How to Simplify Spend Management in Microsoft Dynamics 365
How to Simplify Spend Management in Microsoft Dynamics 365
The way your team spends money has changed. The way you manage it? Probably not.
Most finance teams are still chasing receipts, reconciling vendor payments by hand, and juggling multiple card programs. It’s clunky, time-consuming, and unfortunately widespread across finance teams, especially those running Dynamics 365.
The reason? Dynamics is great at managing core business data, but it wasn’t necessarily built for managing day-to-day spend. Card programs, expense tools, and payments often sit outside the system, leaving your team to patch things together with spreadsheets, emails, and manual approvals.
That’s when the cracks start to show. Visibility drops. Controls weaken. Fraud risk creeps in. And meanwhile, your ERP is humming in the background, unaware of what’s happening upstream.
The good news? You don’t need to rip anything out to fix it. There’s a smarter way to manage spend, and it fits right into the system you already use.
Why Legacy Spend Workflows Fail in Dynamics 365
For years, finance teams have tried to make do with siloed systems. A separate card for T&E. Another one for purchasing. A manual expense report that someone fills out in Excel. And a stack of paper receipts that may or may not ever get turned in.
You didn’t choose this system. It just happened over time. But now it's in the way. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Employees paying out of pocket and waiting weeks for reimbursement
AP teams manually matching receipts to expenses, line by line
Department heads struggling to track budgets in real time
Fraud slipping through the cracks with cards that are rarely monitored
These processes might feel manageable for a while. But they don’t scale, and they don’t deliver the visibility, control, or cost savings finance leaders need.
What Modern Spend Management Looks Like
The most effective finance teams are flipping the model: Card-first workflows + automated expense management + native ERP integration.
It’s about building a system that gives everyone — from employees to CFOs — better visibility, tighter controls, and less admin work.
Let’s take a closer look.
Benefits of Virtual and Ghost Cards for Business Payments
Not every purchase needs a physical card. In fact, most don’t.
Virtual cards can be issued instantly for one-time purchases, subscriptions, or vendor-specific payments. Ghost cards are assigned to a department or vendor and stay in use for recurring or project-based spend.
Both options are safer and easier to track than physical cards, especially when paired with built-in controls.
What that gets you:
Built-in merchant and spend limits
Real-time transaction data and visibility
Less fraud, fewer errors, and better vendor accountability
Streamline T&E, and Purchasing with One Card Program
Instead of managing separate card programs for different use cases, companies are consolidating everything into one platform.
With a unified card system, you can manage T&E and purchasing from a single dashboard. It’s easier to control, easier to reconcile, and much easier to scale.
Plus, fewer cards in circulation means less admin and less risk.
Automate Expense Reporting and Reimbursements
No more chasing receipts or waiting weeks for approvals.
Employees submit expenses via mobile or desktop, receipts are attached on the spot, and machine learning does the heavy lifting for categorization and coding. Approvals route automatically, and the data syncs back into Dynamics 365 in real time with all the required coding: company, department, GL, and even dimensions.
You get a clean audit trail. Management gets detailed spend reports. Everybody wins.
How Corpay Integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365
Whether you’re on Business Central, Finance & Operations, or Dynamics GP, Corpay’s platform integrates directly into your Dynamics environment.
Here’s how it works:
Business Central: Transactions sync instantly with GL accounts, dimensions, and the project accounting modules.
Finance & Operations: Ghost cards keep procurement fast and controlled, with payment data flowing straight into AP.
Dynamics GP: Add automation and visibility on top of your existing system – no rebuild needed.
The bottom line: You don’t have to reinvent your ERP to get modern results.
Top Results from Smarter Card and Expense Management
Finance teams that make the switch to automated card and expense management see real impact, fast:
Faster month-end closes
Fewer hours spent reconciling
Lower fraud risk
More accurate budgets
And yes, cash back from card rebates
Next Steps: Improve Spend Control in Dynamics 365
Managing spend doesn’t have to mean managing chaos. If you’re already running Microsoft Dynamics, the right card and expense tools can help you take back control without adding complexity.
Want to see what that looks like in action?
You’ve upgraded your ERP. Now it’s time to upgrade how you spend.
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