Lessons Learned: CRM 4.0 Adapter for GP 10.0

We are excited about this new integration, so we jumped right in, and installed it on our production systems. Our systems engineer is a genius, and what follows are his comments related to his experience. Consider this an experiential addendum:

1. Must have GP 10 SP4 applied. (There are caveats to sp4 so be aware)

2. Must have at least rollup5 for CRM applied. (Rollup6 was out in Oct 2009 so I used rollup6)

3. Must have GPwebservices for GP10 sp4 and Management tools sp4 installed.

• Had issues with the GPwebSerice not showing up in Dynamics Security console.
• Ran a repair on the GPWebServices and the management tools and it resolved the issue.

4. Must have Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package ATL Security Update applied to same server GPwebservices is installed. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=766a6af7-ec73-40ff-b072-9112bab119c2#filelist

5. Must have domain service accounts created. You can determine how many you need. Recommend at least 3 svc_gpweb, svc_gpcrmadmin, svc_gpcrm.

6. GPWebservice Account - Permissions granted during install.

7. Installation account – The account that installs the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP.

a. Be a domain user and a member of the Local Administrators group on the server where Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP is to be installed.
b. Be assigned at least the dbcreator and securityadmin server roles on the SQL server where the MSDI database is to be stored

8. Integration account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter Service runs as. Permissions granted during install of Dynamics GP CRM adapter.

9. Configuration account – The account that runs the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Configuration Utility.

a. This account must be able to modify the membership of the CRM PrivUserGroup Security Group in the domain that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Servers are joined to.
b. If this account is not in the db_datareader and db_datawriter roles for the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization databases, you must use a SQL Server user name and password to update the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organization databases.

10. Integration GP account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP uses to connect to Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Services.
a. Permissions granted in the Dynamics Security Console

11. Integration CRM account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics GP uses to connect to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Web Services.
a. This account must belong to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM User that has organizational-level read privileges for system user on the CRM Organization that you plan to integrate.

12. CRM Deployment Administrator account – The account that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Configuration Utility uses to retrieve a list of Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizations and apply customizations to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizations.

13. GP Adapter configuration - Had an error: application domain ...... Only way to fix it was uninstall adapter and remove MSDI database. (just removing database may have fixed it but just uninstall did not)

Reconciling the Corporate Credit Cards

I recently had a client call me wondering if there was some easier way to reconcile his corporate credit cards. Sales people had one credit card (Visa) and the executives used another (American Express.) A total of 16 people using two cards - reconciling monthly was giving him a headache. I shared with him, what I consider, the easiest solution to this monthly migraine:

• Set up a Checkbook for every credit card along with a corresponding GL control account

• Setup a GL Credit Card Clearing Account

• Enter all purchases through Bank Transaction Entry (Transactions > Financial>Bank Transactions as a decrease adjustment to post the expense

• Enter the Credit Card Statement through Account Payable (Transactions > Purchasing > Transaction Entry) and post the statement payment to the Credit Card clearing Account.

• Pay the credit card statement as normal, hitting your cash account and AP.
• Enter the payment as a decrease adjustment in the Credit Card Checkbook hitting the credit card clearing account. This will post the payment to the bank account allowing for reconciliation and zero out the clearing account.

Reconciling through Bank Managment has made his monthly credit card reconciliations much quicker and is a whole lost easier then using an excel spreadsheet.

Changing Purchase Accounts on PO Receipts

If you want to change the purchases account on a PO receiving transaction but don’t want to go back to each line item to change the account, you can add additional distribution lines with the Type = OTHER. You would enter a credit to the default PURCH account(s) and then enter a debit to the new/correct account(s). This feature can also be used if additional accounting entries related to the transaction are needed (to record use tax, for example). As long as you use the OTHER distribution type and have the total debits = total credits for the additional entries, there won’t be any distribution error messages.