What’s new in Zetadocs Expenses July 2017 update

Project accounting

This article describes the new features and other improvements in the July 2017 release of the Zetadocs Expenses service.

Changes in this update

Feature enhancements

Delegate approval task

We have added a Delegate option to the approval task screen.  This can be used when a report needs to be approved by a different person or by an additional person – eg if the total value is above a manager’s sign-off limit.  This can be used by managers (with approver role), and by the finance processor.

Reclaim personal mileage with fuel reimbursement

We have added a new reimbursement option for vehicle types, for businesses which pay for vehicle fuel then reclaim the cost of personal (non-business) mileage from the employee using a fixed mileage rate.  This enables the business to reclaim this cost as part of the expenses process without requiring separate calculation and processing of the reclaim.  The reclaim amount is exported to NAV as part of the Vehicle Report.

This feature was previously available for preview on selected accounts, and has now been released for use on all accounts

Reclaim VAT on mileage allowances

UK companies can now configure the system to reclaim VAT on business mileage.  This can be used whether the company is reimbursing fuel or mileage to the employee, and is configured on the Vehicle Type settings screen.

Note that if you enable the Reclaim Sales Tax option you must also enable the Use Fuel Receipts option due to an issue with this software release – see the Known Issues section below for further details.

This feature was previously available for preview on selected accounts, and has now been released for use on all accounts

Export non-reimbursable mileage records

Mileage expenses which are not reimbursed can now be exported to NAV.  This enables a company to recharge mileage to a NAV jobs even when the employee is being reimbursed for fuel rather than reimbursed at a fixed mileage rate.

This feature was previously available for preview on selected accounts, and has now been released for use on all accounts

NAV Jobs and Tasks

You can now configure custom properties to export to NAV Job, Job Task or Job Line Type fields.  This enables companies to track expenditure on a project basis and recharge to their customers using standard NAV functionality.

This release includes the following changes since the previous preview release:

• NAV Dimensions are now set correctly on export when job and task values were being set.  Previously the dimension values were ignored when job and task values were exported.
• Export of job line type now supported with NAV 2017.  With the previous preview release of this feature the NAV Connector rejected the new field names introduced with NAV 2017 causing the export process to fail.

This feature was previously available for preview on selected accounts, and has now been released for use on all accounts

Vehicle and mileage improvements

We have extended Vehicle Reports to include personal cars when the company pays for fuel rather than mileage.  This simplifies display and approval of Expense Reports, since all mileage records on an Expense Report will now be reimbursable.  We have also improved layout and usability of the new Vehicle Type settings screen to simplify the configuration process.

Support for new credit card types

We have added support for NatWest Mastercard and Barclaycard Visa transaction file formats, for use when importing transactions from a CSV file.

Credit card transaction import improvements

We have improved the process for importing credit card transactions using a CSV file, including the following changes:

• The client now displays a confirmation screen giving transaction details before creating payment card reports
• Error reporting if the transaction file format is incorrect has been improved
• The system now supports card suffixes with more than 4 digits for use when two cards have the same 4 digit suffix
• Card transactions for a single credit card can imported using a multi-card file, making it easier for a finance administrator to repeat the import process for one user if needed
• The transaction line detailing payment of the previous credit card statement is now ignored on import.

Use of multiple accounts with a shared NAV server

The NAV Connector now supports exporting from two or more Zetadocs Expenses accounts to NAV companies on a single NAV server.  The companies can reside in a single NAV database or separate NAV databases.  This improves support for businesses using multiple NAV companies, and allows use with multi-tenant hosted NAV systems.

This change requires the Zetadocs Connector and associated codeunits to be updated on the NAV server computer.

Report display improvements

We have improved the client report displays, to improve clarity and usability.  Long lists are now abbreviated with a Show More option, lists include column totals, and field order and naming has been adjusted to improve consistency across reports.  This improves the user experience particularly on smaller devices.

Expense total for chargeable business expenses

Fuel receipts which are not chargeable to the business are now excluded from the expense total which is displayed on reports.  The amount is also omitted from the expense list on the report.  This helps approvers understand the total cost to the business for the expenses which they are approving and matches expected behavior for the finance team.

Eque2 EVision support

Eque2 EVision is a software product built on NAV.  It customizes NAV behavior so that setting a NAV dimension value for a purchase invoice line causes the GL code and line amount to be reset.  We have changed the way the NAV Connector sets fields on export to support this custom behavior, enabling use with Eque2 EVision and other NAV products which use a similar approach.

This change requires the Zetadocs Connector and associated codeunits to be updated on the NAV server computer.

Preview features

NAV OData integration

The OData integration mechanism has been withdrawn from preview, due to issues with use of standard NAV pages on systems where these have been customized, and limitations in the current OData implementation in NAV.

Quality and performance improvements

This update includes a number of quality and performance improvements, including the following changes.

Exporting reports with negative totals

When exporting an Expense Report or other report type, the system now creates a Credit Memo rather than a Purchase Invoice if the total amount is negative.  Previously it created a Purchase Invoice with a negative total, which could not be posted in NAV.

This change requires the Zetadocs Connector and associated codeunits to be updated on the NAV server computer.

VAT amount for multiple item expenses

For UK users, the VAT amount is now displayed correctly for expenses with multiple items if VAT can be reclaimed on only some of the items.  Previously the VAT amount was exported correctly, but the amount displayed in expense lists gave the total VAT amount for all items.

Additional upgrade steps

Zetadocs Expenses Connector for NAV

This release is compatible with older versions of the Zetadocs Expenses Connector and NAV codeunits.

Some features in this release require the Zetadocs Expenses Connector and NAV codeunits to be upgraded.  This is noted against each feature above.  Please contact Equisys for further information.

Mobile apps

Installed mobile apps will be updated automatically on mobile devices where this is enabled.

Known issues with released features

Vehicle fuel receipts setting

The Use Fuel Receipts setting on the Vehicle Type screen must be enabled if the Reclaim Sales Tax setting is enabled.

If the Use Fuel Receipts setting is disabled in this configuration, submitting a Vehicle Report for approval fails, leaving the report in the Draft “ready for submission” state, and causing the app to show that there are unsaved changes.

If this issue occurs, you can correct it by enabling the Use Fuel Receipts setting, then asking the user to sign out of the app, sign in, then submit the Vehicle Report again.

This issue will be corrected in the next release.