Stop the Pain Associated with Poor Project Management and Accounting Systems

What follows is outright plagiarism.  I won’t even try to obfuscate the origins of this post; not that I ever would.

Gerice Anderson posted this article here.  Here it is again, in her very own words:

“Interested in learning 7 procedures for using integrated project management and accounting software to improve the health and growth of your project-driven company?

If so, take a look at the press release announcing the newly released ebook, Stop the Pain:  7 Smart Project Management and Accounting Procedures that Work.  This easy-to-read ebook is based on years of practice by the authors and their colleagues as solution providers, CPAs, CFOs, and IT directors.  There is even a story woven throughout the ebook about a real-life engineering firm that implemented the 7 procedures and eliminated their project-accounting pain. 

Congratulations to our Microsoft Dynamics ERP partner Synergy Business Solutions on authoring this ebook.

Check it out!”

Gerice Anderson

An ingenious solution for faxes using the Electronic Document Delivery feature in SL 7.0

It is possible to use the Electronic Document Delivery feature in SL 7.0 to send faxes. However the out of the box solution requires a dedicated workstation, with fax services installed and also be equipped with a fax modem and connected to a phone line.

These are the disadvantages.

1)Nowadays, the modern PC's and servers do not come equipped with fax modems and a phone jack, since broadband has become the preference.

2)Even if you find a PC that has a fax modem, it has to be constantly hooked to a phone line.


Solution

It is possible to use the online fax providers like www.efax.com or www.myfax.com to bypass this issue. What the efax or myfax service provides is that it allows an e-mail to be sent to their fax servers who will route your message to a regular fax machine.

For example, if you want to send a fax to (858) 794 9404, the receiver's e-mail address needs to be filled out as 18587949404@myfax.com in the Vendor Maintenance screen if a Purchase Order needs to be automatically faxed.

Once this is done, the Electronic document delivery process will automatically attach the Purchase Order and send this as an e-mail via the Application server. Once the e-mail is sent, the fax servers at e-fax or myfax will send the fax to the number stated to a regular fax machine.

This workaround allows tremendous savings in cost as a new workstation need not be purchased, the phone lines are not tied up and it is extremely easy to monitor as all confirmations of the fax is automatically sent back to the e-mail profile of the Application Server.

How choosing/upgrading to Dynamics SL 7.0 would make you more environmentally friendly

Dynamics SL 7.0 has a new feature called Electronic Document Delivery (EDD) that will save lots of trees and postage, by allowing customers to e-mail their AR invoices, PO's and Flexible Billing Invoices to their clients instead of printing them and mailing them.

Not only is this good for the environment and saving postage costs, it also makes the staff more productive.

EDD is accomplished through the use of the Application Server module which is provided at no cost.

There are just 2 extra screens that come with EDD that has to be implemented and all this can be done within 2-3 hours.

Optionally, Invoices and PO's can also be faxed instead of being sent by e-mail. For this, the fax service has to be installed on a workstation, which has a modem and connected to a phone line.

NOTE : Since the EDD feature is only available in Dynamics SL 7.0, old custom reports that are brought over from previous versions of Solomon have to be recustomized.

Best Fixed Asset Solution for Dynamics SL

The best, seamless, integrated Fixed Asset Solution for Dynamics SL, in my opinion is through CiberMaxima's Fixed Assets.

CiberMaxima's Fixed Asset plugs into Solomon like a native module and completely integrates with existing Solomon data seamlessly.

There are many advantages to CiberMaxima's Fixed Asset Module. Here are the highlights.

1)Unlimited number of books. You can even have a book that does not post to GL or a special book for tax purpose.
2)Bar Code and Serial Number capabilities.
3)Ability to roll back a particular period to allow correction and updates and Automatic GL batch reversal.
4)Includes a feature to search for Asset Acquisitions or Asset Improvements in GL, AP and Purchasing modules.
5)The optional Imager module permits an image to be attached to Fixed Assets.
6)Includes MS Excel Cube Reports - OLAP launcher that allows different perspectives of fixed asset data.
7)Special screen that launches and builds a pre-defined pivot table in MS Excel with just 2 clicks.

For a full list of features, send us an e-mail at support@rosebizinc.com

Error 91 received in Frx when exporting to excel

Error 91 is a very common error that Dynamics SL clients are receiving very often when exporting to excel. It occurs mainly in Frx 6.7 sp9 or sp10.

Error 91 - Object Variable or width Block Variable not set

This main cause of this error is that the supplemental updates for Frx 6.7 were not run. This error re-occurs after the month has been closed in GL.

To fix this issue,

1)Have everyone exit Solomon and Frx and make a backup of the Frx code folder.
2)Go to the Shared Solomon Directory and bring up the Frx67 folder.
3)Locate the Frxreg67.cmd and open it up. This will launch a MS-DOS screen and will automatically close once it's done.

IMPORTANT NOTE : DO NOT RUN FRXREG.EXE AFTER RUNNING FRXREG67.CMD AND THIS WILL REMOVE THE SUPPLEMENTAL UPDATES JUST INSTALLED.

Partially Released Batches in Dynamics SL

I know that having partially released or suspended batches are not fun!

Well, here is one thing you can do before calling us.

1)Go to the Event Log Viewer screen and pull up the event log to see what the error message is. If it says that the batch is out of balance, then run the AP edit report for that particular batch to see if there is a out of balance between the Batch Total, Document Totals or Transaction Totals. The Batch amount must equal to the Document Total which must equal to the Transaction Total. If everything does total, then attempt to re-release the batch via the Release AP Batches screen. Abot 50% of the time, the batch should release.

(Assuming this is a suspended AP batch)

If this does not work, unfortunately there is nothing much you can do at this point as a suspended batch cannot be edited or deleted.

Audit Module for Dynamics SL

There is this new third party module that plugs into Solomon that,

1) Captures the change made,
2) What the value was before the change was made.
3) Who made the change.
4) When the change was made.

This module is compatible with SL 6.0 ,6.5 and 7.0

The name of the module is the SL Auditor and is made by a company called KB Technologies based in St Louis, Missouri.

Besides tracking changes made to tables on the front end. It also tracks changes made behind the scenes through SQL Query Analyzer.

Most importantly, it also captures deleted transactions.

Installation and Implementation can be done within 3 hours in most cases.

This is a must have in these days of SOX compliance!

The price of this module is $2500 for unlimited users and modules. One thing that will make customers happy is that there is no maintenance fee for upgrades, enhancements or bug fixes.