Topic: ‘Financial’

Simulating Exchange Adjustments is just one way that Dynamics AX 2009 can make life easier for you and your company.  Dynamics AX 2009 offers a variety of simulation and forecasting tools as well as reports.  These features filter complex data into a clear form that can be used in decision making.  A quick Exchange Adjustment Simulation will illustrate how a business issue is solved easily using Dynamics AX 2009.

What if you want to see the effects of an exchange adjustment on open customer transactions before you actually make the adjustment?

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Print management can be setup in Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Projects at the module level. Each original record in Microsoft Dynamics AX can have default settings associated with it which are defined under the print management setup. Print Management is setup at a hierarchal level where you define original record, copy record and settings for any available documents. You can create up to one original record for each and multiple copy records for every document type. You can create up to 19 conditional settings for each original or copy record. To see more on how to setup Print Management, continue reading.

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This post will introduce the concept of period allocation keys, show how they are setup with the Period Allocation Key Wizard, and how they are integrated with the budget.  

Budgeting is important because companies need to know their actual versus predicted forecasts for the year. Period allocation keys in Dynamics 2009 make the budgeting process easier by allowing users to create budget models that can be used over several budget time frames. Not only do period allocation keys duplicate the allocation data for multiple budgets, they can also help reflect fluctuations brought on by season. 

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While it is technically impossible to edit a closed invoice in DAX2009, there are a few options for crediting your customers.  One popular method (and one I don’t recommend) is to issue a free text invoice.  This will credit your customer, but it will not tie back to the original invoice, and it will create havoc if you are using commissions in any way.  Remember, FTI’s were created for service items, not item items.

Instead, try one of the following:

Process a credit note for the already invoiced line in question.  (Sales Order > Functions > Create Credit Note)  Once the credit is created, you can run an invoice (Post Qty > All if you do not wish to actually return) and then rerun the invoice (again, post Qty > All if you do not wish to actually return).

Create a new service type item for each Item Group.  This will not impact inventory, and then when you need to adjust, add a new SO line for the service item on it, use the correct sale price, and post the invoice.  Then enter a FTI credit against the originally posted amount.  A bit of a work around, but may meet your requirements.

Requirement -Occasionally one might want to reset the check number sequence in AX when using Free type checks (no pre-printed number).

Bank >Bank Account Detail> Select bank account> Setup Button> Check Layout>Check Number Method.

Select drop down check type to Fixed. Create checks up to the number you wish to start with, then reset Check Number Method to Free. This resets the counter from the initial single digits assumed.

We had a client recently who had a business relationship with a customer that was also a vendor.  Standard AX allows this cross reference in from both the customer master and the vendor master.  They were attempting to transfer a balance from the customer account to the corresponding vendor account.  Here’s the process:

Step1: Create an INVOICE Journal (or you can use a General Journal).  Click Lines.

Enter the AMOUNT to (DEBIT or CREDIT) the Vendor account.   Offset the Posting to the related CUSTOMER ACCOUNT.  Enter the proper POSTING date.

POST THE ENTRY.

Step2: On the Vendor Account “SETTLE” the  Outstanding DEBIT/CREDIT amounts through OPEN TRANSACTION EDITING.

Step3: On the CUSTOMER Account  the amount is now open, and posted to the AR Account.

I was recently asked of a client to validate that the FIFO costing in Microsoft Dynamics AX works correctly for their auditors.  This was on a 4.0 environment so the 2009 validation processes weren’t an exact fit.  The process we came up with should be applicable to 2009 as well however.  The process is as follows (I would recommend to run this per item to keep it simple):

1. Run the Specify Inventory Value report (Inventory Management -> Reports -> Status -> Inventory Value -> Specify inventory value) as of the first date of a new period to attain beginning cost price (latest transaction cost / transaction quantity).
2. Run the Inventory Transactions report (Inventory Management -> Reports -> Transactions -> Inventory Transactions) as of the first of the period through the end of the period by Financial Date.  Sort this by Financial Date.
3. Match values from the beginning cost on your “Specify inventory value” report to the running issues on the “Inventory transactions” report.  As you run out of inventory for each receipt, match up against the next receipt by financial date.  These should all match out including adjustments.  The formula for determining your cost per quantity of the transaction will be the (financial cost amount + adjustment) / quantity of the transaction.

This process could obviously be modified to validate the other costing methods as well just by changing the criteria of how you match or average costs.  It will give you a simple way to validate costs per transaction.  One additional note on the process is that this will only be effective after the closing of the period.  Until then, Microsoft Dynamics AX will not adjust costs according to any costing model.

Purpose:  To settle transactions between issues and receipts as items can be issued at one value and received at another value.  NOTE:  This does not apply to standard cost method.

Inventory close is no longer required when using the standard cost method.  Differences between the item’s standard cost (used for issues) and receipt transactions will post to variance accounts, as determined, resulting in inventory always valued at the standard cost.

The following points apply to all costing methods except standard costing:

• Inventory values are based on the running calculated average cost when financially posted.
• Prior to a receipt being invoiced (financially posted), there can be a difference between the actual (physical) receipt cost and the expected (financial) cost.  When this occurs, the receipt value is known as the floating value.
• Inventory close settles the initially posted average cost to an item cost based on the inventory model selected (i.e. FIFO, LIFO, Weighted average, etc.).  AX attempts to match issues to receipts based on the inventory model.  If a match cannot be made, an adjustment on the issue will occur to match the receipt cost.
• When not using the standard cost method, there can be a link made between the item receipt and item issue cost.  Marking is performed to create this link and is considered by inventory close when settling.  Transactions “marked” Inventory dimensions can control the settlement process within a specific dimension, i.e. an item issued in an inventory dimension cannot be settled against another inventory dimension.  To control within a specific dimension, the financial inventory parameter must be selected on the dimension.  This control does apply to the Marking functionality.

We were working with a client this week and getting the checks set-up in the Bank Module in Dynamics AX 2009.  We spotted an error in the Help and wanted to post a correction.

The help section in for MICR line setup in the Bank module (Bank>> Bank Account Details>>Select a Bank Account>Setup Button>> Check Layout>> Code Tab) of MS Dynamics AX2009 states:

In this field, you should type the complete MICR line, including the delimiters. The check number cannot be typed, since it is unique to each check. Instead, the position is marked in the line with a special character sequence.

MICR characters:
·    0 – 9
Special characters (delimiters):
·    A = ‘A’
·    B = ‘B’
·    C = ‘C’
·    D = ‘D’
·    Blank = Blank
The check number is marked in the MICR line with the character sequence %1. This is shown as %1 in the line.

HOWEVER:
Help omits to explain that the special characters are not the letters shown above but are rather specific delimiter MICR code characters, e.g. D is not ‘D’ as stated above but the MICR character for “dash” ( ). When searching for specific code characters enter capital letter A-D to determine the correct character to match the MICR code.

I was recently reviewing cleanup processes in Dynamics AX.  Reviewing the functionality in 2009 and comparing it to 4.0.   There has been additional cleanup processes added to help keep databases clean and under control!  The cleanup-options-in-4_0-vs-2009 the cleanup processes and the options available in each!  Unfortunately, in a lot of instances, the ability to delete data within a date range (i.e. journals) is not an option!  So be careful and test before live!