Dynamics GP User Group Meeting

On October 28 we held a Dynamics GP User Group meeting at the Microsoft office in San Diego. And on November 10 we held a Dynamics GP User Group meeting at the Microsoft office in Irvine. I thought I'd share with you some of the highlights.

Dan Youngers, a Partner Technology Specialist at Microsoft, presented us with a brief look at GP 11; specifically a demo of the new Word forms functionality. Looks a lot better than Report Writer (not that there's anything wrong with Report Writer).

Dan also shared with us the GP Roadmap.


The consulting staff at Rose Business Solutions presented six sessions that covered various areas:

Tech Talk with Tom

Tom Celvi discussed several issues related to customization and integration development:

RBS uses a defined, two-phase development cycle

Add customization to fill Great Plains gaps when process changes are not appropriate or efficient

Customization and Integration Tools for Great Plains

• Modifier w/VBA - A GP Product Requiring a GP Instance
• eConnect - Microsoft’s Integration Engine
• Web Services - For web, distributed, and interoperable solutions
• Visual Studio GP Toolkit - For nearly any client functionality
• Dexterity Platform - The platform tool requiring specialized knowledge with superior access to resources

Analysis Cubes with Excel (Analysis Cubes Video)

 

SmartList Builder & Smartlist Tips & Tricks

Mike Feori covered these subjects:

SmartList
SmartList Options- Change Basic Defaults
SmartList Searches- Match All, Match One or More
SmartList Export Solutions- Adding Macros

SmartList Builder
Functionality – Joins, Calculations, Restrictions
SQL Views- Existing
SQL Views- Adding New Ones
Imports & Security – Necessary for Use of New Views

Attendees were particularly intersted in:

How to locate SmartList defaults to change/set default "Go To" screens and default record count (it doesn't always have to be 1,000). Navigate: Microsoft Dynamics GP >> Tools >> Setup >> System >> SmartList Options

How to use the “match 1 or more” feature in SmartList.

 

Distribution Series - Inventory, SOP, POP Tips & Tricks

Steve Johnston covered a lot in a short time:

Creating PO’s from Sales Orders
Printing Customer Items on SOP Documents
Back Orders - Document vs. Line Item
Purchase Order Approvals
Returns vs. Credit Memos
Inventory Valuation Methods
How Item Types affect inventory
In-Transit Transfers
Expensing purchases of inventory items
Do Account distributions matter?
Reconciling Inventory to the GL
Historical Inventory Trial Balance
Historical Stock Status Report
Smart Lists

The most discussed items were:

How to create PO's from Sales Orders

In-Transit Inventory functionality


Reconciling to the GL

Liane McIlraith walked through how to reconcile A/R and A/P to the General Ledger. Good stuff:

Use Historical Aged Trial Balance report with Print/Age as of date = period-end date and based on G/L post date to get the subsidiary balance.

Get the G/L balance of all A/P or A/R accounts on Summary Inquiry window or Summary Trial Balance Report. (If there are multiple accounts, use the report.)

Navigation:

To access Payables Historical Trial Balance report:
Reports>Purchasing>Trial Balance>Historical Aged Trial Balance

To access Receivables Historical Trial Balance report:
Reports>Sales>Trial Balance>Historical Aged Trial Balance

To access SmartList of G/L account transactions:
Microsoft Dynamics GP>Smartlist>Financial>Account Transactions


Finding Differences:

Check for un-posted transactions in the G/L.
Determine when the accounts were last in balance.
Use the Financial Reconcile tool (v10 only).
Search for the difference amount in SmartLists.
Search G/L SmartList for unusual transactions.
Compare SmartList of G/L account transactions to the Payables/Receivables Distribution Detail report (print the report to a tab delimited file).

These are the attendees feelings:

1) The Reconcile to GL tool in v10 – saves users lots of time because it compares GL distribution detail to the Payables distribution detail
2) Unmarking the “Allow Account Entry” box for the A/P, A/R, and Cash accounts helps prevent differences between the subsidiaries
3) Dynamics GP doesn’t allow you to post subsidiary transactions through GL without a batch


SSRS & Excel Refreshable Reports


Tom Celvi and I covered implementation and use of two strong reporting tools:

So what is SQL Server Reporting Services with Dynamics GP?

A free product that ships with Microsoft SQL Server to provide enterprise reporting capabilities on ANY SQL Server database(s)
SQL Server 2000, 2005, and 2008
GP10 SSRS product only compatible with SQL 2005 SP2 or later and SQL 2008

SSRS Includes the following components:
Report Manager (The user interface)
Website used to run, deploy, and manage reports
Report Server (The services)
Accesses the Microsoft reporting engine to generate reports

Provides necessary logic for administering and managing the report site

We showed some of the reports available. A complete list.

We also did a quick demo of how to use the Report Builder.

So what are refreshable Excel Reports?

Only available in GP version 10.0
Over 200 standard reports
Based on SmartList favorites
Report Builder included with SmartList builder
Creates and stores connection to GP database
Allows for easy publishing and sharing

We demoed the implementation process and how to create quick reports and dashboards.

I'm surprised at how many customers have not deployed the standard SSRS or Refreshable Excel Reports. It's really quite easy, and I know you'll like the results. So go ahead and try it.


Upgrades / Backups / SQL Traces and Sharepoint Performance

Doug White and Jason Young discussed issues related to managing Dynamics GP systems.



And finally, I know you're all dying to know how to make martinis with Dynamics GP.