Topic: ‘AX Training’

Scheduling tools are critical for manufacturing and engineering environments.  It provides the ability to minimize production time and costs by identifying resources available and utilizing them in the most efficient manner possible.

The definition of scheduling is ‘To plan or appoint for a certain time or date’.  To take it one step further, production scheduling is ‘The management and allocation of resources, events and processes to create goods and services’. Read the rest of this entry »

This functionality is significantly different from AX 2009 to AX 2012.  In AX 2009, a sales order form was used to designate a return order and an RMA could be entered against it, if required.  In AX 2012, there is functionality specific to return orders.

Return orders are accessed through the Sales & Marketing module > Common > Return orders.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Supply schedule is a form / new AX 2012 functionality which provides an overview of current demand and supply situations based on the selected filter criteria.  Once the information is displayed, you can easily do the following within the form:

• View product supply information that is filtered according to location, master plan, and time period.
• Monitor and analyze the supply situation.
• Make changes to the planned supply. Read the rest of this entry »

How many times do you get asked if changes can be made to forms…”we need to see this specific piece of data”, or “can we add such and such?”
Well, we all know that of course it’s possible to display new requirements in a form, but it usually gets added to the development list, if it doesn’t get forgotten amongst all the other development demands.
The procedure is relatively straightforward in AX2012. No more having to wait for developers to do this task, but it does require that you to have some knowledge of how the AOT is structured, and how the Tables and Forms are named and related! Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s look at two improvements in the formerly known as Bank Module in AX 2012 (apologies to Prince) over the previous version AX2009. We will focus primarily on benefits to U.S. entities.
Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 has undergone a total transformation when it comes to the security model used in setting security for the system.  Rather than the model of module based security, AX 2012 has moved to the model of role based security.  AX 2012 provides numerous ‘out of the box’ standard security roles and duties, simplifying the implementation of base level security.

The security setup in AX can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it.  It can be as simple as setting up a rule to assign an employee, based on his/or HR position to a security role to manually assigning users to each role. Read the rest of this entry »

There are many data maintenance tasks that are simply too big for manual updating, but too small to justify writing scripts and using IT resources.  Dynamics AX 2009 features a Fill Utility that allow you to update multiple records at the same time.  For example, if you decide to change the Cash Discount for all customers or a group of customers, you can use fill utility to update all the selected customers at the same time.

1. Open the form where the field that you want to update is displayed.
2. Right-click the field that you want to update and select Record info from the menu.
3. Click the “Fill Utility” button.
4. Use the Inquiry to select which records should be updated.  For example, if you only wanted to update the Cash Discount for customers in a certain State, then you would select ‘Sales District’ in the ‘Field’ field that is related to the Customers Table.  This will return only customers that match that criteria.
5. Once the Fill Utility form is open, you can see the records you are about to change/update.  Remember, in this form you can remove any records you do not wish to update.
6. Click OK, and the New Field Value window opens.  From here you enter the desired field and click OK again.  This will update your records!

Of note; not all fields are available in AX for Fill Utility.  Also, not all users have access to Fill Utility.  This feature is only available if the Fill utility configuration key is selected and the Fill utility security key is enabled.

To view changes that were made using the Fill Utility, see Basic/Inquires/Fill Utility Log

Microsoft Press has released Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 as a book application for the iPhone.  This book is a must have for many AX professionals.  The app features the full version of the book, full text search, dictionary, and the ability to add notes.  And at $5.99, it’s a great value over the $40-$70 for the tree-and-pulp version.  It’s available here.  (iTunes required).

If anyone knows of pdf version of this book (or any other AX book), please let us know.

As noted in an earlier post, there are some great new AX 2009 training materials.  I was very impressed with the the expanded BI training offerings (SSRS, BIDS) in the Reporting and BI for AX 2009 Training.  It is a major upgrade from 4.0.

Reporting and BI for AX 2009

• SQL Server Reporting Services
• SQL Server Analysis Services
• Reporting in Role Centers

What’s not included in the new training?  Microsoft Dynamics 2009 Standard Reporting Options.  The link to the AX 4.0 BI Reporting Training is here.  The missing chapters are noted below.

• Auto-reports (Ch. 3)
• Report builder, ad-hoc reporting (Ch. 6)
• OLAP (Ch. 8 )
• Report Wizard (Ch. 4)

Microsoft has recently released a second wave of new and updated AX2009 training manuals. They are available on CustomerSource.

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/training/trainingmaterials/student

• Inventory Costing and Validation
• CRM in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009
• Application Integration Framework
• Reporting and Business Intelligence
• Expense Management
• Warehouse Management