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Weekly Tip's

1. Correct Journal Entries



2. Account Rollups



3. Macro Basics



4. Auto Populate Account Descriptions



5. Free Your Data With Excel Reports



6. Let Smartlist Alerts Warn You



7. Limit Records to Speed SmartList Processing



8. Reconcile Bank Account Daily



9. Speed up the Populate of the JE numbers on the Correct / Copy Journal Entry Screen



10. Track Use Tax in Payables or P.O.'s



11. Fix Your Auto Complete



12. Leverage the List View for Reporting



13. Sub-Ledger Reconcile - V10



14. Backup, Backup, Backup



15. Protect yourselft with Account Security



16. Budgets Can Now be Tracked across Years



17. Reduce the time it takes to create and distribute reports



18. Copy a Journal EntryUse Account Aliases



19. Prioritize Your Vendors



20. Use the new Historical Inventory Trial Balance Report



21. Business Alerts

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 22

Business Alerts

Business Alerts can be used to setup a notification when a set of defined conditions are met. These conditions can be defined on a specific database.

Business Alerts takes advantage of the query features of Microsoft SQL Server to monitor your data for specific conditions. For example, suppose that you want to be notified when a customer’s credit limit has been exceeded. In that case, you can use the Business Alert wizard to create a query that compares the credit limit amounts to the current amounts for your customers.

You can use the wizard to set up the schedule for the alert—that is, when, how often, and for how long you want Microsoft Dynamics GP to check whether the conditions you’ve defined exist. You also can specify a list of people to notify when those conditions occur.

You can create an unlimited number of business alerts, combining information from any of the tables in company or system databases. For example, you can compare the outstanding commissions per salesperson from the sales tables to commissions paid in the payroll tables.

Once you have created and enabled a business alert, the conditions will be checked according to the schedule you set up. Whenever the alert condition is found, an e-mail message is sent to the people or groups that you specified or a task is created for the user that you specified.

You can use any of the notification methods supported by your messaging system with Business Alerts. For example, you can notify alert recipients e-mail. You also can create tasks that will be displayed on their home pages and their task list whenever an alert condition is found.

Alert schedule and notification
Use the Schedule and Notification window to modify when, how often, and for how long Microsoft Dynamics GP will check whether the business alert conditions exist. Microsoft Dynamics GP will check your data for the conditions specified in the business alert formula at the intervals you set up here. You also can add or remove e-mail addresses or user IDs from the list of recipients for this business alert.

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To Tweet or not to Tweet: Can Social Networking Channels Enhance or Hinder you CRM Initiative?

 

By Michael Dodd, BroadPoint Consultant

At first I was skeptical of Twitter. From what I read, the term “micro-blogging” seemed to me to be a fancy word for SMS message (even less so, seeing as you cannot exceed 140 characters). When I first started reading about Twitter in the New York Times, the thought of “Tweeting” seemed rather silly and solipsistic, not to mention somewhat unprofessional. However, 5 years ago I felt the same way about the blogging and Instant Messaging. But once these 2 social fads matured, they became an invaluable tool for professional internet communities.

Discussions about integrating Social Networks in Dynamics CRM is not a new concept. If you Wikipedia Social Media, you’ll find that almost anything in an online, user created context can be considered “Social Media” which can be used in a networking context.

And as history will show, it’s the simplest uses of web-based media that makes it into long lasting, mainstream networking channels (Newsgroups, IM, blogs).

So it came as no shock when I discovered that the new addition to the Dynamics CRM Accelerator for Social Networking’s primary focus was on Twitter. My skepticism in the use of Twitter as a CRM worthy social networking tool revolves around the fact that is has a distinct lack of structure. Yet it’s simplicity is undeniably its biggest asset.

So, despite my skepticism (and due in no small part to a recent update to my iPhone’s IM+ application which now includes Twitter integration) I decided to kick the tires. After all, how can I criticize that which I have not yet tried? It seems I have a duty to embrace all new forms of web based media.

Well, it’s been 2 months since I started using Twitter and I’m still skeptical.

How do you begin to use that information effectively?

Organizations that fit the B2C model probably have the most to benefit.

When used properly, social media can be a targeted approach to getting instant feedback from your clients.

First and foremost, anecdotal data (narrative text), it is subject to interpretation, bias, and inconsistencies. But the nature of Social Media anecdotes presents a number of potential pitfalls when used in the context of CRM:

1.) Visibility and transparency: Your are just as transparent as your clients. Transparency allows for more agile communications, but may also expose aspects of your business that are better handled 1 on 1.

2.) Anecdotal data from a social media source can prove difficult to compile/analyze: Whether verbose or succinct, it is difficult to aggregate Text data and even more difficult to report on it. How would you filter this data and under which CRM entity would it be stored? How will the user be able to relate this data to a pertinent CRM record? How will you organize the wealth of data that comes from LinkedIn discussions or Facebook status updates? Who will maintain this data?

3.) Reliability: Anecdotal data can be skewed by your own personal interpretation. So the key questions when it comes to integrating this data into Dynamics CRM is who will have access to this data and how will it be used? As a business process, who will be responsible for making decisions on such matters?

4.) Inconsistent Updates: Obviously, people using social media feel different things at different times. What they expose in a tweet one day may be recanted the next. Moreover, the nature of social media does not require one to be vigilant in their documentation. I may hate the service at XYZ restaurant and then Tweet about it. But the next day, I may have a splendid experience with XYZ Restaurant, but I have no obligation to update my view point the next time I tweet. How can such "Mood Ring" data prove a reliable source of personal information?

5.) One’s Social Persona is not their Professional Persona: People behave differently in their social life. Some tend to be bolder in what they Tweet than what they would say in person. And they don’t always think in a professional manner when they post on social media site the way they do when they write an email (or a blog article). It’s nice to know the social demeanor of your customer, but is this really going to be useful in a professional setting? Moreover, Is the information divulged in a social context appropriate for your next conversation? Finally, albeit public, would you customer feel comfortable that you’re monitoring their social (internet) life?

6.) Finally, will your company is your engagement in your client’s social media going to be a two-way street? If so, how do you present yourself in such a forum, knowing that you’re also speaking for your company when you speak with your client.

I would take a step back and think hard about using Social Media in your business endeavors. Twitter may not be the best place to gather insight into your clients. While it seems like an clever method of personal business intelligence, you need to consider:

Is it reliable?

Is it appropriate?

Is their significant ROI over traditional intelligence gather (face to face

Some people will take their clients out to lunch or to dinner and have good time, share personal information. But would they really want you to leverage that information in a professional setting? Moreover, how would that person feel about passing that information along to your entire company in CRM? This information could easily be misused by the wrong person.

Potential Challenges:

1.) Whimsical: Sometimes, it takes me up to a half hour to construct a Tweet. Sometimes less than a minute.

2.) Responses and tweet “chains”

3.) Tweets can be hard to analyze: For eg, “AT&T frustrates me to no end”. How would one respond to this tweet? Can we afford to spend the personnel hours to continue to follow this tweeter for more information? What if the user was simply having a bad day and takes it out on AT&T?

4.) Analysis of “soft” data can be subject to interpretation.

5.) What type of algorithm can dictate a meaningful tweet (eg, data that can be acted upon to increase sales, maintain satisfaction, solve an issue, gain insight, find useful suggestions, etc.

6.) Volume can be distracting.

Its Year End Time!

Hello Dynamics GP Community,

Its Year End Time!  Have you seen the new Advanced Payroll features?  Please take a look as these items may be of interest to you!  They were built to address complex payroll requirements and help ensure that your people work effectively from the start, and it empowers you to maximize your investment in a single, scalable Microsoft environment.

You’ll have the power to meet industry-specific requirements, streamline processes, and make business decisions based on precise, current information. 

Advanced Pay Policies:

· Automatically calculate different pay rate

· Can be setup by company, dept., position & shift code

· They are actual and hypothetical calculations in windows

o hypothetically allows you to do stats

· @ employee maintenance window you can click to use add-on

Transaction Auto-Splits

· Setup percentage splits of gross wages, taxes, etc. across departments and roll-up to GL

Payroll Accruals

· Accruing Labor

· Better Reporting on #’s

o Produce more accurate financial reports by calculating estimated costs and posting them to GL by calendar date instead of pay period

o Select the pay runs to include in your calculation and preview the results

o Automatically reverse the entry in the following month by assigning a reversing date

Report Payroll – makes Advanced Labor Reporting easy

· Benefit Accrual Report

o You will need PTO Manager to run this report as it is tied to the PTO Manager module

· Dept Analysis Report

· Dept Analysis Summary Report

· Employee Analysis Report

· FTE YTD Report

For additional information and/or to schedule a demo, please contact your dedicated Account Manager.  Also please stay tuned for info on Year End Closings Training Schedules.

Thanks!

Tunesia Winn

Support for Microsoft Dynamics GP 8.0 will be discontinued on October 13, 2009.

When things work, it's easy to put off changing them-even if change brings benefits. If you've been putting off upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, now is the time.

Support for Microsoft Dynamics GP 8.0 will be discontinued on October 13, 2009.

Gain efficiencies and create new opportunities with Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0:

• Increase productivity with more tools for collaboration and role-based home pages, metrics, and navigation.
• Make more informed decisions with robust Microsoft Office Excel reporting and ease of report distribution through Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Get the right information to the right people at the right time.
• Reduce cycle times with out-of-the-box workflows that can automate time-consuming processes and increase worker productivity.

It's easy to upgrade. Here's what to expect:

• No cost for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 software if you are currently on a service plan.
• A familiar toolset right out of the box, with a look and feel that reflects the navigation of the Microsoft Office suite.
• Help from your BroadPoint team to provide timely and cost-effective upgrade services.
• If you are eligible, a limited-time special offer for customers who want to make the move to Business Ready Licensing and get even more for their investment.

Contact your Account Manager today to schedule your upgrade before time runs out.

Nadia Isata

Account Manager

BroadPoint Technologies

O:  (301) 634-2403