Feature of the Day: Document Attach

Today Microsoft showed off a great Feature of the Day: Document Attach

Energized Accounting: What Keeps You Up at Night? Accounts Payable

Recently Metafile was kind enough to help out with our GPUG CFO Special Interest Group (SIG) and help folks understand more about document management software selection. Now Energized Accounting has a great new post up on What Keeps You Up at Night? Accounts Payable. The post screams document management without ever mentioning the topic.

If I ran a document management software firm I would be sending this out everywhere.

Dynamics GP 2010 R2 Database SDK | Interesting Findings & Knowledge Sharing

Sivakumar couldn’t make it to Convergence this year so he stayed home and pouted…or rather built a very cool Dynamics GP 2010 R2 Database SDK documenting GP objects in an easy to use manner.

Convergence 2009 50 Tips in 50 Minutes

For everyone looking for the PowerPoint and Notes from the GP03 50 Tips in 50 Minutes session from Convergence 2009, here you go!

Thank You to everyone who attended!

AP/AR to GL Reconcile

Steve Chapman of Rose Business solutions has a nice write up on the new AP and AR reconcile to GL functionality. Keep in mind that there appears to be a bug in the AP functionality if you pay items with a credit card in GP but I think that ultimately, this will prove to be a very useful utility.

Analysis Cubes

Steve Chapman and Rose Consulting have a nice post on using Analysis Cubes with Dynamics GP. It's a couple weeks old but I just found it today. Enloy. Go get cubed.

Smartlists, Tables, Joins and Reporting Resources

Ever wondered about the tables and joins behind the GP Smartlist? Well thanks to Bud on the GP Newsgroup, you don't have to wonder any more. The Dexterity Integration Guide is hidden on Disc 2 with your GP install and has the details of the tables and joins for the default Smartlists!

The file is called IG.pdf. For version 9, Bud indicates that it's in the Tools>Dex>Doc>PDF folder on Disc 2 and that the tables start around page 272. For version 10, I actually had to install Dexterity from Tools>Dex on Disc 2. After installation, the PDF was available at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dexterity\Dex 10.0\Manuals by default. The Smartlist data starts in Chapter 7 and you'll see the details starting on page 312.

If you're new to the GP Tables and looking to write SSRS or Crystal Reports, these examples may help you as well.

For those of you who love Relationship Diagrams, you'll find these in the SDK also on Disc 2 under Tools>SDK. Also in the SDK are design documents and transaction flows. I still prefer Accolade's Info Flow and Posting but these may get you started. Also don't forget about the Table References for v 9.0 and 10.0 in the Downloads section.

Which tool you need depends on your level of experience and what you're trying to do.

Tangible Personal Property Tax in Dynamics GP

Tangible Personal Property tax in the U.S. is a pain. It's usually calculated by county and sometimes by city as well. Essentially this is a tax on the value of assets a company maintains in that jurisdiction.

To give you an idea, we have 9 TPP tax returns that we have to file. 7 counties and two cities even though we only have operations in 5 locations. There's no consistency to the forms or calculations. We used Ernst and Young just 2 years ago to prepare these returns and they had to have the original forms and they filled them out by hand! Yuck.

GP can't fill the forms out for you, but if you setup Fixed Assets right, it can make things a lot easier.

The Location ID field for an asset holds the state, county and city location of an asset. It's not always well covered in trianing but Location ID is designed for just this scenario. This ID can be reported on via Smartlists or various standard GP reports. The reports only have access to the ID so you'll want a descriptive ID like FL-ORN-ORL (Florida-Orange-Orlando). You've got 15 characters for your description.

If you have signifcant reporting requirements, consider customizing a report to allow easier reporting on specific cities, counties or states. In some cases the county gives credit for city taxes and in another case you may have assets in both a city and the unicorporated county so very detailed reporting is important.

With well built ID and limited needs, you may be able to get away with either carefully limited Smartlists or Smartlist exports to Excel to get the TPP data you need. The bottom line is that it can be easier than what you're doing today. If you put in some work now, next year's TPP returns can be a breeze.

Dynamics GP 10 Security and Roles

It's almost Thanksgiving and Jivtesh is talking roles in GP 10. No, not dinner rolls, quit thinking of your stomach! I mean security roles. With all the security improvements in GP 10 you'll want his handy Excel based reference covering the task permissions for each of the built in roles.

Dynamics GP 10 Table Reference Fixes

Jon Stielstra was lucky enough to find some Encumbrance tables hiding in the Advanced Security tab. He was also kind enough to point them out to me. I knew that I had lost a set of Encumbrance tables somewhere but I thought that I had forgotten to get them out of the app, instead the little guys were hiding in Advanced Security.

All is fixed now. All the links will get you the latest version.

GP 10 Table Reference is Done

Lucky for you, the day was full of good football games and I was able to finish up the GP 10 Table Reference while watching the games.

This is similar to the 9.0 Table Reference but bigger. Essentially this should be all the tables from a full install of CD1. Everything is broken down by product and series including temp files. It weighs in at just under 3,500 tables references.

If you need a quick reference for reporting or development this should be much faster than using Tools->Resource Descriptions. The file is in Excel 97-2003 format and has the tables both split out by product for easy reference and aggregated for easy searching. It's Excel, hack it up in whatever way works for you.

This is version 1.0. If you find any mistakes please let me know. Building this file is a really time intensive process and there can be mistakes.

The previous Table and Column list for GP 10 has now been replaced by this reference in the download links. Enjoy!

Keyboard Shortcuts...for 10.0!

Jivtesh why do you torture me with these good Dynamics GP posts that I HAVE to link to? People will start to think that I don't have original content here!

Jivtesh has keyboard shortcuts for version 10.0 with screenshots. It's nicely laid out too! Go visit him. Again.

There's some sarcasm for those of you unable to follow the toneless nature of the internet. I'm really thrilled at what Jivtesh is doing even if I'm a bit jealous today ;)

GP 10 Table Reference - 1st Pass

Andrew Snook of FastPath was kind enough to send me an Excel based table reference for GP 10 to include on the site. It's now up on the Download links to the right. (You give a little, you get a little, you pay it forward. That's how it works. )

I'm still planning on adding my per module table breakdown, similar to the version 9 file, as soon as I get GP 10 up on a test box. Hopefully this will happen in the next week or so. Little things like quarter end keep getting the way. I know, I need to get my priorties straight. I get it.

Back to work.

GP Advanced Security

In the GP Newsgroup today, Dave Musgrave kindly pointed to this Customer Source link with LOTS of info on GP's Advanced Security module. Lots as in O.J. Simpson has lots of problems. That a lot of Advanced Security!

GP 10 System Requirements

The US Dynamics GP Field Team Blog (and you thought my blog name was long!) points us to suggested hardware requirements for GP 10 deployments up to 250 concurrent users on CustomerSource.
The answer to your specific question about what hardware you need is of course "it depends". This may get you started. Also, lots of folks seem to ask for this and it's no piece of cake to find. Enjoy.

Weekly Dynamic: Dex.ini Settings

Some of the deep technical stuff seems to have struck a chord so we'll do a little more. This week we're looking at some of the settings in the Dex.ini file. This file holds a number of key GP settings. Many of them are available via the program interface but some are not. This is NOT intended to be a comprehensive list of every possible Dex.ini line. But if you think I missed something, add it to the comments and we'll build a full list together.

• SuppressChangeDateDialog=TRUE - Turns off the Date Change dialogue that opens at midnight
  
• Synchronize = TRUE - Forces a synchronization of the chart of accounts format
  
• OLEPath=\\server\folder\ole - Sets the path for linked and embedded files. This is often set up inconsistently in the initial setup. You'll need to include your path in place of file:////server/folder/ole
  
• NoPrintDialogs=TRUE - Suppress the print dialogue box
  
• ShowResids=TRUE - Make resource ID's visible in Dexterity
  
• SQLLogSQLStmt=TRUE
  SQLLogODBCMessages=TRUE
  SQLLogAllODBCMessages=TRUE - Turn on Dex SQL Logging (all 3 lines)
  
• ShowAdvancedMacroMenu=TRUE - Turn on the Advanced Macro Menu
  
• C:\DPS1\DEX.INI DPSInstance=1
  C:\DPS2\DEX.INI DPSInstance=2
  C:\DPS3\DEX.INI DPSInstance=3 - Run multiple process servers on a single machine. Specifics on CustomerSource here. (One line for each process server)
  
• AutoInstallChunks=TRUE - Add CNK files without the "Add New Code?" dialogue
  
• ExportOneLineBody=TRUE - eliminate line wrapping when exporting reports to comma or tab delimited files.
  
• IMPath=C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Great Plains\Integration Manager\IM.EXE
  IMExecPath=C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Great Plains\Integration Manager\IMRun.EXE - Set the path to Integration Manager so it will launch properly from the menu. (2 lines)
  
• WindowMax=TRUE - Open the GP main window full screen
• SampleDateMsg=FALSE - prevents the sample company dialog box from being displayed
• SampleDateMMDDYYYY=00000000 - Prevents the sample company dialogue box from displaying and sets the date to the current date.
• SampleDateMMDDYYYY=MMDDYYYY - Prevents the sample company dialogue box from displaying and sets the sample company to the date defined. (5/1/08 would be 050102008).

That should get us started. Any other favorites you want to add?

Weekly Dynamic: Automating Integrations

This week I have a nice surprise. I've figured out how to automate an integration via Integration Manager INCLUDING closing GP after everything is done.
This Weekly Dynamic could save you the $500 cost of Microsoft's AutoDIM utility.
Unfortunately, it's too much to squeeze into a blog post so I've added the whole thing as a download. You can get AutoIM here or in the Integration section of the downloads on the right side of the website.
What's in it?

• A sample batch file to launch GP, IM and start an integration.
• A sample macro that's needed for IM to log in to GP.
• A file used to close GP afterwards.
• VBScript code to include in your integration to run the file that closes GP.
• Full instructions on how to change these sample files to include information about your installation and make it all run.
• Source code and examples.

Most of the files are already setup for the default install locations of Dynamics GP and Integration Manager so there's even less setup than you think.
Much thanks to Michael Johnson who pushed me in this direction a few weeks ago and to Bryan Hipolito who pushed me over the edge with his Newgroup question.
Now that I've done all this work, I'm off to the beach to celebrate the Labor Day weekend here in the US.
Enjoy!

Understanding GP Sales Order Processing

There are many unsolved mysteries in life. Mysteries like the formation of the cosmos, women and Sales Order Processing in GP.
You're on your own with the cosmos and there's no chance that I'm ever going to figure out women but the folks at Accolade Publications have taken on Sales Order Processing with their new book Understanding Sales Order Processing.
Sales Order Processing or SOP for short is one of those many headed monster modules that can be used in a variety of ways. I've twisted it into something unrecognizable a couple of times myself. There's a lot in SOP. So there's a lot in the book. 350 pages worth in fact. The coverage of workflow and fulfillment alone make it worth it.
I'll give you a hint on how to justify the ROI to your CFO. I can't explain SOP to you in an hour. The book costs about the same as an hour of a consultant's time. Every minute you spend with the information in the book after the first hour is saving you money. Every time you look something up rather than make a call saves you dough. Every minute that a consultant doesn't have to spend re-explaining Quote/ Order/ Invoice saves them brain cells.
It's also handy for torturing the marketing department by reading the book out loud, but that's just a free bonus.
So check out Understanding Sales Order Processing if only to torture Marketing.