Topic: ‘Uncategorized’

You can now learn about the new features available in GP 2010 by viewing our DynamicsCare Webinar: What’s New in GP 2010 (11.0).

The newest release of Microsoft Dynamics GP, version 2010, is only a few months away. Convergence 2010 in Atlanta is really going to function as the launch party for GP 2010. In preparation for this, a lot of sites are covering what’s new in Dynamics GP. Here at I.B.I.S. we’ve been showing off sneak peeks of functionality to our clients. When you look for information about the new release, a lot of sites will show the same top five or six features coming in Dynamics GP 2010. You might be led to believe that’s all there is.

Not True. Dynamics GP 2010 is stuffed with new features like a Moe’s burrito.

Top features like Word templates for reporting and emailing documents are great additions to the product but there is so much more. So much in fact that Microsoft has been showing off a new feature every day.  Items like Excel Report Totals, new Billing Frequencies in Field Service Contracts and Project Accounting SSRS reports are terrific additions to the product. Before you look at another top five list and think “that’s all there is” look at all the new features already highlighted by Microsoft with even more to come

This release is stuffed with features and Microsoft is bursting with pride over it. The launch portal is the best I’ve ever seen in more than 10 years of working with Dynamics GP and it’s predecessors and the team is understandably proud of Dynamics GP 2010. It’s a great time to be running Microsoft Dynamics GP.

I have received a lot of questions regarding Advanced Find views, both from blog viewers and current clients. Most of the questions circle around sharing or assigning Advanced Find views. There are two ways to allow other Users in the CRM system to view an Advanced Find view you create: Assigning or Sharing.

Assigning an Advanced Find view: this will allow the other User(s) to have full privileges with the view (read, write, delete, etc.). At the same time, you are giving up your ability to perform actions upon it. So if I assign one of my views to another User, they now own that view and can do anything they want with it. Unless they give me view access through Sharing, I will not even know the view exists anymore.

Please note – when you are assigning the view, you are not relinquishing ownership of any records contained in the view or pulled by the view’s criteria. You are merely giving the User(s) the ownership of the filter criteria. If I share a view of My Leads from Trade Shows, the person viewing the results of the view will see those specific Leads that are still owned by me.

To assign an Advanced Find view, go to the Saved Views tab inside of the Advanced Find window. The listview pulled contains all of the personal AF views that you currently own. To assign a view (or multiple views), highlight the view(s) and then click the Assign icon (it looks like a guy in a blue suit with a green arrow pointing to the right).
 

Click this, and toggle the Assign to another User option. Specify the User, and then click OK.

Sharing an Advanced Find view: this is the most popular option, especially from a management POV. You can allow your team members to view the filter criteria as long as they have permission to view the records pulled by the search.

Please note – when you share a view, you are not sharing the records pulled by the criteria. You are merely alllowing others to utilize the filter criteria specified within the view, and utilize the view in the entity’s dropdown options. They will still only be able to see, edit, or assign records upon which they currently have privileges.

To share an Advanced Find view, follow similar steps towards assigning (see above), however instead of clicking the Assign icon, click More Actions. Then select Sharing. This will allow you to utilize the basic Sharing functionality.

Select a User by clicking Add User/Team. Then apply the privileges you want to allow them to have. Then click OK.

I hope this clears the air and explains a little more about sharing and assigning personal Advanced Find views inside of CRM.

If your company generates, basically, any type of letter(s) to customers, vendors or employees individually or in mass quanity then this Dynamics GP 10 functionality can save you a lot of time.  Read the rest of this entry »

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 reminded this week that while the Application Integration Framework is a fantastic tool, many systems that people integrate with do not have XML capability out of the box.  Most systems however, will have the ability to export a flat file (.csv, etc).  While I prefer the ease of use of the exchange of AIF, sometimes it is not cost effective to implement.  The flat files can instead be easily integrated with Dynamics AX by creating a class that extends RunBaseBatch to get a file name from a user, then use the CommaIO class to process that file.  The method below is an example of a method that could be run after getting the Filename back to the class:

We have had a lot of feedback from customers on the Excel reports available for Dynamics GP 10.0. The most common question is how much do the reports cost and what does it cost to implement them? The good news here is that if you are licensed and currently running GP 10.0, you already own them and it is a simple installation. I thought I would provide a step by step of installing the reports, so here you go. Read the rest of this entry »

While setting up Analysis Cubes on one of our new internal environments, one of our consultants came across an error we had never seen before.

This particular install was being completed for a 64 bit machine  containing Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, so the consultant had to use a 32 bit install workstation.  When entering the server name for the data warehouse and tabbing off of the field, he received the following “SQL 2008 Server connection failed. Please enter a valid SQL 2008 Server name” error:

First, we confirmed that SQL Server 2008 was, in fact, installed on the target machine and that the correct Analysis Cube install package was being used (note: Service Pack 3 must be used to install Analysis Cubes with SQL Server 2008). 

In the end, we discovered that SQL Server 2005 Tools were still installed on the 32 bit install workstation from a previous install of SQL Server 2005.  Once we installed SQL Server 2008 on the same machine, it created a conflict for the install process.  This appeared to be the hang-up, as once we tried installing from another 32 bit machine on which SQL Server 2005 had never been installed, the installation worked properly.

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!

Launch Day is always exciting whether you are launching a rocket, a product or a new blog. Here at I.B.I.S. we’re launching our new ERP focused blog today. We’re pretty passionate, some would say nuts, but we’ll go with passionate, about Microsoft Dynamics GP. Now we get the chance to share both our passion and our expertise with the larger Dynamics GP community through this blog.

The ERP team at I.B.I.S has a ton of experience working with Dynamics GP and we can’t wait to share. Our entire team will be posting at various times as we work to help you find ways to improve your Dynamics GP experience. We hope you’ll come with us as we launch this thing…3.2.1.