Reimagined Expense Management in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations has reimagined expense reporting by improving user experience and expense management.
Employee expense management is a critical aspect of every project-based business. Providing your employees an easy to use expense reporting system is crucial to receiving expense reports in a timely manner. Microsoft Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations have always supported end-to-end expense management, but there were a lot of areas that needed improvement in terms of efficiency, speed of expense entry, look and feel and more.
In June of 2019, Microsoft released a re-imagined expense reporting experience in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Currently, the re-imagined experience is a work in progress and will continue to be updated.
With the June release, a large portion of the “Expense entry and submission” area has been redesigned. The redesign offers a significantly improved user experience as well as improved expense management in Dynamics 365.
Velosio can deliver the Microsoft Dynamics 365 expense management functionality with easy and quick implementation. Our unmatched services fall in the top 1% of Microsoft service providers and allow us to make the process effective and affordable. Let’s take a closer look at this new component and what it can do for your business.
Enabling the new Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations features
If you are in 10.0.2 – 10.0.4 versions, you will be able to ‘Enable this new experience” under the Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Feature Management work-space.
Once enabled, you will be able to view the areas redesigned in the Dynamics 365 June 2019 release. These key areas include:
- Setup for the behavior of expense reports data fields
- A redesigned expense management work-space
- A whole new experience of expense report entry
Setup the behavior of expense reports data fields
In previous versions of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, you were able to control which data fields you want to be displayed or not displayed on the expense report header and lines. This was a pretty basic capability.
With the most recent update, this Microsoft expense management software can set up data fields to be:
- Optional: These fields will show up when you got to the Optional fields page on your report
- Recommended: These fields will show up under the Details area of the expense report line
- Required: These fields will be set as mandatory fields and must be filled in before submitting the reports. Previously, we always used expense policies to setup fields as required. So, this is a welcome change and makes it much easier.
- Do not display: These fields will not show up on the expense report lines
There is also a cleaner view of how you want to control the various additional data fields for specific expense categories such as “Hotel”, “Car Rental” and “Airfare”.
A redesigned Dynamics 365 expense management work-space for improved user experience
The new D365 expense management work space has a clean user interface (UI) and focuses on efficiency. Your employees can see their expense reports, receipts, and expenses created through the mobile app, all in one place.
With expense management in D365, employees are able to:
- Create and submit a new report.
- Manage existing reports (copy, delete, recall, or resubmit).
- Enter expenses on behalf of others.
- View how they are doing on expenses from the Power BI analytics page.
Entering Expenses
You can create expense lines and click “Save” and “New” to continue to add all the lines you have for the expense report.
If the expense lines have any policy violations, the indication for that is very clear and intuitive. You can see the policy error which will tell you what you need to do as per the corporate expense policies. For example, a company may require users to enter a justification when flying business class.
Uploading receipts in Dynamics 365
The receipt upload and management tool now allows you to upload multiple receipts much faster. Rather than having to upload one receipt at a time, close, and then reopen the “attach receipts” form to load others, you can now upload all receipts by simply selecting each receipt and clicking the upload button.
The first thing you will notice when you create a new expense report from the work-space is the system will automatically prompt you to attach unattached receipts to the report.
The redesigned tool enables better visibility of the available receipts on the report and simplifies the attachment process.
Itemizing expenses
The new expense management D365 interface delivers improved visibility when itemizing expenses such as Hotel or Car Rental. You can now see a preview of your receipt and you are able to enter your itemizations very easily.
Key Takeaways
Some of my favorite redesigned capabilities include:
- A clean UI.
- Viewing receipt preview when itemizing expenses.
- Better visibility of policies.
- Overall receipt management capability.
Microsoft has several more functionality improvements planned for the D365 expense management setup.
Here are some wish list items that we hope Microsoft will add soon.
- Drag-and-drop receipts and attachments
- A cleaned-up, modern mobile app for expenses
- Integration with travel purchasing services, such as Expedia and others, out of the box
- Integration with mileage tracking apps such as MileIQ
- Artificial Intelligence — AI is not new to Dynamics 365 and we’re starting to see a lot of AI-related features in the roadmap already. What if AI could help organize expenses, remind employees to submit expenses after completing a trip, distinguish between a personal expense vs. a corporate expense, and more?
How Velosio Helps
When it comes to adding expense management for D365, Velosio is the trusted partner for industry leaders across the United States and Canada. We have a robust team of experts on hand, so we’re ready to take full advantage of D365 customization. Let us create the ideal expense management solution for your organization, no matter how complex your needs are. With support for the entire Microsoft Dynamics 365 portfolio, we can help you find the perfect solution for your organization and implement it quickly and easily.
If your expense management system is ready for an upgrade, Velosio can deliver an affordable and speedy Microsoft Dynamics 365 Expense Management setup. Gain more insight into your expense management with D365 solutions from Velosio.
For more information on expense management or other Dynamics 365 for Finance features, read more here.
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