04 wks
from start to UAT and user training
45000 +
customer payments processed each year
Daily
bank payment file via SFTP
Auto
journals, settlements and deductions
- Executive summary
From keyed-in receipts to straight-through cash application
A US dairy cooperative and food manufacturer with a large customer base across North America processes more than 45,000 customer payments a year, received through several payment methods. Its AR team spent significant time keying receipts into journals by hand.
DynaTech implemented accounts receivable automation in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. A bank SFTP integration delivers a detailed payment file every day; a custom staging table validates each record against customer data; and the system automatically creates and posts customer payment journals, settles invoices and creates deductions.
The work, including UAT and training for key users, was completed in four weeks.
Manual receipt entry created risk, delay and reconciliation effort
With a high daily volume of payments across different methods, the AR team keyed amounts, accounts, customers and invoices into receipt journals by hand. Different users followed different naming conventions, and nothing stopped a duplicate line or a missing financial dimension.
Cash application lagged behind receipts, so liquidity reports, customer balances and cash-flow forecasts were not current — and month-end close slowed whenever receipt journals were built in bulk.
Pain points
Time-consuming data entry
Significant AR effort spent keying payments from many customers and payment methods.
Higher risk of human error
Incorrect amounts, dates, invoices, customer or offset accounts.
Peak-period workload
Month-end and year-end close delayed by bulk manual journal creation.
Duplication and overwriting
No system check against duplicate lines or double posting.
Delayed clearing of balances
Manual payment-to-invoice linking left open transactions uncleared.
Weak controls
Risk of bypassed financial dimensions, wrong main accounts and policy or audit gaps.
Target KPIs & goals
- Cut the time between receiving a payment and posting it
- Drive unapplied cash reduction and improve DSO tracking
- Prevent duplicate posting incidents
- Achieve month-end close acceleration by removing bulk manual journal creation
Bank files in, validated journals out
The solution turns the bank file into the single source of truth for receipts. A bank SFTP integration delivers the file daily; records are loaded into a customized staging table and validated against customer data maintained in D365.
For successfully validated records, the system performs customer payment journal automation — creating and posting journals, settling invoices and creating deductions — which delivers automated cash application without keying.
What we delivered
01
Bank SFTP integration
Detailed payment file received from the bank every day.
02
Staging table & validation
Customized staging table checks each record against D365 customer data.
03
Auto-created, auto-posted journals
Combined journals built from user-defined parameters.
04
Invoice settlement & deductions
Automatic settlement and creation of deductions with a default reason code.
05
Flexible offset accounts
Bank accounts can be selected as offsets.
06
Review by exception
AR users review and operate on auto-created journals rather than keying them.
Key technologies & integrations
- Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations
- Bank SFTP integration
- Custom staging table
- Customer payment journals
- Deduction processing
A simple, auditable path from bank to ledger
Files move from the bank into a validation layer and then into standard D365 journals, where AR teams review and report.
Simplified process flow after automation.
Four weeks from design to trained users
The team designed the format with the bank, built the integration, tested multiple scenarios with users and trained them to review auto-created journals. The whole implementation took four weeks.
01
Design with the bank
Agree file format, validation points and conditions.
02
SFTP integration setup
Configure the secure file exchange.
03
Scenario testing
Multiple scenarios built with users; files placed in SFTP folders to test validations and automation.
04
UAT & training
Users trained to operate and review system-created journals.
Faster cash application with fewer errors
Accounts receivable automation in Dynamics 365 produced the following improvements. The source did not provide numeric before-and-after figures.
No numeric before/after metrics were provided; add measured results (e.g. posting time, unapplied cash, close days) if available.
04 wks
To implement
Including UAT and training for key users.
45000 +
Annual payments
Handled through one automated, centralized process.
Daily
Bank file ingestion
Receipts flow in without manual keying.
Real-time
Cash position
Better liquidity visibility and customer balance updates.
Tangible Benefits
- Reduced manual effort creating customer payment journals
- Fewer errors in amounts, accounts and dimensions
- Faster cash application and updated customer balances
- Better reconciliation between subledger and main ledger
- Fewer duplicate or incorrect postings
- Clear tracking of DSO tracking, unapplied cash and error rates
Intangible Benefits
- A centralized system for all customer payment records
- Standardized processes adopted across the AR team
- Improved data accuracy, security and timely compliance
- Seamless integration and intelligent reporting
Project At a Glance
-
Industry
Dairy product manufacturing — milk powders, butter, nutritional and fluid products
-
Region
United States
-
Scale
1,000+ employees · 45,000+ customer payments per year
-
Team
Customer IT and AR teams; DynaTech F&O functional and technical consultants; bank-side relationship, functional and technical contacts
-
Solution
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, bank SFTP integration
-
Duration
4 weeks including UAT and training
Automate cash application in Dynamics 365
Talk to DynaTech about AR automation — bank file integration, validation and auto-posted journals, live in weeks.
