Let’s Compare: GP to BC Payables Invoice Transactions
This post is the second in a series I’m doing on comparing transaction entry. In case you missed it, here was my first on Sales Transaction Entry (SOP).
I’m a visual person, and while I have seen Dynamics GP and Business Central windows many times, I like to see them next to each other, for comparison sometimes. I often consume precious time logging in and creating transactions or looking up the window in the application just to see and confirm something. I suppose it’s been my way of paying the ‘toggle tax’ sometimes. But no more!
Payables Transactions in GP vs Purchase Invoices in Business Central
Recently, I undertook the journey of comparing Payables Transactions/Invoices between Dynamics GP and Business Central (BC). This exercise provided valuable insights and serves as a useful reference for future discussions and comparisons. I hope it also helps those looking at BC or migrating over from GP ASP (at some point). All of the screenshots are shared at the bottom, but first, I have a number of thoughts about this exercise and observations about the differences between systems that could impact your migration to BC:
One of the amazing things about Business Central is the ability to do things more than one way. A great way to introduce this concept to a new user is with the payables module. To enter any vanilla payables invoice for a vendor in Business Central I recommend using a Purchase Invoice document. An alternative method of entering vendor invoices could be through using a Purchase Journal entry, which is not covered here. My preference is to utilize Purchase Invoices and Purchase Credit Memos, as I feel they align more to Dynamics GP way of thinking than the “journal” concept in BC does. The Invoice documents also allow for much more fine tuning specific to the vendor or circumstance than a journal does.
The payable transaction entry process in Dynamics GP can require popping into multiple windows. Many users need to manually enter the appropriate General Ledger distributions in a separate window, which are determined by the nature of the invoice. In Business Central however, the GL distributions are in a grid on the same page, grouped by their own FastTab, making it MUCH easier to see what is going to be posted to the GL! I LOVE THIS!
Mapping most fields between GP and BC is fairly straightforward. I highlighted the obvious ones that map cleanly, showing their positions in the GP window compared to the BC pages in a web-based layout. This was not a scientific exercise, but it has proven useful at a high level for discussion and comparison purposes, especially visually, for an end-user.
Remember the power of Personalization in BC. There are many field values available, and the end user can choose how to arrange and present those on their own pages in BC.
Fast Tabs define the logical sections on the Purchase Invoice page in BC and consist of a General, Lines, Invoice Details, Shipping and Payment. BC clearly organizes and lays out the data differently than in GP, but it is easy to see which parts are the header vs the lines vs the footer of the purchase documents.
ISV solutions and modifications to Dynamics GP windows can distort the true out-of-the-box comparison, so these were not included, so your screens may look different than mine.
This post is not intended to cover an in-depth functionality review, or pit one product against the other, but rather get you in the “Dynamics Mindset” so you can be informed about migrating to Business Central!
Important Considerations
Unfortunately for Dynamics GP users, the batching concept for purchase invoices does not exist in Business Central. Purchase Invoices in BC are simply documents that live in an unposted status. The Purchase Invoices list page can sort, group, and filter the unposted invoices, thereby enabling the use of a multi select action to create a ‘group’ as needed for posting. This is a key difference for GP users that will take some serious getting used to for many companies, especially those whose processes rely on specific batch naming, transferring documents among batches, batch approvals and batch posting routines. Posted Purchase Invoices in BC are automatically archived, while Vendor Ledger Entries are created and available for payables management thereafter. Curiously in BC, posting can be set up as a background task for processing ‘off-camera’ from the end user.
For a Dynamics GP user, entering vendor invoices, also commonly known as vouchering, is done in the Payables Transaction Entry window, and both invoices and credit memos go in the same entry window. Users are trained to save their transactions to a Payables Batch, which typically determines the Posting Date for all the transactions contained therein. Batches can require approvals prior to posting, if configured accordingly. In Business Central, the Purchase Invoices and Purchase Credit Memos are entered on different pages and appear in completely different list pages! How crazy is that for a GP user? It takes some getting used to. The Posting Date is actually a field on the transaction itself, instead of the batch, so BE CAREFUL! For controls, individual Purchase Invoice transactions can be run through a Workflow approval process prior to posting. They also have a status filed that with Workflow enabled, aids in the ability to track a document from Open, to Released, through Pending Approval, etc.
Another consideration is the field length differences for Remit-To ID’s coming from GP. BC's address code length is a whopping 10 characters, while GP's is 50% longer at 15 characters. This may not be a problem for many users, but it's worth noting because it affects a number of master record migrations for customers as well as vendors.
The start of a new Purchase Invoice transaction gets default field values from the vendor, so ensure your vendor records are set up as completely as possible before entering any kind of invoice in Business Central. 0It also may pick up a default posting date (which may or may not be the correct one), depending on the module setup in BC.
BC also has a Purchase Order entry window, and that is NOT part of this post. Stay tuned for more because that requires a completely separate analysis!
For those GP users who like their Revenue and Expense Deferral module, Business Central has you covered on your Purchase Invoice lines. It handles the accounting and the revenue recognition over the assigned period if the feature is used.
For those who utilize Recurring Payables Batches in GP, a comparable solution in Business Central would likely be the Recurring Purchase Lines feature, where a vendor’s default G/L distribution information is saved to a card, and a repeatable invoice can be generated over and over again. Many times vendor transactions use the same general ledger accounts over and over for their purchase invoices, and these can be preconfigured on the vendor to speed along and bring more accuracy to data entry. Both Dynamics GP and BC have a Default Purchase Accounts / Codes option, however they function slightly differently. I like the way BC works more than GP because it has more flexibility for grouping GL accounts and a variety of behavioral configuration options for the end user.
While BC does not offer the same User-Defined Field options or flexibility out-of-the-box that GP does, Purchase Invoices do offer a number of additional places to tuck-in meaningful data about an invoice using document Comments, Attachments, and Notes. In GP, we could use the document’s Note field, which had 32k characters available to us, but often we only needed a couple of lines, so the multiple BC features help a lot and provide better structure and reportability overall than GP did.
A nice feature BC has is the ability to use Comments as a line type, which allows many rows of free-text comments to be added ‘free of charge’ and helps users by giving the ability to be more descriptive about specific charges on the document.
The Information Pane on the right-side of the Purchase Invoice page has two sides to it. The Details pane provides statistics, drill-through reports, and intelligence about the vendor. The Attachments pane shows related Attachments, Documents, and Notes. These can be added or removed as needed.
In GP, we rely heavily on the Batch Edit List report to confirm all of the general ledger distributions were right before posting. In BC, there are three methods to preview this information; the first is using the Preview Posting page from the Home menu, and the second is the Test Report under Actions. Thirdly, and my favorite way of previewing all of the transaction lines about to post is to use the Purchase Lines page. This amazing list page can turn into an Analysis View report with the click of a button, and enable the summarization, grouping and filtering necessary for review prior to posting the documents from the Purchase Invoices page. It’s a lot like using a SmartList to do the preview-posting work, and is highly efficient.
Once the invoices are posted in BC, they move to the Posted Purchase Invoices and Posted Purchase Lines tables and no longer appear in the Purchase Invoices list (remember - no batches in BC!). Any documents that were not selected for posting or errored out during posting are left behind in the list.
The payables documents also appear in the Vendor Ledger Entries page, where the page display is dynamic through date-driven color-coding and personalization. This page is a key utility player, and used by everyone just like they would the Payables Transaction by Vendor inquiry window in GP.
Much like Dynamics GP, Vendor 1099 tax functionality in Business Central initially begins on the Vendor Card, where their Tax ID, Tax Identification Type, and IRS 1099 Code are chosen. Commonly-used codes in the pre-determined list within BC would be MISC-01 or NEC-01. While there are currently 1099 changes afoot in an upcoming release of BC, the examples below currently show how individual G/L line distributions on a Purchase Invoice can be flagged as 1099-eligible or not.
In Dynamics GP you can Void Payables Transactions to reverse them from the GL and the vendor ledger. In BC you have the more automated and varied options of Canceling, Correcting or just Creating a Corrective Credit Memo for your posted purchase invoices. Thankfully, financial dimensions can also simply be Corrected after posting to the general ledger, so voiding is less common or necessary for some types of adjustments.
Thanks for sticking in there for another lengthy write up.
You can now enjoy the Payables Invoicing for GP to BC comparison images below.
GP Payables Transaction Entry Windows
GP Vendor History Inquiry
Dynamics 365 Business Central - Purchase Invoice Entry Page
BC Purchase Invoice Details, Notes, Attachments, and Comments
BC Posting Preview and Test Report
BC Vendor Ledger Entries
BC Expense Deferral Schedule
BC Default Vendor Purchase Accounts
BC Posted Invoice Corrections and Cancelation
Overall….
Transitioning from Dynamics GP to Business Central involves several considerations, especially regarding payables invoices. While BC offers flexibility and personalization across the board, there are notable differences in field lengths, document types, numbering, posting, and user-defined fields between these ERP systems. Understanding these differences and planning accordingly can help ensure a smooth and efficient transition for your organization.
I’m grateful should this experience or these insights be helpful to you on your journey…until next post!