Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 15

Protect yourself with Account Security

• Account Security limits the accounts that users can access.
• It requires setup via Organizational Structure.
• If you don’t set up Organizational Structures prior to turning this on, it appears that the chart of accounts has been wiped out.
• Know what you are doing before activating this.

Account security is designed to work with the Organizational Structure feature to limit access to certain accounts. Some organizations have a very complex account structure and it makes picking the right account easier if you limit a department to only be able to see their own accounts.

Organizational Structure provides information to define as many as four layers of structure within your business, and then to set up specific divisions, departments or other organizational groups. You can create relationships among different groups. You can assign accounts and users to different parts of the organizational structure.

Account Security is turned on with a check box in Tools->Setup->Company->Company.

You can see in the example below that this user is only allowed to see Department ‘200’ only.

What is xRM?

Cool new video sheds light on xRM:

What is your x?

"The key question is: -do I need to track the information and activities related to this entity? If the answer is -yes, Microsoft CRM deserves some serious consideration.”



Check out more here with a white paper on what xRM can mean for you.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 14

Backup, Backup, Backup

If you are not backing up use the built in backup functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP. This won’t get everything, you will still need to backup custom reports and forms, the Integrations Manager database and FRx reports, but backing up the database is a good start.

Dynamics GP 9.0 and 10.0 allows you to schedule backups from within the application. You'll need to be logged in to GP as an administrator and you'll need to be on the server.

Go to File> Backup [v9] / Maintenance > Backup [v10]

Enter the system password if you've set one.
When the backup window opens, pick Schedule.

• Name the backup schedule
• Pick the database to backup or backup the system databases
• Enter the backup path (this must be a path on the local server)
• Select the days to backup and the time. The time is entered is in a 24 hour format
• Pick how often to delete old backups
• Click Save. SQL Agent MUST be running when you click save
  
  

  

This process creates a job in the SQL agent with the information entered. You'll still need to move the backups off the server for real protection, that's easy with today's portable hard drives. There's no excuse for not backing up your Dynamics GP installation now.

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

By Todd Fleming, BroadPoint Technologies Senior Consultant

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 extends the standard toolset of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to any mobile browser for online data access. The release is

· Compatible with any HTML device

· Browser independent

· Managed with metadata

· Delivers information in a dynamics, role-based UI

Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is an important part of the Power of Choice message Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers customers and is ideal for mobile scenarios in businesses with always connected environments, high speed networks and occasional access, and broad CRM usage.

This release has been built, tested, and now is supported by Microsoft.

Entities Available in Mobile Express

The following list describes the complete set of Microsoft Dynamics CRM entities that may be available in Mobile Express and how you can work with them in Mobile Express:

· Accounts: Enter a new account or review an existing account, which contains information about companies that do business with your organization.

· Addresses: Enter a new address or look up information for an existing account or contact.

· Appointments: Review existing appointments. An appointment does not include service activities or check for conflicts, and you cannot search for available times.

· Campaigns: Review existing campaigns.

· Cases: Review existing cases.

· Competitors: Review existing competitors.

· Contacts: Enter a new contact or review an existing contact.

· Contracts: Review existing contracts.

· E-mail Messages: Review sent, received, and pending e-mail messages.

· Faxes: Review faxes that have been entered into the system.

· Invoice Products: Review products associated with an invoice.

· Invoices: Review existing invoices.

· Leads: Enter a new lead or review existing leads.

· Letters: Track when a letter has been sent or received.

· Marketing Lists: Review existing marketing lists.

· Notes: Add a new note to an activity or a record, or review an existing note.

· Opportunities: Enter a new opportunity or review an existing opportunity.

· Order Products: Review products associated with an order.

· Orders: Review existing orders.

· Phone Calls: Track when phone calls have been received or made. You cannot dial a phone number directly from this form.

· Quote Products: Review products associated with a quote.

· Quotes: Review existing quotes for opportunities, accounts, or contacts.

· Service Activities: Review service activities.

· Tasks: Create a new task or review an existing task.

· Users: Review or search for people who have an active user account in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Referral Program offers customers $50 AMEX Gift Cards

Our BroadPoint Referral Program has kicked off this week!

You remember what it was like not to have instant access to information through Smartlists, how long it took to close the books each month and how many clicks it took get to the transaction.

You probably have friends and associates that are still struggling with those same issues that are looking for solutions.

If you want to help your connections enjoy the same benefits that you do, we’ll thank you for a referral with a $50 AMEX gift certificate. If they are not currently a BroadPoint client and are interested in talking to us, you will have 50 thank you’s to spend.

If you have a contact that would benefit from working with BroadPoint Technologies, then let us know at www.Broadpoint.net/connections. We'll contact you & if your contact is interested in hearing from us then we will thank you with a $50 AMEX Gift Card.

The Evolution of Paper

Kim Owens, Account Manager, BroadPoint Technologies

Humans first started documenting information on stone. Egyptians then created paper made from the reed of the Nile River. Thousands of years later, we are evolving away from our dependency on paper because of the time and the costs involved.

We have seen this evolution before with the introduction of computers to the workplace. They allowed offices to operation efficiently by eliminating mistakes caused by human error and reducing overhead costs because of time intensive tasks. We can now print out reports on demand which once took hours to produce. So why are we still spending hours performing manual tasks when it comes to managing our paper? Wouldn’t it be easier to manage the documents essential to our business electronically?

According to the October 9^th, 2009 issue of The Economist, the paperless office is finally a reality. In order to understand the reason for the push to paperless, let’s look at some staggering statistics:

• We spend 20-30% of our time each day is spent filing, search and retrieving information
• It costs $20 to file a document, $120 to find a misfiled document and $220 to replace a lost document
• The average document is copied 19 times in its live
• It costs $25,000 to fill a four drawer cabinet
• 1 out of 10 documents is lost or misfiled

How much money is pushing paper costing your company and how much is the technology to correct it? Just like the introduction of computers, new affordable technology is also driving the paperless revolution. Storage space on servers is inexpensive compared to 30 years ago and the costs of scanners have dropped significantly in the past decade. For example, you can store 400,000 documents on $80 of disk space compare to $75,000 in 1973.

Document Management and Electronic Workflow software doesn’t have to be expensive either. PaperSave delivers a seamlessly integrated solution with Dynamics built on SharePoint starting at only $5,000 for the first 3 users. So manage the information that drives your business, not the paper. To learn more on PaperSave and how affordable document imaging and electronic workflow is for your company, register for a webcast on July 16^th or July 30^th.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 13

Sub-Ledger Reconciler

Having issues reconciling the Payables Management or Receivable Manage sub-ledgers to the General Ledger? Version 10 has a new feature that helps with this.

Benefits:

• Automatically match transactions for users
• Identify any transaction discrepancies between the sub-ledger and the General Ledger
  

The Feature DOES NOT automatically do any of the below task to balance the sub-ledgers to the General Ledger:

• Fix imbalances between the sub-ledgers and the General Ledger
• Correct posted transactions
• Back out posted transactions
• Void existing transactions
• Recreate new adjusting transaction
  

Reconcile to GL

You can select one or more Accounts Receivables or Accounts Payable Accounts from the General Ledger that hold the posted outstanding balances. The balance of all the accounts entered in this window is the amount to which the Sub-ledger balance is reconciled against.

For example you could have the Accounts Payable account and the Purchase Discounts Available Accounts.

Reconcile Process

The balances Include:

• Beginning balances
• The difference between the beginning balances
• Transactions entered during the date range specified
• The total ending balance
• The difference between the ending balances

Microsoft Dynamics GP matches transactions from Payables or Receivables Management to the distribution line in the General Ledger.

• Transactions that exist in both ether sub-ledger and General Ledger
• Transactions that exist in either the sub-ledger or General Ledger, but not both
• Transactions that potentially match, but don’t meet all the matching criteria

Reconcile Report

Analysis of the reconciliation results is an important aspect of the process. In order to provide the appropriate tools to perform an analysis the results are sent to an Excel spreadsheet. Excel provides the typical functionality of an spreadsheet.

You can save each spreadsheet to document your exceptions and how they were handled by adding a comment to your Journal Entry noting the action taken to fix the problem.

Newsgroups within PartnerSource

Technorati Tags: Tips and Tricks,Microsoft Dynamics GP,Tunesia Winn,Expert Advice

Hello BroadPoint Clients,

It’s me Tunesia Winn, VA Territory Account Manager. Have you looked for Newsgroups within PartnerSource lately?

If you are asking the questions:

1. Where are the unmanaged Newsgroups specifically for GP and FRX?

2. Why can a customer on a Business Ready Enhancement plan have access to Managed News Group?

The answer to the first and second question is that all managed groups are also unmanaged. In other words all managed and unmanaged users are now one and the same. If you post a question but do not receive an answer back from the MS Community within 24 hours a process will run notifying MS Support that the user has an unanswered question. Then MS Support will follow up with you.

Please take the time to visit CustomerSource, http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/customersource.mspx. You will be able to find answers to your non-critical questions using this powerful tool!

If you do not have access and need assistance obtaining access to the site, please feel free to contact me or your dedicated Account Manager here at BroadPoint.

Thanks & Happy Searching!

Microsoft announces service extension

As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, BroadPoint is excited to share news of service pack extension dates.

Microsoft is extending the service pack support policy for Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM to 24 months of support for a previous service pack, when a new service pack is released.

Some current service packs are being extended and new service packs will now be for 24 months versus the usual 12. For more information and to see if you are eligible call us or see the Microsoft announcement here.

New iMIS Discounts available

Technorati Tags: iMIS,News

In recognition of the significant and unique economic challenges facing our customers this year, BroadPoint would like to inform you of several discounts that ASI is offering through September 30, 2009.

Now is the time to upgrade to iMIS 15, purchase additional modules and users, and host your iMIS system at a secure reliable facility. This is a one-time, can’t miss opportunity to invest in your iMIS system and infrastructure! A variety of discounts are being offered through September 30, 2009.

· Upgrade to version 15.1 and receive a discount on additional users (Full/Casual or Public) up to 60% and get the new iCreate Advanced Tools for free! If you are already on 15.0 you can still add users at a discount.

· Purchase multiple iMIS modules as part of the same sale and receive a discount of up to 20%.

· Host your iMIS 15 system with ASI and save up to 20% on hosting fees!

· Have you fallen behind on your Software Update fees? Get caught up and save 15%.

To take advantage of these discounts contact:

· Huan Mitchell, 301-634-2428, hmitchell@broadpoint.net

· Allison Brown, 301-634-2420, abrown@broadpoint.net

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 12

Leverage the List View for Reporting


Have you ever scrolled through all report windows for a particular module looking for that special report that you know is there but you just can't find it? Something like the Historical Stock Status which is under Activity instead of History.

You can now search for a report, including all the options you have set for various reports.
V9 Select Reports >Report List
V10 Home >Administration>All Reports List

A box will come up with all the reports in the system. You can limit this list to various modules, search for reports and sort the list on the different criteria. From the Actions menu you can create new report options, review the option selections for a particular report and even import/export reports.

BroadPoint and Fastpath are offering a free webinar to help you Gain Control of your data and systems

Learn about what Fastpath can offer for your Microsoft Dynamics experience! Free Webinar on July 23, 2009 10:00 AM- 11:00 AM EDT

Click here to register!

Fastpath Audit Trail for Microsoft Dynamics offers superior performance and configurability. Within a few hours, you can quickly know what was changed, who changed it and the before and after values. Real business information in a few clicks.
- Tracks changes made from inside Dynamics and external sources
- Extensive list of audit trail templates
- Quick implementation and ROI
- Best available performance and reporting for Microsoft Dynamics

Fastpath Config AD moves all user management to the IT help desk and eliminates potential security conflicts by taking all user administration out of Dynamics. So in addition to making your users happy….your costs go down as well.
- Eliminates use of ‘sa’ and Administrator for better security management
- Streamline new hire, termination, and user change management.
- Fastpath has the only single sign on product for Dynamics GP.
- Decrease user maintenance costs by 65%

Technorati Tags: Events,Microsoft Dynamics GP,Microsoft Dynamics CRM

When: Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:00 AM-11:00 AM EDT.

100 New Smartlist Templates now available!

Hello everyone,

It’s me Tunesia Winn, VA Territory Account Manager. I wanted to share some information with those of you that have SmartList Builder and for those of you evaluating the solution. MS has just added over 100 new SmartList templates and they are available to you via CustomerSource. Yes the infamous CustomerSource! In order to download the templates, you must have SmartList Builder installed.

Check them out here.

For those that are interested in additional information about SmartList Builder, please contact your Account Manager.

Thanks & Have a Great 4th of July!

Tunesia Winn

New iMIS Training Classes Available!

We are pleased to announce a new iMIS summer training schedule from BroadPoint! Click on a class below for more information or to register. If you have any questions please call Elaine Crooks at (301) 634-2463 Date Course Name Location Duration Price Link to Register 7/9/2009 Basic Crystal Reports for iMIS Bethesda, MD 1 Day $500 Register 7/30/2009 Fine-Tuning iMIS Bethesda, MD 1 Day $500 Register 8/6/2009 iMIS Customer Management Productivity Tools Bethesda, MD 1 Day $500 Register 8/13/2009 iMIS Events Module Bethesda, MD 1 Day $500 Register