Automate What You Hate
Raechal Martin, FI Data Analyst – Powell Electronics
Jim Halepaska, VP of Sales – Z Option
[ CHAVONE JACOBS
ASUG INSTALLATION MEMBER
MEMBER SINCE: 2003
[ ALLAN FISHER
ASUG INSTALLATION MEMBER
MEMBER SINCE: 2008
[ COREY PEARSON
ASUG INSTALLATION MEMBER
MEMBER SINCE: 2008
]
[
What We’ll Cover …
 Powell Electronics and Z Option Information
 Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
 Tips and Tricks to Make Your Spreadsheet Template Work
for You
 Demonstration of GLSU
 Ideas for Automating Other Accounting Processes
 Wrap-Up
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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About Powell Electronics
 62-year old privately-held Wholesale
Distributor specializing in electronic
connectors, sensors, switches, and
heat-shrinkable products
 Family owned business, headquartered in
Swedesboro, NJ
 12 branches in North America, Europe and
China
 SME – $100 Million sales, 225+ employees,
172 users
 SAP Landscape
Enterprise 4.7 release
SD, MM, PP, FI, CO, PA, QM
Winner of 2007 ASUG Impact Award
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Powell Electronics At a Glance
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Z Option At a Glance
• Located in Lewisville, Texas
(Near Dallas)
• Formed in 1998 by accountants
and programmers
• SAP Software Partner
• World-class products and
support for customers of all
sizes and industries
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Z Option Customers
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General Product Overview
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What We’ll Cover …
 Powell Electronics and Z Option Information
 Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
 Tips and Tricks to Make Your Spreadsheet Template Work
for You
 Demonstration of GLSU
 Ideas for Automating Other Accounting Processes
 Wrap-Up
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
What was the Problem?
What were the Goals?
What was our Solution?
Who Benefited?
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Problem: Why did we do this?
Fill out paper
form in triplicate
1 Hour
Bob misplaces
expense report
for several days
(2-3 days)
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
Attach receipts
using stapler
Send Expense report &
receipts to Bob for
approval (via snail mail
2- 3 days)
Raechal nags Bob
(Did you get it? Did
you approve it? Did
you send it to Corp)
Bob approves and sends to
Accounts Payable (via
snail mail 2-3 days)
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Problem: Why did we do this?
Bob approves and sends to
Accounts Payable (via
snail mail 2-3 days)
Accounts
Payable
makes
manual entry
Accounts
Payable files
paper and
receipts
Checks are
processed
Check is snail
mailed (2-3
days snail
mail)
Estimated time of processing was 2 + weeks plus costs of snail mail
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
What was the Problem?
What were the Goals?
What was our Solution?
Who Benefited?
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Goals
 No Manual Calculations
 Less errors
 Reimbursed Faster
 Keep sales people happy – sell more
 No Hardcopies
 How many people are filing copies of this?
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
What was the Problem?
What were the Goals?
What was our Solution?
Who Benefited?
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution
Solution
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution
Contains 4 Worksheets
Expenses
Receipts
Audit Trail
GLSU
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution
Expenses Worksheet
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution
Receipts Worksheet
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution
Audit Trail Worksheet
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
GLSU Worksheet
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The Solution
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
Worksheet Automation
The Solution
Drop-Down list is created to
choose names.
Amounts from Expense sheet are
brought into the amounts for the
GLSU entry.
Lookup table inserts the text,
Vendor number, Profit and
Cost centers.
IF Statement comments out
unnecessary lines.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution
Attach Document In SAP
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution
View Document In SAP
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
The Solution: What Did We Do?
Fill out Expense
Worksheet (1 Hr)
Bob approves
and emails to
Accounts
Payable (minute)
Scan Receipts
(10 Minutes)
Attach scanned
receipts (minute)
Accounts Payable posts using
GLSU and attaches document in
SAP (10 Minutes)
Email Expense
report to Bob for
approval (minute)
Process Direct
Deposit
Estimated time of processing is cut from 2+ weeks to less than 2 Hours
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Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
What was the Problem?
What were the Goals?
What was our Solution?
Who Benefited?
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
Who Benefited
 IT
 Little IT support
 No consulting
 Auditors
 Ability to view Expense Report File in SAP
 Comprehensive audit trail
 Managers
 Less nagging
 No paper backup
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[ Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
Who Benefited
 Accounts Payable
 Automatic Posting
 No filing
 No printing checks
 Field Sales
 Faster processing
 Direct Deposit
 Trees
 No paper filing
 No paper cuts
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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What We’ll Cover …
 Powell Electronics and Z Option Information
 Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
 Tips and Tricks to Make Your Spreadsheet Template Work
for You
 Demonstration of GLSU
 Ideas for Automating Other Accounting Processes
 Wrap-Up
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
Lookup Tables
IF Statements
Dropdown Lists
Password Protection
Macros
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Tips and Tricks
Lookup Tables
 LOOKUP TABLES (Not as hard as it sounds)
 Vertical lookup =vlookup(what,from:to,where,false)
 =VLOOKUP(B69,GLSU!B31:G114,6,FALSE)
 Horizontal lookup =hlookup(what,from:to,where,false)
 =HLOOKUP(B69,GLSU!B31:G114,6,FALSE)
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
IF Statements
 IF STATEMENTS
 =IF(a=b,true,false)
 =IF($D16 = 0,”COMMENT”,” ”)
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Tips and Tricks
Drop-Down Lists
 DROP-DOWN LISTS
 Click on: Data, Data Validation
1. Create a list.
2. Choose the cell your dropdown will appear in.
3. On the settings tab make sure
it states list and designate
where your list is located. In
this example the list is located
on the GLSU worksheet cells
B29:B30
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Tips and Tricks
Drop-Down Lists
•
DROP-DOWN LISTS
You may choose to have a
message appear when the
cell is chosen.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
You may choose an error
message when erroneous
information is typed in.
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Tips and Tricks
Password Protection
 PASSWORD PROTECTION
 Unlock cells
 Choose cells to unlock
 Excel 2007 = Home, Format, Format
Cells
 Excel 2003 = Format, Cells
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
Password Protection
 PASSWORD PROTECTION
 Unlock cells
 On the protection tab remove the
checkmark from “Locked”
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
Password Protection
 PASSWORD PROTECTION
 Password protect worksheet
 2007 Review, Protect Sheet, enter and confirm a password you will
remember
 2003 Tools, Protection, Protect Sheet
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
Macros
 MACROS
Macros are great tools for those actions you repeat redundantly:
 Do you always format headers the same?
 Do you always format total lines the same?
 Do you have a file that comes from a vendor that you always
need to input or remove columns and input formulas into
columns?
A Macro can be set up to do all of these with a single button.
The steps are:
 Record Macro
 Perform Task
 Stop Recording
 Run Macro
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
Macros
 MACROS - RECORD
 Excel 2007 click on: Developer, Record Macro, Name Macro
 Earlier versions of Excel click on: Tools, Macro, Record new
Macro, Name Macro
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
Macros
 MACROS - PERFORM TASK
Tip
 Complete the task you want the button to perform
 Start with something simple like choosing a set of cells
 Change the Fill Color to yellow
 Change the font to Bold
 Put a box around the cells
 Change the font size in the cells to 16
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Tips and Tricks
Macros
 MACROS – STOP RECORDING
 Excel 2007 click on: Developer, Stop Recording
 Earlier versions of Excel click on: Tools, Macro, Stop Recording
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Tips and Tricks
Macros
 MACROS – RUN
 Excel 2007 click on: Developer, Macros
 Earlier versions of Excel click on: Tools, Macro, Macros
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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What We’ll Cover …
 Powell Electronics and Z Option Information
 Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
 Tips and Tricks to Make Your Spreadsheet Template Work
for You
 Demonstration of GLSU
 Ideas for Automating Other Accounting Processes
 Wrap-Up
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Problem Resolution: Z Option Response Time
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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What We’ll Cover …
 Powell Electronics and Z Option Information
 Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
 Tips and Tricks to Make Your Spreadsheet Template Work
for You
 Demonstration of GLSU
 Ideas for Automating Other Accounting Processes
 Wrap-Up
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Ideas For Automating
Standard Journal Entries
Standard Journal Entries
Inter/Intra – copy/paste
directly from SAP &
use lookup table to fill
in GLSU template
•GLSU Template
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
•SAP
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Ideas For Automating
Standard Journal Entries
Standard Journal Entries
Freight Re-classes – Template used every week to break out freight charges.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Ideas For Automating
Standard Journal Entries
Standard Journal Entries
Variance Re-classes – copy/paste from SAP & fill in GLSU template
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Ideas For Automating
Monthly Allocations
Monthly Allocations
Depreciation Schedules – use a lookup table and change current month
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Ideas For Automating
Monthly Accruals
Monthly Accruals
Template for Accruals
or any entries that the
amount is redundant
can be built and only
change the posting
date each month
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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What We’ll Cover …
 Powell Electronics and Z Option Information
 Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement Process
 Tips and Tricks to Make Your Spreadsheet Template Work
for You
 Demonstration of GLSU
 Ideas for Automating Other Accounting Processes
 Wrap-Up
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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7 Key Points to Take Home
1. Use Excel and Z Option’s GLSU to automate manual accounting processes.
2. Streamline Employee Expense Reimbursement process. Does your process
take weeks or hours?
3. Not all high ROI projects require a huge budget.
4. Improve your audit trail by automatically attaching source documents.
5. Make Excel work for you by using standard functionality.
6. Increase Accuracy, reduce time and effort, shorten month-end close cycle.
7. Save trees and aggravation with paperless processes.
Real Experience. Real Advantage.
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Your Turn – Questions!
How to Contact: Raechal Martin
rmartin@powell.com
www.powell.com
1-856-241-8043
How to Contact: Jim Halepaska
jim@zoption.com
www.zoption.com
1-972-315-8800
Booth #532
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 Thank you for participating.
Please remember to complete and return your
evaluation form following this session.
For ongoing education on this area of focus, visit the Year-Round
Community page at www.asug.com/yrc
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Real Experience. Real Advantage.
SESSION CODE:
4207
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