Overview and General Information
SpendMap includes flexible integration tools to share information with other systems. The system comes with over 30 out-of-the-box interfaces for the most common data elements and transactions and you can also get custom interfaces developed through SpendMap Client Services.
SpendMap supports both "direct integration" with other systems, as well as "file-based" import/export utilities. For more details, please see Direct vs. File-Based Integration, below.
You can access the interfaces in each module by selecting UTILITY > DATA INTERFACES from the Main Menu.
You can also export any table/data directly to Excel (XLS) and other file formats.
Master File Interfaces
Import and export functions are available to quickly set up your Master Files.
While the Master File import/export tools are most commonly used during initial system setup, you may also want to use these tools on an ongoing basis. For example, if your suppliers provide item and pricing information to you in electronic format, you might import the item data into the Item Master File on a regular basis to update pricing and other details.
You might also use the Master File integration tools to synchronize SpendMap's Master Files with another system's Master Files. For example, you might import/export the supplier or account code Master Files to/from your Accounting or ERP system periodically to ensure that the two systems are "in sync". This allows you to make changes in one system only and then "refresh" the other system rather than doing duplicate data entry.
SpendMap also includes formal "transaction" interfaces to transfer approved invoices, receipts, expenses, inventory usages and other transactions to other systems for processing, to eliminate the need for duplicate data entry. For example, once invoices are approved using the Invoice Approval Module, you can export the approved invoices to your Accounts Payable System for processing (e.g. to cut checks to the suppliers, post to the General Ledger, etc.) with no duplicate data entry.
To avoid the possibility of duplicate or overlapping transactions, the transactional interfaces go beyond simply extracting data by date range. As transactions such as receipts, invoices, etc. are processed in SpendMap, they are stored in a separate "holding area" where they remain until the interface takes place. At that point, the transactions that were successfully sent will be "marked as sent" to ensure that they are not sent again.
Direct vs. File-Based Integration
SpendMap supports "direct integration" with popular Accounting/ERP systems like QuickBooks, Sage and Microsoft Dynamics (i.e. SpendMap will "push" data/transactions directly into the other system), as well as flexible "file-based" import and export utilities (i.e. one system creates a file containing the data/transactions that the other system imports as a separate step).
You can select your preferred interface method in the Setup area for the applicable interface.
Unattended Interfaces
Interfaces that need to be run frequently can be performed unattended. For example, on a nightly basis you might push approved invoices into your Accounts Payable system, or perhaps import new suppliers from another system on a regular basis.
Interface Configuration Options
Each "direct" interface is designed with a specific target system in mind, and will be pre-configured for the most part. That said, some configuration options may be available in the Setup area for the applicable interface, to handle things like field mapping or other options that may be available in the target system.
For the "file-based" import and export utilities in SpendMap, you can configure/customize the format of the import and export files, so that they match the interface requirements of your other systems. You can select the fields that you want to import or export, specify field sizes, field order, delimiter, etc. For details, see Configure Import/Export File Layout.
