Transpas can connect to a large number of financial systems. This is done through a link.
See the page below for a list of supported financial systems.
When establishing or transferring this link, there are multiple points of interest.
These points are divided into categories below.
We talk of establishing a link when a Transpas administration is to be linked to a financial systems with which it doesn't have a connection at that time. We talk of transferring when a company changes to a different variant of a financial systems. An example of transferring would be moving from Exact Globe (hosted on premise) to Exact Online (cloud hosted).
Before we can start establishing a link a connection has to be set up between Transpas and the financial system.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of connections to financial systems:
The first is to a systems of which the data is stored in a database that resides on the server of the customer.
For this type of link Transpas and the financial system exchange information through a local connection. The exact nature and conditions of the connection are different for each financial system. It is therefore important to define how the connection is made and what these conditions are at an early stage.
The second way is through web requests. For this method the two packages send each other messages through an internet connection. Contrary to the first method web requests are by definition two-way traffic, this means Transpas usually gets more feedback. This method is often used for cloud hosted packages, but can also apply to packages of which the data is stored locally on the server of our customer.
For the establishment of a link an important difference between these two types of connections is that local databases usually only work on computers/servers on which the financial system is also installed.
When Transpas generated error messages referring to a COM object, this is the case. For web requests it is only necessary that Transpas can connect to the web domain. Be advised that it is still possible for messages to be blocked by for instance a firewall.
A second point of interest is the master data in Transpas.
Transpas first creates a booking internally and then sends it to the financial system.
To make sure these bookings are received in good order it is essential that the master data in Transpas and in the financial system match.
The master data that Transpas uses for creating financial bookings are:
Other master data that Transpas uses for exporting invoices are:
For the first set of master data it is customary that Transpas can collect or import these from the financial system. Financial relations are different. There are multiple financial systems (but not all of them) where Transpas can maintain its own database of relation based on the relations in the financial system. Then a choice will have to be made which is leading: Transpas or the financial system.
Doing relationship management in two places usually means doing double the work or database contamination.
Depending on the financial system the information above will have to be imported into or collected by Transpas.
Collecting master data doesn't work in all financial systems and only after the connection to the financial system has been made.
On the positive side: Transpas then does the data entry itself.
After the master data has been copied to Transpas the financial settings can be done.
The settings use the master data and determine what messages to the financial system will look like. Master data which is not used in the settings will not be used by Transpas.
The settings are recorded in multiple places within Transpas:
With these Transpas determines which ledger accounts are used when creating journal entries.
There are ledgeraccountrules for several booking types. Most used are those for shipments and saleslines. Which ledgeraccountrules a company needs depend upon the activities of that company and should be assessed.
The ledgeraccountrules are set in the companies screen.
The invoice groups tab sheet in the company screen contains multiple settings which are relevant to the financial system.
The setting which should be made first is the default journal. When it is possible to send documents to a financial system (for instance invoice PDFs) you can set here which document types should be sent.
With these Transpas determines which VAT-code is used for a purchase or invoice line (for instance on shipments) and which VAT-codes should be sent to the financial system.
Here the payment terms which Transpas uses are listed.
Depending on the financial system it may be necessary to send these as well.
These are only relevant when cost carriers or cost centers are used.
Just like ledgeraccountrules these rulesets are split into conditions per type (shipment, trip costs, etc.). Per company you can set which rulesets are to be used in the companies screen.
With dynamic rulesets you should take into account that the source should have the cost carrier / cost center.
When the truck of a trip should be used as the cost carrier for the trip costs, then a cost carrier should be filled in for this truck.
Booking codes are used as templates for invoice lines.
This is useful when users manually create invoice lines, but certain restriction are in order. Booking codes have their own ledger account and VAT-code settings, so when booking codes are (to be) used these values will have to be set as well.
When an already operational Transpas installation will be connected to a new financial system, there are some points of interest. These are timing, master data and the setup.
A company in Transpas has one financial link & setup.
Creating a full link + setup, as you have seen in the text above, is not a simple task. Switching between different systems therefore is impractical.
When a transfer to another financial system is needed, plan the moment of the transfer carefully. Make sure all bookings which belong in the old system have been processed before you make the switch.
When there is overlap between the master data of the old and new system (for instance ledger account numbers are the same) then you should carefully find out whether both systems use the same codes for the same values.
Simply put Transpas forces unique values per company for the master data which is sent to financial systems.
When this is not done, there is a risk that data of old shipments, cost lines and invoices is overwritten.
An example would be shipments of two years ago that suddenly have a different VAT percentage.
It is advisable to make sure the overlap between the old and new financial system is either 100% or 0%.
With a 0% overlap Transpas has 2 sets for all master data where the financial system is leading: 1 for the old systems and 1 for the new system. The old bookings keep there references to the old set of master data, and the new bookings get references to the new master data.
This effectively protects the old data, but a new set of rules and terms will have to be made to apply the new master data references.
These can get a starting date which is equal to the date of transfer.
To correctly establish or transfer a link to a financial system is a process which can cost a lot of time for our consultants.
When switching to a financial system of a different supplier, for instance from AccountView to Exact, a new financial system link will have to be purchased. This includes implementation costs.
When switching to a different variant of the same financial system (for instance from Exact Globe to Exact Online) the expended hours are invoiced based on subsequent calculation.
In both cases the procedure will take less time when the points of interest mentioned above are taken into account at an early stage.
The less questions there are, the quicker an implementation is done.
For questions or a free quote contact our helpdesk.