Did You Know? Inventory HITB

This week the Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP blog takes on the Historical Inventory Trial Balance report (HITB) available with GP 10 SP2 or higher. If you inventory make sure to check it out to see how this report can help you.

Weekly Dynamic: Transaction vs. Batch Posting

Dynamics GP provides a an option in most modules to post transactions individually or via a batch of transactions. This is set in Tools->Setup->Posting->Posting and can be controlled differently for different transaction types. The vast majority of consultants I know (including me) recommend posting by batch, but it's not always clear to user why so here are my reasons.

• Batches allow users to save and review transactions prior to posting.
• Batches allow printing edit lists to identify errors prior to posting.
  
• Batches can require approval and/or verification.
• Batch posting provides better control over the posting date. For transactions, this defaults to the transaction date. It can often be changed with the arrow on the date field but few users figure that out.
• Some transactions like Inventory Adjustments require batch posting to really work right.
  
• Batches can provide another reference or grouping point for searching or reporting.
• Batches recover better from errors via Batch Recovery than directly posted transactions. This is a personal observation and I don't care what anyone says. I've more hard to fix errors resulting from transaction posting than from batch posting. Something will go wrong so you might as well have the best chance at recovery.

This leaves the average users with two simple options. Ignore all the advice and experience of a bunch of GP consultants and pay us ton of money to fix it when something goes wrong or use batch posting. I'm not worried, plenty of folks will choose option 1.

Dynamics GP Clear Data Access Error

Mariano Gomez takes on what we hope is a pretty rare occurrence. A user was locked out of GP because someone was clearing data. Actually, the clear data process had hung up locking out all users. Mariano describes all the details and the fix. I would hate to see an error message that says "Someone is clearing company files and you cannot get into this company." That will give me nightmares for a week.

Dynamics GP Web Services Settings for Large Transactions

Chris Roehrich has a new technical post up on Developing for Dynamics GP. Chris digs into web services configuration settings for integrating large transactions, think 20,000 lines. I love seeing real world scenarios highlighted. Thanks Chris!

Sharepoint, Dynamics GP and Month End Close

Steve Chapman has a great video up of how they used some basic Sharepoint functionality to improve the month end close process. Nice job Steve!

Dynamics GP Window Notes

Alicia Berglund has a new blog post up covering the use of window notes as a reminder or customized help tool. I've recommended this plenty of times by have yet to see a company truly embrace it.

Creating New Contracts from SOP in Dynamics GP

Rose Business Solutions has an new video out demonstrating the Sales Order Processing to Field Service Contract functionality.

Illegal Characters in Dynamics GP

No, David Musgrave not talking about immigration or unlawful users in his latest set of posts. In a two part series, Dave takes on illegal characters in Dynamics GP. There are times when quotes, backward single quotes and carriage returns can really screw up your data and David tackles dealing with these issues. Mariano Gomez has also jumped in with his own take on this issue.

I've seen issue this mostly with importing and exporting data. We had one import that added a carriage return to the end of a ton of master records. The data looked correct on the screen but would be blank on reports. That was fun to find and fix.

Dynamics GP Report Writer Shared Directory Issue

Frank Hamelly relates his latest tussle with Report Writer and share dictionaries in his newest post.

Removing a Reference to a Field or Object in VBA

MichaelJ2 has a great post up on Removing a Reference to a Field or Object in VBA. Then David Musgrave picked up the conversation with his own take on the same subject. Both are definitely worth a read.

What's the Difference?

What's the difference between all the Dynamics ERP products? Mohammad Daoud points us to a Linked In discussion on just that topic.

Did you Know? Excel Reports

In the latest weekly "Did you know?" installment from Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP, the team brings you more info about Excel reports and Sharepoint.

Weekly Dynamic: Bank Reconcile Grace Period

When you start to process a bank reconciliation, Dynamics GP 10 will ask you if you want to want process the reconciliation with an 8 day grace period. The idea is that even though you selected a a cutoff date, sometimes mis-dated a transaction will have cleared the bank and you'll need it to properly reconcile, even though the transaction is past the cutoff date. Changing the cut off date to find these items then puts the wrong cut off date on your reconciliation reports so this functionality provides a better way.

If you select "No" indicating that you don't want to use an 8 day grace period, a box opens allowing the user to change the length of the grace period. Unfortunately, there is no setting to change the default 8 day grace period. If you don't like 8 days as your grace period you'll have to change it every time.

What the Heck is Business Intelligence?

What the heck is business intelligence? No, it's not a made up term from Microsoft, but the Inside the Microsoft Dynamics GP blog tackles this question for those of you who are still confused.

Is Microsoft's Renaming Killing Dynamics GP?

Erik Ernst asked the question is Microsoft's rebranding to Dynamics NAV killing Navision? He provides some Google trends data to support the argument. He also provides comparisons for the other renamed Dynamics produc,s, including Dynamics GP, showing a generally declining search trend for effectively all of the products. I'm not sure how compelling this argument is. In the case of Great Plains, searching for "Great Plains" will provide a lot of hits that aren't software related. I actually think GP is a pretty good middle ground identifier since it was routinely called that when it was Great Plains. Also, more folks may know that they are Microsoft products and don't need Google to tell them where to get more information.

So what do you think? Read Erik's article and tell me if you prefer Dynamics GP or Dynamics Great Plains ('cause the Dynamics part isn't going away any time soon.) Also, do you think the name change hurts or helps the brand?

Dynamics GP Scalability

Mohammad Daoud has a new blog post up with Dynamics GP scalability numbers using testing with a 1,000 concurrent users. Make sure you follow the link to the full scalability white paper.

Creating Drop Down Lists using Modifier with VBA

MichaelJ2 has a terrific new post up on creating drop down lists in Dynamics GP using Modifier with VBA. Michael provides lots of screen shots in his walk through of how to do this. As an aside, a client of ours recently asked for a customization similar to one they found described on the web. We went to site they described and it was one of Michael's blog posts. Lucky for us, we were going to see him the next day. Michael does some great work so make sure that you pay attention to his posts.

How Does Check Links Work?

Mariano Gomez has a great post up detailing how Check Links works in Dynamics GP. It's not for the faint of heart but you'll learn something.

How to Make a Martini With Dynamics GP

Doug Chapman at Rose Business Solutions has a new video up demonstrating Manufacturing for Dynamics GP. What do they manufacture in the demo? Why a Martini of course! I love the concept. We can all understand what goes into a martini so this makes a great demo.

Field Service Webinar

If you use or think you need the Field Service suite of modules from Dynamics GP make sure to take a look a this best practices webinar from I.B.I.S. The webinar features David Humphries and Jack Sowers, both of whom were instrumental in creating the Field Service suite and Tom Aucamp, V. P. of Swisher Hygiene, a large GP Field Service user talking about best practices and how to leverage Field Service's features.

Tech Ed Interview with GP MVP David Patrick

Fellow Dynamics GP MVP David Patrick was interviewed recently at Tech Ed and and the video of the interview is now available.

Why Does VBA's Shift+F11 Not Always Work?

David Musgrave has a nice post up at Developing for Dynamics GP on why VBA's Shift+F11 doesn't always work in Dynamics GP and what to do about.

Crystal Reports in Dynamics GP using VBA

Mohammad Daoud has a new post up where he details his solution for running Crystal Reports in Dynamics GP using VBA.

Did You Know? AA, 1099, Reconciling & Budgets

Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP is starting a new Series of Week asking "Did you know?" about several Dynamics GP features and then providing more information. Week 1 is up and covers Analytical Accounting with Smartlist, 1099 enhancements, AP/AR Reconciliations and Multi-Year budgets. Great stuff. Keep up the good work!

Transferring GP Data with SQL Import and Export Wizard

Fellow Dynamics GP MVP Mariano Gomez is back with a post explaining how to transfer data between two Dynamics GP companies using the Microsoft SQL Server Import and Export Wizard.

Modify Safepay Trx Upload Window to Allow Macros

Dave Dusek has a new article up on Developing for Dynamics GP where he explains how to modify the Safepay Transactions upload window to allow macros to run. The idea is that some folks use a macro to run the Safepay upload automatically at night but the dialogue boxes are different when there are no transactions to export an the macro hangs. Dave provides a solution. It uses some Dex code but if this is an issue for you, I'm sure that your partner would be willing to help.

Weekly Dynamic: Vertical Line in SSRS

We ran into a client requirement that an invoice have a vertical line separating the invoice details from the extended amount column in an SSRS 2005 based invoice for Project Accounting in Dynamics GP 10. The line had to go from the invoice header to the invoice footer that contained the total. It also had to cross page breaks with no spacing breaks at the header or the footer. Sounds pretty easy right? Actually it was a lot harder than you think and despite some really bizarre Google responses, we managed to find the answer ourselves.

The core problem was that the line would stop where the data stopped, usually short of the footer.

The answer was to create a rectangle (we probably could have used a line but it's easier to keep a rectangle straight) with only the left border visible. We drew the rectangle from the top of the invoice header to the footer ensuring that the body was long enough that the page area was completely accounted for with all of the report elements. This works until you have more than one page. To solve this, we opened the parameters of the rectangle and checked the "Repeat report item with data region on every page" and selected the only data item in the body, table 1. We then also checked the box to insert page breaks after the rectangle. That did it. The rectangle went to the bottom of every page every time.


Just to give you an idea, some of the respectable Google solutions (meaning they had been marked as accepted or approved in various forums) included using code to count the rows being returned and then using more code to properly end the line based on the row count, packaging the entire body inside of a list box and using it's boundaries to force a full page and using multiple tables in the body to move the total out of the footer to replicate a footer in the body. So you can see, it wasn't as easy to figure out as it sounds.

Some of our other rejected solutions included pre-printed forms, a sharpie and a ruler and using black paper so no one would know that there wasn't a line. I'm glad we found a better solution!

Stop Using the Old Dynamics GP Navigation

It's official, over at Inside Microsoft Dynamics they are asking folks to stop using the old navigation menus. As noted, I generally agree. I still struggle with documentation though. Writing Transactions->Financial-BlahBlahBlah is just so much clearer than explaining the Area Page navigation. But other than that, turn off the toolbar an switch!

Dynamics GP 10 Service Pack Installation Time Saver

Jason Young has a new post up at Rose Business Solutions where he gives some pointers for speeding up service pack installations for Dynamics GP 10.

Seth Godin on Project Feedback

If you do anything with Dynamics GP, you'll be doing projects. Implementation, upgrade, new modules, all projects. Seth Godin has a great new post up on Direct and Useful Project Feedback and the ways to structure a project. Seth is always worth a read so make sure that you read this one.

Choosing an ERP System

The ERP Software Blog has a new post up on ERP sytem selection. The most interesting part is the reproduced Deloitte & Touch table showing top 10 selection criteria from clients the 1st and 2nd time they buy and implement ERP. Hint, the results are quite different. Maybe something to think about if you are buying an ERP system for the first time.

The Coming Shift and Dynamics GP

Mariano Gomez has a nice new article up on MSDynamicsWorld.com covering The Coming Shift in IT Department Priorities:A Microsoft Dynamics GP Perspective. In it Mariano takes a look at the coming shift to better apply IT resources to delivering business information. Make sure that you check it out.

#63 on Dynamics World 2009 Top 100

A friend sent me a link today. Apparently I'm number 63 on DynamicsWorld's 100 Most Influential People within Microsoft Dynamics for 2009. Who knew?

I can think of a number of more influential people that didn't make the list but given the definition criteria and the European focus of the site, I understand how some folks were left off.

Temporary Fixes with the Support Debugging Tool

David Mugrave has new information up on using the Support Debugging Tool for temporary fixes.

Preparing for the recovery with Dynamics GP

Frank Hamelly has great new article up on MSDynamicsWorld.com. In it he reviews steps you can take to leverage down time today to prepare your ERP system for the coming recovery. Nothing like a tune up to make things run better.

New Smartlist Builder Templates

There are new Smartlist Builder templates up on CustomerSource. We downloaded and started playing with the new Project Accounting ones last week. The US Microsoft Dynamics Field Team has a post up on this as well.

Color Coding Dynamics GP

Mariano Gomez takes a look a the new color coding feature in latest release of the Support Debugging Tool for Dynamics GP. The ability to color code the screens based on company is very cool!

Weekly Dynamic: Backwards Allocation Accounts in Dynamics GP

We've covered Fixed Allocation accounts here before but I've got a new use for them now. Typically a Fixed Allocation account takes an amount posted to that account and passes it to multiple other accounts based on the setup percentages. Recently I ran into a situation where we wanted to do the opposite.

In Project Accounting you can force transactions to change various segments to match the segment values assigned to the project using the subnet mask functionality. For example, a department segment is changed on posting to match the department assigned to the project. It works great until you run into a particular cost category that you DON'T want to change based on the project. You can't control subnet masks by cost category, an account type either gets a mask or it doesn't. In our case, for certain allocation transactions to a particular cost category, we wanted them all to hit the same department but Project Accounting was transforming the department segment causing us problems.

The solution was to create a Fixed Allocation account for each department. The allocation accounts all pointed to the same real GL account with a 100% allocation. In other words, instead of using an allocation account to spread costs to multiple departments, we used multiple allocation accounts to rollup costs to a single department. This kept the GL clean and avoided polluting the chart with a whole bunch of accounts since allocation accounts are pass through accounts that don't show up on financial statements.

I love finding new uses for old features!

New Dynamics GP Blog

There is a new Dynamics GP blog up at http://www.erpsoftwareblog.com/. It appears to be a consolidated blog hosted by a number of resellers. It's always nice to see more GP blogging going on.

New Release of the Support Debugging Tool For Dynamics GP

Build 11 of the Support Debugging Tool for Dynamics GP is now available. Dave Musgrave has all the details.

Dynamics GP Notes and Note Index

Dave Musgrave has more information for us on notes and the note index fields in Dynamics GP including information about cross-linked notes.

Dynamics GP Movies

Grab your popcorn and hit up these official Dynamics GP videos from Microsoft and the Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP blog.

Dynamically Changing Decimal Places in Crystal Reports

Victoria Yudin has a new post up on how to Dynamically Change Decimal Places in Crystal Reports. I'm not using Crystal much anymore unless a client already has it in their environment but it's always nice to have more tips.

Project Accounting Macros

Christina Phillips at Dynamics GP Land reminds us that GP support has macros that will run through Contracts and Vendors and save the default settings for a project. They are very handy if adding Project Accounting to an existing GP implementation.

Landed Cost Part 2

Christina Phillips continues her series on her landed cost saga over at Dynamics GP land.

Free Yourself From the Dynamics GP Toolbar

My latest article on freeing yourself from the Dynamics GP 10 toolbar is up at MSDynamicsWorld.com

Dynamics GP Item Numbering Schemes

Frank Hamelly is suddenly everywhere and his newest post takes a look at various possible numbering schemes for Items in Dynamics GP.

Dynamics GP Navigation Pane, not Pain

Frank Hamelly takes on Smartlists and the Navigation pane in one of his latest blog entries. I've used similar solutions in the past and Frank's post is a nice read.

Account Rollups in GP

Frank Hamelly takes on Account Rollups and Fruit Rollups in Dynamics GP. I disagree with Frank, I prefer Account Rollups. Fruit Rollups are a weird consistency.

Dynamics GP Report Writer and Full Invoice Item Descriptions

I'm catching up on a bunch of posts after a terrific, disconnected weekend. First up is David Musgrave's article explaining how to show the full item description on an invoice. Some reports don't support the full 100 character length but David provides workarounds and examples.

Weekly Dynamic: Turning a Project into a Fixed Asset

A common request is to turn a Project from the Project Accounting module, into a Fixed Asset in the Fixed Asset module. There is no native functionality to do this and based on my conversations with the Dynamics GP team, it's not coming any time soon so you might as well understand the workaround and it looks like this:

1) Create a Miscellaneous Log Cost Category for Fixed Assets pointing the Contra Account to the FA Clearing account and the Cost/Expense account to wherever you are collecting the project costs (a WIP account, a project FA WIP account, etc.). You'll be doing a negative misc log so the cost collection location will be credited and contra (FA Clearing)  will be debited.
2) Once the project is ready to become a Fixed Asset, process a negative Misc Log transaction using the Fixed Asset Cost Category to remove an amount equal to the total cost of the project.
    a. This setup makes it easy to exclude the FA Cost Category when analyzing project costs while still leaving the project at zero
    b. This process provides a transactional audit trail to show that the project was closed out and moved to Fixed Assets
3) Create a Fixed Asset. The GL Transfer mechanism will move the costs from the FA clearing account to the appropriate Fixed Asset account.

I'm surprised that Microsoft doesn't have any plans to add at least this basic functionality since it doesn't seem like it would be all that hard. But every indication is that it's not coming so you'll have plenty of time to get used to the workaround process.