Another Excel Resource

Once you get your Dynamics GP data out of the system, the most common landing point is Excel. Whether you use Smartlists, Excel Based Reports, SSRS or direct to table queries to get info out, you'll need a good understanding of Excel to manipulate all that data.

I've mentioned the Mr. Excel netcast in the past as a great Excel resource and now I'd like to add the ExcelIsFun YouTube channel with 500 Excel videos. 500 videos!

Integration Manager Versions

Victoria Yudin has a nice table up on her blog with information on all the Integration Manager versions since 7.5.

Customizations That You Don't Need to Do

Patrick Roth has info on common customization requests that you don't need to do. Make sure you take a look at his post on Developing for Dynamics GP.

Scheduling AP Payments

I'm late with this one but Rose Business Solutions has a nice post on scheduling Payables Payments in Dynamics GP.

More on PerformancePoint Planning from Alan Whitehouse

On his blog, Alan Whitehouse takes a look at PerformancePoint Planning's cancellation and it's impact.

The Fabulous Matt G, Part Deux

David Musgrave has more on the Fabulous Matt G's departure including the full good bye email. Just remember Matt, if this whole writing code thing doesn't work out, there's a job for you as a conference host out there somewhere!

End of an Era, The Fabulous Matt G Moves On

It will be a different Convergence this year. It appears that the Fabulous Matt G is leaving Microsoft. No, he wasn't part of the layoff. I've seen his outgoing email and he's leaving to join a Fargo software shop. Since the email wasn't sent out publicly, I won't publish it unless Matt wants me too.

For those who haven't been to Convergence, the Fabulous Matt G, aka Matt Gustafson, was the long time emcee, host and resident fun guy. He will be missed. We wish you the best Matt.

Logging and Recovery in SQL Server

For those of you wrestling with the concept of logging and how database logs are useful for recovery in SQL Server, MVP Paul Randal has a great February TechNet article on that very subject. It's a nice meaty article but still very easy to understand.

Weekly Dynamic: Two Way Match as a Best Practice

A three way match of PO+Receipt+Invoice is the typical process for PO processing. However, in some scenarios, a two way match is preferred because it's more efficient. Essentially the company chooses to pay from the receiving not waiting for an invoice. This is really efficient when price agreements between the company and vendor are consistent. Also in a high turnover environment, invoice differences will never make it to the product because the product will be gone long before the invoice arrives so the vendor may agree to forgive price differences in exchange for faster payment. After all, by paying from the receipt, the company eliminates a lot of time and effort chasing down small variances.

It is incredibly simple to accomplish a two way match in GP. When processing a Receiving simply pick Shipment/Invoice as the Receiving Type. This processes a receiving and invoice as one transaction thus completing the two way match.

If you're looking to do two way matching, it doesn't get easier than this.

Dynamics GP ISV List

The US Microsoft Dynamics GP blog has a link to an Excel spreadsheet with a list of ISV's and Products.

Project Team Blunders

Dynamics GP MVP Mariano Gomez has a great new article up on MSDynamicsWorld.com. In it, he takes a look at common GP Project Blunders. The saddest part is that I've actually seen several of these rolled into one project! Nice Job Mariano!

PerformancePoint Didn't Perform

So it's official, all that's left is the spin. There's even a video. The Monitoring and Analytics portion of PerformancePoint has been swallowed by Sharepoint. Planning will get SP3 in the summer and ongoing support but it's life support and that's all. So what's going to replace FRx Forecaster? No idea. Convergence would be a perfect place to ask that question!

Management Reporter is supposed to still be alive, but PerformancePoint as a standalone product is toast. Business Scorecard Manager and ProClarity Desktop are also officially toast. The other Proclarity bits migrate to Sharepoint and Excel.

Someone one was kind enough to send me this PDF with FAQ's about the change. I've been unable to find it on the web, but it's marked external so I'm putting it up here. Update: found another site with the PDF link here.

I'm disappointed with Microsoft's moves around Performance Point. They put out a good 1.0 product but it was full of promise for future. Then the update got delayed and our hopes were dashed. Now parts of it are dead. I don't know what this means for other products that were marked as end of life due to PerformancePoint. Do products like FRx Forecaster and Enterprise Reporting get a new lease on life or not? Is FRx 6.7 going to live forever? (I hope not!)

I did hear that is seemed like MS did a keep/kill analysis with all of their products. The Dynamics products seem to have made the keep list but PerformancePoint didn't. I've also heard that Dynamics marketing got whacked pretty hard with layoffs. Our thoughts are with you all. They should have whacked the Tablet PC or Media Center Marketing teams. Those are good products with crappy marketing!

PerformancePoint Rumors

I'm hearing some rumors that there will be some ugly news coming out of the PerformancePoint area today. I'll be driving quite a bit today so I may not be timely in posting any announcements.

The rumor is that Monitoring and Analytics is moving under the Sharepoint team and Planning is getting killed. No word on planned FRx replacement Management Reporter. Hang on to those FRx and Forecaster skills, you may need them a while longer.

Ten Reasons to Attend Convergence

My new article is up at MSDynamicsWorld.com. With Microsoft's Convergence convention coming up, I've got 10 reasons that you should go, in spite of the poor economy.

Manufacturing Bill of Materials

Steve Chapman of Rose Business Solutions has a nice post covering Manufacturing Bill of Materials in Dynamics GP.

Convergence Early Bird Special Ends Today!

The early bird special savings of $300 on Convergence 2009 in New Orleans ends today, January 21! What are you waiting for? Put down that donut and register now! Its Convergence, you know, "you, me and Dynamics GP", maybe with a bourbon!

Dynamics GP, Projects and Manager Tools

If you work with Dynamics GP, you will work with projects, period. Whether we are talking about initial implementations, upgrades, significant system changes or Third-Party apps, they all end up as projects. It doesn't matter if you are a consultant or an end user, there is still a project involved.

When I was managing people every day, the single best resource for day to day management help was Manager-Tools. Their stuff works and it's built to be usable tomorrow. Their advice is NOT theory that you can't figure out how to apply, it's all application based. A significant amount of their advice also applies to running, managing and participating in projects. Whether it's running a meeting, hitting deadlines or providing information using Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) there is lots of great project advice here.

Best of all, all the podcasts are free. That's free as in beer.

If you need a place to start consider their recent Project Management series, Project Team Member cast or the many Meetings podcasts. If you manage people day to day,  start with the basics.

Again, this is some of the best management advice I've ever seen. You will be better after listening to some of these podcasts but be careful, they are addictive!

Emails, CDO and Dexterity

Mariano has a nice post on sending emails with Collaboration Data Objects and Dexterity. If you don't know what any of that means, don't worry, you just haven't achieved a high enough level of geekiness yet. It will come.

Business Portal and Web Services

At Developing for Dynamics GP, Chris Roehrich of Microsoft has some great information on passing data from a Business Portal Result Viewer Web Part to Dynamics GP Web Services. He also wins an award for one of the longest GP related blog title so far this year!

1099 Printing In Dynamics GP

Doug Pitcher of Rose Business Solutions has some great info on 1099 printing in versions 9 and 10 of Dynamics GP

Taming Smartlist Sprawl

My new article on Taming Smartlist Sprawl is up at MSDynamicsWorld.com If you use Smartlists, you're headed for Smartlist Sprawl so get a head of the problem now, before it's too late!

Dynamics GP Bank Rec Table Info

I'm catching up from a few days mostly away from the PC and I see that Victoria Yudin has a nice article covering the Bank Rec tables in Dynamics GP.

Weekly Dynamic: Assign AP Staff to Specific Suppliers

A Purchasing best practice is to assign AP staff responsibility for certain vendors. This provides point of contact service for the vendors and helps balance the workload in a large AP environment. One easy way to accomplish this in Dynamics GP is to use the Payment Priority field. (Cards-Purchasing-Vendor, Options) This is a 3 digit, alpha-numeric field and it's easy to use an AP clerk's initials or employee number in here.

There are advantages to using the Payment Priority field over other available fields like User Defined 1 or Vendor Class. Payment Priority is one of the options for selecting checks to print. This means that it's possible to print a batch of checks just for a single clerk's vendors. If the clerk has responsibility for attaching backup prior to signing or stuffing and mailing checks after signing this can be a big help, especially if the vendor assignments are non-contiguous. You can accomplish the same thing with Vendor Classes but Vendor Classes drive so many other settings that confining it to just this use is wasteful.

If assigned vendor ranges are contiguous based on vendor name or number(A-D goes to one person, E-G another, etc.) then User Defined 1 will also work since checks could be controlled by the vendor name or ID. But when there are a couple large vendors and many small ones contiguous ranges can be very difficult to maintain.

The point is that assigning vendors to individual AP clerks is a best practice and there are several ways to accomplish that. I prefer Payment Priority but there are lots of options to choose from.

Smooth Dynamics GP Upgrades

In a new article on MSDynamicsWorld.com, Mariano Gomez takes a look at the right way to upgrade Dynamics GP. Make sure you take a look at Avoid the Temptation to Take Shortcuts: 5 Tips for a Smooth Upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.

When I was in industry, I didn't do my own upgrades. I used a reseller. Frankly, there was too much to do each day without spending time researching the necessary pieces, doing the upgrade and having available time if something went wrong. It's not unusual to find someone at a reseller who does a ton of upgrades and can help smooth out this process. I like using someone who has already done a hundred of these. Of course, that means that you have to take their advice!

Concrete Dynamics GP

Paul at Implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP & SL has a great post on concrete returns on ERP investment, specifically as it relates to Dynamics GP. He provides 10 ways that a robust ERP system can bring solid ROI.

Stuck Batches in Dynamics GP

Doug Pitcher at Rose Business Systems takes a look at dealing with stuck batches in Dynamics GP.

Dynamics GP as a Layoff Defense

My new article is up at MSDynamicsWorld.com. In it I take a look at how Dynamics GP skills and knowledge can be used as a layoff defense.

Another Reason to Go to Convergence

Well, it looks like it's official, 50 Dynamics GP Tips in 50 Minutes is coming to Convergence 2009 in New Orleans and I get to do it!

There will be some new stuff so you can't say that you've seen it all. This will be a VERY fast paced presentation designed to keep you awake. It's almost all demo. The only thing in PowerPoint is list of 50. So, crappy economy or not I'm looking forward to seeing all of you there.

Weekly Dynamic:Track and Get W-9's For Vendors

In the U.S., a 1099 form is used to provide information to the IRS on non-corporate vendors that are paid more than $600. The biggest problem with this process is getting a Tax ID number from these vendors, usually this involves a W-9 form. Often, companies don't get a Tax ID number when they setup the vendor and have to go back at year end and try to get one. Good luck making this happen in the real world.

The only way to make this process work smoothly is if the AP department enforces a strict, no pay policy without a W-9 on file. It's brutal but it does get W-9's in the door. Here's how Dynamics GP can facilitate this process by preventing payments to vendors without a Tax ID in GP.

1. Setup every new vendor on hold by checking the Hold box next to the Vendor ID on the Vendor Maintenance window. (Cards->Payables->Vendor)
   
2. Open the Options window on Vendor Maintenance with the options button. (Cards->Payables->Vendor, Option)
3. In the Tax ID field of Vendor Maintenance Options enter "Need Tax ID"
4. Enter the rest of the vendor info and save it.

Once a W-9 with an ID is received, enter the tax id in the tax id field and remove the hold.

Use a Smartlist at the time of each AP run to review vendors on hold due to missing tax ID information. This process also makes it very easy for AP personnel to deal with vendor inquiries. If the vendor's payments are on hold due to missing Tax ID information, tell them when they call. It's amazing how fast that information arrives.

Year End Tips and Tricks

At Dynamics GP Land, Christina Phillips gives us some more Year End 2008 Tips and Tricks.

David Musgrave, His Soapbox and Error in Dynamics GP

David Musgrave stepped up on his soapbox today and reminded us all about the importance of reporting the first error and the steps that lead up to it. Good error reporting is huge and I think that we are simply all too complacent about error we see in any system. We skip warning boxes without reading them. Make sure you visit David's post, there's no extra charge for the soapbox!

Year End RE

Leslie Vail takes a look at Year End Closing and Retained Earnings Validation over at the Dynamics Confessor. It's that time of year so take in all of year end posts you can!

SQL View to Show Customer Specific Pricing

On Victoria Yudin's blog today she provides a SQL script to show customer specific item pricing in Dynamics GP.

Dynamics GP Version Page

Doug Pitcher of Rose Business Solutions points us to spreadsheets listing all version numbers for all the various service packs for GP 9 and 10. This is a great resource, thanks Doug!

Five Habits to Break in the New Year

My new Dynamics GP article on 5 Habits to Break in the New Year is up at MSDynamicsWorld.com. What? You didn't resolve to read absolutely everything I write for 2009? There's still time to make that resolution!

Payroll Tax Update - Some More

From Mariano, Microsoft has released Round 1 of the 2009 Payroll Tax Updates which fixes a number of tax issues including the Earned Income Credit error previously mentioned. Check out Mariano's post for details.

Rolling Down SOP's Requested Ship Date Changes

Mariano continues his previous post with more information on rolling down SOP's Requested Ship Date changes to line items and PO's. It's nice to see everyone getting back in the groove after the new year.

Credit Cards and Vendors in Dynamics GP

Victoria Yudin has a great look at Using Credit Cards to Pay Vendors in Dynamics GP. Credit Cards in GP also have lots of alternate and creative uses so it's important to really understand them. Make sure that you visit her post!

Weekly Dynamic: Lock the Taskbar

When you open Dynamics GP the menus can move around. The Dynamics GP menu is one menu bar, the Transaction/Inquiry/Cards, etc. menu is one, Smartlists are on one, etc. Sometimes the menu bar locations move around when you open GP. The way to control this is to set the menu bars the way that you want. Then right click on the bar and select "Lock Toolbars". After that your menu bars won't wander any more!

Backup, Backup, Backup

Lifehacker is reporting that blogging Service JournalSpace has been completely wiped out. Their database drives were completely overwritten and because they relied solely on a mirrored RAID system they are toast. RAID is fine if one drive gets wiped out, the idea behind a RAID system is that if a primary drive fails, a secondary drive(s) can be used to rebuild the data. But if data gets overwritten, RAID exacerbates the problem by propagating the bad data through all the drives. RAID is a disaster recovery system, not a backup system.

So what does this have to do with Dynamics GP you ask? Are you sure that you are backing up your Dynamics GP system and not just relying on RAID drives? What happens if someone accidentally overwrites your production database with a sample database? Do you have a backup to recover from? Have you actually tested it? If not, is your resume' up to date?

That last question is important because without good backups, an up to date resume' may be your only option and it's a pretty poor one in this economy. You have to actually backup your data. You need to test your backups and you need to have multiple, off site backups.

Testing is critical. If you don't test, you don't have backups. You have crossed fingers. We've seen lots of people who thought that they had backups only to find out that they had empty tapes or disks. You must backup and you must test. Go, do, now!

eConnect Admin Error

Vaidy Mohan has a nice post up describing issues  and errors he saw when accidentally installing different eConnect versions on a server and client.

Incorrect EIC Value in 2009 United States Payroll Tax Update

Mariano Gomez has some important information about and incorrect Earned Income Credit value in the 2009 Payroll Tax Update. Mariano includes the info to fix the issue so make sure to read his post if you use Dynamics GP Payroll.

Companies Still Investing in ERP

Over at ERP Community, Eric Kimberling takes a look at why companies will continue to invest in ERP in 2009. Eric makes some intriguing points and the article is definitely worth a read by the GP community on all sides. In a nutshell his points are:

• Companies are looking to get more out their existing systems
• Companies can get better pricing on new systems
  
• Due to a slowdown, companies have more people available to be involved in an implementation
• Even in a downturn, there are winners and those folks are investing in ERP

Make sure you read the whole thing to get the nuance.

SQL Server Management Studio for Beginners

Brian Knight, one of the brain children behind SQL Saturday and one heck of a SQL guru has a video on the basic use of SQL Server Management Studio. If you're new to SQL as part of an implementation of Dynamics GP, this video is worth a look. You'll definitely learn some SQL Studio basics.

Congrats to Victoria Yudin! Another Year, Another MVP Award!

Congratulations to Victoria Yudin who has been re-awarded in 2009 as a Microsoft MVP for Dynamics GP!