Newsbytes #1: November 2022

By Brian Martin
November 30, 2022

Welcome to the first edition of Newsbytes!

We are continually adding functionality to X3CloudDocs. Quarterly we will update you about the latest features and provide a preview of what is coming soon.

Thinking about the first edition I have reflected on how much has been achieved in a relatively short time. X3CloudDocs was conceived late in 2019. By Spring 2020 we were beta testing and the first customer went live in August. The product has been sold through 4 other UK partners as well as our own customer base. We also have customers in the United States, Canada and Australia. Over 80,000 Inbound documents have been processed and 1,000,000 are archived in Outbound.

The team who built X3CloudDocs have many years of experience in Sage X3. The accumulated knowledge has ensured it has been designed to the highest possible standards. Sage validated the product and we are listed on the Sage Marketplace.

In June we exhibited at the Sage World Conference in Dallas. Our stand was a great success and we continued to impress a constant stream of visitors throughout the week.

We approach 2023 with much optimism!

As it is the first edition of Newsbytes, I will begin by listing the major features released in 2022.

Credit Notes

You can now process credit notes in X3CloudDocs Inbound! X3CloudDocs can interpret when a document is a credit note rather than an invoice, and this can now be processed into Sage X3 with the appropriate credit Invoice Type. Note that this applies to simple, Finance-only credit notes at this stage, but further functionality will be considered for future releases based on feedback.

Control how invoices for your suppliers are handled!

You can now flag a Supplier record in Sage X3 to allow invoices that don’t need any manual verification to pass straight through for approval, or even straight into X3! This means that if you’ve previously processed and coded invoices successfully and all you’re doing is passing them on to an approver, say, then this can be automated using a Bypass Verification setting, saving you time and getting your invoices processed faster!

If the majority of your invoices from a supplier are coded one way, but you then want to code them another way from time to time, you might want to consider using the Lock Online Learning flag. This prevents any future verification changes from overriding the current state of learning for a supplier.

And another thing…

We’ve made general performance improvements to the synchronisation processes, so if you’re regularly sending large volumes of master data or PO updates to from X3 to X3CloudDocs, you should find these are completing faster than before.

Multi Company/Language

If your business is multi-entity and/or multi-language then X3CloudDocs Outbound now simplifies the set-up of your email templates, meaning that these can now be configured faster and in languages appropriate to each company/site and each customer or supplier. So, for example, if your default is to send emails in English from a general email address, but one of your entities also needs to send emails to certain customers in French from another address, then this scenario can be configured as an exception to the rule for each document.

The result should be reduced implementation times and, therefore, reduced implementation costs.

Improved company/site restriction functionality

You can also define company/site restrictions to roles, so that users only get to work with the documents specific to them. So, if you have users who only need to view statements for their particular company, then you can configure their role definition appropriately.

Administrators should now find it simpler to grant and update users with the access to the documents that they need.

Document Upload

Documents not generated by Sage X3 can be uploaded to X3CloudDocs. Additional “Generic” stores can be created. User defined tags can be applied to each store to improve the indexing and retrieval. Furthermore, the type of file to be uploaded can be controlled.

The global search will find documents from both outbound and generic stores making it easy to link documents together.

Workflow was released is 2022 as an extension to Sage X3. It includes the following;

  • Enhanced email and authorisation module for Sage X3 standard workflow
  • Send branded customer facing emails from Sage X3
  • Automatically populate email templates with Sage X3 data
  • Approve or reject documents through a simple one-click design, even when off your VPN
  • Remove the need for a Sage X3 licence to make approvals
  • Accessible worldwide on any device

Coming Soon

The next release of Outbound will enhance “Document Upload” by adding the ability to verify tags against Sage X3 data. For example, if you want to store your “Bill of Lading” you can ensure the invoice it relates to is correctly entered. On a global search the Invoice, Bill of Lading and any other related documents are retrieved by X3CloudDocs.

A number of other key features will follow. These include;

  • Link to X3CloudDocs from a Sage X3. For example, the ability to view the invoice from the sales invoice screen in X3.
  • The ability to download or e-mail multiple documents.
  • Improved exception reporting for e-mail.

Inbound will continue to be enhanced. The next release will focus on feedback from customers and prospects.

  • The description will be mapped from the Invoice to the Purchase Invoice or BP supplier Invoice.
  • The ability to extract line level VAT on BP Supplier Invoices will be added.
  • Contract order processing will be included.
  • The performance when uploading large datasets will continue to be improved.

For more information, or to arrange a demonstration, get in touch with us.

Latest from the blog

What Customers Say About X3CloudDocs:

Efficient AP processes directly impact relationships with both suppliers and internal stakeholders. Automated systems facilitate timely and accurate payments, enhancing the trust and collaboration between businesses and their suppliers. Moreover, AP automation will automate “embarrassing” tasks such as chasing whether internally for approvals or payments externally, cutting out the “guilt or embarrassment” and speeding up the process.

Alex Stephens – TIMCO

X3CloudDocs has really automated our company’s AP processes. We now spend less time doing manual work and has truly made our AP processes very easy and efficient. The solution is very user friendly and the interface is easy for even a novice to navigate. As many other companies experience we have several control points and validation checks along with approval hierarchy we need to employ day to day and X3CD almost seamlessly integrated with our existing processes and controls. 

Heather Sauceda – Transpak

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