Every month it seems like there is a new report of personal information like credit card numbers being released onto the web. Companies that improperly store credit card information from their customers put millions of people at risk, forcing users to close cards and request new ones. Most consumers are becoming more aware of the risks of giving their credit card number online or over the phone.

It’s vital that your business is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI/DSS). If you improperly collect or store customer data, you could be putting the future of your company at risk.

Understanding PCI/DSS

The security of cardholder data is key to building and preserving customer trust. It’s also a legal obligation.

Who must comply?

All entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data must maintain payment security. This applies whether you are a small sole proprietorship or an enterprise company: If you take credit cards or other electronic payments, you must comply with PCI/DSS.

What are the standards?

Guidance for maintaining payment security includes the following steps:

  • Building and maintaining a secure network with a firewall configuration capable of protecting cardholder data.
  • Never using default passwords, and maintaining a protocol for frequent password changes company-wide.
  • Protecting stored cardholder data (tip: use solutions that eliminate data storage altogether).
  • Encrypt transmission of cardholder data (tip: use tokenization to eliminate transmission of actual credit card numbers).
  • Install and regularly update anti-virus software or programs to protect your back office (and require work at home staff to comply as well).
  • Restrict access to cardholder data by applying strict permissions across your organization and using tokenization to eliminate physical access.
  • Test your security systems and process regularly, and maintain an employee and contractor policy for information security.

COVID-19 and a distributed workforce

With millions of people now working remotely, and back office workers not likely to return to corporate offices anytime soon, companies are finding new weak links in the chain of payment processing. While corporate networks aren’t foolproof, they still provide more protection than the average remote worker’s connection to the internet.

When sales and customer service staff work from their own homes, the risks of compromised customer data skyrocket. If your sales staff or post-sales support teams are asking for credit card information or verifying information your company could be at risk.

Intercepting data

Keyboard loggers can recognize and copy credit card numbers when they are typed in by a representative. Most home workers don’t have the level of security provided by a corporate office, and even corporate-level of security can still have vulnerabilities.

Numbers given over the phone can be recorded and stolen. The phone, the network or even devices in a worker’s home (like Alexa) could be hacked — there are even reports of Roombas being turned into listening devices and used to steal credit card numbers.

Even information that is “encrypted” can be intercepted as it travels across a network, and decrypted by packet sniffers. Sniffers can steal credit card numbers and customer information that has been typed and transmitted, or decode conversations sent over the internet on VoIP phone systems.

How do you make customers feel confident that their credit card information is safe, and more importantly, how do you help ensure that the information actually IS safe?

Protecting customer data, simplified

The best approach is to not store customer credit card information at all, and to institute ways of collecting information that keeps the risk on the consumer’s side and away from your corporate office. Credit Card Advantage with PayLink and WalletLink allows you to accept electronic payments from customers without ever actually receiving their actual credit card number.

When you use PayLink or WalletLink, your customer is presented with the ability to enter their credit card number on their own computer. A single-use “token” is generated which is sent to your back office when the payment is submitted. This eliminates the weakest link in most online payment system chains, by ensuring that you never have the customer’s actual credit card number at all. You can even customize your system to choose when preauthorization or payment takes place.

Our payment processor is Mastercard and VISA certified, and the PayLink/WalletLink options can be used by your distributed workforce. There’s no more worrying about the safety of a customer’s credit card number, because you never access or store it. Tokenization lets you eliminate the weakest link in the payment chain by never exposing your back-office to the responsibility of protecting the number in the first place.

To learn more about how SKsoft Credit Card Advantage can help reduce vulnerability in your payment system, contact us for a demo today.

Often, the banking and treasury functions configured in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution like Microsoft Dynamics 365 involve sophisticated and thorough approvals and other processes. However, without file storage available in the ERP solution itself, some businesses implement unsecured bank communication and file transfer strategies. The consequences for these businesses and their financial partners could be drastic, particularly in today’s environment. Additionally, these companies miss out on valuable opportunities to further automate their financial processes.

Online banking security risks: The importance of end-to-end protection

With billions of dollars at stake, it’s no surprise that banks and other financial institutions are prime targets for cybercrime. A 2019 article from Trend Micro identified that banking customers and infrastructure are prominent targets for cyberattacks. Customers face phishing attacks, browser injects and other threats.

The last link, the weakest link: Why secure communication matters

If you have a strong chain overall, but there’s one weak link, what do you have? A vulnerable gateway.

Today, that final link in the chain could be even more crucial than in the past. Previously, a centralized workforce that relied on a tightly controlled corporate network could at least offer greater security, even if the processes undertaken on that network could be improved.

Today, when remote work is the norm, distributed workforces rely on home networks that employ varying levels of protection.

In this environment, it’s even more crucial that financial processes employ strong security throughout the entire workflow.

Too often, the weakest link in the chain is at the point where files are transferred to and from the bank. Without secure file storage available within Dynamics 365, businesses may rely on individual workers to upload an editable file containing sensitive information from their desktop web browser to the bank’s interface. Receiving files from the bank is similarly risky. Conducting this kind of business from a home network multiplies the risk factor.

Additional considerations: Lost efficiency for manual banking processes

Using manual, unsecured communication channels with your bank also undercuts your ability to automate time-consuming, labor-intensive processes. This is especially true for receiving bank statements. When an individual is responsible for directly receiving and maintaining these records — then reconciling them as well — the process can take up an excessive time, distracting from the completion of other tasks and introducing the potential for human error.

Secure communication for online banking

The growing importance of secure communication has become clear in many circles, from messaging to videoconferencing. For online banking security, end-to-end protections must entail secure communication between the business customer and its financial institution. Specifically, the exchange of files between the company and the bank must be conducted through a secure channel.

How it works: The Bank Communications Hub

The Bank Communications Hub (BCH) serves as a secure channel through which businesses can communicate between the Dynamics 365 ERP and a bank. Without the need for additional on-premises infrastructure, the BCH can be implemented through a secure cloud configuration. This solution stores files for Dynamics 365 and communicates securely and directly with any bank or other legal entity of your choosing. For example, in Dynamics 365, business users can create, approve and submit vendor payments for execution, after which the BCH will carry out that workflow.

Importantly, the BCH allows businesses to remain bank independent. Because the configuration can be integrated with any bank worldwide, companies are not committed to remaining with one bank simply because of their secure communication software solutions.

Instead of forcing individual contributors to manually exchange files with their banks, the BCH provides a more secure communication channel, limiting the potential for bad actors to intercept and exfiltrate sensitive data. This process also ensures that files are stored securely prior to their transfer and after they are received from the financial institution.

Better online banking security, plus enhanced automation

An additional feature of the BCH is the ability for businesses to further automate their financial processes, even when those workflows involve secure communication with outside financial institutions. For example, receiving and reconciling bank statements will require less manual processing and interaction when these processes are automated through the BCH. The hub can import statements according to the business’s desired cadence, not requiring an individual to download, manage or store the statements. From this secure storage point, automation can be used to create statements within the company’s ERP, setting the stage for an efficient reconciliation process that’s mapped to the company’s unique needs and capabilities. This automated solution provides greater security, less human input, improved accuracy and better efficiency overall.

The Bank Communications Hub is a unique solution from SKsoft that helps facilitate many other value-adding processes and automation capabilities for accounting and finance departments. Learn more about our banking and treasury solutions. Get in touch with us today.

Security Briefing Download

 

Businesses of all types are looking to implement first-quarter strategies that will help them improve efficiency for 2021. Going live with a new banking or treasury solution is a top concern for many accounting and finance professionals as the year draws to a close.

What motivates these forward-thinking business leaders? According to a 2019 survey from Deloitte, the top driver for applying treasury technology was the desire to automate manual processes, with 72% of respondents saying that doing so was a critical or very important concern for them. At 68%, the second most important cause was risk mitigation, including a need for greater security and less human error.

Top 6 tips for going live with your treasury or banking solution

If you want to reap the benefits of a new treasury or banking solution, getting a head start with these six tips can help ensure that your implementation succeeds in achieving the business’s goals.

1. Solidify processes first

One possible issue for implementing a new banking solution is attempting to use the setup and integration timeline to also smooth out difficult processes that have previously been conducted in an ad hoc or nonstandard fashion. In reality, all business processes that interact with the new solution should be firmly established prior to the implementation. The technology is not meant to help organizations troubleshoot and re-engineer existing processes. It is intended to streamline and improve those operations. Think about it this way: If you can’t explain a particular process to your integration partner, then they certainly can’t explain that process to a computer program.

2. Avoid siloed decision-making

Banking and treasury solutions should be part of the conversation as soon as you begin to explore how your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software will handle finance functions. If you think you will need outside support for a banking or treasury solution, involve your potential partners early on, and allow them to inform your decision-making process for the overall ERP setup. For example, your bank may use one of several different platforms — like a host-to-host platform or a portal. If an ERP implementation proceeds without considering downstream effects like these, it could be difficult to readjust once you’re ready to focus on your treasury solution.

3. Bring in the bank — or the banks — early

Lead times for your bank could present a hurdle, too. Keep in mind that it could take between six and 12 weeks to set up a new service with these institutions, and testing will take time as well. Build that timeline into the scope of your larger ERP planning.

Multinational companies may have relationships with several different banks around the globe. If they’re looking to streamline and create efficiencies with their ERP implementation or a new banking solution, consolidating their efforts to work with just one key financial partner, or a few, may be part of the strategy. If this is where you think you might be headed, it’s important to make this decision in the initial stages of the project.

4. Complete robust testing with the bank

As we mentioned, testing the new treasury solution with your bank can take time, but this is a crucial step. Make sure to not skip past it. In fact, wherever possible, opt for robust, realistic testing scenarios instead of just accepting the minimum standards for executing the implementation. In particular, make sure that you test at a comparable payment volume to your normal delivery loads. Also, include testing for country destinations where you’ll be delivering payments in the future. If you regularly send out hundreds of payments to several different countries, you should verify that these parameters will work under your new solution. The same holds true for testing imports like bank reconciliation and settlements.

5. Manage your transition period thoughtfully

On the date that your new banking solution is scheduled to go live, you should be cautiously optimistic about the execution. However, this isn’t the time to test out mission-critical million-dollar international vendor payments. The transition period, known as a cutover, is a crucial time. Run key payments on the old system before cutover, and you’ll breathe easier.

6. Stick it out with your partner

Your treasury solution should add value for your organization. In order to make sure that you maximize the benefit you receive from implementation — including for reconciliation, cash application and vendor payments — keep your supporting partners on through the end of the month. They’ll help you tweak processes and operations for optimal efficiency going forward.

Integrating with your bank to enable direct communications between your treasury platform and their internal infrastructure comes with considerable benefits. Not only is your business able to save its accounting team significant time and manual work, but direct bank communications can also help bolster data security and your ability to further automate.

However, setting up integrated communications with your banking service providers takes some time, consideration and planning. It’s important to ensure that all the moving parts are in place and that configurations are completely accurate.

Why integrate with your bank?

Before we examine what businesses need to ask their banking partners, it’s important to understand the advantages of supporting direct communication of this nature.

In the past — and still today — many enterprises used manual processes to transfer data to and from their bank. This includes manual uploads and downloads of critical files containing sensitive data, being passed back and forth between the company and the bank. And while this strategy may have sufficed in the past, it can open enterprises up to considerable security risks.  What’s more, the internal finance and accounting teams engaging in these manual processes waste significant time on these tasks which could be better spent on more valuable and strategic accounting work.

The solution here is to leverage technology like SKsoft’s Bank Communications Hub, which supports the kind of robust, uninterrupted integration between enterprise Dynamics ERP solutions and the bank. Additionally, this type of advanced technology can also support time and money-saving automation, including for the reconciliation process, transaction matching, mapping capabilities and more.

What do I need to ask my bank?

First and foremost, it’s important that accounting and finance stakeholders spearheading the integration process understand how to guide the initiative and collaborate with their banking partners. To that end, there are some key questions to ask to help ensure a successful integration:

Who at the bank should we speak with?

In order to start the project off on the right foot, enterprise stakeholders should first connect with an account manager at their bank. This account manager can discuss the types of services the business will need in place with the bank in order to support direct communications. These might include bank services like eSettlement, direct debit capabilities or other functions.

Businesses will then connect with an onboarding or integration specialist at the bank, as well as a technology officer to help further their progress. These individuals can help the business work through the necessary technical and functional aspects required to support direct communications. And, once the integration is configured, the technical officer or onboarding specialist can help with testing to ensure that files are sent and received correctly.

What file formats will be required?

To make sure that files are transmitted correctly, it’s key that the business uses the right file formats to support different payment or transaction types. This might include specific formats for:

  • Bank reconciliation: Many banks use a similar file format for reconciliation, but these might change according to where the bank is based. Domestic American banks often use the common BAI2 file format, but international banks will typically require a different format (eg ISO20022 or MT940).
  • Outbound vendor payments: Configuring direct bank communication to support outbound vendor payments is typically the most complex part of the banking integration process. It’s common for businesses and banks to use the U.S. ACH file format for these outbound vendor payments, but if these are wire transactions, they will require a different format. Again, the format will also depend on the destination country where the payment is being sent.  Especially in the EU, ISO20022 formats continue to become the new standard.
  • Inbound files: It’s also key to leverage the correct format for files coming from the bank to the businesses Dynamics platform. Many of these will require the ISO PSR file type.

A partner like SKsoft can support any file format required to enable direct bank communications. In addition to the more than 500 banking formats accessible through the SKsoft Treasury Suite library, our developers can also build any new format, if needed.

What is the timing for communications?

It’s also critical to ask banking partners about the type of timing the business can expect when it comes to integrated, direct communications. Timing of files — particularly inbound files — can have considerable impacts on the business’s internal banking processes, especially when posting transactions to the company’s payment journals. So it’s key that stakeholders have an understanding of just how long it will take the bank to respond.

Partnering with an expert

Overall, the process to support direct communication with the bank can be complex. To reap the benefits that integration with the bank can provide, it’s imperative that communications and the supporting technology are configured directly.

A partner like SKsoft can help guide this process and speak to your banking partners to ensure a smooth integration. SKsoft has the expertise and experience to ask the right questions and to streamline the process to ensure success.

To find out more, check out some details of our Bank Communications Hub, and reach out to us to discuss or schedule a demo today.

When it comes to choosing a banking and treasury solution, many stakeholders devote significant time, planning and consideration to the process. Not only must decision-makers select the right tool, but they also need to ensure that it will support the necessary integration between internal accounting and treasury infrastructure and the bank.

Once this tool is chosen, however, the process isn’t complete just yet. Next comes the actual deployment, which includes its own set of considerations and challenges.

Thankfully, with a banking and treasury solution partner like SKsoft by your side, your deployment becomes quick, simple and streamlined. Here’s how we do it:

Purpose-built tools

There’s a number of good reasons why you should consider SKsoft for your technology solutions, including the fact that our software provides all the most-needed functions for banking and treasury processes today.

Our Treasury Automation Suite, for instance, enables your business to automate critical functions like cash management, vendor and customer payments, as well as risk management. And our Banking Automation Suite improves internal workloads for automated banking statements, statement reconciliation and processing vendor payments.

Overall, these solutions support a full suite of capabilities, and offer your internal accounting and treasury department all the features they need in a single platform that directly integrates with your existing Microsoft Dynamics deployment.

But we’ve also taken things a step further with our Bank Communications Hub, which not only streamlines the deployment of banking and treasury automation for key accounting processes, but supports the necessary direct and secure communication between your infrastructure and the bank. In this way, we not only offer all the features and capabilities your team needs, but the integration ability as well.

Supporting bank service partnerships

Speaking of banking integration, this is a part of the process that can become a bit tricky, if you don’t know which questions to ask and how to navigate successful integration. Thankfully, this is something that our SKsoft experts are well-versed in, and we understand how to help you speak to your banking partners in a way that supports and expedites the process.

The power of Dynamics

In addition to providing all the features your internal accountants need and supporting your integration with the bank, our software also helps you make the most of your existing Microsoft Dynamics platform.

Our Banking and Treasury Automation solutions directly integrate with Dynamics AX and SL deployments, currently used by more than 30,000 businesses. This also means your internal users can reduce their learning curve and work in more familiar platforms, all the while taking advantage of expanded features and capabilities from SKsoft.

A library of available file formats

In addition to fostering conversations with your banking service provider and supporting that integration, SKsoft also has a pre-built library of nearly every existing file format within our Treasury Library. This means that we can enable the critical functionality between your Banking and Treasury Automation Suite and your bank from the very beginning, including activity like:

  • Bank reconciliation
  • Outbound vendor payments
  • Inbound files
  • And much more.

Our Treasury Library includes more than 500 banking file formats – from domestic standards like the U.S. ACH to international file formats for global banking.

And, if we don’t have just the right file format already built, we’ll work with your bank to get the necessary specifications and create one from scratch.

Years of experience

Besides the advantages provided by our software solutions, Treasury Library and other resources, your business also benefits from SKsoft’s years of experience and deep expertise in the banking, treasury and technology industries. We’ve distilled this knowledge into a prescriptive methodology alongside empowering user training, where the result is a streamlined and successful deployment that enhances your banking and treasury processes.

Thanks to our experience, we understand the challenges that can arise during deployment, and we ensure that you’re able to sidestep and avoid any missteps.

“We want to make sure that things are right as early as possible in every project,” our Senior Solution Architect Chuck Schroeder pointed out on our recent webinar, Inside the SK Global Bank Consult.

If you’re ready to learn more about all the advantages we bring to the deployment process, get in touch with us today to ask questions of our experts, and get the ball rolling with your integration.

There are a number of key benefits to bringing automation into your accounting and finance team’s payment processes. Besides eliminating unnecessary human intervention and saving considerable time and effort for your accountants, automation can also help reduce data entry errors and support fraud prevention.

And this is just beginning — automating your payments can also boost internal visibility over the company’s capital and financial activity, while improving relationships with partners and potentially earning the business discounts for on-time payments.

However, there are a few different areas in which payment automation can be integrated, and it’s key that decision-makers and accounting leaders understand the differences, as well as the advantages they can achieve.

Today, we’re taking a closer look at customer and vendor payments, and how automation can impact these processes.

Customer payments: Accounts receivable automation

“Accounting staff no longer need to  match payments manually.”

Payments that come into the business as a result of the sale of the company’s goods or services are accounts receivable (AR) transactions. Typically, when these AR payments arrive, they must be double-checked and matched up with the business’s internal records, ensuring that everything from the date, to the amount, payment reference and check number all align. Traditionally, this is a task that’s been handled by internal company accountants, but this is now a key process to consider for automation.

Here’s how that works: As opposed to a customer payment being received and hand-checked by staff members, a solution like SKsoft’s Accounts Receivable Customer Payment Automation software takes over. This payment matching program is a highly customizable solution that enables users to establish their own matching rules and degrees of confidence, ensuring that each customer payment is matched according to the business’s AR procedures.

In this way, accounting staff no longer need to match payments manually, but can instead allow the AR automation software to run in the background and match all customer payments to the business’s records within Microsoft Dynamics. Thanks to features like adjustable levels of confidence, the software can send out a notification and elevate any customer payment issues when necessary, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

For accounting administrators and controllers, this means they’re able to set up direct debit transactions with customers, speeding up and streamlining transactions while reducing the amount of required manual work for accounting staff. Automating customer payments also results in a smoother experience for the company’s clients, giving them peace of mind that all payments will be matched according to the business’s own AR procedures.

Vendor payments: Accounts payable automation

In addition to automating inbound payments that the business receives from its customers, companies can also consider implementing automation for their outbound vendor payments. Usually, the task of sending payments to the organization’s vendor partners is handled by the accounts payable (AP) department, where accounting staff communicate with the bank to ensure that all current debts are paid.

More Vendor Payment Automation Resources

With automation in place through technology like SKsoft’s Vendor Payment Automation software, however, these vendor payments can be processed while supporting direct and secure communication with the company’s bank.

Young women in professional dress at an office. Reduce the amount of human intervention required by automating vendor and customer payments.

This type of software automates the vendor payment process, and can support global payment standards including ACH in the U.S., as well as SEPA, BACS, IAT and others used abroad. In this way, even international vendor payments can be fully automated, with completely unattended file transmissions to the bank to safeguard paper checks and prevent fraud.

Additionally, with a solution like SKsoft’s Vendor Payment Automation, vendors can receive a simple or customized email notification for all electronic, automated transactions coming from the business. This ensures that all parties are on the same page as far as payments, and record journals can be updated accordingly.

Similar to automation for customer payments, AP automation to support vendor payments reduces the amount of human intervention required on the part of internal accountants. This helps eliminate any chances for human error and saves considerable time for staff members, which can be reallocated toward more important, strategic work.

Finding the right solutions for AR and AP automation

Automating customer and vendor payments can be a lifesaver for internal accounting and finance staff members, effectively restructuring manual payment processing procedures for the better.

However, in order to achieve these results, businesses need solutions that can integrate directly with their current finance infrastructure, as well as software capable of supporting direct and secure communication with the bank.

SKsoft’s Treasury Automation Suite can provide all these features, and more, enabling enterprises to bring much needed automation to their internal accounting procedures.

To find out more, check out our website and connect with us to schedule a demo today.

Internal accounting teams have their work cut out for them today. In addition to pressing challenges like maintaining accuracy, following internal policies and supporting data security, accountants must also ensure compliance with industry standards while streamlining their own working processes.

However, making these changes successfully is often easier said than done, and requires the right technological solutions that can seamlessly integrate with the business’s current accounting infrastructure.

Let’s examine a few of the ways that accounting- and financed-focused automation and processing solutions can make all the difference, and elevate the capabilities of your internal team.

1) Automate accounts payable processes

A key challenge for internal accounting teams is keeping up with the demands and payment schedules of accounts payable (AP) processes. When these activities are streamlined, it results in the elimination of human error as well as speedier payments to support the company’s internal financials and resource planning.

Bringing automation into accounts payable represents a game changer for internal accounting and finance teams, as it reduces the need for human intervention, particularly when it comes to error-prone and time-consuming processes like data entry. As opposed to saddling an employee with certain AP tasks, an intelligent solution like SKsoft and SignUp Software’s Accounts Payable Automation makes short work of handling these workloads, while following the company’s own specific invoice approval processes. Simply scan the invoice, and let the automated solution take over, directly within the business’s own Microsoft Dynamics platform.

Because the system automatically sends out notification emails to specific accounting staff when an invoice is ready for approval, internal employees can save time while ensuring that no payment falls through the cracks.

Check out the full process for AP automation here to learn more.

Graphs spread on a desk with a keyboard, glasses and pen nearby. Empower your accounting and finance teams with automated solutions that better support their workflows.

2) Automate vendor payments

In addition to automating accounts payable processes, it’s highly advantageous to automate other key accounting processes as well, including outgoing vendor payments. Because these are often time sensitive and critical to maintaining partner relationships, automating vendor payments can help reduce and even eliminate late payments while supporting security and accuracy.

It’s imperative to find an automation solution that enables direct payment transmission between the company’s internal Microsoft Dynamics platform and the vendor’s bank. In this way, vendor payment processes are streamlined, centralized and fully secure.

The solution leveraged here should also be capable of supporting a range of global payment standards — including ACH, SEPA, IAT, BACS and more — to enable international business. And, a solution that allows accountants to consolidate their outbound files from multiple payment journals can reduce time spent on vendor payment tasks and open these employees up to more value-add and important finance work.

SKsoft Vendor Payment Automation solution includes all these features and then some — check it out here to see how this technology can save valuable time and money.

3) Credit card payments: Support real-time processing and pre-authorization

Keeping credit card payments safe and secure is important, as is ensuring that these payments can be processed and smoothly as possible. A solution that allows pre-authorization for credit card payments is a powerful asset, particularly when it comes to recurring customer transactions or subscriptions.

In addition to pre-authorization, real-time credit card processing further cuts down on the necessary time employees need to spend on these tasks. A solution like SKsoft Credit Card Advantage can integrate directly with Microsoft Dynamics, enabling accountants to capture, authorize and process credit card transactions in real time, right within the Dynamics platform.

Not only does this reduce the number of steps for accounting staff members, but this caliber of processing solution also decreases manual data entry and related errors, while fully securing payments through the compliant PayFabric Cloud processing technology.

Credit Card Advantage was designed with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards in mind, ensuring every transaction is processed in a compliant and protected manner. All customer payment card data is stored anonymously, and the solution enables users to update or delete card data as needed. In this way, the business never stores unnecessary data and reduces its overall risk.

Once payments are processed, the system automatically provides a customer invoice within the company’s Dynamics platform, and sends a receipt to the cardholder.

Empower your accounting team

The right solutions can make all the difference for your finance and accounting staff. However, it’s key to find systems that can integrate and work directly with existing platforms, like Microsoft Dynamics. This type of technology can reduce the learning curve for users, while enabling the kind of ROI-supportive benefits that business leaders expect.

To find out more about how SKsoft solutions can empower your internal teams, connect with us for more details or a demo today.

 

SK Global Software is honored by Microsoft for achieving outstanding sales achievement and innovation.

[HOUSTON, Texas — August 4, 2020] — SK Global Software, an industry-leading provider of banking and treasury solutions specifically for the Microsoft Dynamics platforms, has achieved the prestigious 2020/2021 Inner Circle for Microsoft Business Applications. Membership in this elite group is based on sales achievements that rank SK Global in the top echelon of the Microsoft’s Business Applications global network of partners. Inner Circle members have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success.

2020/2021 Inner Circle members are invited to the Inner Circle Virtual Summits, taking place quarterly between July 2020 and June 2021, where they will have a unique opportunity to share strategy and network with Microsoft senior leaders and fellow partners.

This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Business Applications coincided with Microsoft Inspire, the annual premier partner event, which took place July 20-21, 2020. Microsoft Inspire provides the Microsoft partner community with the opportunity to learn about the company’s road map for the upcoming year, establish connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills.

“Each year we recognize Microsoft Business Applications partners from around the world for delivering innovation and driving unsurpassed customer success,” said Cecilia Flombaum, Microsoft Business Applications Ecosystem Lead. “Our Inner Circle members are chosen based on their business performance as well as capabilities as an organization, whether that’s creating IP, developing solutions, or having an industry leading focus on digital transformation. Microsoft is honored to recognize SK Global Software for their achievements this past year, their dedication to our customers, and their innovation around the Microsoft Cloud.”

SK Global Software: Enhancing Microsoft Dynamics Deployments

SK Global is dedicated to supplying valuable solutions that integrate directly with Microsoft Dynamics, helping customers achieve a competitive advantage and accommodate their business needs while excelling in customer satisfaction. By collaborating with the teams at Microsoft, SK Global maintains a strong expertise of the Microsoft Dynamics platform, and continues to offer innovative solutions, strong services and unparalleled value to their customers.

An independent software vendor, SK Global Software provides implementation, training and consultation for small, midsize and corporate businesses. SK Global specializes in solutions for the Microsoft Dynamics 365/Dynamics AX ERP platforms, including the industry-leading Banking and Treasury Automation Suite, which provides critical functions including vendor payment automation, bank statement automation, accounts payable automation and invoice workflows, in-house banking, bank communications hub and more. SK Global has previously been named among Microsoft’s Inner circle in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

“SK Global has been providing fully certified Microsoft Dynamics solutions for more than two decades, and we’re pleased to once again be named within the top 1% of Microsoft’s partners,” said Scott Caudle, SK Global Software Co-founder and CEO.

About SK Global

SK Global Software is a Microsoft Dynamics ISV offering specialized Add-in Solutions for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Dynamics AX ERP platforms. Our Solutions cover more than 10 unique modules within our Banking and Treasury Automation Suite.

With additional consulting expertise from more than 1600 implementations globally. We are certain that we can help you automate and empower your organization’s Accounting, Finance and Treasury Teams.

Data security and protections specifically for financial systems have been a top priority at companies around the globe. And when one looks to the statistics pertaining to data breaches and fraud, it isn’t difficult to understand why.

After all, if a malicious actor or insider threat exposes private data, or leverages company financial information to commit fraudulent activity, the brand’s reputation – and its ability to attract and serve new customers moving forward – is at serious risk. And in the current environment, where instances of security breaches and fraud are on the rise, enterprises and businesses large and small simply cannot be too careful.

Growing rates of breach and fraud

It’s an unfortunate fact that data breaches and fraudulent activity are on the rise within companies in nearly every industry. Particularly, though, hackers and malicious attackers tend to go for financial systems and information in an attempt to exploit monetary channels and make off with ill-gotten profits.

“47% of companies reported that they’d been victims of fraud within the past two years.”

In fact, according to PwC’s 2020 Global Economic Crime and Fraud survey, “Fighting fraud: A never-ending battle,” nearly half of the 5,000 companies surveyed — 47% overall — reported that they’d been victims of fraud within the past two years. This percentage of victimized companies marked the second highest level of fraudulent incidents within the past 20 years, and the resulting losses totaled an alarming $42 billion.

The top types of fraud incurred by businesses in the last 24 months included incidents like customer fraud, cybercrime, asset misappropriation and bribery and corruption. Within the financial services sector specifically, 15% of companies experienced cybercrime, and 14% reported accounting or financial statement fraud.

But the risks don’t end here — according to data gathered by cybersecurity firm Varonis, hackers now attack companies more than 2,000 times a day, or once every 39 seconds. Security breaches have risen 11% in the last two years, and the majority of these attacks — 71% in total — were financially motivated.

Tips and best practices for risk management

In this type of data security landscape, it’s critical for IT, financial and accounting teams to perform their due diligence and ensure their assets and systems are properly secured. There are a few efforts and best practices to incorporate with risk management, including the following steps:

  1. Establish a risk management strategy or framework. As Varonis pointed out, a risk management framework lays out all the processes and procedures the business uses to identify, monitor, assess and mitigate risks. Putting in place such a framework helps ensure that all security stakeholders in the organization are on the same page, and are aware of their specific responsibilities as part of the risk management strategy.
  2. Identify the potential risks that could impact the business. As part of the risk management strategy, stakeholders, including IT and security experts, should take the time to consider the data protection or fraud risks that could impact the business. For instance, these might include things like a lack of robust security measures on certain systems, or processes that haven’t been updated according to industry compliance standards. Pinpointing these risks helps ensure that security issues don’t fly under the radar, and provides the opportunity for the company to address and mitigate these gaps.
  3. Review and learn from past security incidents. In the current environment, one would be hard-pressed to find an organization that had never experienced a security issue. Besides examining the potential future risks that could impact the business, it’s also helpful to examine and analyze any previous breaches or fraud incidents that have taken place in the past. These events could offer valuable learning experiences and help highlight further measures the business can take to better secure its assets.
  4. Deploy strong security solutions. Technology solutions that help specifically target security breaches and fraud can represent the business’s best line of defense against these types of risks. It’s important to find solutions that are capable of integrating with the company’s existing infrastructure platforms and are compliant with key standards like PCI DSS.

SKsoft Treasury Automation Suite includes specific risk management features, including additional layers of security and fully unattended and secure file transfers. These capabilities, alongside other features like a direct digital channel to the bank, help ensure that files and data are fully protected and safeguarded against internal and external threats.

Check out our website to learn more, and connect with us at SKsoft today to schedule a demo.

 

Enterprise partnerships rely on the relationships between buyers and their vendors, and one critical aspect here is payment for vendor services. While this process may seem standard – vendors provide goods or service offerings, and their business customers pay them for these resources – there are some issues that can emerge here.

Late payments to vendors, for instance, can cause companies to miss out on important vendor discounts. Lost or misplaced vendor invoices, on the other hand, can wreak havoc on enterprise accounts payable (AP) processes, costing significant time, effort and money to fix.

Thankfully, the age-old, manual approach to AP vendor payments isn’t the only choice for your business. Now, enterprises like yours can put in place an automated payment system to prevent any delays or hangups in your AP processes, and enhance relationships with your vendors.

How does vendor payment automation work?

Vendor payment automation eliminates the manual work involved in processing outbound payments from your internal ERP system, through your supporting bank.

Such automated payment systems enable integration and direct communication between Microsoft Dynamics ERP to the bank, supporting the simple and secure execution of both domestic and international payments. Even businesses that work with global vendors can provide automated payments through global payment standards like ACH, SEPA, BACS, IAT and more.

In action, automated vendor payments work like this:

  1. Invoice scanning: The vendor sends an invoice for goods or services rendered. The business customer then uses the automated payment system to scan and digitize the invoice. This helps standardize all invoices from disparate vendors, creating a single, digital format.
  2. Invoice approval: Once scanned, the automated vendor payment system uses a predetermined approval process, set up by admins when the software was deployed. This process includes a direct notification for the specific employee in charge of invoice approval, letting them know that an invoice is ready for their review.
  3. Processing: Once approved, the invoice can then be posted in the Dynamics platform, at which point, the automated vendor payment system automatically processes the outbound transmission to support the payment.
  4. Direct bank communication: Because the automated payment system enables integration between Dynamics and the bank, payments are directly and securely processed, and the vendor receives its automatic payment.

Automation Payment Proposal

Why consider a vendor automated payment system?

There are a few benefits to having an automated payment technology in place, and these advantages often drive enterprises to consider and eventually deploy the solution:

1. Maintain control of invoice approval processes

Automation in the accounts payable department doesn’t mean that your business needs to relinquish control over its unique review and invoice approval process. Vendor payment automation enables IT administrators to configure a specific approval process within the automated payment system. When the business receives a vendor invoice, the correct employee is notified and can provide invoice approval in a seamless and timely manner.

The advantages here are three-fold:

  1. Your company is able to maintain its regular invoice approval process, ensuring that vendor invoice approval isn’t disrupted.
  2. The existing approval process is more efficient, thanks to automated notifications from the automated payment system.
  3. Automated notifications and a smoother approval process support the quickest and most streamlined payments for vendors.
Person in a suit pointing to AUTOMATION graphic An automated payment system can offer several key advantages.

2. Enable direct and secure communication with the bank

Best-in-class automated payment systems allow for a completely secure payment portal between your Dynamics system and your bank account. This means that all communications and electronic payments – including invoice and other payment information originating in your Dynamics platform and communicated to the bank – remain in a fully protected portal.

This helps support payment security, and additional, configurable security parameters within the automated payment system enable your IT team to adjust these settings according to your needs. Transmissions between your ERP and the bank are completely secure, and this protection can be aligned with your internal data standards, as well as industry compliance rules.

3. Support for domestic and international payments

Many businesses today now work with global partners. While these relationships can be incredibly beneficial, they can also create complications when it comes to supporting quick, seamless and secure vendor payments across borders.

One issue here is the fact that these payments must be in the correct global payment type. While American businesses may be familiar with the process for ACH payments, their global vendor partners might require vendor payments come in other global standards, like SEPA, CCD+, CTX or another international payment type.

A leading automated payment system can enable users to leverage these other, global payment types and ensure their vendors receive payment in the standard they need for their international banking activity.

4. Create a unified payment system

Within a disparate and disjointed payment system, invoices can fall through the cracks and approval processes can become long and convoluted. Unifying all these different elements, on the other hand, helps reduce instances of misplaced invoices and also reduces the chances of any human error.

Overall, a unified payment infrastructure means that your automated payment system can integrate with your Dynamics ERP and Finance and Operations platform. Every invoice is seamlessly tracked, from scanning and uploading, through approval and payment. And each of these activities is recorded, creating a holistic and comprehensive historical payment record.

Unifying your payment system through robust integration also means that you have the ability to consolidate outbound files from the different payment journals your company uses.

5. Prevent delays in vendor payments

“16% of all companies admitted that their vendor payments are consistently late.”

One of the biggest advantages of automated vendor payments is ensuring that vendors receive their payments on-time and without delay. Unfortunately, this is something that many businesses struggle with, due to long approval processes fraught with manual work. In fact, one study found that 16% of all companies surveyed admitted that their vendor payments are consistently late.

Continual late payments can severely impact the vendor-customer relationship, and it’s in your business’s best interest to ensure that you pay your vendors on time. Automating these payments improves efficiency and eliminates time-wasting manual work.

6. Improve payment security

In addition to smoothing partnerships with vendors thanks to on-time payments, an automated payment system can also transmit payments in the most secure manner possible. This software creates a protected payment portal between your internal accounting platforms and your bank. This not only helps safeguard electronic payments, but can also reduce the chance of fraudulent activity with printed checks.

7. Eliminate inefficient, manual work

With a solution that enables automation in accounts payable, your internal accounting team will be freed up from the previously required manual work of data entry and invoice scanning. What’s more, since the system automatically supports invoice approval, accounting employees need not monitor this activity and can instead devote their time to more value-added work.

An automated payment system that supports vendor payments and accounts payable can help improve your vendor partnerships, improve efficiency and strengthen security. To find out more, connect with us at SKG for a demo of the Vendor Payment Automation features of our robust Treasury Automation Suite today.