The main purpose of ERP integration is to ensure data accuracy and timeliness. There are various benefits of ERP integration such as having centralised data, reduction in human errors, as well as having a more automated process which results in time savings and higher work efficiency. 

We have summarised some integration examples of how our customers have increased productivity with their SAP Business One system:   

1. EDI with Customers and Suppliers

SAP Business One is able to integrate to various online E-commerce platforms such as Magento, Zalora, Shopify, Mailchimp, Salesforce and more. If your customers make orders on these platforms, the customer’s order will be auto-created as a Sales Order in your SAP B1 system.

You can also take a step further to integrate SAP B1 with your supplier’s ERP system, such that when sending this Purchase Order to your supplier, a Sales Order will be auto-created in your supplier’s system. 

2. Integration with InvoiceNow

InvoiceNow is a nation-wide initiative launched by IMDA in 2019 which allows direct transmission of invoices in structured digital format from one finance system to another, creating a seamless business environment. This network is an extension of the International Peppol E-Delivery Network, allowing our enterprises to transact internationally with other linked companies.

With the InvoiceNow network, the invoice data will be integrated between your SAP Business One ERP and your vendor/ customer’s InvoiceNow-ready solution. This reduces manual and repetitive tasks, such as generating invoices and emailing to your customers/ suppliers.

3. SAP Business One – Payment Wizard

Assuming you have already integrated your invoicing process following the above methods, there is another feature in SAP Business One that can help speed up your payment processing to suppliers.

In the SAP B1 system, you can set up rules to filter the suppliers or supplier group that you would like to make payment to, selection priority for invoices, and SAP Business One will generate a Recommendation Report to show you the recommended invoice payment priority. 

With the SAP Business One Payment Wizard, you do not need to run Ageing reports and manually pick out the high-priority invoices to pay. 

4. SAP Business One – Electronic File Payment 

You may also consider integrating SAP B1 with your bank – DBS, Citibank or HSBC. With this integration, you can upload your payment instructions in the bank portal and the bank will process your payments automatically. 

It is also possible for a host-to-host integration with the bank to remove the need to upload payment instructions; your payment instructions from SAP Business One will be automatically sent to the bank portal for payment processing.   

5. SAP Business One – Bank Reconciliation (via Bank Statement Processing)

This is a pressing issue for every accounts team at the end of the month. Under the Bank Statement feature in SAP Business One, you can define the matching criteria in system and SAP Business One will automatically check through the criteria to perform the matching. 

This helps to speed up your accounting processes and reduce manual errors.

6. Integration with SAP Concur (Expense Management System)

We have used SAP Concur in this scenario as an example, however the same integration logic extends for integration to other expense management systems, or the expense management feature in your HR system. 

SAP Concur will provide an expense file and we will need to provide a SFTP site to receive the file and import into SAP Business One as an AP Invoice. According to your organisation’s requirements, you can choose to export it daily or monthly. 

7. Integration between WMS and SAP Business One on Goods Receipt PO Process

Integrating SAP Business One to your WMS system can help to automate your supply chain processes.  For instance, when your warehouse staff uses their handheld devices to scan goods received, the inventory information will be updated in your SAP Business One system. 

The abovementioned integration examples are just some of the more straightforward scenarios for easier understanding – if you have any in-house or 3rd-party systems which are capable of exporting/receiving data, we will be able to perform the integration for you.  

Discussion points for Integration Requirements

There are various points to consider before you can finalise your integration requirements – here is a quick summary;

• Technical documentation – e.g. API details and file formats.
• One-way or two-way integration?
• Batch integration or real-time?
• Any preferred integration methods/file formats?
• What are the transactions involved?
• If it’s needed to update transaction, what about master files? Which system creates master files like customer/supplier, item master, price list – ERP or 3rd party?
• What if there are changes after the transaction is created – e.g. Sales Order is created and there are changes.
• Will one file have one transaction or many?
• Is there any cancellation scenario?
• Will there be any partial scenario like partial payment, partial delivery?
• If there is more than one transaction in a single file and there is an error, would you like to roll back everything or only successful transactions should allow to create?
• Any requirements for error/trace log for failed invoices?
• How many entities involved in this integration?
• FTP/SFTP site, web server/VM requirements.
• Consideration of implementation cost from both parties – Inecom and integration partners.

If you would like to further explore SAP Business One or find out more about SAP Business One integrations, do contact us at 62259255 or enquiries@inecomworld.com.