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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

Offline Functionality Simplifies Data Entry for 500 Users Worldwide

PROPHIX Software is a leader in delivering performance management solutions including budgeting, planning, forecasting, reporting, consolidation, personnel planning and other advanced financial functions. PROPHIX streamlines business processes, and Kemira Chemicals, a global chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Finland, proves the application’s capabilities. With approximately 10,000 employees in 1700 cost centers, Kemira operates in the following businesses: Water Treatment Chemicals, Pulp & Paper Chemicals, and Oil & Mining Chemicals. The company’s technical infrastructure consisted of Hyperion Financial Manager for corporate reporting and Excel spreadsheets for budget data entry. A sudden decision to halt a current SAP project left Kemira seeking a budgeting system to implement quickly. Being a global company operating in 40 countries and 8 currencies, Kemira needed an easy-to-use system that handled multiple currencies, complex allocations, and data consolidation.

PROPHIX Performance Management fulfilled Kemira’s requirements and also offered a capability that would simplify their processes. PROPHIX’s offline data entry functions allowed the ability to send templates via e-mail, track the status, and automatically load template data when completed. “Because we needed to collect budget data in a standard format from over 500 users located throughout the world, the offline functionality was a major tool for us,” says Jeff Fasy, former CFO at Kemira. “Because of its offline capabilities, PROPHIX was implemented to collect, analyze, and report Cost Center, Intercompany, Profit & Loss, and Balance Sheet data.”

With PROPHIX, Kemira gained the ability to automate currency conversion, perform ad hoc reporting, and simplify report distribution. Kemira’s currency conversion process consists of converting to EUROs and USDs from various cost centers. By using templates, entering budget data is straightforward regardless of currency because exchange rates are kept separately, which can be changed easily during the budget cycle. “Additionally, we were able to quickly develop ad hoc reports to view expenses by legal entity. This helped us determine our course of action when budgeted expenses were higher than expected,” says Jeff. Consolidated data was then easily distributed. The report binder functionality was used to effectively distribute groups of reports to each country controller. Sending set groups of reports via e-mail ensured that stakeholders received information on time.

Kemira has gained more time for analysis because PROPHIX eliminated the need to manually load data, perform consolidations, and export final numbers to Hyperion Financial Manager. Ultimately, creating budgets in PROPHIX has integrated data across their Line of Business Systems, easing the collaboration across the global organization.

For more information on how PROPHIX can help your organization move beyond spreadsheets with real time access to information within weeks, please reach out to Kimberly Owens at 704-987-9989 or kowens@broadpoint.net. PROPHIX offers a significant return on investment and a low total cost of ownership.

Help with the MMREF format for Virginia Employment Commision

By Tunesia Winn

Have you received a notice from The Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) stating that as of 1/1/09 if you have more than 100 employees you are required to electronically file magnetic media and the wage information must be in the MMREF format for the quarterly VEC report?

If so you among hundreds of others getting this notification. The VEC is now mandating this and taking actions on those not in compliance. We’ve received emails and calls for quite a few clients in regards to whether it can be accomplished within MS Dynamics GP. While GP does not have the capability to complete the task, MS works with a 3rd party vendor, Greenshades that has a product to suit your needs. It’s called the State Filing Package and its cost is dependent upon the # of states in which you file.

Because of the high # of inquires we’ve received, we have reached out to Greenshades to provide discount pricing. They have approved a 15% discount on all State Filing Packages for BroadPoint clients only.

Please let me know if you would like more information and we can setup a time to chat.

Addition user discount, 25% off!

Hurry save now - you only have a couple more weeks to save 25% on additional Business Ready Licensing users and Business Ready Licensing modules purchased at the time of a License Model Transition (LMT).

Offer ends September 25, 2009!

The offer is valid to customers current on their enhancement plan - this offer does not apply to lapsed customers.

For more details, please contact your dedicated Account Manager.

Tunesia Winn

(757) 413-2090

Account Manager

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 21

Use the new Historical Inventory Trial Balance Report

The new Historical Inventory Trial Balance (HITB) report is designed to help balance inventory to the GL regardless of the inventory valuation method.

The Historical Inventory Trial Balance (HITB) report shows your inventory value as of a specific date or date range and the value of the five different quantity types. You can use this report to tie your inventory balance to General Ledger based on a specific date.

If you want to use this report, you will need to use the HITB reset Tool for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, Service Pack 2.

In order to track historical inventory information a new table was added in Dynamics GP 10.0, Service Pack 2. The tool will populate this table and it will also find a starting point where the value of your Inventory and General Ledger are the same.

Before running the tool, you will want to complete the process on a test company first.

Contact BroadPoint for help downloading this tool.

Learning plans

Nadia Isata
Account Manager

Help your employees focus on specific goals and access the training they need to gain in depth product knowledge and obtain certifications!

Learning plans are a great tool to help your employees get trained on Microsoft Dynamics and related products. Training on Microsoft Dynamics is available in many formats to fit your needs – E-Learning, self-study training materials and instructor-led training – and certification exams for Microsoft Dynamics are available to validate your expertise. The learning plans outline every training and certification option available so your employees can choose the training that’s right for them. By becoming trained and certified in various disciplines, you and your employees can document your knowledge on Microsoft Dynamics products and unlock the full potential of your Microsoft Dynamics solution adding value and increased productivity to your business.

Download the PDF learning plans to start learning today!  Your BroadPoint Account Manager will be available to discuss and review the best course for you to embark on.

http://www2.broadpoint.net/resources/GP/DynamicsGP10LearningPlan.pdf

Making GP do what you need it to do – without code.

 

eOne is a company that develop tools for Dynamics GP (that eliminate the need for development) and you probably know us as the team that developed SmartList Builder, Excel Report Builder and Dynamics GP eXtender. This article is going to look at how to create a new screen in Dynamics GP that suits just what your business needs. We will then look at how to take the data you enter into this screen and create transactions or master records in GP based upon this data.

Building a new Screen

Using Microsoft Dynamics GP Extender V10 SP4, or eXtender enterprise you are able to build a brand new screen for Dynamics GP. You can add this new screen to a new menu, and no one will know that it is not a standard GP screen built specifically to capture the data you need, in the way you need to capture it.

In this example I had a customer that as a small part of their business took custom music CD orders. They needed a really user friendly way to record the phone orders they received.

Step one: This is where we built a new screen called “Custom CD Orders”. By labeling each of the fields as you can see below, and choosing a fields type we are building a new screen. There are 17 field types you can choose from. Here you can see we used Short Strings, Dates, Long Strings, Lookups, Currency, Lists and Calculated fields. So to build a new screen in GP takes as long as it takes to type 12 field labels.

Image 1

The screen we just built looks like this

Image 2

Notice how there are 4 buttons on this form that we have not yet talked about. To add this buttons you hit the Extra Windows button on the Form Design screen in image 1. Here we called the button ‘Address” and labeled the fields we want to track behind that button.

When you have labeled all the field on the new screen you need, and have agreed with the business that you have the data capture just right, the next thing to do is use the eXtender menu function to add the brand screen to a new menu. This means that the end user can not navigate to this window by going to TransactionsàCustom Orders.

Using SmartConnect to do something with this data.
He next thing we need to do is take the data from this window and when the order is confirmed create either a Purchase order on our supplier or an invoice to be fulfilled in AR or SOP. Using SmartConnect we are able to read the data right out of eXtender and create a SOP transaction.

Using the Map setup screen we are able to tell GP how the data we capture in eXtender should map.

You can see here we have used a real time eXtender data source, that will trigger whenever we save a new order entered into the Custom CD Order screen. Now we don’t want a Sales Order created until the phone order is finally approved so we have a restriction on the real time map.

The result of the SmartConnect map is that when the button called create invoice is ticked, the next time you save the screen, then an invoice in GP – automatically.

Mission
So the challenge is to take advantage of this amazing flexibility. Put on your thinking hats and determine all the data your business captures that should be inside of GP and not on paper, in Excel in Access. Use extended to build a screen to capture this data. THEN work out how much time you can save by taking this data and creating other transactions in GP. It could be calculating royalties or rebates, generating invoices or PO’s, creating a service call or even creating a record over in your CRM system. The possibilities are endless – and there is no one better to discuss this with than BroadPoint.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 20

Prioritize Your Vendors

• Payables Management includes a 3 digit alphanumeric field used to prioritize vendors.



• A simple ABC is generally more effective than a bunch of 3 digit numbers
  For example: If you are a Newspaper Company ‘A’ could be used for highest priority vendors like a newsprint supplier.



• Use this to actively decide which vendors are critical now, not when a crisis hits.



• This field can be used to select vendors during he check selection process.
  
  Cards > Vendor > Options
  Payment Priority Field

We have released a new White Paper!

A new white paper by BroadPoint explains how to pull more performance out of your accounting software and ERP software licenses

The White Paper "Squeeze Out Every Drop of Productivity: The Manager's Empowerment Guide to Improve Departmental Efficiency" to give business managers tools to build more efficient teams.

Dealing with cutbacks has become a way of life for most organizations, but creative managers can help their teams thrive even in these challenging times. Most organizations have barely tapped the potential of the office productivity software that they already own - there is plenty of room to squeeze. Adopting and incorporating currently owned software that supports collaboration and workflow can drive dramatic improvements in productivity. This White Paper gives several ideas on how.

Click here for your free White Paper.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 19

Use Account Aliases

Account Aliases are shortcut names for accounts and are setup in Cards > Financial > Account.

In transactions, instead of entering an account, click the blue arrow next to the account tile and enter the alias. If you're using a long account structure, aliases provide a quicker method of data entry.

CustomerSource and FREE Training!

By Tunesia Winn

Hello everyone,

It’s come that time of the year that the kids are going back to school!  With the thought of education in the air have you given any thought to refresher training?  Maybe have a new employee you’d like to get ramped up on learning your solution. 

Why not look to your online training resource, CustomerSource!  Free eLearning through CustomerSource is available to all users current on their Microsoft Maintenance plan.  If you are not sure what plan you have or if you are not current and would like to become current, please contact your dedicated Account Manager.

To access the Free eLearning site go to, https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/ and click on Training & Certification.  From there you will find all eLearning courses.  In addition to the eLearning courses, BroadPoint offers on-site and off-site training.  If you are interested in scheduling a classroom training course, please contact your dedicated Account Manager.

We are here to help you become the master of your domain! 

Thanks and Fall Forward with Learning!

On Demand FastPath Webinars due to popularity

By Nadia Isata, Account Manager, BroadPoint Technologies

BroadPoint will be conducting a second on demand FastPath webcast for select customers, since the first was extremely popular. This webcast will show how Fastpath Audit Trail 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.

* 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.

* 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%

Sessions will be scheduled on demand.  If you would like to attend, please contact Nadia Isata at nisata@broadpoint.net or at (301) 634-2403.

Your Business Solution Road Map

By Naida Isata, Account Manager, BroadPoint Technologies

Microsoft has developed  “Your Business Solution Road map” tool to help you produce an implementation roadmap for customers.  It merges the world of business process with the right Dynamics functionality and the people who need it. This enable customers on the Business Ready Licensing Business Essentials or Advanced Management edition to:

· Better understand long-term business objectives.

· Align business objectives with specific process improvements that will help reach these objectives.

· Develop a customized solution that deploys Dynamics broader and deeper into your organization to increase its ability to meet business objectives.

· Create a one-to-three-year implementation roadmap of the modules you already own, tailored to their solution and their unique business needs.

Schedule an Account Review with your Account Manager to develop Your Business Solution Road Map.

Tip of the week from Brenda Hopkins – Week 18

Duplicate a Journal Entry

Let’s say that last month you keyed a journal entry that was 100 lines long. Then next month, you find out that you need to enter this same journal entry again this month but with a few changes. Is there an easy way to key it again? Even with a few changes?

SURE!

By using the Copy a Journal Entry functionality found in Transactions>Financial>General>Copy.

In version 8.0 Microsoft introduced Journal Entry corrections and copies. You now have the ability to copy a journal entry, easily.

In Transactions->Financial->General, select Copy
You now have an option to Copy a Journal Entry.

You will need the Journal Entry number (you can look it up) and year of the entry you want to copy.

**The look up on the JE Number can be time consuming; it would be faster if you know the Journal Entry Number.

By default, Copy only works for transactions that originated in the General Ledger. However, the administrator can change this behavior.

Tools>Setup>Financial>General Ledger now has new check boxes to control this functionality.

Voiding/Correcting of Subsidiary Transactions
Mark this option to allow transactions originating in other modules to be copied in General Ledger.