One way small to medium-sized businesses can improve the speed and accuracy of their financial processes is through software integration. If your role is in finance, then you know how time-consuming manual entries and workarounds can be.
Fortunately, best-of-breed platforms, like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, provide a comprehensive view of multiple areas of a business: finance, sales, service, and operations. On top of Microsoft’s suite of tools, external platforms like customer relationship management (CRM) software, eCommerce platforms, project management solutions, and more can be integrated with the platform.
Although integrating most of your tech stack sounds magical, let's start with one integration connecting your ERP and payment processor: Business Central + Stripe.
Why is ERP integration important to scaling businesses?
Business leaders often identify a need for software integration when high volume data wacks their team in the face. Depending on your scenario, “data” could mean more customers, orders, products, transactions, subscriptions—the list goes on. Turns out, the manual processes and workarounds that teams once used before are no longer sustainable.
For finance teams working in an ERP software, automated financial workflows between other core apps can dramatically shift their roles and the business. Instead of focusing too much on data entry, teams can be empowered with real-time data and spend more time building financial strategies.
Benefits for small to medium-sized businesses include the ability to:
- Reduce month-end close times and increase your financial reporting speed
- Transform raw numbers into actionable insights with real-time analytics you can trust
- Enhance liquidity management and fortify your working capital position
- Minimize data silos and fuel cross-functional efficiency for rapid scalability
- Improve compliance with financial controls and streamlined audit processes
Now, let's get into the 5 ways integrating Business Central and Stripe optimizes cash flow...
#1: Real-Time Invoice Sync
A core feature of integrating Business Central and Stripe is syncing invoices between systems. This automation can empower accounting and finance teams to collect payments and to settle the books faster.
How it works
Posted Invoices in Business Central are synced to Stripe as Finalized Invoices. This creates a permalink (a Stripe payment page) on the invoice in Business Central. That permalink can then be used to send to customers for faster payment collection and reconciliation in Business Central.
Core Benefits
- Automatic Payment Reflection: Payments made in Stripe are pulled into Business Central, providing a real-time view of paid and outstanding invoices
- Enhanced Cash Flow Visibility: Finance teams can monitor cash flow more efficiently and use accurate data to improve decision making
#2: Automated Payment Reconciliation
Integration between Stripe and Business Central removes manual workarounds needed to reflect transactions in your ERP. Along with payments comes supporting data, such as customers, products, and more associated with a sale. With automation, transactional data is synced over accurately and 24/7.
How it works
When a customer successfully pays an invoice, a customer payment is created and posted to a Payment Journal in Business Central. Whenever a payout is delivered by Stripe, a batch of journal lines are created in a General Journal. Those lines are then posted.
Core Benefits
- Reduced Manual Entries: Automated workflows eliminate the need to manually reconcile payments, saving time and reducing human error. More time equals more attention on strategic efforts
- Accurate Financial Statements: Simplified payment processing means that financial statements are always up-to-date and accurate, resulting in better financial reporting
#3: Streamlined AR Management (Credit Notes/Memos)
For any adjustment made to invoices—including corrections in errors and discounts applied for returned or damaged goods—the integration can ensure credit notes and credit memos are in sync between platforms.
How it works
Credit Notes created in Stripe are synced to the corresponding invoice in Business Central as Credit Memos. The Credit Memo in Business Central will sync all lines into one line sent to the Goodwill account. A second option, that isn't as common but is available, is to sync Credit Memos on open invoices only to Stripe.
Core Benefits
- Simplified Adjustments: Edits and changes to invoices in the form of a credit note/memo can be reflected accurately and automatically. No more bouncing between platforms required
- Improved Customer Service: With more ease and accuracy in managing credit notes/memos, customers receive clear and on-time communication of their updated invoices
#4: Enhanced Reporting and Analytics
Manual accounting processes tend to make month-end close and generating financial statements a pain. With 24/7 automation in place, generating reports takes less time and effort when you have accurate data at hand.
Core Benefits
- Stay Compliant with Ease: With reconciliations requiring less manual effort, teams can generate financial statements faster and with more confidence
- Improved Customer Experience: When orders, sales, and more are processed faster on the backend, customers can receive timely access to payment history and more
#5: Automated Sales Tax Calculation
If you're using Stripe's Tax product, an integration to Business Central provides finance teams in the ERP with an easy way to manage sales tax. This makes processes for filing taxes less painful for finance teams.
How it works
When using the Stripe Tax integration, all tax collection responsibilities can fall back to Stripe. No need to worry about maintaining tax rules manually for each jurisdiction that you collect in.
Create your invoices as you usually would, select the Stripe Tax Code that best matches what you're selling, and click the “Calculate Tax Using Stripe Tax” button. Tax data will be pulled accurately from Stripe, and it will be represented in your pending invoice.
After posting the invoice, the tax will show correctly on the posted invoice as well as in the corresponding GL lines. Stripe's tax product will help you file with ease by providing reports for each market that you’re registered in.
Core Benefits
- Reduce Risks: Automatic tax calculations between multiple systems eliminate the potential for manual human error to occur. Stripe automatically calculates sales tax whenever a region requires it
Easier Tax Filing: When taxes are synced to Stripe, teams have the ability to generate comprehensive reports and documents needed for tax filing
How much does it cost to integrate Business Central and Stripe?
The cost to integrate Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Stripe depends on several factors, including the need for either a one-way or bi-directional data sync, the complexity of processes and data, the integration method, and API availability or documentation.
In our experience as integration consultants, the cost for integrations (or some people call them connectors) include:
- In-app Integration: Free to low cost
- Many SaaS applications offer free or low-cost in-app "connectors"
- Estimated cost: Free to $ (varies by publisher)
- Standard Integrations:
- Pre-built integrations addressing common use cases
- Estimated cost: $5,000 - $15,000
- Custom Integrations:
- Tailored solutions for specific business needs
- Estimated cost: $20,000 - $100,000+
Ouch! The cost for some standard and custom integrations might scare most people off, but consider this: automation can reduce manual data entry by 30% or more, minimize errors that can cost up to 1-2% annual revenue, and improve on-time payments by 15-25%.
Which integration method is right for my business?
It’s important to remember integrations are not set and forget. That being said, they require dedicated resources and experts to maintain over time.
As business scales, internal processes and technology usage could change—signaling a need for updates to the integration. Fairly often, cloud-based applications undergo updates to their API (Application Programming Interface), which can interrupt the sync between systems. To avoid operational disruptions, it’s crucial to have eyes on the integration and major software announcements.
Managed Integrations with Venn Technology
Deciding whether to outsource an integration or build in house can be tricky. Internally-built solutions might provide a better sense of control, but the complexities, cost, and time requirements often outweigh the benefits.
Our consultants at Venn Technology aren't just great at breaking down data silos with technical expertise. They ask questions to understand how your team uses technology and what more they can achieve with automated solutions. Our mission: Integrate. Automate. Be Free!
We’d love to chat about how your team is leveraging Business Central. Give us a shout to schedule a consultation with one of our integration experts.
