Why Microsoft is boosting banking integration, e-payment in Dynamics NAV 2013 R2

When it is released in October, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 will offer new features to automate and improve the cash management processes.

The new release will let customers register payments more quickly to ensure faster business processes with fewer human errors. Customers can import electronic payment files from banks and use them for payment registrations. Manual and automated bank reconciliations are also possible, with the option to import bank statements from banks and reconcile automatically. A simple tool can be used to set up automation, handle exceptions, and complete the reconciliation process.

Additionally, in NAV 2013 R2, bank statements can be imported from third party providers. The same functionality will allow partners to build their own integrations to banks. The new release can also export payment data to an electronic bank file in SEPA (the Single European Payment Area) compliant format. That means the user can integrate electronically with any bank in the Single European Payment Area and get higher efficiency in the payment process end-to-end.

Although Microsoft is calling these enhancements "cash management," the main themes are the integrations with banks and the future "electronification" of payments from the receiving side - getting paid by customers - and from the supplier side - how NAV customers pay their suppliers, said Henry Ijams, Managing Director, PayStream Advisors Inc.

"What's happening is that the European market is highly electronic in its payments as opposed to the US. More than seventy percent of payments in Europe are made to suppliers electronically," he said. "Because of those payments being moved through various systems, it's important for NAV to ...