The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 16^th/17^th of December. See below the updates made in this release.

What’s New

This release introduces a new notifications engine with settings for the notifications received editable at the user level. It is also now possible to add multi-factor authentication for accessing your account, there are improvements to the Twinfield integration, improved display of items with multiple rows of fields, along with many other improvements.

In App Notifications

With the introduction of in application notifications it will be much easier to keep track of any updates directly in the application. A notification bell beside the user settings link at the top right of the screen will highlight with a red circle to let you know you have notifications. How many notifications you have will be shared by a number showing in the circle. 

These new notifications are in addition to the standard email notifications already sent from the application. By default all of the notifications will be shared in both formats. But there is also a new option to edit your user’s notification settings to choose which notifications you receive and when. Don’t want to flood your email inbox with notification emails? The power is yours! You can access the relevant settings from the User Settings page (the link with your user name beside the notifications bell)

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication can now be enabled for any existing account of PLANERGY. When using this option users accessing the system will need to know, the login page for the account, their user email address, and their login password. They will also need an additional factor, a validation code or QR code, depending on the options chosen for MFA.

When using email for MFA a validation code will be sent to the relevant email address:

When using QR authentication a QR code will be available on the login screen that will need to be validated using a QR Authenticator App, such as Microsoft Azure Authenticator:

If you would like to implement multi-factor authentication on your PLANERGY account please contact the support team using the in-app support option or by emailing [email protected].

Multi-Line Item layout on PO and Invoice improved

When using custom fields you will have a multi-line layout for the items section. There have been some design improvements to differentiate more clearly where a row is another part of the existing line item and where the next line item begins. 

Other Improvements

• User Transaction Limit and Monthly Limit upper limit increased: You can now set these user limits to a higher value than ever before, especially useful for currencies with a low value.
• User Search by Licence Type when using Requesting: When using the Requesting module you can now search by the type of licence Request/Enterprise.
• Peoplesoft Integration Improvements: Extra flexibility added for field mapping when integrating with Peoplesoft.
• Advanced Reporting Updates: Improved controls on sharing custom reports, IE layout on Advanced Reporting Favourites page has been improved
• Smaller fixes: Issue with Control Panel Department export, duplicate order terms automatically update to the new default terms for the supplier.

The PLANERGY team have been busy over the past year improving the software. With all that has been going on in the world in 2020 it would have been easy to miss some of the great improvements that could help your company manage Procure-to-Pay better than ever.

To help fill you in on anything you might have missed we have asked some of the key members of our team to rate the features and improvements they consider to be the best from the past year. Here is our summary of the best of the best from a great year of improvements at PLANERGY as we turn the page to hopefully a much more positive 2021 for the world as a whole.

Marija Topovic, CTO:

1. AP Max – AP Automation Module (OCR and AI Invoice Processing)
2. Supplier Acceptance of the PO and Confirmed Delivery Date
3. Requesting Module
4. Amazon Catalog Integration and Punch Out Catalog Integration
5. API

Vilmos Kocis, PLANERGY Product Manager:

1. Requesting Module
2. Amazon Catalog Integration, Punch Out Catalog Integration
3. Supplier Acceptance of the PO and Confirmed Delivery Date
4. AP Max – AP Automation Module (OCR and AI Invoice Processing)
5. Improved and New Graph Reports

Keith Murphy, Head of Content:

1. AP Max – AP Automation Module (OCR and AI Invoice Processing)
2. Integrations Improvements (Xero, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, NetSuite) – including automating export of authorized invoices
3. Amazon Catalog Integration, Punch Out Catalog Integration
4. Improved and New Graph Reports
5. Requesting Module

There is a lot of overlap in the lists but in all cases they are some really useful features. Here is why we feel these improvements should help with your procurement and accounts payable functions.

AP Max – AP Automation Module (OCR and AI Invoice Processing)

Keith: “Manual invoice processing is a slow, time-consuming waste of human effort. This new module, first made available in the summer of 2020, uses modern technology to help reduce AP processing costs by up to 80%. This ties in directly with all the existing AP controls already available in the software. With the procurement data available in PLANERGY this results in a much better version of AP Automation than is available in standalone systems that focus only on invoice processing.”

Supplier Acceptance of the PO and Confirmed Delivery Date

Marija: “Receiving confirmed acceptance of a PO from the supplier is an important part of the process if you want to consider the document as legally binding. Using this feature, you will easily know if supplier has seen and/or accepted the PO and you could plan your work by delivery date confirmed by supplier. All fully tracked in the POs audit trail.”

Requesting Module

Vilmos: “Now your entire team can be given access to request without needing to know relevant suppliers or other information. No need to get requests for purchasing via email, phone or any other application, everything can be in one place, with approval and granular permissions, fully integrated in PLANERGY.”

Amazon Catalog Integration and Punch Out Catalog Integration

Vilmos: “Create purchase requests direct from Amazon web site, no need to copy/paste item names, price and qty from Amazon to PLANERGY. Always up to date catalog that will then process through your approval matrix in PLANERGY before finalizing the purchase.”

API

Marija: “We have focussed strongly on our options for integrating with other software and a key step for that was the release of our API in February 2020. Using the API, your company could automate processes which they need and avoid manual data export/import with whatever other systems you are using.”

Integrations Improvements (Xero, QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, NetSuite) – including automating export of authorized invoices

Keith: “Getting the various systems you use to run your company working together is of key importance and this was a focus for PLANERGY in 2020 and will continue to be in 2021. The API was greatly important but I think improvements for our direct integrations were also great steps forward as these integrations are ready to use straight away. There were many improvements made but the highlights for me were 1. Automated export of authorized invoices – this removes the requirement for an additional manual step to push the invoices into your accounting software or ERP after they have been authorized. 2. Scheduled import of data into PLANERGY – regular scheduled checks for changes to your data in your accounting software or ERP and any updates or new data will be imported automatically to PLANERGY to keep all your data fully aligned.”

Improved and New Graph Reports

Keith: “PLANERGY has very powerful, customizable reporting options. In 2020 we saw the introduction of some great standard reports that give better visual representation of the information to help power more analytical and strategic decision making. The improved Check Budgets graphs for approvers makes it much easier to make approval decisions. The Expenditure and Invoiced Bar Chart gives really great insight for budgeting and AP. Sometimes a bit of eye candy in your reporting goes a long way!”

In case you missed the full updates related to these features when they were released, they are included in full below. Improvements related to the integrations are not included as there have been numerous small releases over the course of the year, but they add up to a much, smoother, better, and more flexible integration experience.

Requesting Module

The new Requesting module allows users to make a new type of request which is not directly converted into a Purchase Order. This will allow you to keep all requests in one place even those that previously may have been handled outside the system and inputted by a buyer. The cost of a user with access only to the Requesting module will be much less than a full PLANERGY user.

You can define a completely separate approval workflow for these requests and, if approved, they can be included in a PO to go through the standard PO approval process. The request module also has a full set of separate user permissions with the same granular control as is available for POs. A requester with access to this module can be restricted to only see requests and not have access to view POs.

A requester can place a request with minimal information:

Approved requests can then be used by a user with the required permissions to create POs:

There are many use cases for the module, here are just a few:

• Pre-sourcing approval where a vendor for the purchase has not been defined yet.
• Bill of materials and other requests that include items from multiple vendors in the same request.
• To cover scenarios where the requester shouldn’t have permission to see the agreed purchase price. In that scenario they would be able to track their own item requests but not see the relevant POs.

This initial release is linked to the purchasing process but in the future the module will also be able to be used for approval requests for any number of business requirements. There are many Business Process Automation use cases including Location access requests, annual leave requests, etc.

If you would like to trial the module please reach out to the support team through the application or by emailing [email protected].

AP Max – AP Automation Module (OCR and AI Invoice Processing)

We have added a new module that ties into the existing accounts payable workflow in PLANERGY. The standard 2 or 3 way matching process will work in the same way as before with all the checks in place to ensure only correct invoices are paid. But now you will be able to process invoices at lightning speed powered by a heady cocktail of OCR and AI.

Here’s how it works:

1. Supplier Invoices Received At A Dedicated Email Address

Your suppliers can send their invoices to a dedicated email address where they will be automatically reviewed for import into PLANERGY.

2. Invoices Processed With A Mix of OCR, Machine Learning, and AI

The emails and any attached documents will be scanned and automatically matched against a relevant PO in your PLANERGY account ready for you to review. You will need to make sure your suppliers are referencing the PO number on the invoice or in the email to ensure they can be matched.

3. Automated Invoice Document Management

A new ‘Invoice Documents’ section will be available in the Accounts Payable section of your PLANERGY account storing all of your invoices ready to be matched, authorised, and processed for payment in your accounting software or ERP.

4. Match Invoices Against The PO Line Items

Select the outstanding items from the PO to match against the invoice. You will be able to match with the invoice and invoice form side by side in PLANERGY giving you all the information you need.

5. Authorize Invoices And Send For Payment

The standard authorization process to sign off on the invoices can be followed before sending them through to your accounting software or ERP for payment. No double entry, no wasted time, and no incorrect payments!

Amazon Catalog Integration

With this release you can now integrate PLANERGY with your Amazon Business account. This allows you the flexibility to order through Amazon while retaining compliance with your procurement processes in PLANERGY.

When creating orders you will start out from PLANERGY and access Amazon through the software. From there you will create the order as you normally would in Amazon using the Amazon shopping cart. Instead of placing the order immediately Amazon would push all of the data in the cart back into PLANERGY’s New Order form ready to go through the relevant approval process. When the approval process is completed the Amazon order will be automatically placed as a confirmed Purchase Order.

There will be some additional help added to the PLANERGY Help website in the near future related to this feature. In the meantime, if you would like to start using the feature please create a support ticket and the support team would be happy to help you.

PunchOut Catalog Integration

Amazon have the most commonly used PunchOut catalog but many other suppliers also use this type of electronic catalog. Dell, Roche, and many other large and smaller suppliers can be integrated with. PLANERGY can integrate with any PunchOut catalog.

If you have a specific catalog you are looking to integrate with, please create a support ticket and we would be happy to help with your specific requirements.

Supplier Acceptance of the PO

An optional step can be added to the purchase order process requiring the supplier to accept the terms of the PO and confirm the requested delivery date. When using this option the supplier can send direct communications about the PO and share a confirmed delivery timeline for the PO.

This feature introduces better communication with the supplier and ensures more accurate delivery data can be tracked in PLANERGY.

Improved and New Graph Reports

The graphical reports, mostly available in the Advanced Reporting section of PLANERGY, have received some updates to improve your ability to report and gain actionable insight from the system.

Top 5 Not Invoiced Expenditure

There is a new ‘Top 5 Not Invoiced Expenditure’ donut chart to give you the ability to report on committed spend visually. Report on Category, Cost Code, Department, Item, Location, Supplier, and User. Donut charts also have a new filter for date range to add additional flexibility.

Top 5 Pending Department Expenditure

There is a new ‘Top 5 Pending Department Expenditure’ donut chart allowing you to report on where the expenditure pending approval is assigned per department. This also includes the ability to filter by the date range of the request.

Expenditure and Invoiced Bar Chart

A whole new filterable Expenditure bar chart ‘Expenditure and Invoiced Bar Chart’ has been added to Reports & Searches > Advanced Reporting > Expenditure reports list. Report on the invoiced status of orders by month. See committed expenditure, the value already invoiced, and the remaining uninvoiced values. Data is filterable as needed by Location, Department, User, and much more.

Check Budgets Graph

The check budget graphs now also include percentage values to give you a better understanding of how much of the budget has been used and how much is still available.

Expenditure Line Graph Update

The ‘Expenditure’ line graph showing expenditure for the previous 12 months has been updated. Previously you could report by Department only. It is now also possible to report by Cost Code, User, Supplier, Item, Location, and Category.

API

Our API is now available to be used for custom integrations. We already integrate with many of the leading ERP and accounting software but if we don’t have an existing integration with your other existing software already this could be the opportunity to link PLANERGY with your other tools using our API. Create a support ticket by using the support button on the left of the screen when logged into PLANERGY, if you need help with a specific integration.

The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 12^th/13^th of December. See below the updates made in this release.

What’s New

This release introduces our new Requesting module’s beta and includes enhancements to reports, the AutoSetup wizard, and Quickbooks and Xero integrations, and a number of other smaller improvements.

Requesting Module

The new Requesting module allows users to make a new type of request which is not directly converted into a Purchase Order. This will allow you to keep all requests in one place even those that previously may have been handled outside the system and inputted by a buyer. The cost of a user with access only to the Requesting module will be much less than a full PLANERGY user.

You can define a completely separate approval workflow for these requests and, if approved, they can be included in a PO to go through the standard PO approval process. The request module also has a full set of separate user permissions with the same granular control as is available for POs. A requester with access to this module can be restricted to only see requests and not have access to view POs.

A requester can place a request with minimal information:

Approved requests can then be used by a user with the required permissions to create POs:

There are many use cases for the module, here are just a few:

• Pre-sourcing approval where a vendor for the purchase has not been defined yet.
• Bill of materials and other requests that include items from multiple vendors in the same request.
• To cover scenarios where the requester shouldn’t have permission to see the agreed purchase price. In that scenario they would be able to track their own item requests but not see the relevant POs.

This initial release is linked to the purchasing process but in the future the module will also be able to be used for approval requests for any number of business requirements. There are many Business Process Automation use cases including Location access requests, annual leave requests, etc.

If you would like to trial the module please reach out to the support team through the application or by emailing [email protected].

Custom Reporting By Invoiced Values At The PO Line Level

Reporting on the values for each line item on a PO to review the value that has been matched to any invoice, Item Invoiced Total, and the value that has been matched to an authorised invoice, Item Invoiced Total Approved, is now much easier with two additional columns available for custom reports using the Type ‘Purchase Order with Items’ in the Advanced Reporting module.

The status will indicate whether the PO has been invoiced or whether that invoice has been approved.

Export Suppliers from PLANERGY into QuickBooks Online and Xero

You can now create a new supplier in PLANERGY and export it to either QuickBooks Online or Xero. This allows for a more flexible workflow for supplier management. This is especially beneficial if you are using PLANERGY’s powerful supplier approval workflows. Previously the supplier needed to be imported from the accounting software before an invoice could be posted.

Total Including Tax Added to PO View, Print, and PDF

When using the option to include tax values on PO the Total Including Tax for the PO will now also be visible on the view, print, and PDF versions of the PO.

Hyperlink Custom Field Improved

How custom fields assigned with the Hyperlink format display in the system has been improved to include the link text, a display name, and a click-to-open link. Thank you for the feedback we have received from those using these custom fields, we hope you like the improvement!

QuickBooks Desktop Integration Has Extended Field Linking Options

Our QuickBooks Desktop integration now has further flexibility in how you link the PLANERGY fields to the QuickBooks Desktop fields

It is now possible to export the Purchase Order Cost Code to the Customer Job field on the line item of the Bill in QuickBooks Desktop. Also, the Department field in PLANERGY can now be linked to the Class field in QuickBooks Desktop. This is managed in the settings of the QuickBooks Desktop integration tool.

You can find the download for the latest version of the QuickBooks Desktop Importer Tool here.

Other Improvements

• Duplicate Purchase Order button renamed to ‘Replicate’: The ‘Duplicate’ button in the Repeat Order and View Purchase Order sections has been renamed to ‘Replicate’. The functionality is the same but our UX team have been juggling with semantics to make things clearer.
• Amazon Punchout: A small issue with the Amazon UK address format has now been fixed.
• Purchase Order tax calculation: Calculation when assigning tax to items on an order has been improved.

What’s New

This release includes a number of improvements to the approval workflows. A new option to send a requisition back to the original requester to make amendments, link to next order in the Your Orders section, along with some smaller improvements throughout the software.

Amend Order During The Approval Process

A new option has been added to the approval process allowing the approver to send a requisition back to the requester to make amendments. This allows the requisition number to stay the same and the changes to be tracked all in one place.

The requester will receive a notification about the request and when they access the requisition will have the option to make amendments before sending it back through the approval process.

Previously to achieve a similar result the approver would Reject the requisition and share a reason for the rejection. The requester would then have to use Repeat Order and select the rejected requisition, make any amendments, and send the new requisition with a new requisition number through for approval. The new workflow should save you time when you need to make amendments to a requisition.

The [Get Approval] and [Reject] buttons are no longer directly visible on the page. They are accessible from the downward arrows beside the [Approve] and [Requester Amend] buttons. Get Approval is available from the Approve arrow, Reject is available from the Requester Amend Arrow.

View Next Order In Your Orders Lists

We have received some feedback from users that it was hard to navigate through the orders waiting for your attention. We have listened and made some improvements to help with this.

When viewing a requisition that you have accessed from the Waiting For Approval or Approved section there will be an option to move to the next order in the list directly from the PO. A green arrow above the status on the top right of the screen will link to the next PO.

Other Improvements

• New Order Form Unicode Improvements: The searches on the New Order form have been improved for various different characters resulting in a much better search function for various different languages.
• Show/Hide Password On Login Page: A new option to show or hide the password entered on the login page has been added.
• Tax Total on PO included on print and PDF: When using the option to include tax values on PO the tax total for the PO will now also be visible on the print and PDF versions of the PO.

The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 19^th/20^th of September. See below the updates made in the latest release.

What’s New

This release includes the release of our Punchout and Amazon integration options to allow you to use any compatible webshop with PLANERGY along with a number of other updates and improvements.

Amazon Catalog Integration

With this release you can now integrate PLANERGY with your Amazon Business account. This allows you the flexibility to order through Amazon while retaining compliance with your procurement processes in PLANERGY.

When creating orders you will start out from PLANERGY and access Amazon through the software. From there you will create the order as you normally would in Amazon using the Amazon shopping cart. Instead of placing the order immediately Amazon would push all of the data in the cart back into PLANERGY’s New Order form ready to go through the relevant approval process. When the approval process is completed the Amazon order will be automatically placed as a confirmed Purchase Order.

There will be some additional help added to the PLANERGY Help website in the near future related to this feature. In the meantime, if you would like to start using the feature please create a support ticket and the support team would be happy to help you.

PunchOut Catalog Integration

Amazon have the most commonly used PunchOut catalog but many other suppliers also use this type of electronic catalog. Dell, Roche, and many other large and smaller suppliers can be integrated with. PLANERGY can integrate with any PunchOut catalog.

If you have a specific catalog you are looking to integrate with, please create a support ticket and we would be happy to help with your specific requirements.

Custom Fields in the Receiving Step

Custom fields assigned to the PO or PO line item now have an additional option. You can set individual custom fields to be visible during the receiving step. So if the information is relevant when the items are being received they can be made visible on the Receive Items form.

We have received a few requests for this one, so thank you for the feedback!

Other Integration Updates

We have made a number of other improvements to the existing API integrations available for PLANERGY.

QuickBooks Canada Support Added

It is now possible to integrate with QuickBooks accounts in Canada. The integration works the same as QuickBooks integrations in all other regions.

Exact Netherlands Support Added

It is now possible to integrate with Exact accounts in Netherlands. The integration works the same as Exact integrations in all other regions.

Xero Integration Accepts Discounted Prices

Our Xero integration has been updated to integrate better with prices set with a discount in PLANERGY. If you are tracking discounts in PLANERGY this will now come through to Xero at the correct discounted rates.

Other Improvements

• Supplier PO Acceptance Notifications: Improved email notifications related to actions carried out by the supplier when using the Supplier PO Acceptance process. Notifications for Accept, Reject, Comment, Confirmed Delivery Date Update.
• Integration Import History For Tax, GL Code, and Terms: For integrations where they can be imported there is now a full import history tracked for Tax, GL Codes, and Terms. This works similarly to existing full audit trail tracking for Department and Suppliers.
• Small fixes: Improved restrictions related to the item tags feature, improved export for the Department Budget vs Expenditure with Bar Chart report, fixed some issues that occur in very specific circumstances with notifications around PO approval.

The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 29^th/30^th of August. See below the updates made in the latest release.

What’s New

This release includes some additional updates to improve our Xero integration, the option to track Tax on the PO line item level, and the introduction of the option to include supplier acceptance of the PO into the procurement workflow. Some of these improvements come on the back of the feedback we have received recently, thank you for helping us improve PLANERGY!

Supplier Acceptance of the PO

An optional step can be added to the purchase order process requiring the supplier to accept the terms of the PO and confirm the requested delivery date. When using this option the supplier can send direct communications about the PO and share a confirmed delivery timeline for the PO.

This feature introduces better communication with the supplier and ensures more accurate delivery data can be tracked in PLANERGY.

Tax Codes Assigned On The PO

By default the tax codes are assigned to the invoice in PLANERGY and you can set automation for this linked to the items selected on the PO through the item catalogues. Usually that works well because the person requesting the purchases will not know the correct tax rate that should be assigned.

Some companies have shared they would prefer to be able to assign this at the PO creation stage and the good news is that this is now possible. By updating your account settings the option to select tax codes will be available on the line items of the New Order page and there will be a new tax total calculated for the PO. Automation linked to items will still happen here and the tax code assigned will automatically populate on the invoice to match what was assigned on the PO.

Xero Integration Updates

We have made a number of improvements to our Xero integration linking the two systems more fully together for a seamless Procure-to-Pay process.

Invoice Links To And From Xero

Invoices in PLANERGY will now include a button with a direct link to the bill in Xero. This makes it easier to check the relevant bill in Xero when reviewing data in Xero.

Similarly, Xero will include a link to the PLANERGY invoice so you can quickly access the data in PLANERGY directly from Xero.

If you are already using the Xero integration – only newly posted invoices will include the link back to PLANERGY. To introduce the link from PLANERGY you will need to reconnect to Xero, to do this press the disconnect button and then press the Connect button again on the Xero Settings page.

Xero Prepayment GL Codes Now Linked To PLANERGY

GL Codes assigned with the type prepayment in Xero can now be integrated with PLANERGY and will be imported and updated based on the information in your Xero account.

Sign In With Xero

For users set up in PLANERGY that also have access to Xero there is an optional feature that will allow you to login to PLANERGY using your Xero credentials.

Other Improvements

• Improved Advanced Reporting: Additional updates to custom reporting with options to add PO Requested By and Approved By columns to custom CSV exports.
• Small fixes: PO logo display updated,close invoicing button no longer available on POs that have already been fully invoiced,invoice authorization email improvements, and more.

The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 25^th/26^th of July. See below the updates made in the latest release.

What’s New

This release includes updates to some of our existing integrations, extra flexibility for our custom integrations, AP Max (our AP Automation module) improvements, custom field improvements, and out of office approval workflow improvements. Many of these are small improvements but they add up to a whole lot. We hope you agree that sometimes the small improvement, when they are the right ones, can be the best improvements.

Integration Updates

We have made a number of improvements to some of the available integrations we offer. Integrating PLANERGY and your accounting software or ERP has never been smoother.

Xero

The Xero Integration has been updated to allow values with more than 2 decimal places to be exported to Xero. Previously that was restricted to 2 decimal places. For most accounts this works perfectly well but if you are dealing with smaller value unit prices this should fix any problems you might have been experiencing.

Fixed Asset and Current Asset GL Codes can now also be integrated between PLANERGY and Xero.

QuickBooks Online Projects and Integration Audit Trail

The QuickBooks Online Integration has been updated with the QuickBooks Online Projects is now possible. Update your integration settings to link Cost Codes in PLANERGY with your Projects. Track project and job costs from the initial request stage in PLANERGY with the powerful reporting you have come to expect, all while integrating seamlessly QBO.

A new Integration History tracking every import run from QuickBooks Online account into PLANERGY has lso been added. This gives you a full audit trail of when data was imported or updated and who triggered the import, if it was not an automatically scheduled update.

Twinfield

The Twinfield Integration has been updated to make more of the integration settings available on the Twinfield Settings page in the Control. Mostly these are set and forget after the initial implementation but you can now make the updates you need for the integration as and when you need to without reaching out to the PLANERGY support team.

Oracle Peoplesoft

We have updated our custom ERP integration options to cover the standard import format used by Peoplesoft. A flat text file with separated row formats for header level information and line item information.

The column matching can be fully customised. You can match all of your Peoplesoft fields in PLANERGY using the standard fields or by adding custom fields at any location in the system. Track information from the initial purchase requisition stage right through to Peoplsoft. Automate data transfer based on the supplier or Cost Code selected.

The options for integration have never been more flexible so if you have integration requirements for Oracle Peoplesoft or any other ERP talk to our support team and they would be happy to help with your requirements.

AP Max Updates

We are now calling our AP Automation module, AP Max, for anybody who has grown to like the catchy ‘AP Automation module’ we are sorry to disappoint you with this change but we think you should grow to love AP Max. Especially as we continue to improve the functionality with each update released. The latest improvements are:

1. Automated Line Matching by Item Code Using OCR and AI

For all catalogue items with an item code AP Max will now look to automatically check the items on the invoice and match them to the available items on the PO. The matched items will be automatically processed into the invoice ready for authorisation. Another step in invoice processing automated as we move towards a touchless process.

2. Stretch To Fit Invoice View Window

It is now easier than ever to take a closer look at the image of an invoice in non-optimised formats like .jpg. A new button will allow you to fit the image to the size of the view window to give you the best view of the document with a single press of a button.

For any existing clients we are still offering the first year of AP Max for free but the window will be shutting soon so please do reach out to support if you would like to streamline your accounts payable invoice processing for free for an entire year with no commitment to continue using it after the 1^st year.

Custom Field Improvements

Further improvements to the custom fields functionality available throughout PLANERGY means you can cover even more of your own specific requirements easily.

1. Export User Custom Fields

Custom fields created for the User section of PLANERGY can now be set as exportable fields. When you run exports from the Control Panel > Users section this information can now be included for better reporting on your users.

2. Drop Down Lists with 2 columns of data

Custom drop down fields can now have 2 separate pieces of information. One displayed in the user interface for the users selecting the information and another tracked in the background based on that selection.

3. PO Print/Email Display Improvements

Custom fields included on the PO shared with your suppliers will now display better than ever with some tweaks to how they appear.

When would you use these 2 columns? A good example of when this would be useful is if you need to use a code on an export but a text description will be more helpful for the users when selecting the information.

Other Improvements

• Improved Proxy Approval: When a proxy approver is already an approver in the same step of approval it is now easier to manage the approval.
• Mobile New Order page: The layout for the New Order page has been improved making ordering from your phone better than ever.
• Small fixes: Basecone integration’s company tracking is improved, security improvements for XSS, Custom CSV export GL Code field improvements, Item Import From File can handle catalogues of 60,000+ items, and supplier’s view PO webpage improved.

The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 11^th/12^th  of July. See below the updates made in the latest release.

What’s New

This release includes updates to our integration capability with Xero. We also made enhancements for our new AP module and custom field options.

New AP Module

In our previous release, we launched our new AP automation module to make invoice processing even faster than before. We’ve made some updates to increase functionality.

1. Email Notification Enhancements

The body of the original email is now included in invoice receiving notifications.

2. Added Document Upload Functionality

It’s now possible to upload documents to the invoice document search page. This can be done either by dragging and dropping the document to the file upload area or by selecting the document from the file system. The uploaded document will be added under the selected company in the dropdown menu.

3. Choice of Email Prefix

For customers with multiple companies, it’s now possible to choose an email address prefix for each. This prevents company codes from being shared with suppliers, and is helpful when company codes contain special characters or are too complex.

Xero Integration Enhancements 

PLANERGY’s existing Xero integration received some great updates in our previous release. But, of course, we couldn’t stop there. With this release, we’ve added even more flexibility for all your integration needs.

1. Integration History Table

On the Xero settings page, there is now an integration history table.

2. Popups Removed

With this release, connecting your Xero account no longer needs to be done with a popup. This streamlines the integration process.

3. Display Organization Name in Xero

Added a new display of the Organization name in the Xero settings section of the Control Panel.

Custom Field Enhancements

In our last release , we made it possible to set a custom width for each custom field. With our current release, we’ve expanded custom field flexibility to include:

1. Increased Number of Exportable Fields

Users can now export up to 10 custom fields per Custom Field location.

2. Added Custom Fields for Tax

It’s now possible to add a custom field in the Taxes section of the Control Panel.

3. Added Company Selector

When adding a selector as a custom field, it’s now possible to choose a company selector.  This will allow Custom Field to be populated with a drop down list of active companies.

Other Improvements

• Enhanced Xero disconnection functionality when using a single account.
• Enhanced functionality for converting a single company account to a multi-company account
• Optimized multi-company display on Xero settings page
• Optimized search and export performance for users with certain view permissions.

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The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 20^th/21^st of June. See below the updates made in the latest release.

What’s New

This release includes updates to some of our existing integrations. But the headline news is our entirely new module to help automate the accounts payable process. Our developers have been working very hard on this and we think you will love it. It will help cut down invoice processing time, automate invoice document management, and make life easier for the accounts payable team. 

For all our existing customers we are offering this new module, our AP Automation Software, free of charge for a year. If you would like to start testing with the module let us know at [email protected] and you can see the benefits for yourself for a full year with no commitment to use it after that. 

New AP Automation Module

We have added a new module that ties into the existing accounts payable workflow in PLANERGY. The standard 2 or 3 way matching process will work in the same way as before with all the checks in place to ensure only correct invoices are paid. But now you will be able to process invoices at lightning speed powered by a heady cocktail of OCR and AI.

Here’s how it works:

1. Supplier Invoices Received At A Dedicated Email Address

Your suppliers can send their invoices to a dedicated email address where they will be automatically reviewed for import into PLANERGY.

2. Invoices Processed With A Mix of OCR, Machine Learning, and AI

The emails and any attached documents will be scanned and automatically matched against a relevant PO in your PLANERGY account ready for you to review. You will need to make sure your suppliers are referencing the PO number on the invoice or in the email to ensure they can be matched.

3. Automated Invoice Document Management

A new ‘Invoice Documents’ section will be available in the Accounts Payable section of your PLANERGY account storing all of your invoices ready to be matched, authorised, and processed for payment in your accounting software or ERP.

4. Match Invoices Against The PO Line Items

Select the outstanding items from the PO to match against the invoice. You will be able to match with the invoice and invoice form side by side in PLANERGY giving you all the information you need.

5. Authorize Invoices And Send For Payment

The standard authorization process to sign off on the invoices can be followed before sending them through to your accounting software or ERP for payment. No double entry, no wasted time, and no incorrect payments!

Xero Multi-Company and Custom Tracking Categories

PLANERGY’s existing Xero integration received some great updates in our previous release. We thought why stop there? With this release the integration is more powerful and flexible to cover your integration requirements. There has never been a better time to integrate PLANERGY with Xero.

1. Multi-Company Xero Accounts

A single multi-company account of PLANERGY can now be integrated with a multi-company account of Xero. No matter what size of an organization you are running with Xero PLANERGY can cover your Procure-to-Pay needs.

2. Xero Custom Tracking Categories

It is now possible to link Departments and Cost Codes in PLANERGY to Xero’s 2 Custom Tracking Categories. This allows you to align the two systems more fully and track expenditure right from the initial purchase request.

Budget, Set Approval Workflows, and Permissions in PLANERGY based on one of your Custom Tracking Categories for more control over your spend.

Invoices exported from PLANERGY will be assigned to the relevant Custom Tracking Categories giving you the ability to report from either system accurately.

3. Filter By Import Status

Data in the Control Panel can now be filtered by the import status to make it easier to identify what data was imported from Xero and what data was manually created in PLANERGY.

Line Item Custom Field Width

Custom fields have been available in PLANERGY for some time. We have received feedback from some of our customers using these that they would like to be able to decide how much horizontal space each field takes up to ensure fields with longer information have enough space to be visible clearly.

Thank you all for the feedback, it is now possible to set a custom width setting based on the percentage of the horizontal screen space it will take up. The default will be 25% but you can tweak this for every custom field you add to the line item level of the PO or the Invoice.

Other Improvements

• Import Status Filter: The import status filter for the Xero integration mentioned above is also available for our Twinfield and QuickBooks Online integrations too.
• Twinfield Integration Update: Documents managed through our AP Automation module can have a link to the document posted through to a Twinfield custom field making the document available directly from Twinfield.
• QuickBooks Desktop Integration Update: There is a new option to add the PO number as a prefix to any invoice line item linked to the PO. The format for the item names in QuickBooks when using this option will be ‘PO Number – Item Name’

Small fixes: Improved text wrapping for PO custom fields, Item import from file in the Control Panel has been updated to handle various special characters that were causing a problem, Sage 50 and Sage 200 integration bug affecting exports some clients has been fixed, updated and improved error messages in some areas of the system.

The latest update release of PLANERGY went live over the weekend of the 16^th/17^th of May. See below the updates made in the latest release.

What’s New

This update release has focused largely on improvements to three of our existing integrations – Xero, QuickBooks Desktop, and Twinfield. If you are using other integrations and would like to see improvements for your integration option let us know through the support system how you think it can be improved.

New and Improved Xero Integration

PLANERGY’s existing Xero integration using their API has been greatly improved after Xero updated their available options for integration. This update allows for better security (using OAuth 2.0) and improved functionality for the integration. Managing procurement for Xero account owners has never been better!

Here are some of the key improvements:

1. Scheduled imports of data from Xero

Syncing data between Xero and PLANERGY has never been easier. Schedule regular import of data from Xero to ensure both systems are aligned. For example, you can set an import for 8am every day to pull any updates made in Xero into PLANERGY all without lifting a finger!

2. Automatic export of authorized invoices to Xero

There is now an option to automatically push any authorised invoice through to Xero as soon as it has been given the correct approval in PLANERGY. Improve your workflow by removing a manual step and ensure your Xero data is updated as soon as possible. The Xero transaction reference will be tracked in PLANERGY and a posting date will be assigned automatically too.

3. Bulk export all authorised invoices to Xero

Automatic exports are not for everyone. You might want a final review before posting invoices to Xero. There is now an option to bulk export all authorised invoices to Xero from the Invoice Search to speed up the process of manually posting invoices to Xero. No need to go in and export each invoice one by one.

4. Export all documents attached to invoices to Xero

Invoices exported to Xero can now include any attachments added in PLANERGY. See the original invoice, related credit notes, or any other relevant documents you want to link to the invoice available in Xero and PLANERGY.

5. Single button press import of all data from Xero

When importing data from Xero manually you can now run the import across all data fields with the press of a single button. This will trigger import and updates of all the relevant data and you will receive email updates when everything has been completed.

6. Better security using OAuth 2.0

Xero’s updates have allowed us to upgrade the integration to use the industry standard protocol for authorization securing your data transfers to the highest standards.

QuickBooks Desktop Integration Improvements

PLANERGY’s exising QuickBooks Desktop integration has also seen some improvements in the latest updates to improve the flexibility of the integration to match different QuickBooks Desktop configurations.

1. Map PLANERGY Departments to QuickBooks Classes

It is now possible to link Departments in PLANERGY to QuickBooks Desktop’s Bill Classes. Budget, Set Approval Workflows, and Permissions in PLANERGY based on your Class structure in QuickBooks. Invoices exported from PLANERGY will be assigned to the relevant Class giving you ability to report from either system accurately.

2. Version Tracking of QuickBooks Desktop Importer Tool

PLANERGY’s QuickBooks Desktop Importer Tool includes now includes it’s version number in the header making it easier for you to recognise. When there is a new version available it will be flagged to you so you can download the latest version ensuring you have the latest functionality available to you.

Reporting Improvements

A number of smaller improvements have been made to a number of different reports in the system adding extra flexibility to report more accurately.

Orders Not Invoiced: You can now include custom fields from your PO as custom columns on the export from the standard Order Not Invoiced report. Previously you would have had to create a custom report through Advanced Reporting to achieve the same thing.

Advanced Reporting – Purchasing: The default tax code assigned to catalogue items is assigned in the background to help streamline the invoice matching process in Accounts Payable. It can now also be used for reporting. This field can be included on any custom Purchasing report created in Advanced Reporting.

User Permissions: The Close Invoicing permission can now be included on any user permission export making it even easier to fully review the user’s permissions in bulk.

Other Improvements

• Twinfield Integration Update: It is now possible to create Cost Codes in PLANERGY that have not been imported from Twinfield’s Project list and later create the Project in Twinfield to allow invoices to post to Twinfield. This allows for extra flexibility in how you manage the creation of your Cost Codes / Projects.
• Include Archived Switch Replaced: The option to Include Archived data in searches and reports was previously a switch. It is now updated throughout PLANERGY to be a drop down list.
• Bug fixes: A number of small reported bugs have been addressed in this update. This includes better tracking of Department and Item archiving in the Audit Trail, Archived Reports are now automatically removed from all user’s favourite list, and improved system messages when editing a custom field.