less reliance on external funding, and more. With the use of a shared services arrangement and in-house banking software, a company can have complete control over their bank accounts, handle netting of funds between business units, minimize FX costs, lower wire fees and other bank transaction fees, and track cash and balances all in one centralized place.  

In-house banking has never been easier with the rise of in-house banking technology, which can significantly streamline IHB management. There is a plethora of solutions to choose from. However, it is very important your treasury team knows what to look for when shopping around. 

What to look for in IHB technology

1. ERP integration or embeddedness

To implement in-house banking, your company must choose a tech solution that will execute the functions of the bank. Having an in-house banking solution within the ERP centralizes intercompany payment process where in one place, your company can clear accounts and automate clearing of intra-company and inter-company payments and loans. Most importantly, when you automate these activities all in one place, your team can view data relevant to in-house banking in one place, helping your team highlight problem areas.

2. Robust intercompany settlement capabilities 

Within an in-house banking solution embedded into your ERP, your company can execute intercompany payments and auto-settle them against your in-house bank accounts within one solution. Embedded IHB solutions should be able to easily automate the netting of AP and AR invoices across legal entities, which can significantly reduce the transaction fees involved with actual wire or other payments back and forth between those entities. Robust IHB solutions should be able to generate and process IHB statements to decrease the time they spend on reconciliation. Loans can also be managed internally where some embedded in-house banking solutions allow the subsidiary to send loan payments to the parent within the ERP. 

3. Automated payment optimization  

Through the use of payment factory automation, you can automatically pay on behalf of subsidiaries. When done within an embedded in-house banking solution in the ERP, these payments also trigger auto-generation of journal postings. Payment-on-behalf-of and receivables-on-behalf-of services are also a part of many in-house banking tech solutions where some providers can auto-aggregate payments then route them.  

4. Centralized cash pooling  

For those looking to enhance their company’s liquidity management, an embedded in-house banking solution can create a centralized cash pooling center all within the ERP. To reduce gains or losses associated with actual cash settlements across currencies, embedded in-house banking solutions often offer ways to eliminate extra FX exchanges across currencies. From the ERP, treasurers can have complete visibility over their cash, which can guide them to determine if they need to deposit cash or withdraw funds according to their company’s financial health. 

5. Fraud prevention 

Lastly, the most important component of a good in-house banking solution is its fraud prevention framework. Approval processes are incorporated throughout these solutions so that payments are not executed without the approval from the necessary individuals. Since an embedded in-house banking solution is built within the secure ERP which heavily incorporates security roles and permissions, your in-house banking processes will be insulated from potential fraud. For global companies, payment risks are also minimized since cross-border payments can be made within the ERP instead of going through in-country payment processing.  

How do you choose an IHB technology provider?

After educating yourself on the benefits and functions of an in-house banking tech provider, your team now has the difficult job of choosing a provider. A good IHB technology provider should cut the time it takes to manage your in-house bank, aggregate relevant data such as AP and AR data, and automate routine tasks. If your company already uses an ERP, you should consider solution providers that work inside your ERP so your treasury team can have real-time data synchronization and connectivity. This allows for the most-to-date information on your company’s cash and banking activity. To pick a solution that best works for you, it is highly recommended to work with an external consultant that guides the selection process.  

If your company currently uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and are looking for an in-house banking solution, SK Global Software has a best-in-class in-house banking solution with robust features like intercompany netting for invoices, real-time maintenance of bank balances, automatic bank statement generation, reconciliation of external and intracompany transactions within one system, and more.  

If you are interested in learning more about our solution, contact our sales team at sales@sksoft.com. 

As the top-selling Microsoft Independent Software Vendor (ISV) in the Dynamics channel, year after year we continue to perfect our current financial automation solutions and provide valuable built-in enhancements to the D365 Finance ERP. We take pride in delivering the highest quality of fintech automation that is certified and approved by Microsoft. Our solutions possess the capabilities to scale and help companies globally of all sizes and in any industry. With 27+ years of experience, we have been able to develop advanced functionality that works with any bank and any format worldwide. To wrap up another successful year, we wanted to provide a summary of all the new releases we have added to our product offerings in 2022.

At the end of 2021, we introduced four new modules to the market:

Supply Chain Finance

We built the Supply Chain Finance module to give organizations the ability to automate their accounting needs throughout the SCF loan repayment process directly within their D365 F&O ERP. Our SCF management solution allows companies to streamline the process of getting invoices to the provider and settling those invoices with the provider when due, all on embedded in the D365 platform. Either based on invoice due date or a funding file from the SCF provider, our solution resolves the payable to the original provider and automatically generates an invoice payable to the Supply Chain Financing provider. That invoice can then be processed through normal payment processing including our APEFT solution.

Bank-to-Bank Transfer

Another advanced enhancement we introduced to the market this year is our Bank-to-Bank Transfer solution for D365. Specifically designed for companies with complex banking structures, our Bank-to-Bank Transfer module streamlines the manual process of signing onto a bank portal to initiate transactions between multiple bank accounts within the organization. The solution automatically tracks and records the bank transfers into a D365 journal for easy reporting and easy bank statement reconciliation.

Customer Reimbursement

To simplify the procedure of generating customer reimbursements within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, we launched our Customer reimbursement automation solution. With our customer reimbursement solution, you can automate the process of issuing electronic refunds and reimbursement payments to customers with credit balances. The process for customer reimbursements in the Standard D365 ERP is to create a vendor and bank record, linking the vendor and customer accounts, and moving the customer credit balance to the linked vendor and payment of the vendor. During this process, the user must make sure to keep both the customer and vendor bank account in sync when changes are made. To solve this limitation, we built a customer reimbursement solution that fully automates customer reimbursements with inbound and outbound files and journal updates.  This includes enhancements to the proposal process that allows you to select thresholds for amounts and age of credit balance to trigger a reimbursement.

BankFabric

To heighten security and simplify administration over the storage and transmission of banking files, we introduced our hosted BankFabric solution in 2022 to replace the legacy  “FileHub” solution. Seamlessly integrates with D365 Finance, our module provides unparalleled security through eliminating the need to download sensitive banking files to the desktop or to maintain a separate server. BankFabric is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that is completely hosted in Azure. Our solution provides a single easy-to-use interface to manage all banking connections including instances, environments, and banks using one URL. BankFabric integrates fully with the most recent Dynamics 365 Finance version as a part of our Treasury Automation Suite.  This solution now supports both API and file-based SFTP connectivity with hundreds of banks, globally.

Introduced Premium Treasury Automation Suite

To support companies with complex banking footprints and advanced automation needs, we introduced our Premium Treasury Automation Suite to the market last year. The Premium Treasury Automation Suite comes with additional banking formats and extends upon the automation provided in the Core Treasury Automation Suite. With the purchase of our Premium suite, the customer can enjoy credit card reconciliation, payment factory, customer reimbursement, multi-company EFT, and Bank-to-Bank transfer automation in addition to the functionality included in our Core Treasury Automation Suite. Additionally, this feature-rich suite includes four bank formats instead of just the two included in the Core Treasury Suite.

Deep Dive of Each Quarterly Release in 2022

Treasury Automation Suite 11.4 – Quarter 1 2022

In quarter 1 of 2022, we built additional features for our bank reconciliation, AReSettlement, and direct debit modules. To enhance the automation in our Bank Reconciliation solution, we added support for multi-currency bank accounts. We designed this feature to aid our European customers who conduct business internationally. The added automation allows bank accounts to be reconciled while holding multiple currencies.

We extended the functionality within our AReSettlement module to auto-settle AR Payments. Our auto-settlement feature took our AReSettlement solution a step further by automatically matching any unapplied payments and credit memos to invoices within the ERP.

For our direct debit module, we added numerous new features to streamline the process of adding or removing mandate agreements to customer accounts, auto-creating bank accounts, and updating the payment method and cancelled mandates fields.

Also, new to the market in Q1 of 2022 was support for BankFabric Library (BFL) formats. Within this release, we simplified the process for changing and adding formats. No longer does a Microsoft deployment need to be scheduled/executed when adding a new format, nor modifying existing.  To be able to utilize these BankFabric Library formats, the customer must be on the Treasury Automation Suite version 11.4 or higher.  These BFL formats can be used by both our BankFabric and our legacy FileHub customers.

Treasury Automation Suite 11.5 – Quarter 2 2022

For the Treasury Automation Suite 11.5 release, we added additional features to our AP EFT+, Customer Reimbursement, and Bank Reconciliation modules. To the AP EFT+ and Customer Reimbursement solutions, we built a feature that gives the ability to auto-configure bank account detail setup when the payment type does not require a bank account. We added further enhancements to our APEFT solution, like the ability to automate important eBanking details records during processing. To support the matching of multiple payment journals within the same day, we enhanced the journal summary rule within the Q2 release to our Bank Reconciliation solution.

Treasury Automation Suite 11.6 – Quarter 3 2022

Within the Q3 release, we added additional features to our Bank Reconciliation, BankFabric, and AReSettlement modules. For Bank Reconciliation, we built new options for GJ mapping lookup and expanded data capture. In BankFabric, we added API support for our APEFT and Bank Reconciliation modules. Lastly for AResettlement, we added configurable field delimiters.

We hope you enjoyed the recap of our past releases and new modules. We have some exciting new releases in Q4 regarding our API capabilities. Follow our release updates page to get more information on what’s coming up.

 

Choosing a treasury automation solution is a difficult decision. Countless solutions are on the market, making it hard to decide which one is the best for your business needs. Before deciding on a solution, businesses should first ask whether they want a solution that is connected to Microsoft’s ERP, often described as a bolt-on solution, or an embedded solution that is a part of the ERP’s user interface.  

There’s a couple of questions that treasury teams should answer before deciding between a bolt-on solution and an embedded one.

1. Does connectivity to the ERP matter to your team? 

An embedded treasury automation solution in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance means everything can be done within the Microsoft Dynamics platform. The look and feel of the solution will be the exact same as the standard Microsoft Dynamics 365 interface. With an embedded solution, you can automate tasks directly within the ERP and centralize accounting processes within one system. Since everything is housed in one place, data transfers are faster, which increases productivity.  

For bolt-on solutions, they typically are connected to Microsoft Dynamics 365 through a series of connectors such as APIs built to send information to and from their solution to the ERP. Bolt-on solutions are not embedded so to connect and use these solutions, you must log into the solution outside of Microsoft Dynamics 365. The connectors to the ERP pull data from the ERP, which is used in the accounting and treasury automation processes that are completed in the bolt-on solution.

2. How will data synchronization be affected by the chosen solution? 

Since the embedded solutions in Microsoft Dynamics 365 are built within the ERP, there is no data to sync between the solution and the ERP. The data store used to run the embedded solution is the same store that is used by the ERP, which means the data is always in sync in real-time. This also means there is not a need for additional connectors, which could be another potential failure point for bolt-on solutions. 

For bolt-on solutions, since they are outside of Microsoft’s ERP, uploading data to the ERP and pulling data from the ERP can be at times tedious. Data synchronization and integration issues may occur since bolt-on solutions do not have the same data store as the ERP. As a result, bolt-on solutions may require extra implementation time and testing so that data flow between the solution and the ERP are without error. When considering a bolt-on solution, it is important to ask the vendor or the partner about this particular issue to ensure your team minimizes unnecessary obstacles in the implementation process. 

3. What are your team’s user experience preferences?

The look and feel of a solution matter when considering bolt-on versus embedded solutions. Preference plays a significant role in this decision where treasury teams must consider whether they like using the ERP for most of their tasks. By doing most tasks inside Microsoft’s ERP, accounting teams have the advantage of automating processes such as bank reconciliation and AR cash application all within the same interface. Opting for an embedded solution allows teams to link multiple processes together and coordinate faster completion of AR and AP tasks within the ERP since built-in solutions can leverage and expand upon the standard workflows. Having an embedded solution with an interface matching the rest of the ERP allows users to learn a single set of procedures for things like personalization, grid behaviors, shortcut keys, and alerts. Embedded solutions take full advantage of the ERP’s functionalities to make an overall robust platform for users. 

If a team decides that the ERP is difficult to navigate, a bolt-on solution may be the way to go since bolt-on solutions have the flexibility to design a user interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. However, since the bolt-on solution has its own interface, it may duplicate existing features that are in the ERP. These solutions also may appear to be more customizable through their specific functionalities outside the ERP. However, your team will have to weigh the benefits of customization to the additional implementation and testing time required for the data transfers between the solution and the ERP.  

4. How smoothly will implementation go if we choose embedded versus bolt-on solution?

With an embedded solution, you don’t have to learn another user interface which simplifies the onboarding and training process. For bolt-on solutions, teams typically have to learn how to navigate the interface of the bolt-on solution and the ERP’s interface, which means extra training and onboarding time for treasury teams. In addition, since bolt-ons involve an integration, the integration and synchronization between the ERP and bolt-on solution adds extra testing and verification tasks. 

Implementations for embedded solutions typically go smoother since they are built to work within the ERP while bolt-on solutions may require further customization and extra installations to achieve the desired automation level.  

How to choose the best solution for your business?

Embedded and bolt-on solutions each have their own advantages and disadvantages to them. It is up to the treasury and accounting teams to decide what works best for their needs. For many teams, embedded solutions provide ample advantages with its common interface with the ERP. The ease of use of embedded solutions is a significant highlight. Accounting teams have no need for outside integrations. If your team decides that an embedded solution is not the way to go, then they should work with a reliable vendor and partner that can help them choose a solution that best works for their needs.  

If you are considering an embedded solution in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain, SK Global Software has experts in embedded banking and treasury automation that can work with your team to maximize your automation capabilities. To get started, contact SK Global Software at sales@sksoft.com. 

Financial technology is estimated to grow over 7 trillion dollars by 2026, according to Bain. That’s a lot of money when looking at how the concept of financial tech wasn’t as popular before the digital transformation boom. Fintech will only continue to grow as an industry due to customer-driven demand for financial products that improve customer experience and increase financial inclusion.  

The pop up of easy-to-use digital financial products hasn’t been an overnight transition but has been a strategic move of tech and financial leaders looking to create a more open, modular financial ecosystem. An integral part of this fintech boom lies in the offering of financial products and services that are accessible, customizable, and cost saving. Many fintech startups began by providing digital banking services and payment facilitation. However, now, some fintech leaders who initiated the boom are looking for ways to achieve the ideal: embedded finance.  

Embedded finance cannot be achieved overnight but there have been conscientious moves towards this idea through automation. Automation of financial processes typically involves the combined use of rules-based robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate manual financial tasks that are built within a cloud-based infrastructure. Instead, being an on-premises software, financial automation can be accessed and operated from anywhere, allowing businesses the flexibility to work remotely or have hybrid workplaces.  

Many companies already offer financial automation solutions but do not necessarily incorporate embeddedness into their solutions. As a result, companies using these technologies may have to buy multiple types of software and make the effort to synthesize the information from these systems together. As you may think, this task can be quite daunting for a company who may not have the manpower to do this, which is why more and more companies are searching for embedded financial automation solution providers. 

The Business Case for Making Financial Automation Embedded 

Embedded financial automation (EFA) means that the entire user experience happens within one centralized platform where a user can complete multiple automated financial processes. This allows for teams to use different financial products within one application without having to log out and use another application. Working within an EFA solution is a truly personalized experience where the solution is completely branded to the main interface. This experience grabs data from multiple sources, which creates seamless application flow and a friction-less user journey. For centralized access to multiple processes, an EFA solution may employ deep integrations with multiple partners or rely on internal development of financial process automation. As a result, EFA creates a multi-product financial ecosystem.  

Features and Benefits of Embedded Financial Automation

EFA is an investment and can offer companies who effectively deploy it a competitive edge. What makes EFA particularly shine is its robust features: data-driven decision-making capabilities, collaborative cloud-based environments, multi-currency and multi-company flows, embedded risk management, and automation of financial processes. These features provide an array of benefits that drive ROI and increase productivity in the long-term. 

Financial Analytics

Financial automation integrates accounting and treasury data into one centralized location which either could be in an ERP system or a standalone financial automation solution. All accounting and financial data is synthesized into real-time reporting and analytics so your team can understand the health of your cash flow and liquidity rates. Integration of data visualization applications, such as Power BI, have also become common, which has made it even easier for teams to create dashboards and report tracking progress on KPIs and working capital optimization.  

Liquidity Management

Treasurers often struggle with cash flow optimization and effective management of working capital. These problems are solved with a treasury automation solution that is equipped with cash flow forecasting and positioning. With these capabilities treasury teams can optimize their business’ cash resources, predict future fluctuations in asset usage, and engage in scenario-based cash planning. 

Embedded financial automation also makes it easier to access liquidity itself because of the coordinated use of multiple financial processes, which in turn optimizes working capital. For example, when a company uses AR automation and collections management together, they can convert receivables and tied-up debts into cash which increases a company’s cash availability. As a result, companies who effectively use liquidity management to their advantage can cut down debts and fund short-term investments.  

Automation of financial processes

To manage liquidity and optimize working capital, automation of vital financial processes is embedded within EFA solutions such as bank reconciliation, cash application, settlement automation, and vendor payment automation. Particularly, the automation of bank reconciliation and AR cash application have been the steppingstone for treasury teams to first get a taste of what a digital transformation initiative looks like. 

Once acclimated to automation, treasury teams can look further into using automation to its full potential. This expansion has led to a surge in payments automation. According to Bain, payments and lending management will continue to be the most popular embedded financial products. With the rise of payment facilitators such as Square and Plaid , their capacity to underwrite merchants for banks has allowed business-to-consumer (B2C) to become more widespread where merchants have the flexibility to accept payments across a variety of channels. API-based solutions like SK Global Software’s BankFabric solution can send bank data to and from the bank directly into the ERP, allowing for real-time updating of transaction and balance information within the ERP.  

Business-to-business transactions, such as accounts payable and accounts receivable, have been a long-standing integral part of financial automation but have not had the same level of traction as B2C payments. This is mostly due to continued reliance on ACH and checks by many mid-market to large companies in the U.S. However, these same companies have been increasingly rolling out digital transformation initiatives focused on B2B transactions because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote and hybrid work. These companies have found that having one centralized solution where a treasury team can manage Accounts Receivables (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) in one place will save time and costs in the long term.  

Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivables

With AP and AR, treasury teams can become completely paperless since automated solutions require no paper invoicing and billing. The treasury process most affected by automation is AP processing, which is considered one of the most costly and inefficient treasury processes when done manually. Teams that still use a manual AP process will continually have problems paying vendors and lowering their company’s debts. By using an automated treasury management solution that includes AP processing, businesses can decrease DSO and DPO along with minimizing late payments through the automatic uploading and matching of vendor invoices to existing accounts. When AP automation is coupled with AR automation, businesses can optimize their cash conversion cycle and minimize their liquidity risks long term.  

Digital Banking and Virtual Cards

Other facets of finance are also being affected by embedded financial automation solutions. Since fintech startups envision a future where all financial needs are met in one system, fintech leaders have been looking for ways to integrate banking and virtual card solutions within their product roadmaps. Banking products and digital card issuing services will continue to rise as more financial institutions and SaaS companies build APIs. Startups like Marqeta are releasing products that offer businesses the capacity to create their own financial products where businesses can create their own credit cards without having to go through the hurdles of getting bank approval. Growth in this industry will come from continued integration with larger financial institutions and the extension of the connectivity of these products. To achieve this, data fabric technology will assist SaaS and BaaS companies alike to extend their products’ integration with banks across the world. 

Collaborative work environment – remote friendly workspace

In an automated system, users can enjoy seamless coordination with team members where they can work simultaneously within one centralized system that tracks changes and speeds up the approval process through automated email notifications. The integration of approval workflows notifies team members of pressing tasks through email, chat, or text notification. EFA can not only achieve integration internally but externally through connecting to a countless number of banks. These solution providers create robust relationships with banks so that information going to and from the bank is seamlessly exchanged, which can either be done via file transfers or utilizing a bank’s API.  

Multi-currency flows and multi-company capacity

In manual treasury processes, having multiple currencies and subsidiaries causes some significant pain for treasury teams because this means manually converting foreign currencies to domestic currency while simultaneously managing multiple payment journals. On top of this, treasury teams must manage all these processes in an error-free manner, which is extremely difficult to do. These problems are eliminated when using an automated treasury management solution. Instead of manual FX conversions, this type of solution automatically converts foreign currencies and enables trading in multiple currencies so that businesses can work with global suppliers and sell internationally. The payment journal process is also significantly streamlined since payments in foreign currencies are automatically converted to the domestic currency and recorded. This automatic conversion is typically done through an FX settlement module, which analyzes real-time exchange rates and processes payments with the best rate.  

For enterprise businesses that have more complex needs, there are a range of solutions that can offload pressures on their treasury teams. Many teams have chosen in-house banking to manage the complex external banking structures that enterprise businesses typically have. With automated in-house banking, like SK Global’s In-House Banking module, intercompany invoices and vendor payments can be completed within a single ERP system and bank account management for each subsidiary can all happen in one system. For treasurers, an in-house banking powered by automation has meant centralized control over all subsidiaries’ accounts, transparency over the entire banking sub-ledger, and better management of cash and balances.  

Risk mitigation

Competitors in EFA will also continue to branch out and continue to automate the financial processes that their solution is currently missing. One key area that EFA solution providers will continue to prioritize is risk management, which is of upmost importance to companies who regularly handle customer data. Risk management is an integral part of these systems where high-quality solutions incorporate tokenization, encryption, and compliance to global security standards. Tokenization ensures secure end to end payments through substituting sensitive data with non-sensitive data. When built into an ERP solution, many solutions leverage the built-in security roles and security levels of this software, which significantly insulates companies from potential fraud and risk. Security regarding EFA will continue to be a key issue particularly for lawmakers who are looking to minimize fraud and data leaks through the implementation of Know-Your-Customer laws.  

How to transition to EFA

Transitioning from manual processes to EFA can be a daunting task for many mid-market and enterprise companies. However, treasury teams are not alone. Consulting firms and fintech providers are readily available to help companies transition from manual to cloud-based processes.  

Before reaching out to an external organization, it’s generally recommended to look internally to assess whether the transition to EFA is needed. As a first step, treasury and accounting teams should consider current work processes, particularly which processes can be automated first, and which processes should be automated later in the digital transformation initiative. Slower adoption of more complex automated solutions may be required, especially when your team is considering automating a sizable number of processes. It’s completely normal for these transitions to take years so treasury teams should not be rushed to immediately implement automation.  

Treasury teams should also thoroughly evaluate their current treasury management software before automation. This exercise will help your team identify which financial automation solutions work for your company and will pinpoint which weaknesses in your current treasury management need to be addressed.  

Here are some additional questions your team should consider: 

  • What is the strength of your data collection – how could it be improved with EFA? 
  • How effective are your current risk management processes?
  • Does your team have access to forecasting?  

After considering these questions yourself, discuss with your treasury team the merits of automation and where they see it being optimized. It’s vital to use your team’s expertise especially when considering a significant digital transformation initiative. After considering the pros and cons of expanding your financial automation capabilities, it is important to identify the internal stakeholders that will drive this initiative and from there, form an ad-hoc team. These stakeholders can come from a wide range of departments such as from your C-Suite to middle managers.  

After forming a team, find a reliable partner or solution provider that can customize financial automation to your needs. You need to work with a team that can be flexible and has the time to educate your team on the software. After putting money into automation, you need to ensure that you are working with a solution provider that has a comprehensive onboarding process so your team can hit the ground running after the software goes live. These steps will help drive ROI once your EFA solution is in operation.  

If your team is currently looking for such a partner, it may be worth it to reach out to your ERP system if your company already uses one. All prominent ERP systems, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP, have built formidable networks with consultants who can help your team achieve greater automation. If your team currently employs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain, SK Global Software can be a great resource for expanding your financial automation capabilities. Our consultants with over 20 years of treasury automation experience can analyze your current financial processes and can configure an embedded solution based on your team’s pressing needs.  

If your team is interested in enhancing your current automation within your D365 Finance ERP system email sales@sksoft.com to learn more about our current product offerings. 

For many businesses, the pandemic caused an increase in credit card transactions due to the surge in digital payment methods. Prior to COVID-19, the world was already moving away from the use of cash to more modern payment methods. However, the lockdown accelerated this transition with one of the only payment methods being through credit card. With the rise of cashless payments, many organizations saw a surge in the amount of credit card payments they were receiving. The movement to cashless payments has increased the complexity of reconciling credit card statements.  

What is Credit Card Reconciliation?

A credit card settlement reconciliation is ensuring that each settlement transaction on your credit card statement matches up with a recorded customer payment in your ERP. It is also making sure the settlement received from your depositor is correct for the credit card payments received. To maintain accurate reporting, organizations must verify each transaction listed on the statement. Most businesses reconcile their credit card transactions and deposits daily. 

The Manual Credit Card Reconciliation Process 

When credit card reconciliation is conducted manually, “all is well” as long as the settlements balance perfectly to the expected amount. However, if there is a mismatch, it can be very tedious and difficult to find the individual transactions that make up the discrepancy. If the discrepancies cannot be found in a timely manner, it may hold up financial closing at the end of month as well.   

The number of credit card transactions on your monthly statement is likely to only increase. A McKinsey Global Payment Report projects that there will continue to be a further decline in cash usage globally and an increase in credit card and digital payment methods. With the projected rise in credit card transactions, it will be increasingly difficult for your organization to maintain a fully manual process and therefore it may be time to start evaluating automated options. 

Why Credit Card Reconciliation is essential 

While manually reconciling credit card statements is a tedious and mundane process, reconciling your credit card transactions is a vital procedure to maintain the financial health of your business. The credit card reconciliation procedure verifies that you are getting proper credit from your processor for the credit card payments you took in. Without a reconciliation process, your business loses the capability to accurately track that your incoming credit card payments are recorded properly.  

How embedded RPA technology can transform your credit card reconciliation process:

It is becoming increasingly prevalent that manual accounting processes are not viable long-term. For companies, this will mean undergoing a digital transformation to replace outdated and inefficient procedures. Forward-thinking business leaders have seen the significant benefits that automation delivers and have jumped on the trend of replacing manual processes with Robotic Processing Automation (RPA). With the surge in credit card transactions and digital payments, it may be time for your business to consider adding an automated credit card reconciliation solution to your digital transformation plan. Reconciling your credit card statements is a monotonous process that can easily be automated through an RPA. The following are some of the ways adding embedded credit card reconciliation technology can benefit your business.  

1. Embedded Technology Centralizes Data and Increases Visibility

Opting for an embedded solution, or software built within another system, is an excellent choice to unify your data and increase visibility and collaboration across departments. A popular type of built-in solution is software that is embedded within an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP). For example, SK Global’s credit card reconciliation module is embedded within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. Selecting an embedded credit card reconciliation solution will make it easy to record transactions within one centralized system fostering collaboration through easy access to valuable information and automatic synchronization of data.  

The alternative would be a bolt-on solution, or a solution that works outside the main platform and doesn’t integrate seamlessly with the main system. Often bolt-on solutions have connectivity issues, complex interfaces, and have duplicate features that you receive in your main interface. Opting for a disparate bolt-on system leads to issues down the road due to lack of organization, accessibility, and a centralized database to maintain valuable metrics.  

 2. Robotic Processing Automation Automates the Credit Card Reconciliation Process

Practically all credit card reconciliation solutions utilize some form of RPA to automate most of or all the credit card reconciliation process. Leveraging credit card reconciliation automation frees up your accounting staff to focus on more important value-added tasks that ultimately grow your business. In a survey conducted by CIODive, 73% of US workers said they would be happier if automation replaced non-core functions. On top of managing your payroll, inventory costs, collections, and budgeting, your accountants do not need to waste valuable work hours doing manual credit card reconciliations.  

 3. Quickly Identify Discrepancies

Using RPA technology, credit card reconciliation solutions allow your staff to easily recognize any transactions that do not align with the recorded payment or deposit in your ERP. Automated credit card reconciliation eliminates the need for the tedious process of finding payment or deposit discrepancies. Most credit card reconciliation solutions will display the discrepancies in an organized dashboard allowing your accountants to quicky track down the transactions that do not match to the ERP.  

4. Invest in more profitable expenditures

According to Forbes, intelligent automation typically results in cost savings of 40% to 75% with payback ranging from several months to several years. To determine exactly how much money adding automated credit card reconciliation will save your business your organization should conduct a cost-benefit analysis while exploring solutions. If it is indeed profitable for your business to invest in RPA to remove the manual credit card reconciliation process, your business can reallocate the funds to more profitable investments like research and development.  

How SK Global Leverages Embedded RPA to Automate the Credit Card Reconciliation Process

If your business is currently using or planning to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, SK Global’s embedded credit card reconciliation module may be the right fit for you. Our credit card reconciliation solution allows you to import your credit card settlement statements into the ERP. Using RPA technology, our solution then matches the transactions in the statement to the payment record within the ERP, matches the settlement deposit, and can automate the recording of credit card fees. SK Global’s credit card reconciliation module is fully embedded within your D365 environment. It has the same look and feel as the D365 Finance interface and is certified and approved by Microsoft before every release. Our solution resolves popular pain-points in the credit card reconciliation process such as human errors, disparate data sources, and managing an increased volume in credit card payments. If you are interested in learning more about our embedded credit card reconciliation module for D365, contact us today at sales@sksoft.com to set up a demo.  

 

An effective risk management procedure starts with maintaining security over your private banking files. Lack of dependable protection over your information is a serious gap within your business’s fraud prevention process and drastically increases the risk of a security breach. According to a 2022 report from PWC, 46% of businesses reported experiencing fraud, corruption, or other economic crimes in the last 24 months. Your sensitive banking information is a prime target for a financial fraud incident. With this in mind, SK Global launched the BankFabric module in our Treasury Automation Suite for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain to safely transfer your banking files from your ERP to the bank.

Why BankFabric

Within standard D365 Finance and Supply Chain it is difficult to securely transfer your files to and from the bank. Without added automation your business must manually upload files to your desktop and then upload them to the bank’s web portal. Using this tedious manual procedure is not only inefficient but is also a huge security risk. Our Azure-hosted BankFabric solution addresses this gap in standard D365 through providing an easy-to-use interface to store and transmit your banking files.

Through secure and embedded technology BankFabric heightens security and streamlines your banking integration process within your D365 environment. Our solution provides maximum security over your information through storing your banking files and communication keys within your Azure subscription. Your private files are completely secure, SK Global has no right to access them unless you configure permissions. In addition, BankFabric protects all your banking connection parameters, meaning your URLs, login credentials, encryption keys etc.

On top of providing complete security over the storage of your banking files, BankFabric supports file transfers in any format to any bank(s) worldwide. Our BankFabric module is a robust addition to our Treasury Automation Suite. Regardless of the size of your organization, our suite of financial automation modules can scale and streamline your processes in any industry.

Setting Up Your BankFabric Account

With its advanced embedded technology, you would think BankFabric would require a complicated set up and configuration process. However, most of the set-up and configuration to wire BankFabric to your subscription is streamlined with many parts automated within Azure Cloud Shell. Below is a simple 5 step guide on the setup of your BankFabric account:

1. Create your BankFabric Environments

The first step to setting up BankFabric is creating the environments. In BankFabric, all environments are hosted in a single “account.” These single “accounts” represent a customer. Access can be granted to multiple users by the administrator through their email address, allowing them to view the dashboard of all accounts that the user has access to. The dashboard overview feature increases visibility and fosters collaboration across departments.

There are two types of users within our BankFabric solution, an account contact who is typically from the sales process and an account admin, who usually has a technical role. Your account admin will be responsible for adding and setting access for subsequent users. Access to the BankFabric portal is authenticated and authorized through a standard Microsoft AD login.

Once your account is set up, and an account admin is assigned. The admin can allow access to your employees or third-party vendors to assist you with infrastructure or administration. Access can be granted with permissions tailored to the role of each user. When you access your account, you can configure any of the D365 environments you want to automate.

BankFabric can be configured to be turned on module by module within an environment, permitting a hybrid solution during rollout. From there you can add other options module by module, switching BankFabric on as you bring each banking module online. Secure PINs are auto refreshed on a weekly basis to ensure the maximum security between BankFabric and each of your D365 environments.

2. Accessing File Locations

The second component of setting up BankFabric is configuring your file locations. File locations are easily configured within BankFabric and are automatically maintained for each environment. Within D365 these locations are used within the Bank Reconciliation, Vendor Payment Automation, and Customer Settlement and all modules within our Treasury Automation Suite.

To further streamline the setup file locations are replicated across all environments. This eliminates the need to repeat the setup process across environments. New environments will inherit file location names, while still being in different storage accounts. This prevents any files from cross pollinating across environments. To maximize security all documents stored in Azure are encrypted at their destination.

3. Setting File Names

After setting up your file locations you will want to set your file names.  outbound files are set up in each environment. File names can be set by module or category, and names configured based on pieces, such as prefix, file number, date, time, and extension. Once a file name is configured, it is affiliated with the file location. With this setup, configuration within D365 is significantly improved since only a file location needs to be specified.

4. Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)

The fourth component in the BankFabric set up process is SFTP configuration. SFTP set up is where connections to each bank are configured. URLs, login credentials, keys are uploaded, and a test connection can be conducted to ensure the SFTP configuration has been set up correctly.

All files going from D365 to Azure and Azure to your bank(s) can be automatically encrypted. Designated environments for production can be marked as such to exclude them from test usage.

Different SFTP configurations can be set up for separate environments and for your bank(s) of choice. Communication can be assigned to all environments or designated ones as required. Once it is set up, files are pushed and pulled automatically and can be viewed within each environment or module.

5. Importing Bank Files

The last step for setting up BankFabric is importing your bank files. For heightened security, the bank files in Azure can be configured for view only without downloading. Authenticated users can upload, download, rename, or delete files. Permissions can be applied by user, environment, and module-category. This is very helpful to allow open access and easy collaboration during testing, while narrowing the security exposure for your production environment.

Processing files can be fully automated regardless of whether they are in or out of D365. With all of SK Global’s modules, automation features can be configured at various levels to best suit your business needs. For instance, with vendor payments a workflow completion step can automatically create the appropriate bank-formatted file, transmit it to BankFabric where BankFabric will store the file and transmit it to the bank. With inbound processing enabled, once the bank reviews the file it will send back an acknowledgement or transaction level file. Again, it’s stored in BankFabric and automatically imported into the D365 payment journal, marking the lines either accepted or rejected and posts the journal. The flow starts once the ERP workflow process is complete and can be fully automated end-to-end. This is the hallmark of Banking and Treasury automation.

6. Secure APIs

As APIs are becoming more common for bank integrations, SK Global is working with banks to provide this newer connectivity option. With APIs there is no file created, but rather a direct connection and transmission of ERP to bank data (and vice versa). Our API solution is built right into BankFabric providing the same familiar interface for the setup and monitoring.

BankFabric with SK Global

Shifting to BankFabric can significantly improve your bank integration process, providing more control and securing access to sensitive company information. Reach out to SK Global today to learn more about how BankFabric can remove the need for third-party management tools through effortlessly consolidating files and processes, while streamlining access all within your D365 ERP. All future security and application enhancements to our Treasury Automation Suite will be “powered” by BankFabric.

For more information, contact SK Global today.