Unable to Perform Cost Rollup in GP Manufacturing

Frank Hamelly has a new manufacturing related tip up. In it he looks at an error that can happen in Manufacturing when restoring one company over another.

Dynamics GP and 1099's Part 4

Amy Walsh finishes her series on GP and 1099's with part 4 today. Nice work Amy!

Changing Item Quantity from One Type to Another

Mohammad Daoud also has a new post up covering changing item quantity types. Mohammad includes step by step instructions and screenshots.

Convergence UK Coverage

The Edge (the site, not the U2 guitarist) has coverage of Convergence UK in London.

Print Crystal Reports Directly to the printer using VBA

Mohammad Daoud is back with a new post covering printing Crystal Reports directly to the printer using VBA.

Weekly Review: Cut a Check Without Adding the Vendor

Dynamics GP 9.0 and 10 include functionality to let you cut a check on the fly, without adding the vendor. Don't look for this functionality under Purchasing though, it's actually part of the Banking module and it's found in Transactions-Financial-Miscellaneous Check.

The screen is very easy to use, almost Quickbooky (if that's a word). Simply pick your checkbook, fill out a standard check, with available address lines, and set your distribution accounts. There's a big PRINT CHECK button in the upper left and a POST button next to it.

There doesn't appear to be any controls on this window beyond normal security features but there's no batch, batch approval or secondary approval. This is normal for banking windows in Dynamics GP but it would be nice if they would add batches to provide some consistency. There don't appear to be any setup windows or settinss related to this feature and the only way to turn it off is to deny access via security.

These transactions are treated like any other bank transaction. They are voided via Bank Transactions, not via Historical Purchasing Transactions. Drill down to the transaction level is available from Bank Rec and the Checkbook register. You can only reprint prior to posting. There isn't any way to turn this into a regular payables transaction except to void it and start over via AP. So make sure you really don't want to add that vendor! This is a nice little addition for certain circumstances and businesses and it's very easy to use. However, expect your auditors to want to look through these transactions and the security around this window.

Originally Posted by Mark 4/30/2006 09:20:00 PM

Dynamics GP and 1099's Part 3

Amy Walsh has part 3 of her 4 part series up on Dynamics GP and 1099's. One more time, I've waiting until January to think about 1099's before. It's painful. Think about it now.

Multiple Date Requirements and Dynamics GP

The GP Users Edge site has a new post up on using Dynamics GP where some users require a different date format. This is common when users cross countries and it's a pretty easy fix.

Account Framework

Frank Hamelly spent some time with the Dynamics GP account framework yesterday and he was kind enough to share with the rest of us.

Analysis Cube Issue

Sometimes it's the simple things, like when I accidentally hit the button yesterday to turn off my track pad and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. Or when Mohammad Daoud couldn't get Analysis Cubes for Dynamics GP to install because SQL Server Analysis Services wasn't installed.

Dynamics GP and 1099's Part 2

Amy Walsh continues her series on Dynamics GP and 1099's with part 2. Now is definitely the time to be thinking about 1099's, not January. If you're missing Tax ID's it will take months to collect them all. Trust me.

Hybrid Development Approach for Dynamics GP

Mariano Gomez continues his thoughts on a Hybrid Development Approach for Dynamics GP in his new article up at MSDynamicsWorld.com

Create Your Own Report Writer Report

Mohammad Daoud has a new post up up explaining how to create a report writer report from scratch. Yeah, I've had to do this but it's not fun. I'm glad Mohammad is looking at this and not me!

Dynamics GP Units of Measure

Frank Hamelly takes a look today at Units of Measure in Dynamics GP. This is a great topic because it seems so straightforward and yet it gets screwed up a lot.

KPIs in Business Portal

Steve Chapman of Rose Business Solutions has a new post up with video covering Key Performance Indicators in Business Portal.

That Dangerous SA Account

Andy Snook of Fastpath has a great new article on dealing with the dangers posed by the SA account in Dynamics GP. He makes some great points and it is definitely a must read. So I thought that I would add my own thoughts in addition to Andy's.

• Some ISV apps can ONLY be installed using SA. Other techniques to avoid the use of SA don't work here. Frankly, this needs to be fixed by ISV's. It's a problem that people whine about but hasn't been addressed.
• Andy makes the point that SA does not have to be a power user. I agree, mostly. The catch 22 is this, most consultants expect SA to be a power user. In fact a common troubleshooting technique is to determine if SA can do something, since that often indicates whether a problem is security related. If you don't communicate that SA has limited rights you can spend a fortune on unnecessary troubleshooting. It's often one of those "slipped my mind" kind of things. Notice the issue is not limited SA rights but communicating that SA rights have been limited, since this is still surprisingly rare.
• Additionally, if security is NOT well setup, the presence of SA as a power user can be a lifeline when say, payroll checks don't print because of a security problem.

The SA user is a difficult subject because the line between lifeline and crutch is very blurry. However, we both agree if that companies take the time to setup security right, most of the issues around SA go away.

Rapid Implementation Tool for Export/Copy/Backup

Mohammad Daoud has a new post up with coverage of how to use the Rapid Implementation tool to export, copy and backup setup between companies.

Dynamics GP 10 and 1099s

I.B.I.S. consultant Amy Walsh is starting a new, four part series today on 1099's and Dynamics GP over at DynamicsCare. Make sure to check out her 1099 posts all week long.

SQL View for All Posted Payables Documents and Apply Info

Victoria Yudin is back with a SQL View to provide all posted payables documents and related apply information. Thanks Victoria. We've got a lot of folks always looking for more SQL info for Dynamics GP.

10 Reasons to Attend the Dynamics GP Technical Conference

Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP has a link to the new Dynamics Partner team video showing 10 Reasons why you should attend the GP Technical Conference. It's not too late!

sanScript Troubleshooting for Dynamics GP

Developing for Dynamics GP has a new post up from David Dusek on some issues he had with a sanScript development support call.

Dynamics GP Sales Tips

Catching up with Frank Hamelly from last week I see that he has tips on setting the Default Sales Transaction Type, The Sales Order/Invoicing message and Customer Items. Nice job Frank!

Dynamics GP 10 Letter Writing Assistant

My colleague at I.B.I.S., Amy Walsh, has a new post up with coverage of the Letter Writing Assistant in Dynamics GP over at DynamicsCare. As always, Amy does a great job of walking people through each step. Keep up the great work Amy!

Weekly Dynamic: Pass Payments Through the Payables Account

When creating an AP Voucher in Dynamics GP and including a full or partial payment, Dynamics GP does not hit the AP account for the amount of the payment. A typical distribution with a $100 voucher and a $20 payment looks like this:

However, if you want to force these payments through the AP account for clarity you can. The setting is in Tools->Setup->Company->Company->Options. Check the box labeled Separate Payment Distributions. With this box checked, AP will be credited for the full amount due and then it will be debited for the payment amount like this:

This is really more of a preference issue. Both options are correct but sometimes you just want to see the everything that happened and eliminate the shortcuts.

Update: The second illustration has been corrected to properly show the cash distribution.

Weekly Review: Putting the Fix in Fixed Assets

Fixed sporting events are bad. Fixed transmissions are good. Fixed Assets are ...well... in between.

Today I want to look at some potential issues in the Fixed Asset module and what you can do about it. I'm using version 8 but these items should apply backwards and forward for several versions. There haven't been that many chages to FA. So here we go:

• The Fixed Asset module has it's own calendar in Tools-Setup-Fixed Assets-Quarter. You may think that this is no big deal, it's used for the mid-quater convention, yada yada. BUT if your Fixed Asset calendar is different from your financial calendar, you can have a mess! What can happen is that if you run depreciation only for the current period, because the financial and FA periods don't match, part of your depreciation may not flow to the GL! Oops. So if you're on a fiscal calendar, double check your FA calendar too. Go on. Do it now we'll wait.
  
• You think you have a problem with a Fixed Asset and the GL. Where do you look? The Inquiry-Fixed Asset-Financial Detail windows is your best friend. The batch number in this window shows the GL interface batch. If you have gaps, the data didn't go to the GL. (Of course, since you do account account recons you found and fixed this via a JE at month end. Didn't you?)
  
• Partial Retirments Just so you understand what a partial retirement transactions does, here's the scoop. Let's say I have asset 100-1 and it contains Ferraris with a quantity of 5 (it was a special bulk price). When you total one of my Ferraris, I have to partially retire the asset since it has a quantity greater than one and you only totalled one of my Ferraris. When the partial retirement is done, GP creates a second asset behind the scenes to hold the retired portion. In this case asset 100-2 would be created and it would contain 1 retired Ferrari. Asset 100-1 has it's quantity and cost reduced by the amount of the retired portion and it remains the active asset. When you look in the Retirements window, you see asset 100-1 with the partially retired flag set, but all you see is the active portion when you drill down on the asset id. To find out info about the retired portion, you have to go find the correct suffix for that asset and drill down on it via the regular FA inquiry window. More importantly, you totalled one of my Ferraris!
  
  
  

Originally Posted by Mark 4/26/2006 12:31:00 PM

FRx Security

Let's start the day off with a Frank Hamelly tip on FRx Security.

Dynamics GP Accidental Administrators

With a flattering nod to Paul Randall and Kim Tripp for the idea from their Involuntary DBA posts and presentations, my new post on what to do if you suddenly find yourself an Accidental Dynamics GP administrator is up at MSDynamicsWorld.com. We frequently run into controllers, DBA's and IT professionals who have been suddenly thrust into the GP administrator role when someone leaves or the organization changes. I wanted to build a short resource to help folks get started on the right path and this is what I came up. I would love to hear other people's thoughts as well. Feel free to comment here or on MSDynamicsWorld.

VST - Amount in Words on SOP Entry Window

Mariano Gomez continues his look at hybrid integrating applications development for Dynamics GP. In his latest post he looks at away to use Visual Studio Tools and Modifier to add the amount in words to the SOP Entry Window.

Dynamics GP Write Off Functionality for Receivables

Amy Walsh at I.B.I.S. has a new post up on the DynamicsCare blog covering the various ways to perform write offs in AR for Dynamics GP. This was on my list to cover so now I don't have to. I'll have to send Amy some more things on my list...oil change, garage cleanup...

Restricting FRx Row Results to Specific Columns

Frank Hamelly is back with a new tip on Restricting FRx Row Results to Specific Columns in his latest tip at gp2themax.

Management Reporter Beta Testers Wanted

Microsoft is looking for folks to participate in a beta test of Management Reporter, the ultimate replacement for FRx. If you're interested, check out this blog post for more information.

Popping Up Specific Extender Windows

The eOne Dynamics GP Blog has a great new post up on how to have different Extender windows pop up based on contextual information in the GP window. The technique looks very cool. I'm not sure how much fun it would be to report off of but it does look slick.

Electronic 1099 Filing

Frank Hamelly follows up his previous 1099 post with some options for electronic 1099 filing with Dynamics GP.

Changing the Business Portal Logo

Janakiram M.P. has new post up detailing how to to change the logo in Business Portal over at the DynamicsBlogger. Very cool post!

1099 True Up

Catching up from a very busy Friday, Frank Hamelly has a new tip up on truing up 1099 amounts before printing 1099's. Do it now! This is a real pain if you wait until January.

50 New Tips for Dynamics GP

At iSight in September I had the privilege to present 50 New Tips in 50 Minutes for Dynamics GP. Now that presentation with all the supporting information to help you make the tips work is available for download from I.B.I.S. We're asking folks to fill out a simple form for this one to get a sense of the interest in this session. Enjoy!

Weekly Dynamic: Copy Headings and Data from SQL

Doing data validation, database compares and other queries in SQL Server is a pretty common occurrence when working with Dynamics GP, especially during implementation. Often this involves running a SQL query in Management Studio and pasting the results into a spreadsheet or document. Many people don't know that a feature in Management Studio is the ability to copy the headings as well as the results with copy and paste.

This is not just a new feature in SQL 2008 but it works in SQL 2005, the feature is just not on by default. To turn it on, select Tools-Options in SQL Server Management Studio. Expand Query Results with the +. Expand SQL Server. Select Results to Grid and check the box "Include Column headers when copying or saving the results." Click Ok.


I felt dumb when I found this the first time but I feel brilliant every time I show it to someone else!

New GP Webinars to Help You Get Smarter Faster

I.B.I.S. is kicking off our new Expert Dynamics GP Advice and Tips webinar series. As part of our DynamicsCare support initiative, we've got six free webinars between now and the end of the year. These aren't typical "how to use a module" webinars. We're trying to go deeper and help you drive the value of Dynamics GP deeper into your organization. These webinars are available to everyone, not just our clients.

Oh yeah and I'm doing two of the six. Yipee!

On November 10th, I'm taking a look at the fantastic Support Debugging Tool for Dynamics GP. We showed some parts of this at iSight but we had plenty of requests for more info, so now we're delivering. In a second webinar on December 8th I'll take a look at some freely available SQL tools, tips and scripts designed to make managing Dynamics GP easier.

The full schedule is below and you can register here.

Is ANYTHING free these days?
Date: 11/3/2009 11:00-12:00 EST
Speaker: Christina Belding, I.B.I.S. Managing Consultant
A
quick review exploring CustomerSource, un-publicized Microsoft
resources, and some of the best tips & blogs out there that will
enable you to research like a power user (even if you aren’t one)!
 
Support Debugging Tool
Date: 11/10/2009 11:00-12:00 EST
Speaker: Mark Polino, I.B.I.S. Senior Consultant and Microsoft MVP
Learn
about this great FREE tool from Microsoft that provides multiple
logging and debugging functions as well as look and feel options within
GP.
 
Dynamics GP and the “Lean” Office
Date: 11/17/2009 11:00-12:00 EST
Speaker: Amy Walsh, I.B.I.S. Senior Consultant
Tips on how to incorporate Dynamics GP functionality into the “Lean” methodology of business processes.
 
Business Intelligence
Date: 12/1/2009 11:00-12:00 EST
Speaker: Dwight Specht, I.B.I.S. Chief Operating Officer
What
is BI? Which BI tools and products would benefit my business? What kind
of investment in money and time will we have to make? Join us as Dwight
shares his Business Intelligence expertise.
 
SQL Server Tips  
Date: 12/8/2009 11:00-12:00 EST
Speaker: Mark Polino, I.B.I.S. Senior Consultant and Microsoft MVP
Tips
on how to run SQL queries from both the Support Debugging Tool and
Admin Console; run through some common queries, and learn how to copy
and paste headers from Management Studio.
 
ISV Spotlight – Tectura ReqLogic
Date: 12/15/2009 11:00-12:00 EST
Speaker: Rich Fowler, Tectura Expert
Learn
about the leading .NET browser based application for procurement,
requisitioning, vendor invoicing, expense processing and workflow, that
integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics GP.

SQL Connection Error

Tim Williams from AMLLP Consulting takes a look at an unusual SQL connection error over at Dynamics Solution Edge. In his case, the user's password expired in SQL mid day resulting a host of unusual connection errors until they exited and relogged into GP prompting the password change error. Make sure to read the whole thing.

Continuum for Dynamics GP

Mohammad Daoud has a new article up covering the use of the Dynamics Continuum API for transaction integration.

Smartlist GoTo's

Frank Hamelly takes a look at the often overlooked GoTo functionality in Smartlists over on his blog gp2themax.

Totalling a Field in a Conditionally Suppressed Report Section

David Musgrave has a new report writer tip up at Developing for Dynamics GP. He looks at how to total fields in a report when a section has been hidden by a condition.

Weekly Review: Edit Check Batch

Dynamics GP Version 9 introduced a new AP screen but a lot of users still don't know it's there so this week's review highlights the Edit Check Batch functionality.

Selecting Edit Check Batch lets you create a new check batch or modify an existing one but the screen view is much closer to Quickbooks or Peachtree. You simply check vendors you want to pay and then you select or deselect invoices with a simple check box. This is really easy and should reduce the AP learning curve for new employees.

As a bonus, you can even change which columns are displayed ,to show additional information, using the COLUMNS controls in the corners. This really provides nice control over the information you see when processing checks.

It's nice to see the Dynamics GP group putting some effort into improving core functions like AP, not just adding bells and whistles.

Originally Posted by Mark 4/11/2006 09:38:00 AM

Automatic Credit Hold

We'll wrap up today with Frank Hamelly's tip on Automatic Credit Holds in Sales Order Processing.

SQL View for All Posted Payables Transactions

Victoria Yudin has published a new SQL view to show all posted Payables transactions in Dynamics GP.

MACRS Depreciation in GP

Catching up with Frank's daily tips series I see that Frank has coverage of how to track MACRS tax depreciation in Dynamics GP. Frank gives a great overview of how flexible GP's depreciation can be.

Support for GP 8.0 Ends Today

We mourn the passing of support for Dynamics GP version 8. Mainstream support ends today. Also, for GP 9, you'll need to be on SP 3 or higher to continue getting support. David Musgrave has the full eulogy.

GP Technical Conference - It's Not Too Late

It's not too late to register for the 2009 Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference in Fargo, ND November 9-11. There are going to be some great speakers including David Musgrave and Mariano himself. Registration is still open and there are some hotels available so hurry up!