Utilizing Audit Cases for Procurement Compliance in Dynamics 365

Many companies do not have the time or resources to spend on internal controls. With D365’s impressive functionality, every single transaction can be tracked from the time and date it was posted down to the user that posted it. Companies are given incredible insight that can be used to create efficiencies and strengthen their internal controls.

Every Audit case begins with Audit policies. Audit policies are user defined rules, or match criteria, that are used to evaluate a specified set of documents and track violations of the defined rules. Audit cases can be used for a variety of source documents, but today we will look at a specific example pertaining to the Vendor invoice.

Before Audit policy rules can be defined, a Case category must be created. Essentially, this creates a “bucket” the returned data will sit in. Navigate to Organization administration > Setup > Cases > Case categories to create a new Case category and select Audit for the Category type.

Now we can proceed with the Audit policy setup! First, we will need to create the Audit policy rule type. For this example, we are going to create a rule for duplicate expenses. These criteria specify the type of document the rule evaluates and evaluates the fields within that source document for policy violations. Set up a new Policy rule type through Audit workbench > Setup > Policy rule type.

Here, the rule is Conditionally evaluating the Vendor invoice lines on Posted vendor invoices.   

Defining the audit policy for Procurement Compliance

Next, we must define the Audit policy itself. Create a new Audit policy by navigating to Audit workbench > Setup > Audit policies. Select the applicable companies affected by the Audit policy and select the criteria the Vendor invoice should be evaluated by. In this instance, the Invoice [number] field will suffice. The Audit policy will evaluate the Invoice based on its Invoice number.

Lastly, an Audit policy batch job will need to be created. The batch job will run automatically based on user-defined start and end dates and it minimizes the need for human intervention. The batch job setup can be completed under Audit policy > Set up > Additional options. Define the Starting date and Ending date for the batch job and then click Batch to schedule.

The batch job will run in the background and check for duplicate expenses. If a user posts a duplicate invoice, the Audit policy will create an Audit case, viewable in the Audit workbench module > Audit cases, and can be used by the procurement team to ensure compliance of company policy.

If you enjoyed this blog, consider checking out Dynamics 365 Accounts Payable: Invoice Register Q&A!