Automated Export

The following tasks can be automated:

batch creation and closure
batch export

Automating Batch Creation and Closure

A user with Export Manager rights can create rules for automated batch creation and closure. These rules allow you to automatically create and close batches, which are generated on an hourly basis.

You choose the organisation unit or units in your company from which you want to extract the accounting data.

If you choose a parent organisation unit, all of its child organisation units are also associated with the batch.

For automated export, organisation units are referred to as "entities". You can choose some or all of the following types of item to include in the batch:

expense reports
cash advances
invoices
invoices with no purchase order
reallocated invoices
reallocated expense reports

For example, suppose that you defined a rule for the entity Company 1 with "Expense reports" selected as an item type. This rule creates a batch every hour containing all the expense reports of Company 1 and its child entities.

Notes:

For a given rule, creating a batch involves closing the previous batch that was created by the same rule.
If a batch that was created automatically is rejected, that batch must then be treated manually. See Manual Export.
The rules apply from top to bottom in the rules list. This ensures that an item is in a single batch.

Creating a Rule

To begin creating a rule, click the Configure Automatic Batch Creation Rules button on the Export Management tab:

Image of Export Management tab with gear icon highlighted

Doing so displays the Automated batch creation rules screen:

Image of screen listing rules for automated batch creation

Click New rule to display the next screen, where you can select the criteria that apply to the rule.

Image of screen to create new rule for automated batch creation

Complete the form as shown in the next table, and click Save when you have finished.

Field

Description

Frequency

No longer used.

Rule name

Type a unique name for the rule.

Export for entities

Choose the organisation unit or units for which you want to export the accounting data. If you choose a parent organisation unit, all of its child organisation units are also associated with the batch.

Object types

Select the check boxes corresponding to the types of object (from the chosen organisation unit or units) that you want to include in the export batch. You can choose one or more of:

expense reports
cash advance requests
invoices
invoices with no purchase order
reallocated invoices
reallocated expense reports

Reallocated items are those for which an accountant has changed the cost assignment (for example, to a different department or cost centre).

Deleting a Rule

You can delete a rule from the list of rules that you have created:

AccExp Auto4

To delete a rule:

Click the button at the top right of the Export Management tab.
Click the icon next to the rule you want to delete.
Click Cancel to return to the Export Management tab.

Changing a Rule

It is not possible to modify a rule that has been created. You’ll need to delete the rule and create a new one.

Automating the Export Process

It is possible to automate the export of batches created by the rules described above. You can set batch exports to be performed automatically:

Daily: every evening
Weekly: every Sunday
Monthly: every 1st of the month

Configuration of export automation is done through the outbound interface settings in the Administration tool. Contact your system administrator or Support if you need to arrange this.

The exported files are placed in the folder defined in your outbound interface.

Should the export not be successful for any reason, you receive an email notification showing the errors encountered.

Manually created batches are not exported automatically.